From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!mahler
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Title: Re: quicker system startup
Article-I.D.: pur-ee.741
Posted: Thu Dec 16 08:28:33 1982
Received: Fri Dec 17 06:31:28 1982
References: floyd.951 tpdcvax.235

At Purdue we have had the shutdown program making a "/down" file for
a long time.  Even under v6 UN*X the fsck running was dependent on
the presence or absence of "/down".  We have not had any problems
with this approach (we changed to our own copies of a shutdown and
modified halt under 4.1).  When a system has 1.2 GB, 100 terminals,
and 64 pseudos ports (on our network) you can't take a 20 minute
recovery lighty.   I do suggest that we pick a common name for the
file, installation of the file in the root directory requires 
a minimal search for the file.   (Do you remember icheck, dcheck,
ncheck, clri, and hand patching vanilla v6 disk ... thanks
to all envolved with the creation of fsck)

Steve Mahler, Network Service Mgr., ECN, Purdue Univ.