Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!kramden.acf.nyu.edu!brnstnd
From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: pty bugs & features
Message-ID: <8319:Aug2617:20:3690@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 26 Aug 90 17:20:36 GMT
References: <3948@auspex.auspex.com> <6038@muffin.cme.nist.gov> <3954@auspex.auspex.com>
Organization: IR
Lines: 18

In article <3954@auspex.auspex.com> guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) writes:
> >I would think this could be a problem with other drivers besides ptys.
> It could be.  Unfortunately, just about *any* close behavior is going to
> screw *somebody*.

Not necessarily.

> Waiting forever for output to drain can lock up a tty port forever if it
> gets ^S'ed and there's output waiting.

This is the correct behavior. The difficulties with locking up tty ports
are reflections of two different problems: first, that ptys aren't
dynamically allocated in 4BSD; and second, that standard ttys exist at
all. Hardwired /dev/tty* should be replaced with raw /dev/modem* and so
on; *all* tty use should go through a common interface provided by a
pseudo-terminal session manager. This would solve many problems at once.

---Dan