Simple question - complicated answers

[alex]

alex wrote:
> Liam Proven wrote:
>   
>> On 27/09/2007, Tony Arnold <tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk> wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> Liam,
>>>
>>> On Thu, 2007-09-27 at 12:27 +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> On 26/09/2007, alex <aradsky at ne.rr.com> wrote:
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>>>> It's a little maddening to get answers  that dance all around a simple
>>>>> question.
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>> It's not a simple question. It's a vaguely-worded and deeply imprecise
>>>> question that appears to betray a profound ignorance of what an
>>>> operating system kernel is, or indeed, what an operating system is.
>>>> It's a silly question asked by a beginner who doesn't really know what
>>>> he's talking about. You may as well march up to the gates of the
>>>> Houses of Parliament and demand to see this "democracy" that everyone
>>>> keeps talking about.
>>>>
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>>>> I want to do is see what the kernel looks like.
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>> What does the smell of baking cookies look like? What does yellow sound like?
>>>>
>>>> Simple questions, but unanswerable.
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> I think you are being a little harsh on the OP. The question is
>>> answerable! Download the kernel source tar ball, unpack it and start
>>> examining the directory structure and reading the source code.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately,and perhaps this is your point, the above is unlikely to
>>> be helpful, especially for someone who perhaps does not have an
>>> understanding of what a kernel is or maybe does not even understand
>>> code! It's a bit like trying to understand how the brain works by
>>> mapping out the synapses!
>>>     
>>>       
>> That's my *point*. You can "see" a kernel in all sorts of ways.
>>
>>  - If the machine has booted and is running, woohoo, you're watching a
>> kernel in operation.
>>  - You can go to the /boot directory and list its contents. See the
>> big one? That's the kernel, that is. Enjoy. Ain't she a beauty?
>>   
>>     
> All the rancor and commotion could have been prevented if only someone 
> had said this at the beginning of the thread.
>  alex
>
>   
>>  - You could inspect the various files in /sys and look at the output
>> of top and vmstat and so on. Watch those live values change!
>>  - You can open said file with "less" or even "strings | less" and
>> look inside it. Eeeuw.
>>  - You can download the source and read it. There, you're looking at
>> its guts now.
>>
>> The point being that none of these are really meaningful operations.
>> Someone who actually knows what a kernel *is* would not ask "how do I
>> see it", so, if they *are* asking this, they don't know what they're
>> asking so they won't understand any answer to the question.
>>
>> But in this case, we've got someone who not only asks the question,
>> but according to Mario Vukelic, has asked it before and fairly clearly
>> didn't understand or wasn't happy with the answer then.
>>
>> If I was running a bike shop and someone came in and asked how they
>> would supercharge their bike, I wouldn't just tell them, because
>> anyone capable of doing it wouldn't need to ask. If I was a doctor and
>> someone came in and asked how they could remove their own appendix,
>> the same applies.
>>
>> I think this is an analagous situation. I suspect that the OP does not
>> actually know what he is asking. Perhaps he thinks the kernel is a
>> particular program that he can watch running on his screen or that he
>> can in some way send commands to and watch it work, like a word
>> processor. If so, no answer we can give will satisfy him, which is why
>> he says he's been getting the runaround. So, he needs to learn what a
>> kernel /is/ before he can "see" one.
>>
>>   
>>     
>
>   
"Perhaps he thinks the kernel is aparticular program that he can ' 
observe' on his screen or that he can in some way send commands to and 
watch it work, like a word processor"   except,  never did I say 
anything about wanting to do something to the it..  I just wanted to 
take a look at it (whatever "it " is) .

.This answers my question.  Yes,  I had been  under the impression that 
the kernel  existed in a file that had readable text and it was just a 
matter of locating that file and examining "it".  Now I know there is no 
"it".
alex

.