Re: Strange behaviour of files in /proc Explanation??
On Thursday 27 January 2011 19:41:06 Dr. Ed Morbius wrote:
> on 17:43 Thu 27 Jan, Lisi (lisi.reisz@gmail.com) wrote:
> > On my main desktop running Lenny and KDE 3.5.10, I can open files in
> > /proc with cat, vi or OOo. I can open them neither with KWord nor with
> > KWrite, neither of which can even see them.
> >
> > Can anyone explain this??
>
> These are virtual files which are actually interfaces to kernel state,
> and while some text-based tools can work with them (generally by copying
> the contents to another buffer: cat, more/less/most, even vim),
> word-processign tools
I ran none of the applications that I mentioned as root. The files that did
open, did so read only. Moreover 3 of the 5 above are text editors, not word
processors.
> may have other issu
> es and really aren't the
> appropriate tool for working with /proc & /sys files. Or for use under
> root, which is required for most /proc & /sys files.
Who said anything about working? I just wanted to look at them.
> Depending on the specific file, contents may or may not be writable, and
> the consequences of changing contents may or may not be conducive to
> system stability.
What makes you think that I had any intention of changing the contents?
> I'd strongly suggest you stick to standard text tools, and not run X
> sessions as root.
And I would strongly suggest that you not make wild guesses as to other
peoples' intentions. I merely asked for an explanation of a phenomenon that
seemed to me to be strange. And what in my email said anything about running
as root?
Moreover it seems to me ludicrous to suggest that it is OK to run as root and
write to a file with vi, but it is not all right to use KWrite (or Gedit,
come to that) for the same purpose.
But thank you for explaining that they are virtual files.
Lisi
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