Re: procfs problems
James Hughes (jamesh@interpath.com)
Wed, 16 Apr 1997 22:25:48 -0400
Richard B. Johnson wrote:
>
> On 16 Apr 1997, Stefan Monnier wrote:
>
> > Evan Jeffrey <ejeffrey@eliot82.wustl.edu> writes:
> > > > /proc -> /system/proc
> > > > /dev/fd -> /system/fd
> > > > /dev/scd0 -> /system/devices/scsi0/target6/lun0
> > > People are going to scream bloody murder about that. It breaks a lot of
> > > stuff. OTOH, whatever we do to /proc is going to break some stuff.
> [SNIPPED]
> Let me throw this idea at you.
>
> I think the /proc file system should be designed so that it
> can be readily read by machine-specific utilities. Further,
> its design should be predicated upon not breaking existing
> utilities when a new field in added or new functionality is
> provided. Old tools just don't display the new information.
>
> It is convenient that the /proc file-system is human readable,
> however its design should not be based upon a person's ability
> to read it, but rather upon the ability of a utility to
> rapidly parse the available information with a minimum of
> overhead.
>
> The format of a display should be left up to the developer of
> the utility that uses the /proc file-system information. There
> should be no attempt to make the contents of each of the /proc
> file-system files "pretty".
>
How about using ASN to define a MIB for the values in the procfs and get
an enterprise number registered for Linux with the INA? The values can
be read by humans as now in human friendly strings or in OID format
depending on the method of retrieval.
The information would be in a widely used format that can also be used
with SNMP agents. This would be a boon to folks wanting to manage groups
of Linux boxes in network situations. Drivers, etc. could even be
written to respond to SNMP Set OID commands. These could also be
accessable via the shell as now.
My .02 :)
-James
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