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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!cmcl2!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.4bsd
Subject: mt reports absurd error message when pointed at a tty
Message-ID: <2496@phri.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Nov-86 23:21:16 EST
Article-I.D.: phri.2496
Posted: Tue Nov 11 23:21:16 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Nov-86 10:12:51 EST
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Distribution: net
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 20

Index:	bin/mt.c 4.2BSD

Description:
	Mt calls perror to print error messages.  Since mt uses ioctls to
	do its magic, one of the diagnostics you can draw is "not a
	typewriter".  This is not useful most of the time, and can even
	be absurd.  The basic problem is that "character device" and "tty"
	are concepts which are more closely related then they should be.

Repeat-By:
	Run "mt -f /dev/tty stat".  You will draw the error message "not a
	typewriter", which is a patently absurd thing to say about /dev/tty.
	The same thing happens on Sun 3.0.  Granted, this is a bit of a
	silly thing to do, but it should still give some useful error message.
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016

"you can't spell deoxyribonucleic without unix!"