> > Something which always confused me about Linux' procfs - what have all
> > these kernel variables got to do with process state?  We used to have a
> > kernfs which was intended for this kind of thing but it rotted after
> > people started extending sysctl for the purpose.
> 
> About as much as having a /usr/bin for the slower binaries on the 40Mbyte
> moving head disk has relationship to /usr nowdays. /proc is basically
> both process and machine state in Linux. It got expaneded on.

Maybe nobody noticed yet that 'proc' is an acronym, and has nothing
to do with processes per se.

Hmm.

'Portable Runtime Operation Control' might be a useful name expansion,
alluding to the fact that the interface works across all supported
platforms without byte order problems etc.

:-)
  Patrick