From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Jun 4 16:37:52 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA07032 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Thu, 4 Jun 1998 16:37:52 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (dingo.cdrom.com [204.216.28.145]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA06989; Thu, 4 Jun 1998 16:37:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id PAA02556; Thu, 4 Jun 1998 15:32:07 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199806042232.PAA02556@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: Nate Williams cc: dyson@FreeBSD.ORG, mike@smith.net.au, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: kernfs/procfs questions... In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 04 Jun 1998 17:32:17 MDT." <199806042332.RAA05525@mt.sri.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 04 Jun 1998 15:32:07 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > > But users aren't expected to use gdb/nm/hexdump, but sysctl is. Many of > > > these parameters *should* be tweaked to get better performance, avoid > > > errors, etc... > > > > > Only some of them, if any. > > Again I say, if they're not meant to be touched, then don't expose > them. It's stupid to expose something that is useless for 99.9% of the > population. They're no more or less "exposed" than, say, the diskslice ioctls. If they serve a function as (eg.) maintenance tools, then they're superior to the Sun "just use adb on the kernel and set this to that..." approach. > It's not my place to enforce, but if it were I'd start removing any > sysctl's that weren't documented/used. As Mike pointed out in private > email, there are 434 sysctl nodes in our system, and 20 of them are > documented one way or the other. The rest are magic. > > I think of sysctl as a bunch of big global variable, or OPTIONS in the > kernel config file. If it isn't documented, it isn't needed. > > Do I have permission to start removing sysctl's that aren't > documented/used? I would be more inclined to suggest an evenhanded review; if you can't obtain documentation on one, then hash it out with UNDOCUMENTED_SYSCTLS and wait for someone to complain. Silence would sound like acceptance to me. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message