From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 19 12:24:58 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 11D5716A401 for ; Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:24:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Received: from mh1.centtech.com (moat3.centtech.com [207.200.51.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8126C43D72 for ; Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:24:52 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Received: from [10.177.171.220] (neutrino.centtech.com [10.177.171.220]) by mh1.centtech.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k3JCOpDo052775; Wed, 19 Apr 2006 07:24:51 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Message-ID: <44462C07.4030903@centtech.com> Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 07:24:39 -0500 From: Eric Anderson User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5 (X11/20060402) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: bv@wjv.com References: <20060419040716.4F26116A45F@hub.freebsd.org> <20060419095207.GC19339@wjv.com> In-Reply-To: <20060419095207.GC19339@wjv.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.87.1/1407/Tue Apr 18 16:01:55 2006 on mh1.centtech.com X-Virus-Status: Clean Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] Fancy rc startup style RFC X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:24:58 -0000 Bill Vermillion wrote: > Somewhere around Wed, Apr 19, 2006 at 04:07 , the world stopped > and listened as freebsd-hackers-request@freebsd.org graced us with > this profound tidbit of wisdom that would fulfill the enjoyment of > future generations: > >> Message: 20 >> Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:07:31 -0700 >> From: Darren Pilgrim > >> Eric Anderson wrote: > >> > If I could figure out how to make sh do colors, I'd do it. :) > >> Please do not use colors in rc. Escape-sequenced colors make >> unacceptable assumptions about the user and syslogd strips >> escape sequences anyway, so it would be of no use to logged >> consoles. Serial consoles introduce other problems with buggy >> escape handling in third-party terminal programs. A good text >> layout and descriptive status messages do far more for clarity >> and readability than any use of color ever can. > > Let me add to that. About 10% of the male population has some > color vision problem. Mine is a bit more than others. Everytime > I get called to work on a Linux system, I have to go in and disable > the colors as the reds and other colors become very hard to see > against a dark background. The problem is the luminance value of > colors such a red is quite low compared to others. That's one of > the reasons why fire-trucks in this area are lime-green, as red > trucks disappear into the blackness at night. > > If you add color make sure it is a user selectable option > and not turned on by default. IMO everything you need to admin a > system needs to be able to run on something as lowly as a pure > serial terminal as the above poster notes. Ok. So I've received mass amounts of mail regarding this, and most of it has been positively in favor of having the option to enable the rc_fancy, and then an additional option to turn on coloring, with the default to be non-colored but still rc_fancy="YES" which should work ok on serial and other terminals (it did for me). I completely agree about all the coloring comments, and terminal issues. I personally think it should be an available option, easily enabled or disabled at will. I've put up an updated version, with many changes. This version includes optional coloring (with rc_fancy_color="YES" in rc.conf), better checking, cleaner coding, and no loops. This version is *much* more refined than the others - thanks for all the hints everyone! http://www.googlebit.com/freebsd/patches/rc_fancy.patch-5 Also - could I check the kern.console sysctl and decide if it's starting using a console or not, and then automatically override the rc.conf settings if it is booting to a serial console? Eric -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric Anderson Sr. Systems Administrator Centaur Technology Anything that works is better than anything that doesn't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------