Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!cbmvax!grr From: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix Subject: Re: /dev/xcons Message-ID: <22686@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 25 Jun 91 19:12:54 GMT References: <22637@cbmvax.commodore.com> Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) Distribution: comp Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 27 In article trost@reed.edu writes: > > > # Direct console output to /usr/adm/messages > > tail -f /dev/xcons >>/usr/adm/messages & > > I think tail depends on seeing the file size change or some other clue > that data has been appended to a file. I don't know that it can be > expected to do anything meaningful on a character device. > > (Probably) untrue -- the sources for 4.3 BSD indicate that tail just > sleeps a second and then read(2)s BUFSIZ bytes from stdin. Of course, > it only does that if the lseek(2) above doesn't return an EISPIPE -- > which may or may not occur on the xcons pseudo-device. > > A more compelling argument is that we use "xterm -e tail -f > /dev/xcons" to redirect our console output, and it works fine. This > is Ultrix 4.1, though -- maybe somebody "fixed" something (somehow, > getting, EISPIPE *does* make sense...). Well, I don't have any problem with your source reading or logic, but I would claim that in this case tail isn't going to do anything for you that cat doesn't. 8-) -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing: domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com Commodore, Engineering Department phone: 215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)