In article <199604120127.LAA10158@eterna.com.au>,
matthew green  <mrg@eterna.com.au> wrote:
> 
>    Do both of them have to do it, or just one of them? Perhaps a utility
>    library routine should be written to do the job...
> 
> xdm has to do it also....

You don't need it for xdm, since it already has a mechanism to do this.
(TakeConsole/GiveConsole)