Date:        Thu, 15 Jun 2000 12:59:08 +0100
    From:        Julian Coleman <J.D.Coleman@newcastle.ac.uk>
    Message-ID:  <20000615125907.A12252@aire.ncl.ac.uk>

  |  do_dmesg()
  |  {
  | -	rm -f /var/run/dmesg.boot
  | +	mv /var/run/dmesg.boot /var/run/dmesg.boot-
  |  	dmesg $dmesg_flags > /var/run/dmesg.boot
  |  }

And this comes after /var/run has been zapped?

That is, after ...

        (cd /var/run && {
                rm -rf -- *; install -c -m 664 -g utmp /dev/null utmp;
        })

The rm in do_dmesg() is a harmless safety net.  The mv would be
generate an error message...

That said, dmesg.boot belongs in /var/log anyway, there's no rational at
all for it in /var/run

make do_dmesg() be

do_dmesg()
{
	mv /var/log/dmesg.boot /var/log/dmesg.boot-
	dmesg $dmesg_flags > /var/log/dmesg.boot
	(echo -n "Booted at: "; date) >> /var/log/dmesg.history
	cat /var/log/dmesg.boot >> /var/log/dmesg.history
}

or something like that.   (and perhaps just /var/log/dmesg rather than
/var/log.dmesg.boot - the ".boot" doesn't add any useful information).

kre