Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:12:59 +0100 | From | Andi Kleen <> | Subject | Re: Linux 2.4.19 patch for Suse compatibility |
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On Tue, Nov 19, 2002 at 11:32:45AM -0200, Rik van Riel wrote: > On 19 Nov 2002, Andi Kleen wrote: > > Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> writes: > > > > This was discussed on the kernel list about four to six weeks ago and > > > rejected then as well. See the previous discussion > > > > Actually I don't remember it being rejected, just the discussion dropped > > off and there was no suggestion on how to solve the problem this ioctl > > solves in a better way. > > So, what problem does it try to solve ?
The output of all the startup scripts is logged by a special daemon to a log file (blogd). It does this by redirecting /dev/console.
For it to be able to still output something to the screen and later resetting the console it needs to know the output device that /dev/console maps to. The ioctl returns it.
There is actually a fallback path that tries to discover the underlying device when the ioctl is not there, but it is far too ugly to describe and also has some problems.
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