Re: terminal setup

[Alan Barrett <apb%cequrux.com@localhost>]

On Thu, 21 Mar 2013, Emmanuel Dreyfus wrote:
> I am trying to run an install script from /etc/rc.local and run 
> into terminal setup problem: the last line outuput by the script 
> is not displayed until the user hit return (which is not very 
> helpful if the scipt asks questions).

This is probably an artefact of the way /etc/rc pipes output into 
a postprocessor.  Your script is run on the left hand side of a 
pipeline whose right hand side reads a line at a time and decides 
whether to copy the line to the terminal, display a rotating 
"twiddle" on the terminal, copy the line to the log file, or some 
combination of these.  See "Operation of rc", step 5, in rc(8), 
and see "rc_silent" in rc.conf(8).

Try adding "KEYWORD: interactive" to the top of the script, near 
the BEFORE/AFTER/REQUIRE/PROVIDE lines used by rcorder.  See 
/etc/rc.d/bootconf.sh for an example.  That will make /etc/rc 
run the script without postprocessing; the advantage is that 
output will appear immediately, even if it's a partial line like 
a prompt, end even if rc_silent is true; the disadvantage is 
that output will not appear in /var/run/rc.log.  This is poorly 
documented; you have to read rc.subr(8) very carefully to figure 
it out.  We also don't have a good way of getting the advantages 
of "KEYWORD: interactive" without its disadvantages.

--apb (Alan Barrett)