Subject: Re: RFC: /kern/summary
To: Brian C. Grayson <bgrayson@orac.ece.utexas.edu>
From: Brian C. Grayson <bgrayson@marvin.ece.utexas.edu>
List: tech-kern
Date: 03/09/1999 15:56:01
On Tue, Mar 09, 1999 at 01:36:23PM -0800, Colin Wood wrote:
> Brian C. Grayson wrote:
> > 
> >   /kern/summary (any better name ideas?)
> > 
> >   Purpose:  Provide numerous system statistics in a single file,
> >     allowing programs like top, systat, and xosview to grab an
> >     atomic snapshot of the state.  Hopefully, this will help
> >     reduce the number of recompiles of these programs when struct
> >     proc changes slightly.
> 
> what about people who want to use top et al. but don't want the overhead
> of adding kernfs to their kernel?

  Near the bottom I mentioned that it would be an option to
top/ps/et al on whether to use /proc and /kern, or the old
method.  At least that's what the "as an option" was meant to
convey, but it probably wasn't clear to anyone but me!

  I have no idea on the size impact now, but I'm hoping that the
cost of /kernfs and /procfs will be small enough that it's not
much of a concern for the _average_ user.  FYI, currently, kernfs*.o
is around 11KB on i386, and I plan on basically adding a few
sprintfs to that.  /procfs is twice that size.  On a 4MB router,
I can definitely see where an extra 32K or so makes a difference
(that's ~1% of all memory!).

  Brian