Accessing sysctls from kernel

[Ivan Voras]

Robert Watson wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Feb 2004, Bruce M Simpson wrote:
> 

> for consumption "on behalf" of a user process.  My general preference
> would be to offer an in-kernel API to manage whatever service is being
> accessed if it's being done in the kernel "on behalf" of the kernel,
> rather than trying to force the access through the current sysctl MIB.
> That way you don't find unnecessary references to thread0, etc, which have
> some dubious locking properties, as well as abuse of credentials, etc,
> that may have unexpected side effects with less traditional security
> models. 

I wholly agree with all you said, and I figured that the thread parameter is 
there for providing a link to the userland process, but I don't know of any 
alternative way to gather needed information. I would be much happier with a 
more simpler way to access the data (such as extern *, or a function call), 
but I don't know of any. Maybe a function could be added for making sysctl 
calls for kernel-use only? (though it may get abused for circumeventing the 
address space&security)