[TUHS] /proc - linux vs solaris
Larry McVoy
lm at mcvoy.com
Tue Aug 5 09:11:08 AEST 2014
Seem like even Roger liked it:
https://lwn.net/lwn/1998/0226/sunproc.html
On Mon, Aug 04, 2014 at 03:23:25PM -0700, Larry McVoy wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 04, 2014 at 05:24:39PM -0500, A. P. Garcia wrote:
> > We in Solaris designed /proc as a tool for developers to build innovative
> > solutions, not an end-user interface. The Linux community believes that
> > 'cat /proc/self/maps' is the best user interface, while we believe that
> > pmap(1) is right answer. The reason for this is that mdb(1), truss(1),
> > dtrace(1M) and a host of other tools all make use of this same information.
> > It would be a waste of time to take binary information in the kernel,
> > convert it to text, and then have the userland components all write their
> > own (error prone) parsing routines to convert this information back into a
> > custom binary form. Plus, we can change the options and output format of
> > pmap without breaking other applications that depend on the contents of
> > /proc.
>
> I come from SunOS background and have had more than a few /proc discussions
> with Roger Faulkner (who I believed did the System V /proc at Bell Labs?).
>
> I get the arguments above but I don't buy 'em. linux really got /proc
> right in terms of usefulness. Digging binary blobs out of the kernel
> and translating them sucks. I've done, I've written kmem drivers for
> ps, I understand how it works. I far prefer the pure ascii model that
> Linux has.
>
> I also get that Linux turned /proc into /whatever/I/think/I/need/today
> and that makes purists grit their teeth. None the less, if you give
> me a choice I'll take the linux way. Want to see what files you have
> open?
>
> ls -l /proc/$$/fd
>
> Etc. Really easy to poke around and figure stuff out as needed and no
> rats nest of header files to decode the structures.
>
> --lm
> _______________________________________________
> TUHS mailing list
> TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org
> https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs
--
---
Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com http://www.mcvoy.com/lm
More information about the TUHS
mailing list