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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 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 19 May 1998 18:11:45 +1000."
             <199805190811.SAA06734@godzilla.zeta.org.au> 
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Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 01:25:08 -0700
From: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com>
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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