"> /dev/tty$i" commands in /etc/rc.sysinit?

Andrei Nestor andrei.nestor at gmail.com
Tue Nov 30 12:18:30 UTC 2004


On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:06:01 -0500 (EST), Robert P. J. Day
<rpjday at mindspring.com> wrote:
> 
>   just perusing the code from /etc/rc.sysinit, and i'm curious about
> the function of the lines:
> 
>   > /dev/tty$i
> 
> for values of "i" gleaned from the mingetty lines from /etc/inittab (1
> thru 6 by default). what does that redirection accomplish?  i vaguely
> recall it initializes the initial virtual consoles but i don't
> remember in what way.
> 
>   also, just after that, there's the code:
> 
>   if [ $last -gt 0 ]; then
>        > /dev/tty$((last+1))
>        > /dev/tty$((last+2))
>   fi
> 
> and this does *what* for the next couple virtual consoles?  and why
> only two of them?  i'm guessing it has something to do with
> initializing the next two VCs to handle an X session, but does that
> mean you can't have more than two X sessions unless you change this?
> 
> rday
> 
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"> file" is equivalent to "cp /dev/null file", which means the
contents of the file is cleared
probably those lines are there to clear the ttys before spawning a
login prompt on them.

-- 
andrei

P.S.: OS/400 Rulez.




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