cvs commit: src/etc/etc.mips ttys

[Jordan K. Hubbard]

On May 6, 2008, at 12:13 AM, Peter Wemm wrote:

> If we wanted to do it right, I'd be suggesting that we make a clean  
> break and keep the information in one place, and in a file format  
> that isn't sensitive to fixed record sizes.  ie: utmp.db (like  
> pwd.db and friends).  Wrap it in a SuS/unix/linux/svr4/-ish {get| 
> put}utxxx() set of APIs and kill off the fixed record size utmp  
> file.  We can get creative with wrappers or whatever, but we can  
> probably provide a variable length record API as well.

FWIW, MacOSX went through this same process.  We didn't want to keep  
the legacy utmp/wtmp db crap around, so we searched for another  
database with suitable lifetime..  Hmmm.  What might we use?   Where  
might we possibly keep track of logins and logouts on a specific tty?   
Some sort of log...  Like... The system log file.   Hey!    ASL also  
already implemented the notion of privileged loggers, so bingo.  Now  
login(1) just logs creation and death and the old crappy UNIX03 APIs  
read the logs.  Having a structured log system that supports fast  
search is another prerequisite, but you guys already want that  
anyway. :-)

- Jordan