Re: 2.1.120 - too many errors on the network interfaces

Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH (allbery@kf8nh.apk.net)
Sun, 20 Sep 1998 12:06:10 -0300

In message <m3k92yhm7i.fsf@fred.muc.de>, Andi Kleen writes:
+-----
| allbery@kf8nh.apk.net (Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH) writes:
| > them fall short), but it does seem silly that proc doesn't include version
| > numbers. Would it really be that painful to have the first line of a /proc
| > file be an interface version number? Old utilities that don't know about i
|
| This is totally unnecessary if you write robust /proc parsers.
+--->8

And this helps Alex with his /proc/cpuinfo conundrum exactly how? Robust
parsing can only take you so far; it assumes that the contents of /proc are
consistent between platforms and Linux revisions. When (not if) they
aren't, you have a problem that only a version number can help you deal with
sensibly (I should not have to parse 70% of a /proc file to find that it's
not actually compatible with what I'm expecting...).

And yes, I'm fully aware of how to do safe line-oriented parsing, although I've been trying to avoid sscanf() as insufficiently robust for the past 6 years.

-- 
brandon s. allbery	[os/2][linux][solaris][japh]	 allbery@kf8nh.apk.net
system administrator	     [WAY too many hats]	   allbery@ece.cmu.edu
electrical and computer engineering					 KF8NH
carnegie mellon university






-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/