Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 05:39:27 -0400 From: Tom Rhodes <trhodes@FreeBSD.org> To: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@haven.freebsd.dk> Cc: arch@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Consoles, past and future. Message-ID: <20050902053927.3656b245@localhost> In-Reply-To: <34182.1125646759@phk.freebsd.dk> References: <34182.1125646759@phk.freebsd.dk>
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On Fri, 02 Sep 2005 09:39:19 +0200 Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@haven.freebsd.dk> wrote: [SNIP] > Nobody mandates that 2 & 3 has to happen on "/dev/console", /sbin/init > could open any device it prefer for this, so if the device drivers > export a proposed device name along with their console functions, > /sbin/init could pick this up with a sysctl and proceed from there. > The loader could present a hint to override this. > > That leaves us with 4 and 5, which we can't do much about because > short-sighted UNIX standards which goldpated the past rather than > steer the future and therefore mandate that /dev/console must be a > tty(4) device. > > But we can implement /dev/console as a pseudo device driver without > breaking anything. > > Most people these days view this part of the console functionality > through syslog or xconsole(-like) programs anyway which uses various > ioctls to get their bit of the cake. > > In order to stay compatible with old stuff, we could use a null-modem > backside device so that people could say "tip console" and interact > with dump(8) that way. (Keeping a buffer of the most recent 2K output > and replaying that on open would probably be a good idea). > > The driver would also have the task of directing the output to > /dev/console to syslogd for permanent recording. > > Thanks for listening. > You're welcome. :) My question is, and I know this hasn't been tested so be my guest and theorize a bit. Are there any performance gains or losses as a result of taking this route? -- Tom Rhodes
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