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To: Eivind Eklund <perhaps@yes.no>
cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, dyson@FreeBSD.ORG, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: VM system info 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 09 Dec 1997 01:39:41 BST."
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Date: Tue, 09 Dec 1997 11:28:50 +1030
From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
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> [Mike Smith]
> > [Eivind Eklund]
> >> [Mike Smith]
> >>> Would you buy it in /usr/share/misc/sysctl_nodes?  I was thinking
> >>> about that when I saved John's message...
> >> 
> >> If extracted from the kernel source, I'd say it was OK.  
> > 
> > Extracting from kernel source (at build time) is quite obviously 
> > pointless.
> 
> ?
> 
> I'd say this give you a fairly recent snapshot of the available
> IOCTLs; I certainly update my kernel more often that my manpages (and
> much more often that /usr/share).

Exactly.  Now assume I go build a kernel for someone else.  Or build a 
2.2 release on a 3.x machine.  The kernel build doesn't affect anything 
outside the build arena; changing this would be a fatal mistake.

> I'd opt for it to be compiled as part of 'make world' instead, but
> there are certainly some good points to doing it at the kernel build
> tilme.

If it was possible to automatically generate a supserset listing at 
'world' time, that would be good.

> <GENERAL RANT>
> Any attempt at making things easier for the newcomers at a slight,
> indirect expense to the people 'in the know' seems to be shouted down
> immedately.  Leanness of the kernel and the source tree seems to have
> a small but vocal minority that shout down any documentation that
> might actually be kept up to date.  (Ref my attempt at finding some
> tolerable way to provide inline documentation for kernel file use last
> easter).
> </GENERAL>

I'm glad you made this a "general" rant; I'd have been *extremely* 
offended if you put me in that category.

If I thought that there was an easy way to arrange pageable kernel 
data, I would be leaping and screaming about putting the above data in 
the kernel RBN.  As it is, any alternative scheme that will serve as a 
stopgap for now and actually achieve the desired goal without requiring 
massive trampling of the kernel and major changes to the interface 
appeals.  Hacking some gratuitous macro changes in as a quickie-fix 
just doesn't cut it.

mike