Cute kernel trick, or communistic ploy?

[Carl Spalletta]

  Output of program to simulate a /proc file in a stopped kernel,
using the same kernel function(s) used to generate the actual file
when the kernel is up:

(gdb) source ./proc-uptime
$3 = (void *) 0xa1aec000
$4 = (void *) 0xa1da48d4
$5 = (void *) 0xa1da4384
$6 = (void *) 0xa1da48ac
$7 = 0
"remember to 'call(kfree($page))' when finished
"4080219633.89 395.85
(gdb) 

  This program works fine in the um arch but I was wondering what
the pitfalls are in an approach like this. This is a trivial example,
but other /proc files do very complicated bookkeeping and formatting;
and this method should be equally applicable to those.

GDB program 'proc-uptime' (18 lines):

set $gfp_atomic=0x20
call(kmalloc(4096,$gfp_atomic))
set $page=$
call(kmalloc(32,$gfp_atomic))
set $zero=(int *)$
set *$zero=(int)0
call(kmalloc(32,$gfp_atomic))
set $start=(int **)$
set *$start=$zero
call(kmalloc(32,$gfp_atomic))
set $eof=(int *)$
set *$eof=1
call(uptime_read_proc((char *)$page,(char **)$start,(off_t)0,\
  0,$eof,(void *)$zero))
call(kfree($zero))
call(kfree($eof))
call(kfree($start))
echo "remember to 'call(kfree($page))' before continuing\n"
printf "%s\n",$page