Access to kmem - System namelist - '

[jab at uokvax.UUCP]

/***** uokvax:net.unix-wizar / fortune!olson / 11:54 pm  Dec  1, 1984 */
At Fortune Systems, we took a somewhat different approach.  What we
did was to fix forever in low core the important variables (or
pointers thereto, in the case of tables such as the proc table.)
/* ---------- */
Yet another way (one that I don't happen to agree with) that one Unix
does it is to have a magic system call:
	getsyms(not its real name) returns the values of the addresses
	of the proc/inode/... tables.

I believe that people at the Purdue/ECN (where I first heard about this
kind of thing) realized a significant increase in speed when they wrote
"/dev/proc" and "/dev/inode" as specialized cases of the "/dev/kmem" code.

	Jeff Bowles
	Lisle, IL