Re: [PATCH] Add possibility to set /dev/tty number

["Austin S. Hemmelgarn" <ahferroin7@gmail.com>]

On 2016-01-05 11:11, Theodore Ts'o wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 05, 2016 at 08:16:52AM -0500, Austin S. Hemmelgarn wrote:
>>> We don't do regressions.
>> Requiring only a recompilation isn't a regression, especially when it works
>> fine without being recompiled, and I have yet to actually see anything that
>> changing the number of VT's would break other than ConsoleKit
>> (systemd-logind might also need a rebuild, but I'm not sure about that, and
>> don't have a system I could test it on).
>
> Sorry, breaking a compiled binary is a regression.
>
> People have outlined more clever ways of trying to accomplish your
> goal (saving memory) without breaking other people.  I suggest you
> give that a try instead of just trying to defend your existing patch.
>
First, it's not my patch.

Second, my usage of the term 'break' was probably not the best choice 
here, as ConsoleKit doesn't stop working.  All that happens is that it 
spits out some warnings about not finding VT's that it thinks should be 
there.  All that recompiling gets you is that it stops it from spitting 
out these warnings, which could just as easily be suppressed by other 
means.  And, while I can't personally test this, I'm pretty certain that 
the same applies to systemd-logind.  They have to gracefully cope with 
not being able to see all the VT's they think they should, because it's 
fully possible for something to hook into early boot and deallocate most 
of them before ConsoleKit or logind run.

Third, as Greg stated in his response to the patch, it should be updated 
so that the default matches current behavior, which would mean that 
nothing would break unless the person building the kernel chose to break it.