Re: [PATCH] Console: fall back to /dev/null when no console is availlable

[Russell King <rmk+lkml@arm.linux.org.uk>]

On Wed, Oct 06, 2004 at 12:36:21AM +0200, Andries Brouwer wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 05, 2004 at 09:27:12PM +0100, Russell King wrote:
> > There's a related problem.  /sbin/hotplug.  I keep seeing odd failures
> > from /sbin/hotplug scripts which go away when I ensure that fd0,1,2 are
> > directed at something real.
> 
> Yes. In principle, user space must be able to handle the case
> where no fds 0,1,2 are available. For example in mount.c:
> 
>         while((fd = open("/dev/null", O_RDWR)) == 0 || fd == 1) ;
>         if (fd > 2)
>                 close(fd);
> 
> or so.

That's all well and good in theory, but do you really think that every
single userspace program handles this case correctly?

-- 
Russell King
 Linux kernel    2.6 ARM Linux   - http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/
 maintainer of:  2.6 PCMCIA      - http://pcmcia.arm.linux.org.uk/
                 2.6 Serial core