Re: resolv.conf vs. sysctl

[Theo de Raadt <deraadt@cvs.openbsd.org>]

> while thinking about ppp[d] and dns configuration i came to
> conclusion, that existing mechanism is not flexible. yes, text files
> are good thing. but wouldn't it be better to put the stuff into sysctl
> tree?
> 
> when i looked at libc code doing parsing of the file for every
> application which starts using resolver subroutines, it looked
> horrible....

It's got some minor performance issues, I suppose.  But very minor
compared to the network traffic involved.

Anyways, I think this is how configuration has always worked.  Moving
this into a sysctl will grow the kernel a lot (including boot floppies)
and also presents a new and incompatible interface.  I just think this
is a bad idea.