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Date:      Tue, 12 Jan 1999 21:01:57 -0700 (MST)
From:      "Kenneth D. Merry" <ken@plutotech.com>
To:        axl@iafrica.com (Sheldon Hearn)
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: what was the old devstat interface's dk_wds?
Message-ID:  <199901130401.VAA49342@panzer.plutotech.com>
In-Reply-To: <40018.916184080@axl.noc.iafrica.com> from Sheldon Hearn at "Jan 13, 99 01:34:40 am"

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Sheldon Hearn wrote...
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> I'm trying to teach sysutils/xosview about the new kernel device
> statistics interface so that its DiskMeter will work for CURRENT. At the
> moment, it expects FreeBSD to use "the older method" for pulling device
> statistics out of the kernel.
> 
> I'm getting to grips with devstat(3) and the source for iostat, but I
> still need to understand how "the older method" worked, so that I can
> translate what xosview wants to do into what it should do.
> 
> I would greatly appreciate it if someone could help me with one of the
> following:
> 
> 1) A pointer to the devstat(3) manpage's predecessor.

I don't think there was a predecessor.  You'll have to read the source.
Check out a -current from sometime before Sept. 15th, 1998.

> OR
> 
> 2) An explanation of the timeframe context for a comment like this one
>    from STABLE's /usr/include/sys/dkstat.h:
> 
> extern long dk_wds[DK_NDRIVE];  /* # blocks of 32*16-bit words transferred */
> 
>    It's the number of 32*16-bit words transferred since when?

Since boot, I believe.  One of the problems with that is that it's a 32 bit
signed value on i386, and so would probably wrap every so often on a server
with a lot of I/O going on.  devstat uses 64 bit counters, so it's much more
difficult for them to wrap.

There are a couple of other ports that use the devstat code, in addition to
systat(1), vmstat(8), and iostat(8).  Check out xperfmon, and xsysinfo.  I
think they both support devstat.

If you've got questions, just ask.  I wrote the devstat code.

Ken
-- 
Kenneth Merry
ken@plutotech.com

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