sysctl and /sysfs

[Ihor Antonov]

On Saturday, January 18, 2020 9:41:51 PM PST Polytropon wrote:
 
> In context of Linux...
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-IWMbJXoLM#t=8m20s
> 
> Sorry, couldn't resist. ;-)

Thanks, I really enjoyed this talk. I agree that "everything is a file" is not 
applicable everywhere. 

 
> The core "problem" (which actually isn't a problem at all)
> is that exposing _everything_ as a file or a hierarchical
> filesystem doesn't seem to work for each and every case.
> That's why different approaches have been taken that worked
> out in a better way. With sysctl, direct access to kernel
> system information has been unified. There is still some
> kind of hierarchy preserved.
> 
> See "man 3 sysctl" and "man 1 sysctl" for details.
> 
 
> Sidenote:
> 
> Watching "What UNIX Cost Us" by Benno Rice at "linux.conf.au"
> (LCA) 2020 does actually help understanding _why_ the use of
> the "everything is a file" metaphor doesn't always work.
After watching this talk I also watched another talk of his:

Tragedy of Systemd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_AIw9bGogo

And I must say, Benno has a point. FreeBSD definitely lacks something like 
systemd (and I want to stress "like", not "exactly" ) Do you know of any 
ongoing efforts to bring a unified system management functionality to FreeBSD?


-- 
Ihor Antonov
https://useplaintext.email