>> i think the /etc/ttys file should sty where it is, and the way it is.
>> it's for ttys.  that makes sense.  and, whereas adding init.conf would
>> be fine (for me at least), adding it under a slightly different name
>> (eg inittab) would probably raise a few hackles.
>
>You need to look a little deeper, and perhaps at a bit of history too.
>
>Getty is just a daemon that happens to monitor a port and facilitate the
>initial parameter configurations and interactions in setting up a
>connection.  The fact that 'init' only manages programs running on ports
>has everything to do with the way people gained access to computers
>before networks supporting virtual circuits (eg. TCP/IP) came into
>common use.

i think my point was a little softer than that.  i just figured that
the ttys file should remain a file for ttys (and the things that init
runs on them) and another file (whatever it be called) would be for
things that init ran that *didn't* get attached to ttys.

the inittab that solaris has fulfills the second purpose, and also an
"unnamed" third.

>Have you not ever wondered why /etc/ttys has to list all the pseudo-tty
>entries?  That's more of an accident than a design I think.

i thought it was just someone being ana^Wpedantic...

>> ttys for ttys.  other file for other things.  lots of daemons use more
>> than one config file.
>
>Really?  I don't think there are that many actually.  In fact I can't
>think of many at all right now (I am discounting some that might at
>first appear to be candidates but that I don't believe qualify such as
>xdm, smail, modern apache -- maybe cron qualifies, and perhaps some
>versions of radiusd)

i was thinking of sendmail and bind, apache, our ftpd, sshd, inetd,
etc.  they all read multiple files over their lifetimes in order to
perform exactly as desired.

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