"> /dev/tty$i" commands in /etc/rc.sysinit?

Robert P. J. Day rpjday at mindspring.com
Tue Nov 30 12:30:46 UTC 2004


On Tue, 30 Nov 2004, Andrei Nestor wrote:

> On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:06:01 -0500 (EST), Robert P. J. Day
> <rpjday at mindspring.com> wrote:
> >
> >   just perusing the code from /etc/rc.sysinit, and i'm curious about
> > the function of the lines:
> >
> >   > /dev/tty$i
> >
> > for values of "i" gleaned from the mingetty lines from /etc/inittab (1
> > thru 6 by default). what does that redirection accomplish?  i vaguely
> > recall it initializes the initial virtual consoles but i don't
> > remember in what way.
> >
> >   also, just after that, there's the code:
> >
> >   if [ $last -gt 0 ]; then
> >        > /dev/tty$((last+1))
> >        > /dev/tty$((last+2))
> >   fi
> >
> > and this does *what* for the next couple virtual consoles?  and why
> > only two of them?  i'm guessing it has something to do with
> > initializing the next two VCs to handle an X session, but does that
> > mean you can't have more than two X sessions unless you change this?
> >
> > rday
> >
> > --
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> >
>
> "> file" is equivalent to "cp /dev/null file", which means the
> contents of the file is cleared
> probably those lines are there to clear the ttys before spawning a
> login prompt on them.

but it *doesn't* clear the tty.  try it on one of your own sessions.

rday




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