>> >Why not just make:
>> >	sysctl((void *)"kern.maxproc", 0, &buf, sizeof buf, NULL, 0);
>> >return the value of kern.maxproc (etc).
>> 
>> sounds nice, but how does that communicate the type of the returned
>> data to the caller?  or maybe buf could then consist of a type number,
>> followed by a length number, followed by the actual data...
>
>Well, in most cases (ie everything except the sysctl program) the
>caller knows what he expects. For sysctl maybe "kern.?" could return
>the types of the subfields
>- better have 'kern.*' return "name:type.name:type"

and...in most cases (ie, everything except the sysctl program) the
caller knows where the thing is that he's looking for, and does not
have to do auto-discovery.

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