I think this is bogus.
/proc/stat, /proc/uptime, /proc/net/icmp, /proc/net/snmp,
/proc/sys/vm/bdflush, etc are all obviously not for human consumption.
> I for one often use this information while setting up a system, using a
> boot/root disk. I don't what to add any software to my root disk which
> is already packed.
Whether the information is in an external program or the kernel, it is
going to take roughly the same amount of space. I for one don't want these
tables (which will continue to grow!) statically in the kernel in
non-swappable space.
There is currently about 5 kilobytes of static text in pci.c, and IMHO it
has absolutely no business being there.
> I often use /proc/pci to know the io address of a network card to
> insmod the driver to do an nfs install... If the text was to suddenly
> disappear from /proc/pci, I don't know how I could use it. Remember,
> it's when all hell breaks loose that /proc is the most usefull (and to
> monitor the system in normal conditions, agreed). And there are not
> many Ks of text in that file... Well, most of it is dynamically
> produced anyway.
In this case I think you are wrong.
-Dan