tech-userlevel archive


Re: Proposal for write(1) addition

    Date:        Sat, 17 Sep 2011 01:34:03 +0200
    From:        Julian Fagir <>
    Message-ID:  <20110917013403.65aeb987@adolfputzen>

  | The patch supplied fixes that: When using the option '-c', write
  | additionally checks for a mounted ptyfs and loops through these
  | terminals, comparing ownership. As they only exist if there's a user
  | logged into them, that works.
  | Now, you can use the 'newest' terminal of the user if he is logged in.

Please, no, aside from what others have said, this would totally defeat
a sane working environment.   That is, I make a terminal, and have it create
a utmp entry, and then I simply leave it idle, not using that terminal
for anything - its purpose is to be a place that random applications that
want to communicate with me can dump garbage onto the screen (and I will
see it, sooner or later).

On the other hand, in the terminals I'm working on, I explicitly don't
make utmp entries, so that they will be invisible to tools like write, and
they won't be messed up with garbage that I don't arrange for myself.
I know I could turn off write permission, but nothing defaults that way,
I'd need to figure out how do do it in some startup script (that is, need
to work out in that script whether it should have w perm or not) or remember
to do it manually.   No thanks, the current system just works fine.

If the terminal emulator you're using doesn't support creating utmp entries
(or not, at your command) then fix it.


Home | Main Index | Thread Index | Old Index