On Fri, Apr 09, 2004 at 01:51:39PM +0200, Aymeric Vincent wrote:
> 
> Bill Squier wrote:
> 
> >Knowing briefly what the sysctl knob will change right there in the 
> >output of
> >sysctl -a seems like a win to me-- and a much bigger one that knowing
> >that my PIII supports the ABCDEFG-HOOKED-ON-PHONICS-WORKED-FOR-ME flag.
> 
> This feature does not need to be in the kernel: it can be in sysctl(8). 
> I guess the semantics for a given sysctl variable never or rarely 
> changes, so that if a description exists, it will likely be correct.

That's wrong.  One of the major features of the new framework is to
*allow new sysctl nodes to be dynamically added*.

Given that, it seems to me that the supplier of the node and the supplier
of the description must be one; that somehow, these strings must be
embeddable in the kernel.

I think the right solution is to use a common table of definitions that
emits the descriptions into the sysctl manual page *and* the kernel.
I also note that driver-specific sysctl names should -- I would even
say "MUST" -- appear in the driver's manual page.

Thor