From owner-freebsd-current Thu Dec 7 08:19:07 1995 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id IAA24576 for current-outgoing; Thu, 7 Dec 1995 08:19:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from halloran-eldar.lcs.mit.edu (halloran-eldar.lcs.mit.edu [18.26.0.159]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id IAA24571 for ; Thu, 7 Dec 1995 08:19:01 -0800 (PST) Received: by halloran-eldar.lcs.mit.edu; (5.65/1.1.8.2/19Aug95-0530PM) id AA11742; Thu, 7 Dec 1995 11:05:48 -0500 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 11:05:48 -0500 From: "Garrett A. Wollman" Message-Id: <9512071605.AA11742@halloran-eldar.lcs.mit.edu> To: se@zpr.uni-koeln.de (Stefan Esser) Cc: "Garrett A. Wollman" , current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: sysctl status right now, and plea for testing. In-Reply-To: <199512062244.AA11948@Sysiphos> References: <199512062244.AA11948@Sysiphos> Sender: owner-current@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk < Yes. But without a dynamic name space it was no use for > my purposes. Can't predefine 65536 entries for all possible > PCI devices in one system (bus=0..255,slot=0..31,func=0..7). No, you just define ones for the devices that are actually present! > There might be several memory mappings active at a time for > a single chip. Or none at all. This suggests that sysctl(8) is probably not the best user interface for this information. No problem; it's not the best user interface for kern.proc (`ps') or net.inet.udp.stats (`netstat'), either. > } where the actual representation is an array (no need for a separate > } count since we know the size) or, perhaps, a string (for easy parsing > } by shell programs). > Hmm, no, we don't know the size ... You have to be able to compute the size or you can't use sysctl. (Or any other mechanism, for that matter.) > Well, if there is a user interface to query system configuration > variables (i.e. sysctl), why not use it. Because sysctl is not the be-all and end-all of configuration mechanisms. Some subsystems are better off with a special-purpose configuration mechanism designed specifically for the task at hand. I would not replace quota(2) with sysctl(3)! -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | Shashish is simple, it's discreet, it's brief. ... wollman@lcs.mit.edu | Shashish is the bonding of hearts in spite of distance. Opinions not those of| It is a bond more powerful than absence. We like people MIT, LCS, ANA, or NSA| who like Shashish. - Claude McKenzie + Florent Vollant