Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: Access to kmem - System namelist - '
Message-ID: <4746@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Dec-84 19:43:49 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4746
Posted: Fri Dec  7 19:43:49 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Dec-84 19:43:49 EST
References: <161@dido.UUCP>, <6200035@uokvax.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 12

I hate to throw cold water on the widespread cries of joy, but I hope
everyone realizes that programs which "know" about the kernel tables --
however they gain access to them, /dev/kmem or whatever -- are hopelessly
unportable.  They may also be unreliable, due to race conditions.

It is indeed a blemish that there is no safe, implementation-independent
way of getting this information.  But it's not impossible to devise such
a thing, guys; has anyone bothered to try?  Bell Labs's "/proc" is a good
first step.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry