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To: "Gary Palmer" <gpalmer@freebsd.org>
cc: "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@freefall.freebsd.org>, hsu@clinet.fi,
        freebsd-bugs@freefall.freebsd.org
Subject: Re: bin/958 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 22 Oct 1996 19:46:27 -0400."
             <10915.846027987@orion.webspan.net> 
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 08:16:00 +0800
From: Peter Wemm <peter@spinner.DIALix.COM>
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"Gary Palmer" wrote:
> "Marc G. Fournier" wrote in message ID
> <199610220847.BAA12986@freefall.freebsd.org>:
> > MAKEDEV should in this case add the /etc/ttys entries or /etc/ttys should
> > contain all possible ttys.  This would save trouble when installing more
> > ttys and reduce noise on freebsd-questions as newbies ask why their logins
> > do not shop up in w.  Minimum might be adding MAKEDEV echo line which would
> > tell the user "Remember to add new tty devices to /etc/ttys" ?
> 
> Actually, that is a bit short-sighted in a way, considering that
> MAKEDEV will be going away when devfs is rolled out. We need some way
> to handle x number of ptys transparently. Probably just default them
> to be `network insecure' or somesuch if not found in /etc/ttys.

Yes, but... one of the main functions of /etc/ttys is to reserve a slot 
and the ordering for the tty in the utmp file.  We either need to keep 
/etc/ttys in it's current form (ie: complete listing of all possible 
pty's), or go to a sysv model where there is a tty id in the utmp file, so 
anything can be put in there.  Then, the /etc/ttys file can get cut back 
or replaced.  (I'd certainly prefer a sysv-style inittab, but I can 
certainly understand that others will not, so I won't push it.)

There seems to be rumblings about changing the utmp file format to allow 
for longer user names, longer hostnames, IP addresses, etc.  If it's going 
to change, this is probably something else that should be fixed at the 
same time.

Cheers,
-Peter