Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 01:25:08 -0700 From: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com> To: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au> Cc: luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it, ahasty@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-committers@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-sys@FreeBSD.ORG, roger@cs.strath.ac.uk Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/pci brooktree848.c Message-ID: <199805190825.BAA01249@rah.star-gate.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 19 May 1998 18:11:45 %2B1000." <199805190811.SAA06734@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
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It sure will be nice to have a uniform way to configure the kernel and its modules ala sysctl rather than having to remember N "hairy device specific" programs. Amancio > >> A sysctl is even worse than a config option for device control. ioctl(2) > >> should be used for device control. > > > >You are right. But some programs just work because they rely on > >the defaults used by the kernel, and fail to set up things properly > >(or -- it is the same -- they assume a default behaviour that suit > >their needs). > > > >The PAL<->NTSC has been historically (at least in my experience) > >a big sort of confusion and incompatibilities, and people on either > >side of the Atlantic (including me) tend to forget this. I found myself > >many times to have to patch video grabbing programs to do this (e.g. > >see vic). And many times i hardwired a PAL mode in my code causing > >troubles to people in the US. At least this sysctl helps fixing > >things without having to change sources or recompile. > > So would an ioctl. You just make the setting sticky and change it only > at boot time. For the administrator, the only differences are: > 1) the command used to change the setting (`sysctl -w hw.fooN.bar=magic' > vs `fooctl -f /dev/fooN bar magic'). > 2) sysctl variables are a bit easier to find using `sysctl -a | grep ':' > This is being fixed by letting sysctl variables grow like weeds :-). > There will soon be enough of them for this to give more to search in > than `apropos ""'. > > Bruce To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe cvs-all" in the body of the message
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