GNU os suggestions -- system data interfaces

[Ted Lemon]

rmtodd at uokmax.UUCP (Richard Michael Todd) sez:
>Getting kernel data values isn't too much of a problem (once you master
>nlist and friends), though as UNIX is currently implemented it's extremely
>ugly.  The main problem I seem to run into is figuring out just what kernel
>variable you need, what format it is in, and what it means once you've got
>it.

Well, that's part of it.   The other part is that thrashing through
the kernel's name list takes a lot of time on small machines.   It is
highly undesirable to have to do this on a regular basis.   On a
typical small machine, doing a ps is an unbelievably slow operation.
It really shouldn't be.   Usually, when you do a ps, it's because the
system is misbehaving, often because it's overloaded.   The last thing
you need is some mondo bizarro program that thrashes through the
kernel's name list and brings the CPU to its knees in the process.

			       _MelloN_