Access to kmem - System namelist - 'ps' etc

[John Collins]

Why do so many commands such as 'ps', 'ipcs' and what have you have to use
the /unix namelist to find out kernel addresses?

I'd like to propose subdivisions of /dev/kmem, thus

	/dev/kmem/proc		for the process table
	/dev/kmem/inode		for the inode table

and so forth. Implementation would be trivial.

Think of the advantages:

1.	"Anyone" could write their own "ps" without being superuser with
	X-ray vision on /dev/*mem etc.

2.	You could control access to the various bits as you wished - no
	worrying about people monitoring clists for passwords etc.

3.	Ps would run a lot faster not having to pick its way through the
	symbol table of /unix.

4.	Ps (and other such programs) would not have to know if the current
	system wasn't /unix. Should be an environment variable at present
	anyway.

Ok - what have I overlooked.....  Start flaming now!!

-- 
		John Collins

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