Re: Wmmon under FreeBSD

[mouse () RODENTS MONTREAL QC CA (der Mouse)]

> > I should like to know why more apps don't require the *bsd
> > {proc,kern}fs interface.

Near as I can figure, it goes like this:

        Nobody mounts them because nobody uses them.

        Nobody uses them because they're never mounted.

> Under modern BSD4.4, the preferred method is using sysctl(3),(8), as
> opposed to kernfs.

Except kernfs exports some things sysctl doesn't - at least under
NetBSD, the variant with which I'm most familiar.

What are the sysctl analogs of /kern/msgbuf and /kern/rootdev, in
particular?  (/kern/rootdev is especially nice because it's directly
mountable; with sysctl you'd first have to create a writeable
filesystem somewhere to make a /dev entry in, leading to a
chicken-and-egg problem.)

Also, the filesystem interface has advantages over the sysctl
interface, for some uses.  In particular, the interface to userland is
*much* more stable, meaning that kernel/userland mismatches break it
significantly less often.

                                        der Mouse

                               mouse () rodents montreal qc ca
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