[BusyBox] Could proc be a kernel module?

[Erik Andersen]

On Wed Jul 19, 2000 at 05:21:23PM +1000, bug1 wrote:
> Im out of my depth with this, but as people dont like to have /proc
> taken away from them and use devps etc, would it be possible to make
> /proc a loadable module?
> 
> >From a userland point of view it seems to me that it would be ok as
> /proc is mainly used to interface with either people or userland
> programs, so if the module was loaded after boot it should be ok.
> 
> It would mean the proc module wouldnt have to be on the boot medium.
> 
> >From what little i do know of how the kernel and modules work it may
> take a fair bit of work to do this.
> 
> Thoughts?

It could be done.  As you say though it will take a fair bit of work.  Also, to
maximize the effect, there is a lot of procfs support code in the kernel as
well, so it might be a nice idea to identify all those dependancies and move as
many as possible into the procfs code.  For example, in fs/super.c there is
get_filesystem_info() and get_filesystem_list() that are used _only_ be procfs,
and yet that are unconditionally compiled right into the filesystem code.
Modularizing/moving that type of code could greatly increase the benefits of
the modularization.

 -Erik

--
Erik B. Andersen   email:  andersen at lineo.com
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