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>Called through an API. Basically RPC

This doesn't map well to hardware

Realistically neither do files. I think it really comes down to our common abstractions. Everything is IO. For the most part shared memory maps are what drives the most performance and ease of use.

According Linus (and everything is a file) "File" actually mean byte array/"stream of bytes"[0]. The latter maps proper well to all cache hierarchy.

[0]: https://yarchive.net/comp/linux/everything_is_file.html

Care to explain? How does something like procfs map better to hardware than an explicit API?

/proc is for stuff like shell automation, not normal 'file' use. The idea is that files are just byte streams/arrays, and pretty good to be optimized. System calls will always be better than /proc, that's not the point at all.

/proc is for stuff like shell automation, not normal 'file' use.

Systems like /proc/ are cornerstones of the “Everything is a file” concept.

The idea is that files are just byte streams/arrays, and pretty good to be optimized.

If your point is simply that “files are efficient because they are just dumb bags of bytes”, then you are in a rude awakening.

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