| Except for a few extremely rare exceptions user space applications do not use | |
| the binary sysctl interface. Instead everyone uses /proc/sys/... with | |
| readable ascii names. | |
| Recently the kernel has started supporting setting the binary sysctl value to | |
| CTL_UNNUMBERED so we no longer need to assign a binary sysctl path to allow | |
| sysctls to show up in /proc/sys. | |
| Assigning binary sysctl numbers is an endless source of conflicts in sysctl.h, | |
| breaking of the user space ABI (because of those conflicts), and maintenance | |
| problems. A complete pass through all of the sysctl users revealed multiple | |
| instances where the sysctl binary interface was broken and had gone undetected | |
| for years. | |
| So please do not add new binary sysctl numbers. They are unneeded and | |
| problematic. | |
| If you really need a new binary sysctl number please first merge your sysctl | |
| into the kernel and then as a separate patch allocate a binary sysctl number. | |
| (ebiederm@xmission.com, June 2007) |