Subject: Re: Beep on halt (definitive?)
To: Herb Peyerl <hpeyerl@beer.org>
From: Greg A. Woods <woods@weird.com>
List: tech-kern
Date: 10/20/2002 20:09:39
[ On Sunday, October 20, 2002 at 17:36:42 (-0600), Herb Peyerl wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: Beep on halt (definitive?) 
>
> Frankly, if you don't have console's on your servers, then they can't
> be all that important and then it just doesn't matter when you turn
> them off.

The whole idea of a "system console" is somewhat antiquated.  Nobody
really needs one for message logging and init should really re-direct
I/O to a file for startup logging.  Sure it might be nice to have TTY
interrupts pointed at /etc/rc processes during boot, but that's really
only for debugging, right?  Once you get the bugs out of your boot
scripts then you don't need a terminal connected to /etc/rc again until
the next time you make some configuration change.  About all that's left
is true single-user mode where init needs to know which TTY to start a
shell on.  Note also that there needn't be any link between a kernel
console and whatever TTY device init uses.

So, telling people that they really need a console on a headless server
isn't really very helpful, because they don't _really_.

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098;            <g.a.woods@ieee.org>;           <woods@robohack.ca>
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