Subject: Re: Kernel <-> init communication for shutdown
To: Darren Reed <darrenr@reed.wattle.id.au>
From: Nathan J. Williams <nathanw@MIT.EDU>
List: tech-kern
Date: 01/15/2001 14:16:58
Darren Reed <darrenr@reed.wattle.id.au> writes:

> In some email I received from eeh@netbsd.org, sie wrote:
> > 
> > 	It's more like:
> > 
> > 	1) Kernel input device driver notices a Magic Button was pressed.
> > 	2) Kernel tells init about the Magic Button.
> > 
> > I don't think it's a good idea to add this mess to init.
> > Those magic buttons are console resources and should be handled
> > by whatever or whoever is controlling the console.
> 
> That is not how I want it to be, all the time.
> My HPD390 has a soft power switch on the front which initiates a
> shutdown.  i don't need to be logged in or anything.  It's really
> good like that.

He's just making the point that the mechanisim should be
flexible. That your idea of what a magic button should do is different
from what his idea is is exactly the purpose of this flexibility.

At the moment, I think the only thing stopping a userland daemon from
reading the console keys and doing configurable magic is the
non-cloning nature of the data from wscons, which shouldn't be too
hard to fix.

        - Nathan