linux-kernel - Re: sysfs sys/kernel/ namespace (was Re: [PATCH 0/2] add new notifier function ,take2)

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Message-ID: <3ae72650710240412h55469ae4r4379df0a66412c94@mail.gmail.com>
Date:	Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:12:25 +0200
From:	"Kay Sievers" <kay.sievers@...y.org>
To:	"Nick Piggin" <nickpiggin@...oo.com.au>
Cc:	"Linux Kernel Mailing List" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"Takenori Nagano" <t-nagano@...jp.nec.com>,
	"Greg KH" <greg@...ah.com>
Subject: Re: sysfs sys/kernel/ namespace (was Re: [PATCH 0/2] add new notifier function ,take2)

On 10/24/07, Nick Piggin <nickpiggin@...oo.com.au> wrote:
> On Tuesday 23 October 2007 10:55, Takenori Nagano wrote:
> > Nick Piggin wrote:
>
> > > One thing I'd suggest is not to use debugfs, if it is going to
> > > be a useful end-user feature.
> >
> > Is /sys/kernel/notifier_name/ an appropriate place?

> I'm curious about the /sys/kernel/ namespace. I had presumed that
> it is intended to replace /proc/sys/ basically with the same
> functionality.

It was intended to be something like /proc/sys/kernel/ only.

> I _assume_ these are system software stats and
> tunables that are not exactly linked to device drivers (OTOH,
> where do you draw the line? eg. Would filesystems go here?

We already have /sys/fs/ ?

> Core network algorithm tunables might, but per interface ones probably
> not...).

We will merge the nonsense of "block/", "class/" and "bus/" to one
"subsystem". The block, class, bus directories will only be kept as
symlinks for compatibility. Then every subsystem has a directory like:
/sys/subsystem/block/, /sys/subsystem/net/ and the devices of the
subsystem are in a devices/ directory below that. Just like the
/sys/bus/< name>/devices/ layout looks today. All subsystem-global
tunables can go below the /sys/subsystem/<name>/ directory, without
clashing with the list of devices or anything else.

> I don't know. Is there guidelines for sysfs (and procfs for that
> matter)? Is anyone maintaining it (not the infrastructure, but
> the actual content)?

Unfortunately, there was never really a guideline.

> It's kind of ironic that /proc/sys/ looks like one of the best
> organised directories in proc, while /sys/kernel seems to be in
> danger of becoming a mess: it has kexec and uevent files in the
> base directory, rather than in subdirectories...

True, just looking at it now, people do crazy things like:
/sys/kernel/notes, which is a file with binary content, and a name
nobody will ever be able to guess what it is good for. That should
definitely go into a section/ directory.  Also the VM stuff there
should probably move to a /sys/vm/ directory along with the weird
placed top-level /sys/slab/.

Thanks,
Kay
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