stailey@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov (Ken Stailey) (05/17/89)
In section 4 of every Sys V manual I have seen there is a very short manual
page about the file "/etc/issue" and how it is printed as a login message by
getty.
Reproduced in part w.o./permission from AT&T:
"The file /etc/issue contains the _issue_ or project identifcation to be
printed as a login prompt. This is an ASCII file which is read by [the]
program _getty_ and then written to any terminal spawned or respawed from
the _lines_ file."
The trouble is it doesn't work as advertised, and there's no docs for the
mysterious "lines" file.
Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.
Ken
INET stailey@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov
UUCP {sundc ames}!dftsrv!iris613!staileyguy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (05/18/89)
>In section 4 of every Sys V manual I have seen there is a very short manual >page about the file "/etc/issue" and how it is printed as a login message by >getty. ... >The trouble is it doesn't work as advertised, and there's no docs for the >mysterious "lines" file. The manual is only an approximation of reality (sort of like the output of "ps" :-)), and isn't always maintained perfectly. This problem isn't unique to AT&T; other suppliers (commercial or, ahem, academic) of UNIX systems tend to have the same problem. The problem is that in S5R3, at least, the code to print "/etc/issue" is within an #ifdef, and the #ifdef isn't turned on by default. Nevertheless, the man page is still there in the S5R3 documentation. I suspect this feature dates back to an old internal-to-AT&T version of UNIX; the "issue or project identification" stuff is probably some internal-to-AT&T notion. The "lines" file may have been the moral equivalent of "/etc/ttys" or "/etc/inittab" in that version. It might actually be a useful feature for some sites, so perhaps it should be turned on by default; after all, it costs you little if you *don't* want a pre-login-prompt banner - just don't have an "/etc/issue" file. The documentation should, of course, be brought up to date, with no reference to the "lines" file, and no mention of an "issue or project identification".
vause@cs-col.Columbia.NCR.COM (Sam Vause) (05/18/89)
In article <222@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> stailey@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov (Ken Stailey) writes: >In section 4 of every Sys V manual I have seen there is a very short manual >page about the file "/etc/issue" and how it is printed as a login message by >getty. > >Reproduced in part w.o./permission from AT&T: > >"The file /etc/issue contains the _issue_ or project identifcation to be > printed as a login prompt. This is an ASCII file which is read by [the] > program _getty_ and then written to any terminal spawned or respawed from > the _lines_ file." > >The trouble is it doesn't work as advertised, and there's no docs for the >mysterious "lines" file. > >Any help on this will be greatly appreciated. Well, you're right, in part. The man page *IS* misleading to the casual or unexperienced (read: unsuffered!) UNIX user. The mysterious "lines" file is the /etc/inittab file. The man page certainly could be better written... BTW, the NCR TOWER doesn't have any problem with the advertised operation. Perhaps there is a compile option to /etc/getty which precluded the display of the /etc/issue contents... +------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Sam Vause, NCR Corporation, Customer Services - TOWER Support | |3325 Platt Springs Road, West Columbia, SC 29169 (803) 791-6953 | | vause@cs-col.Columbia.NCR.COM | | ...!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!cs-col!vause | | ...!ucbvax!sdcsvax!ncr-sd!ncrcae!cs-col!vause | +------------------------------------------------------------------+
allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) (05/23/89)
As quoted from <222@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> by stailey@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov (Ken Stailey): +--------------- | "The file /etc/issue contains the _issue_ or project identifcation to be | printed as a login prompt. This is an ASCII file which is read by [the] | program _getty_ and then written to any terminal spawned or respawed from | the _lines_ file." | | The trouble is it doesn't work as advertised, and there's no docs for the | mysterious "lines" file. +--------------- The so-called "lines" file should be shown as /etc/inittab. It is in our manuals. I've used /etc/issue on many systems; it works fine. Note, however, that it is *not* a "login prompt" (who wrote that manual, anyway?); it is a banner displayed BEFORE the login prompt: FooBar, Incorporated UNIX (foobar) login: _ The first two lines (yes, the blank line as well) come from /etc/issue; the last line is from /etc/gettydefs. If you're using SCO Xenix, all bets are off: in its infinite wisdom, SCO decided that inittab wasn't the way to go, and kept the old-fashioned init and getty. Unless you have a *very* recent version of SCO Xenix 386, you're out of ck. -- Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc allbery@ncoast.org uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery ncoast!allbery@hal.cwru.edu Send comp.sources.misc submissions to comp-sources-misc@<backbone> NCoast Public Access UN*X - (216) 781-6201, 300/1200/2400 baud, login: makeuser