 | | When systems programs encounter errors, it's often difficult to figure out where to print the error message. For commands executed by users, the answer is simple: print the message on the terminal screen. For daemons, programs run out of at or cron, and so forth, there's no obvious place. One method is simply to open /dev/console (the machine's console terminal) and print the error there. Back in the days of console terminals such as Decwriters that had a printer instead of a screen, this made sense. But most machines now have a video screen for a console, if they have one at all. Once a message scrolls off the top of the screen, it is gone forever. If nobody sees it before it disappears, the error will never be noted and fixed. | |
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