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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:12:59 +0100
From: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
To: Rik van Riel <riel@conectiva.com.br>, Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
Cc: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
       margit@margit.com
Subject: Re: Linux 2.4.19 patch for Suse compatibility
Message-ID: <20021119141259.GA19880@wotan.suse.de>
References: <p73d6p1vi7c.fsf@oldwotan.suse.de> <Pine.LNX.4.44L.0211191132280.1571-100000@duckman.distro.conectiva>
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On Tue, Nov 19, 2002 at 11:32:45AM -0200, Rik van Riel wrote:
> On 19 Nov 2002, Andi Kleen wrote:
> > Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> writes:
> 
> > > This was discussed on the kernel list about four to six weeks ago and
> > > rejected then as well. See the previous discussion
> >
> > Actually I don't remember it being rejected, just the discussion dropped
> > off and there was no suggestion on how to solve the problem this ioctl
> > solves in a better way.
> 
> So, what problem does it try to solve ?

The output of all the startup scripts is logged by a special daemon to 
a log file (blogd). It does this by redirecting /dev/console.

For it to be able to still output something to the screen and later 
resetting the console it needs to know the output device that
/dev/console maps to. The ioctl returns it. 

There is actually a fallback path that tries to discover the underlying
device when the ioctl is not there, but it is far too ugly to describe
and also has some problems.

-Andi
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