To:     linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu
From:   torvalds@transmeta.com (Linus Torvalds)
Subject: Re: /proc guidelines and sysctl
Date:   6 Jan 2000 13:44:02 -0800

In article <8725685E.007519CF.00@d53mta03h.boulder.ibm.com>,
 <breed@almaden.ibm.com> wrote:
>
>I wrote an wireless ethernet driver awhile ago
>(http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~breed/airo.html) and found the /proc interface to
>be an extremely useful interface to the many knobs in the card.  I am a bit
>uncomfortable defining my own namespace in the /proc file system (did it
>anyway:) and I've been wondering for a while if there are guidelines
>somewhere on where things should go.  I would really like to tap into an
>existing directory for ethX for example...

The thing to do is to create a

	/proc/drivers/<drivername>/ 

directory. The /proc/drivers/ directory is already there, so you'd
basically do something like

	create_proc_info_entry("driver/mydriver/status", 0, NULL, mydriver_status_read);

to create a "status" file (etc etc).

>And finally, what's up with sysctl?  Are driver writers recommended to use
>that over extending /proc or is it deprecated?  Again guide lines would be
>nice.

sysctl is deprecated.  It's useful in one way only: it has some nice
functions that can be used to add a block of /proc names.  However, it
has other downsides (allocating silly numbers etc - there should be no
need for that, considering that the /proc namespace is alreayd a
perfectly good namespace). 

		Linus

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