The verbosity does not take kernel memory because proc 'files' are generated
automatically. Only the code and strings needed to generate the data
must be in memory.
> I think, that these huge text tables in static unswappable memory in the
> kernel has absolutely no business being there.
>
How big are the text tables now? My guess is that they are rather
small. For example, the total size of procfs is 38K, that includes
all of the code (except for driver specific data). The saving in text
would be small and balanced against more code, both user and kernel.
> Your rescue disk could easily have a 'lspci' program on it.
>
Why have an extra utility? Text is a basic data type in Unix and can
be easily handled by many tools.
- Ian
--
-- Ian Burrell == iburrell@leland.stanford.edu **
<URL:http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~iburrell/>
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.