[caf]

I think perhaps we might be talking at cross-purposes here.

My point is that when you call write(2) under Linux on a file descriptor derived from opening a /proc/sys pseudo-file you are talking directly to the kernel code responsible for updating the sysctl variables in the same way as you are when you call sysctl(2) under FreeBSD.

The /proc/sys files aren't real files - they're just a way of representing the sysctl variables in the existing file namespace.

[woodman]

Ah, when you said sysctl(2) I thought you were talking about the linux call - which is basically dead code. Yeah I don't really have a beef with the whole "everything is a file" design, I actually quite like it, but I really like how well freebsd has done sysctl - both the subroutine (3) and the command (8).