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Re: Who changed /proc/<pid>/ in 2.6.0-test5-bk9?

From:  Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
To:  Mikael Pettersson <mikpe@csd.uu.se>
Subject:  Re: Who changed /proc/<pid>/ in 2.6.0-test5-bk9?
Date:  Wed, 1 Oct 2003 08:11:32 -0700 (PDT)
Cc:  Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>, <perfctr-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>, Albert Cahalan <albert@users.sourceforge.net>


On Wed, 1 Oct 2003, Mikael Pettersson wrote:
>
> Linus' 2.6.0-test6 announcement doesn't seem to mention the
> fact that 2.6.0-test5-bk9 fundamentally changed the semantics
> of /proc/self and the /proc/<pid> name space.

Well, that's because the semantics weren't _supposed_ to change. The new 
semantics were meant to be a superset of the old behaviour, with just the 
added "task" subdirectory that lists the actual threads.

However, you're right that "/proc/self" should likely point into the
_thread_, and not into the task. But it's debatable. You are very likely 
the only one who could ever care ;)

> I don't actually disagree with the change, but it took me by
> surprise since neither the 2.6.0-test6 annoucement nor the
> diff between the t5-bk8 and t5-bk9 logs seem to mention it.

Well, the changelog mentions "fix for hidden task problem", since the diff 
really is mainly to _add_ threads to the /proc layout. The fact that it 
changed /proc/self is actually a bit surprising. Albert?

> (It broke the perfctr driver, but I'm handling that by making
> an already planned API switch now instead of later.)

I think /proc/self most likely _should_ point into the thread, not the 
task. 

		Linus

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