/proc file philosophy (was: Re: Results: 2.2.0-pre5 vs arcavm10 vs

Dan Kegel (dank@alumni.caltech.edu)
Fri, 08 Jan 1999 08:47:44 -0800


Zlatko Calusic schrieb:
> > > 3) Nitpick #1: /proc/swapstats exist but is only filled with
> > > zeros. Probably it should go away. I believe Stephen added it
> > > recently, but only part of his patch got actually applied.
> ... I have a similar, even more
> verbose patch for MM statistics with ~15 columns of information ...

I worry about the free-format nature of /proc files sometimes.
What happens if someone needs to change the format? Programs
that read /proc probably use fragile ad-hoc parsers that break
easily if the format they're reading changes.

One of these days, it might be wise to switch to a uniform
keyword/value metaformat for all /proc files.
I could imagine switching to XML for /proc in kernel 2.5 :-)
That way, new elements could be added to /proc formats
with less worry about breaking parsers. Since every field
would then have a name, documentation might be more robust, too...
- Dan

-- 
Speaking only for myself, not for my employer

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