Bug#718416: closed by Dmitry Bogatov <KAction at debian.org> ()

[Ian Jackson]

Control: reopen -1

Thorsten Glaser writes ("Bug#718416: closed by Dmitry Bogatov <KAction at debian.org> ()"):
> Debian Bug Tracking System dixit:
> >If this explanation is unsatisfactory and you have not received a
> 
> I find it unsatisfactory and did not find much consensus.

Thanks for your reply.  I read the bug, which I had not previously
done.  I think it is OK for me to review this kind of thing so...

Thomas writes:
> My understanding is that the latest version of getty changed its
> default behavior. I do agree that sysv* should have cope with the
> change though, and that a new (default) version of /etc/inittab
> should have been made, but at the same time this is annoying during
> upgrades if you changed anything in that file. So I understand that
> nothing has been done to address it. Probably best way would have
> been to patch getty to keep the old behavior, though now it's too
> late, and some may complain that in Jessie, we changed the behavior
> of Wheezy...

I agree that messing with existing installations is probably wrong.
(Or, at least, too complex to get right.)  Thorsten, do you agree with
that ?

But I don't see anyone having made a coherent argument about what the
behaviour of new installations should be.  I found Dmitry's argument
about "hurting those, who are accustomized to `clear` behaviour"
relevant to existing installations but much less so for new ones.

I think the ideal default behaviour would be for the *first* getty to
spawn on tty1 not to clear the screen.  We probably can't manage that.
But failing that my current opinion is that we should change the
default inittab to pass --noclear for tty1.

Dmitry, what do you think ?

(I have reopened this bug for now while we reconsider it.  I hope that
is OK with everyone.)

Thanks,
Ian.

-- 
Ian Jackson <ijackson at chiark.greenend.org.uk>   These opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.