Re: sysfsutils, aka systool, candidate for inclusion in util-linux-ng

[Sami Kerola <kerolasa@iki.fi>]

On 21 March 2017 at 12:14, Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com> wrote:
> The question is if maintain it again is the right reaction to the
> current agony. Maybe death is better solution.
>
> I don't think it's widely used and IMHO it's probably used for trivial
> things like write/read from sysfs.
>
> For example we have for work with /sys/block a file lib/sysfs.c in
> utils-linux. Not sure if for something like this is necessary to have
> shared library.

I did a little bit more research what sysfsutils provides and who are
using it. 'Do not use libsysfs' in kernel documentation[1] is pretty
convincing hint this library should be left to be in state it is. Secondly
the list of projects I was able to find[2] had either migrated away
from the libsysfs or died.

I was able to find one exception,  iputils arping command. I sent
change to iputils maintainer that will remove libsysfs stuff moment
ago, so lets hope that will be sorted in future release.

TL;DR. not including sysfsutils to util-linux is the right thing.

[1] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/torvalds/linux/master/Documentation/admin-guide/sysfs-rules.rst
[2] https://www.archlinux.org/packages/core/i686/sysfsutils/

-- 
Sami Kerola
http://www.iki.fi/kerolasa/