From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Feb 14 10:38:27 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id KAA22838 for hackers-outgoing; Fri, 14 Feb 1997 10:38:27 -0800 (PST) Received: from narnia.plutotech.com (narnia.plutotech.com [206.168.67.130]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA22830; Fri, 14 Feb 1997 10:38:22 -0800 (PST) Received: from narnia (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by narnia.plutotech.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id LAA13492; Fri, 14 Feb 1997 11:34:20 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <199702141834.LAA13492@narnia.plutotech.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0beta 12/23/96 To: Jason Thorpe cc: Michael Smith , phk@critter.dk.tfs.com (Poul-Henning Kamp), leisner@sdsp.mc.xerox.com, bsdcur@shadows.aeon.net, freebsd-current@freebsd.org, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: undocumented kernel options... In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 14 Feb 1997 00:07:58 PST." <199702140807.AAA14402@lestat.nas.nasa.gov> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 11:34:20 -0700 From: "Justin T. Gibbs" Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >[ sorry I missed Poul's original post... ] > >So, we over at NetBSD have resisted the "GUI kernel config frob" mostly >because: > > - bloat-ware (if you ship a GUI tool, you are basically required > to ship X, etc... I'm not about to force X on my users... :-) > - maintenance nightmare > >In our world, config(8) is simply too flexible, and having to update >the GUI to deal each time would .. suck. I don't think that this has to be the case. The last time I looked into the config system, I thought, "Hmm. What if all configurable driver options could be dynamically registered/deregistered from the syctl tree?" This would mean that Userconfig is simply a sysctl editor and only requires knowledge of the sysctl interface and nothing more. You can also make the utility as fancy or plain as you wish and having X and non-X utilities for doing this would be quite painless. Of course, sysctl would need to be extended a little bit to make this happen (mostly some additional data types), but I think that since it leverages off of existing technology and would group all configuration information in one place, that it is a very clean solution. >Anyhow, $0.02 from a NetBSD guy... > >Jason R. Thorpe thorpej@nas.nasa.gov >NASA Ames Research Center Home: 408.866.1912 >NAS: M/S 258-6 Work: 415.604.0935 >Moffett Field, CA 94035 Pager: 415.428.6939 > -- Justin T. Gibbs =========================================== FreeBSD: Turning PCs into workstations ===========================================