Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 03:06:00 -0600 (CST) From: "Mike Pritchard" <mpp@mpp.minn.net> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: screen snaps for syscons & pcvt Message-ID: <199601170906.DAA02495@mpp.minn.net>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I mentioned this project a long time ago (sometime last spring/summer, I think), but I thought I would give it another try. I want to add a print screen interface to syscons and pcvt. When I last mentioned this, the discussion degraded down to "well, SCO did things a different way, and since syscons consoles are SCO type consoles, it should probably be compatible with how they did things". or "you should do it via escape sequences", etc. I don't care. I just want something nice and simple where I can hit shift+print_screen and get a printed copy of my current screen. I'm sure that 90% of the FreeBSD user base would be more than happy with that. If someone can show me a *REAL* need for something beyond that, I'll consider it. I just got my changes working with -current again, and the way things basically work is this: A program called "prntscreend" sits out there doing a select on /dev/screen (new device) waiting for a wakeup that is done anytime the print screen function is activatived via the keyboard. By default it is shift+print_screen. This can be changed with the keyboard maps. When the daemon wakes up, it issues a read on /dev/screen to obtain the contents of the current console screen. This will work even if you are scrolled back in the console window. The contents are then piped out to lpr (command & arguments selectable via /etc/sysconfig, or totally disabled via /etc/sysconfig). The kernel parts of the /dev/screen interface are basically slightly modified versions of the /dev/log interface. Now, if someone comes up with a good reason why each different virtual console should have a different processing program (e.g. you want to hook vty0 to prntscreend, but you want vty1 hooked up to xyzzyd), I can probably do that without too much trouble. But, like I said, I think that 90% of the people using FreeBSD would be more than happy with the simple ability to just take plain old screen snaps of the current console screen, just like you can under lowly MS-DOS. If there aren't any strong objections, I would like to just go ahead and commit this code after having someone review it. If at some later date someone comes up with a valid need for something more complex out of this interface, I'll deal with it that time. It took almost no time to get it working, so if at a later time it needs to be thrown out to support something more advanced, it will not be a big deal. Comments? -- Mike Pritchard mpp@mpp.minn.net "Go that way. Really fast. If something gets in your way, turn"
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199601170906.DAA02495>