Re: [PATCH] sysctl: Allow /proc/sys without sys_sysctl

Eric W. Biederman
2006-07-11T04:01:05Z

"Randy.Dunlap" <rdunlap@xenotime.net> writes:

> On Mon, 10 Jul 2006 16:38:59 -0600 Eric W. Biederman wrote:
>
>>
>> Since sys_sysctl is deprecated start allow it to be compiled out.
>> This should catch any remaining user space code that cares,
>> and paves the way for further sysctl cleanups.
>
> Where is it documented and users notified that sys_sysctl is
> deprecated? Sounds like it should be added to
> Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt.

The deprecation I believe actually predates feature-remove-schedule.txt

>From include/linux/sysctl.h

> ****************************************************************
> ****************************************************************
> **
> ** The values in this file are exported to user space via
> ** the sysctl() binary interface. However this interface
> ** is unstable and deprecated and will be removed in the future.
> ** For a stable interface use /proc/sys.
> **
> ****************************************************************
> ****************************************************************

And I can't actually find any user space applications that continue
to use sys_sysctl.

So the combination of the two patches and makes the deprecation official,
and makes it a compile time option so we can disable sys_sysctl now,
but still have recourse if some parts of user space need the code.

Currently the we dup the internal helpers which makes maintenance
of the code a nightmare.

Eric