From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: lm@mcvoy.com (Larry McVoy) Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2014 15:23:25 -0700 Subject: [TUHS] /proc - linux vs solaris In-Reply-To: References: <1407183693.25672.for-standards-violators@oclsc.org> Message-ID: <20140804222325.GK19745@mcvoy.com> 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