cvs commit: src/etc/etc.amd64 ttys src/etc/etc.arm ttys src/etc/etc.i386 ttys src/etc/etc.ia64 ttys src/etc/etc.mips ttys src/etc/etc.powerpc ttys src/etc/etc.sparc64 ttys

[Robert Watson]

On Sun, 24 Aug 2008, Ed Schouten wrote:

>>> The current /etc/ttys already seemed like an improvement when compared to 
>>> the old one, where we spent 2 out of 3 entries on commonly unused PTY 
>>> names. What kind of ratio do you propose?
>>
>> For 256 lines in /etc/ttys, you can keep people's systems working with 
>> older applications.  Doesn't seem like a big sacrifice -- it's not like 
>> we're forcing Giant to be kept on part of the kernel, etc.
>
> Okay. Sounds okay. That means we've basically switched the priorities. First 
> we had:
>
> - 512 entries for pty(4)
> - 256 entries for pts(4)
>
> Now we're going to switch it to:
>
> - 256 entries for pty(4)
> - 512 entries for pts(4)
>
> I'll only add the entries for tty[pqrsPQRS].

John and I chatted a bit last night, and we think reordering introduces a 
potential short-term ABI confusion until the next reboot, but that once a 
reboot takes place the problem is resolved.  This is consistent with other 
weird things happening if you upgrade /etc without rebooting, so this seems 
OK.

Robert N M Watson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge