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From: okunewck@gondor.cs.psu.edu (Phil OKunewick)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: multi/single-user mode flag?
Message-ID: <3595@psuvax1.psu.edu>
Date: 13 May 88 15:41:58 GMT
Sender: netnews@psuvax1.psu.edu
Reply-To: okunewck@gondor.cs.psu.edu (Phil OKunewick)
Organization: Complete lack thereof.
Lines: 15


	Is there any nice way for a program to tell whether a generic
unix system is in single-user or multi-user mode?  Two ideas here are
to read init's memory (not standard under different unixes) or to check
what processes are running (kludge).

	We're running several different versions of unix here, and need
a standard dump routine for everything.  Even if dump is modified to do
sane backups on a live filesystem, multi-user mode dumps are impractical.
(20 hours for a Level 0 dump on one of our machines).
	Therefore, I want something that will tell my operator "Do not do
it this way you fool" if he tries to dump in multi-user mode.

						---Phil OKunewick
						okunewck@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu