Re: [PATCH 2.4] add SMBIOS information to /proc/smbios -- UPDATED

Lev Makhlis
2004-05-01T21:00:23Z

> > -- This information is, in the very near future, _not_ going to be
> > static anymore. There will be systems that update the information in
> > dynamically during SMIs.
>
> That's fine - /dev/mem can handle that too. An user will have to
> poll for changes anyways, so having it it /proc does not have
> any advantages.

One problem is that /dev/mem access isn't atomic. You need to read
a pointer, then follow the pointer to read data. If the pointer changes
in the middle, you lose. That said, I don't see any mechanism that
helps avoid that in kernel, either.