[ On Monday, June 5, 2000 at 09:28:24 (-0400), Greg Hudson wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: Replacing the sysctl() interface. 
>
> Not really.  The Unix philosophy is that most shared data objects are
> files (although some objects are not, like unnamed pipes).  Using file
> data as a control channel is a relatively new innovation and has a
> very different feel to it.

True enough, at least unless you include the ioctl() interface.  Though
there are relatively few shell-programmable interfaces to ioctl(), they
do exist; and of course there are almost no common shell-level tools
that can do their own ioctl()s.

>  NetBSD has traditionally resisted this
> innovation, perhaps for good reason.

Interestingly 4.4BSD doesn't seem to have resisted this innovation, and
certainly FreeBSD has taken it further without as much resistance.  ;-)

NetBSD has also made more use of it recently too.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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