Re: Proposal: Add option to add dates to write(1)

[David Holland <dholland-tech%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 05:25:51AM -0400, Matthew Mondor wrote:
 > I didn't think of it initially, but the daemon design would also allow
 > sending messages to remote systems as an extension if that was
 > eventually wanted.  Remote hosts would need the daemon to listen on the
 > network as well and be configured with the set of public keys of the
 > allowed sending peers, which is probably similar to what the new
 > syslogd code does.  However, I'm not sure I want to implement this, at
 > least not initially, as I personally don't need this "overkill"
 > feature, (I already use an SSL-enabled IRCd, and we have SSH which
 > could invoke write(1) remotely :)...

There's already a couple of versions of write floating around that do
this, although as they mostly date back to the late 80s/early 90s they
don't have cryptography. (And, if you want cryptography, this is
essentially what zephyr is.)

Anyhow, I think you're not aiming high enough. What we'd like to have
is a general facility for receiving messages that are currently
scribbled into ttys, whether they're from write(1) or something else.
(E.g., messages from talkd, syslogd, the kernel, comsat, dump, lpd,
whatever...)

Note that a Desktop User(TM) may be logged in and able to receive
messages without having any ttys open. So while the path of least
resistance for such a facility might be to add a secondary channel to
ttys, I don't think that's the right approach.

-- 
David A. Holland
dholland%netbsd.org@localhost