Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 10:18:03 +1000 From: David Nugent <davidn@labs.usn.blaze.net.au> To: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: utmp/wtmp interface Message-ID: <199707290018.KAA13363@labs.usn.blaze.net.au> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:58:25 MST." <199707282358.QAA01875@phaeton.artisoft.com>
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> > utmp is of course different. init primarily manages this and > > needs to *update* records in it, which are accessed randomly. > > This really does need to be fixed length format. > > Yes; are you suggesting different formats for the files? No, only suggesting a way in which changes to the file formats can be made transparent, and even offer binary compatibility to dynamically linked applications when changes are made. The initial implementation will use backwards compatible (in fact almost identical) formats to the current files we use. Only one 'special' field is being reused to the first (currently unused) record in utmp to define the record size, which an application doesn't have to deal with anyway. The actual record size won't initially be changed either. > This is > kind of an annoying idea, if only because it's been murder trying > to get most of the configuration data into a unified format, and > then here we go adding Yet Another Format. 8-(. Well, that's the point. There shouldn't need to be any "unified format" - just a "unified api" by which the data can be updated and accessed. It'd be nice if others adopted the same api, which ultimately leads to portability at the applications level - whatever "extra" an OS vendor wishes to add is also allowed for in the api, and applications can take advantage of those if it wishes, again without worrying about how the actual files are formatted, stored or even if they exist at all. Regards, David -- David Nugent - Unique Computing Pty Ltd - Melbourne, Australia Voice +61-3-9791-9547 Data/BBS +61-3-9792-3507 3:632/348@fidonet davidn@freebsd.org davidn@blaze.net.au http://www.blaze.net.au/~davidn/
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