Folks,
        I humbly submit configfs.  With configfs, a configfs
config_item is created via an explicit userspace operation: mkdir(2).
It is destroyed via rmdir(2).  The attributes appear at mkdir(2) time,
and can be read or modified via read(2) and write(2).  readdir(3)
queries the list of items and/or attributes.
        The lifetime of the filesystem representation is completely
driven by userspace.  The lifetime of the objects themselves are managed
by a kref, but at rmdir(2) time they disappear from the filesystem.
        configfs is not intended to replace sysfs or procfs, merely to
coexist with them.
        An interface in /proc where the API is:

        # echo "create foo 1 3 0x00013" > /proc/mythingy

or an ioctl(2) interface where the API is:

        struct mythingy_create {
                char *name;
                int index;
                int count;
                unsigned long address;
        }

        do_create {
                mythingy_create = {"foo", 1, 3, 0x0013};
                return ioctl(fd, MYTHINGY_CREATE, &mythingy_create);
        }

becomes this in configfs:

        # cd /config/mythingy
        # mkdir foo
        # echo 1 > foo/index
        # echo 3 > foo/count
        # echo 0x00013 > foo/address

        Instead of a binary blob that's passed around or a cryptic
string that has to be formatted just so, configfs provides an interface
that's completely scriptable and navigable.
        Patch is against 2.6.12-rc1-bk3.

http://oss.oracle.com/~jlbec/files/configfs/2.6.12-rc1-bk3/configfs-2...

Joel

--

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything
 that counts can be counted."
        - Albert Einstein

Joel Becker
Senior Member of Technical Staff
Oracle
E-mail: joel.bec...@oracle.com
Phone: (650) 506-8127
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