From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu May 7 12:54:24 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA19663 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Thu, 7 May 1998 12:54:24 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from whizzo.TransSys.COM (whizzo.TransSys.COM [144.202.42.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA19533 for ; Thu, 7 May 1998 12:53:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from louie@whizzo.TransSys.COM) Received: from whizzo.TransSys.COM (localhost.transsys.com [127.0.0.1]) by whizzo.TransSys.COM (8.8.8/8.7.3) with ESMTP id PAA05493; Thu, 7 May 1998 15:53:13 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199805071953.PAA05493@whizzo.TransSys.COM> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.1 12/23/97 To: Nate Williams cc: "Jordan K. Hubbard" , Mike Smith , Archie Cobbs , freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG From: "Louis A. Mamakos" Subject: Re: ISA-PnP w\o BIOS support? References: <199805070346.VAA07828@mt.sri.com> <27442.894517330@time.cdrom.com> <199805071455.IAA09315@mt.sri.com> In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 07 May 1998 08:55:45 MDT." <199805071455.IAA09315@mt.sri.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 07 May 1998 15:53:12 -0400 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > I want the user to have control of what's going on at compile time, and > I'd like the ability for the user to be able to re-configure it at > userconfig time as well. > > The problem with sysctl is that it's trying to be all things to all men, > and like M$ Registrty, it becomes too complex and unweildy since *all* > configuration is dumped into it's bowels, so keeping the namespace sane > is almost impossible. And, assuming you've done a good job of keeping > the namespace separated out, you have to understand *how* it's separated > in order to use it, which means that your average user won't know which > know to tweak until after he's read the poorly documented 14 page book > that explains each of the sysctl knobs. > > Excpecting the users to know/understand each and every tweakable know is > ludicrous. By making the knob/hooks settable in the config file > (something they already know how to deal with, or will know how to deal > with) means it's *really* obvious which device they are messing with, so > the learning curve is much less. And in the same spirit, I'd like to be able to specify in the config file the same stuff that gets specified by the 'pnp' commands when you do boot with the -c option. Having it in the /kernel.conf file is sort of kludgy. It would be nice to be able to extend the config file syntax to build other tables. Another instance of this capability might be used to specify SCSI quirks, rather than modifing the source code, and making sure it doesn't get zapped next time you do an upgrade. louie To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message