this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I might be mistaken, but I think kvm stands for kernel virtual machine. Having no /proc, and interacting with sysctl instead sounds more secure, IMO.
Some pseudofiles under /proc are only readable by the user running the process, and of course root can read everything. So it's the standard Unix security model, afaics.
For example, any process' command-line arguments are famously visible to everyone, while the environment variables only to the user of the process.