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From: terry@cs.weber.edu (Terry Lambert)
Message-Id: <9504220032.AA06037@cs.weber.edu>
Subject: Re: [DEVFS] your opinions sought!
To: jhs@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (Julian Howard Stacey)
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 95 18:32:33 MDT
Cc: bde@zeta.org.au, julian@ref.tfs.com, rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com,
        hackers@FreeBSD.org
In-Reply-To: <199504202124.XAA08120@vector.eikon.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de> from "Julian Howard Stacey" at Apr 20, 95 11:24:18 pm
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] Suggestion: While deciding, assume sometime later you'll come across a half
] dead singler user system, with no mouse, & no X-11, & you'll be poking about
] in /dev, perhaps over a telnet, or a 24x80 old glass tty (or a pc running
] dos-kermit etc) ..... consider how much info you'll be able to see in a
] worst case 24x80 window ....  & just to complete the Armageddon scenario
] ...  assume /usr/bin/more is unmounted (eg corrupt /usr fs), 
] & assume Control-S flow control is broken somewhere.

# mor() {
>	while true
>	do
>		for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
>		do
>			if read x
>			then
>				echo $x
>			else
>				exit 0
>			fi
>		done
>		echo "--MORE--"
>		read x < /dev/tty
>	done
>}
# els() {
>	for i in *
>	do
>		echo $i
>	done
>}
# els | mor

Using /proc (which, like /dev, should be a mandatorily mounted non-optional
file system), you can even write 'ps'.

Old long hair story: I once installed an Ultrix box with nothing but a
shell and dd to rewrite the install script to get myself a non-supported
disk type in /etc/disktab.  By default, Ultrix will only install to a
small set of DEC supported drives.  I saved my changes between boots
by writing them to the raw disk and splitting them back apart with dd on
each reboot until the install worked.

Where there is a will, there is a way.  8-).


] Not that I'm any fan of deep nested dev dirs, just that I Know I'll be back
] in /dev sometime on a well broken box, in 24x80 mode.

I hope you'll think of "mor" and remember me fondly.  8^).


					Terry Lambert
					terry@cs.weber.edu
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.