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Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 13:58:14 -0400
From: Andrew Gallatin <gallatin@cs.duke.edu>
To: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>
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	from phk@phk.freebsd.dk on Sat, May 27, 2006 at 11:18:24PM +0200
X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 4.9-RELEASE-p1 on an i386
Cc: arch@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: A sort of plan for consoles in FreeBSD
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Poul-Henning Kamp [phk@phk.freebsd.dk] wrote:
> I would like to redefine the semantics of "/dev/console" as follows:
> 
> 	if any console-consumers like xconsole(8) are active
> 		send output to all console-consumers.
> 	else if a controlling terminal is available
> 		send output to controlling terminal (that is /dev/tty)
> 	else
> 		send output to syslogd, as if generated by printf(9).
> 		(but do not actually output to low-level console)

If there is nobody logged in, where do kernel messages from device
drivers, and panic messages (with helpful things like KDB_TRACE) wind
up?  I hope the answer is not "nowhere".  I have debugged many
problems after they happened by looking at serial console logs,
and I would hate to loose this.

Drew