Re: Patches for 2.1.40

Jonathan Naylor (g4klx@g4klx.demon.co.uk)
Fri, 30 May 1997 15:05:44 +0100 (BST)


On Fri, 30 May 1997 Marco Mariani <m.mariani@imola.nettuno.it> wrote:
> Well, call me a kernel bloater, but I have to say it: I mantain (remotely)
> many linux machines, operated by veterinary people, who don't always tell
> me about messages on the console. Were they using windoze, those people
> would be halted by a dialog box, and they would probably pay attention
> to it.
>
> Curiously enough, when the message is dropped around on the screen they
> are working on, and they don't understand it, they sometimes consider it
> non-important - because after all they ARE ABLE to continue to work.
>
> Were the message blinking red, things could be better.
>
> Don't tell me the vets are broken and should be replaced, please.

You are missing the point totally. Nobody is arguing against having colour
console messages under certain circumstances, its just that it does not
belong in the kernel.

Just because something is written by a printk doesn't mean that its going
to be displayed on a console. The job of displaying the message or writing
it to a file or even throwing it away is with sysklogd or whatever you
have. Therefore it is the job of that program to decide how to display it,
coloured or not.

A colour patch for sysklogd would probably be welcomed, but it must take
into account the fact that the messages may be going to a file instead.
It must look up the suitable control codes to produce the colours, it is
wrong to assume that all the world is a Linux type console, and of course
not all screens can display colour anyway, eg VT100s.

The colour printk patch is stupid.

> All The Best,
> Marco
>
> "Death can come quickly to a market leader."
>
> - Bill Gates, "The Road Ahead" -

Jonathan

PS In a bad mood because my exams start tommorrow.

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