Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!homxb!mtuxo!mtune!codas!novavax!murphy!dcornutt
From: dcornutt@murphy.UUCP (Dave Cornutt)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: login prompt not staying set
Message-ID: <771@murphy.UUCP>
Date: 10 Dec 87 14:09:26 GMT
References: <142700001@occrsh.ATT.COM> <142700007@occrsh.ATT.COM>
Organization: Gould CSD, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Lines: 43
Summary: combine getty and login

In article <142700007@occrsh.ATT.COM>, rjd@occrsh.ATT.COM writes:
> 
> > > (Lots of stuff concerning the getty - login sequence)
> > 
> > Believe me, Im a novice at this. But it occurred to me . . .
> > 
> > Does it make sense for login, after an invalid password, to exec getty
> > rather than issue its own login: prompt? This would eliminate the two
> > login: prompts (surely a goodness), but would it tie login too closely
> > to getty?

You run into a problem with modems.  If login exits, it has to close the
tty fd so that getty can re-open it.  This will cause modems to hang up.
I suppose getty could be modified to take an arg telling it not to open
the tty; instead, just use the fd that is already open.  But there must
be a better way...

>   Sounds good to me, especially for the guy who asked the original question...
> To actually implement would be slightly harder, as getty expects the gettydefs
> line to get the parameters to set the port to, which the login program does not
> know.  Maybe change both login and getty to check another file for the login
> prompt and keep the sequence the same, or have just login only prompt for it
> (which I see problems with), or........  EDUCATE the users to not be bothered
> by it......Na, thats too easy...

EDUCATE THE USERS??  Heaven forbid!  What's wrong with your telepathy
hardware? :-) :-) :-)

Seriously, it doesn't really make sense that getty should do one thing
when issuing the prompt and login do another.  Actually, it doesn't make
sense (at least to me) that the functions of getty and login are split
among two programs.  I think they should be merged into one program.
What kinds of problems would this cause?  Right off hand, I can't think
of any, but others may know better.  Comments?
---
Dave Cornutt, Gould Computer Systems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
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