From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Feb 8 13:39:42 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA07178 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 8 Feb 1998 13:39:42 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ns1.yes.no (ns1.yes.no [195.119.24.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA07160 for ; Sun, 8 Feb 1998 13:39:34 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from eivind@bitbox.follo.net) Received: from bitbox.follo.net (bitbox.follo.net [194.198.43.36]) by ns1.yes.no (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id VAA02591; Sun, 8 Feb 1998 21:39:31 GMT Received: (from eivind@localhost) by bitbox.follo.net (8.8.6/8.8.6) id WAA03841; Sun, 8 Feb 1998 22:39:29 +0100 (MET) Message-ID: <19980208223929.01276@follo.net> Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 22:39:29 +0100 From: Eivind Eklund To: "Stephen J. Roznowski" Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Possible problems with sysctl References: <199802081717.MAA02604@istari.home.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.88e In-Reply-To: <199802081717.MAA02604@istari.home.net>; from Stephen J. Roznowski on Sun, Feb 08, 1998 at 12:17:33PM -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sun, Feb 08, 1998 at 12:17:33PM -0500, Stephen J. Roznowski wrote: > While looking at some sysctl output, I noticed two problem: > [problem I don't know anything about zipped] > > 2. The man pages, both sysctl(3) and sysctl(8), are out of date. > [No definitation of what kern.ps_strings is for example.] Is there > a list anywhere of what these variables are (modulo source code)? > Again, I'm willing to send-pr this, unless someone else wants to... :-) There is no list except for the source code. We were talking about this on the list a few weeks ago, and came up with the following as the preferred implementation: 1. All sysctl variables in the source code should be documented through either an extra argument or a formalized comment. Preferences varied; I prefer the extra argument. Such an argument would normally not be included in the actual running kernel. 2. The above mentioned documentation should be extracted to a file in CVS that is copied to /usr/share// by a script that parse the kernel source. At least some of the committers has said themselves willing to document whatever sysctl's they've introduced as soon as the format is fixed and the infrastructure is in place. I've put writing the necessary parsing scripts on my mental TODO-list, but it will be some time before I can do it; I have other things that have to be prioritized higher. If you have time and ability to write such a script, I'd be very happy if you took it off my hands. I'll be able to provide help if necessary, but I don't have time right now to just sit down and fix it all. Eivind. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe hackers" in the body of the message