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Re: kbrequest as in older /etc/inittab

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(As is sometimes usual, I may well regret this.)

On 2024-01-05 at 07:30, Greg Wooledge wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 04, 2024 at 09:58:38PM -0600, Mike McClain wrote:
>
>> I don't think I can state any more clearly what I'm trying to do than
>> 'to tie a call to openvt to Alt Up'. I'm assuming you don't know how
>> to do that either.
> 
> And ... what does THAT do?
> 
> NAME
>        openvt - start a program on a new virtual terminal (VT).
> 
> What program are you trying to start in the new VT?
> 
>> You're quite right you can increase the number of gettys
>> and you can log into every one of them before you can use them.
> 
> How does that FAIL to meet your desired state?  What do you want to do,
> that this doesn't allow?
> 
> Are you trying to "login" to a bunch of VTs as an unprivileged user
> without actually logging in?  Simply for convenience?  (If so, why
> can't you just SAY this so we know?)

I often find that it is useful to consider any given proposed course of
action in terms of three questions:

What goal are you trying to accomplish?

Why do you consider that goal to be worth accomplishing?

How do you propose to accomplish that goal?


The "how" of one goal can also be the "what" of another, and the "what"
of one goal can also be the "why" of another.


Here, the statement "tie a call to openvt to Alt+Up" is presented as the
"what", but we don't know the "why". It could either be because you want
to do this as a means to some other end, or because you want to do it
*for its own sake* - e.g., as Greg puts it, "simply for convenience".

If you want to do this for its own sake - if there is no higher "what"
behind this, if this is the end of the goal chain - then as Greg says,
it would be helpful for us to *know* that, because it will inform the
possible answers. Stating the "why" explicitly would clarify that.

On the other hand, if you want to do this as a means to accomplish some
other end - if the "what" of this goal is also the "how" of some other
goal - then in order to give useful answers, we will need to also know
at least the "what" of that other goal, and possibly also its "why".
(And, yes, that *can* apply recursively - although I would not expect it
to do so here.)

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.         -- George Bernard Shaw

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Re: kbrequest as in older /etc/inittab Mike McClain <mike.junk.46@att.net> - 2024-01-05 05:20 +0100
  Re: kbrequest as in older /etc/inittab Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2024-01-05 13:40 +0100
    Re: kbrequest as in older /etc/inittab The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2024-01-05 14:10 +0100

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