Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: How do you find the user structure?
Message-ID: <703@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 14 Dec 88 01:26:21 GMT
References: <13232@ncoast.UUCP> <309@lzaz.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 15

>I wonder if anyone has thought about making the handling of the user
>area portable in SVR4?  It seems to be quite different in every
>version I've looked at.  I assume that the reduction of
>machine-specific code is an objective for new releases, especially in
>the memory management area.

Yes, the machine-dependencies in the VM code should be more centralized
and circumscribed in S5R4.0, since it's picking up SunOS 4.0-style VM
code.  I don't know how portable the U area stuff will be; some of that
may still end up being part of the machine-dependent code.

Then again, S5R4 should also have "/proc", which will provide what
should be a machine-independent way to get a lot of information about
processes, obviating the need to rummage around in the kernel's address
space and know how it implements the U area.