I would disagree. Take /etc/passwd. It does have a query language. getpwent(), login, passwd It has data types -- again getpwent() (man getpwent) needs pwd.h

I would disagree. Take /etc/passwd. It does have a query language. getpwent(), login, passwd It has data types -- again getpwent() (man getpwent) needs pwd.h It has "parallel writes". Multiple users can use passwd at the same time. It has "transactions" -- mostly because of inodes. Similar comments apply to utmp and wtmp (note that utmp and wtmp are not ascii -- they are binary records). /etc/services is ALSO structured but is ascii. Less controlled, because it is almost always "read-only". Of course, in a very strange sense, you are correct. Any structure imposed is NOT by the kernel -- this is "post init", or user level. FredW