>> then there's the issue of the portal file system not really "doing"
>> directory listings at all...
>
>  Yes, but I think that's unavoidable without some major changes
>though.  Plus it's downright impossible in some cases -- How would a
>portal filesystem that mapped ftp: mounted on /p handle an ls of
>/p/ftp:?  I surely don't want to see all ftp sites on the
>Internet....  nor do I want to wait as it tries to figure out all the
>ftp sites on the Internet...  :)

well...i think that's a little off-topic.  you might do better with
the automounter dynamically portal mounting ftp sites under there if
you wanted to do that.

>> >If you want information about the kernel's state, look in /kern.
>> 
>> well...there's not that much there, but then again, (almost) all the
>> stuff that's already there can be gotten at via sysctl.
>
>  And _everything_ that can be gotten via sysctl, can also be gotten
>via a portal filesystem, if you want to be able to access this stuff
>through the filesystem namespace (configuration etc. is at end of note):

yeah, and everything that goes into making up the portal file system
and sysctl and everything else, can be gotten at via the portal file
system.

% grep -v '##' /p/netbsd/basesrc/sbin/mount_portal/examples/sysctlfs.sh
#!/bin/sh
for path in $*; do
  path=`echo $path | tr '/' '.'`
  sysctl $path | sed -e "s/$path//;s/^\.//;s/^ = //"
done
% 

:)

but that still doesn't make the portal file system do ls.

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