From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932141AbWG2Nmf (ORCPT ); Sat, 29 Jul 2006 09:42:35 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932142AbWG2Nmf (ORCPT ); Sat, 29 Jul 2006 09:42:35 -0400 Received: from styx.suse.cz ([82.119.242.94]:30401 "EHLO mail.suse.cz") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932141AbWG2Nme (ORCPT ); Sat, 29 Jul 2006 09:42:34 -0400 Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2006 15:42:25 +0200 From: Vojtech Pavlik To: Shem Multinymous Cc: "Brown, Len" , Pavel Machek , Matthew Garrett , kernel list , linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org, linux-acpi@vger.kernel.org, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh Subject: Re: Generic battery interface Message-ID: <20060729134225.GA4882@suse.cz> References: <20060727232427.GA4907@suse.cz> <41840b750607271727q7efc0bb2q706a17654004cbbc@mail.gmail.com> <20060728074202.GA4757@suse.cz> <41840b750607280814x50db03erb30d833802ae983e@mail.gmail.com> <20060728202359.GB5313@suse.cz> <41840b750607281548h5ee2219eka1de6745b692c092@mail.gmail.com> <20060729103613.GB7438@suse.cz> <41840b750607290432m6d302cdoae7f3eef869279d4@mail.gmail.com> <20060729120411.GA8285@suse.cz> <41840b750607290551kae4a7c7k9402c96e5b67e6a5@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <41840b750607290551kae4a7c7k9402c96e5b67e6a5@mail.gmail.com> X-Bounce-Cookie: It's a lemon tree, dear Watson! User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sat, Jul 29, 2006 at 03:51:45PM +0300, Shem Multinymous wrote: > >IMO the right way here would be to have a nice GUI for configuring udev > >included with the distro, that'd let you browse the sysfs tree and > >point'n'click to create the rule you need. > > That's still an extra level of indirection. You have to use the nice > GUI to create a new /dev/something, and then point your at at dev > /dev/something. And you have to be root to do that, whereas some sysfs > stuff is world-readable. If that app opens /dev/something by default, which is usually the case, there is only one step. > >The reason behind this was to force people NOT use sysfs directly when > >interfacing to the OS. ;) > > > >Because sysfs wasn't intended to be an API you can rely on, one that's > >fixed in stone and cannot be changed for compatibility reasons. I > >believe it failed in that respect. > > Is sysfs supposed to be a private" API that only "special services > services" look at? It has definitely failed in this respect -- It's > just too convenient and attractive. I'm not sure that's a bad thing... I believe it was originally intended as a cleaner replacement for procfs - to allow the kernel export information about itself in a clean, safe, and consistent way. It wasn't intended for data delivery. I don't know whether the current state of things is good or bad. > Given the current usage pattern of sysfs, is it still a bad idea for > it to carry device inodes? That remains an open question. -- Vojtech Pavlik Director SuSE Labs