From owner-cvs-all Sat Jan 9 19:54:52 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id TAA23915 for cvs-all-outgoing; Sat, 9 Jan 1999 19:54:52 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from flood.ping.uio.no (flood.ping.uio.no [129.240.78.31]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id TAA23905 for ; Sat, 9 Jan 1999 19:54:50 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from des@flood.ping.uio.no) Received: (from des@localhost) by flood.ping.uio.no (8.9.1/8.9.1) id EAA58884; Sun, 10 Jan 1999 04:54:09 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from des) To: Darren Reed Cc: phk@critter.freebsd.dk, committers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: sysctl descriptions References: <199901100334.OAA14807@avalon.reed.wattle.id.au> From: Dag-Erling Smorgrav Date: 10 Jan 1999 04:54:08 +0100 In-Reply-To: Darren Reed's message of "Sun, 10 Jan 1999 14:34:41 +1100 (EST)" Message-ID: Lines: 33 X-Mailer: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 19.34 Sender: owner-cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk Darren Reed writes: > Whilst I don't want to piss on you for doing this, just a couple of > comments: > - the kernel itself doesn't keep many descriptions, because they're > meaningless. Take system errors as an example, to find out what > an error string is you call strerror(). Most of the strings inside > are messages sent out /dev/console or via log() or are there to inform > about bootup configuration. I don't know why one would need to have > sysctl descriptions "in-kernel". Maybe you could develop a libsysctl > and add include interface for reading in a config file with extras or > something similar. Please, think about how to implement it in-kernel as I have, then think about how to implement it in userland. Remeber that KLDs can have sysctls as well, and that sysctl nodes can even be created dynamically, e.g. on a per-device basis. Compare the complexity and maintenance cost of those two solutions. Add to it the fact that my code is finished and works, whereas yours hasn't left the drawing board. Consider also that currently, the sysctl descriptions total approximately 5,000 bytes, which is negligible next to the size of the kernel. The kernel on the computer I'm sending this from weighs in at 1.1 MB, and would be 50% larger if I compiled in the NFS code instead of using the KLD. > p.s. it is a good idea, in general, just the implementation needs some > work. If you see any problems with my implementation of sysctl_sysctl_descr, I'd love to hear some constructive criticism. DES -- Dag-Erling Smorgrav - des@flood.ping.uio.no To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe cvs-all" in the body of the message