> * Richard Rauch <rauch@rice.edu> [020712 10:31]:
> > If you don't mind that the messages scroll by, but just want them OFF of
> > your console by the time you first login, then you might look at ttyaction
> > (/etc/ttyaction).  You can set a "getty" action to run *before* a login
> > prompt is displayed.  The specified action in my /etc/ttyaction is to
> > clear the screen.  (I actually would like to *retain* my boot messages.
> > I put the clear screen sequence in because I wanted to have the previous
> > login activity cleared on logOUT.  Unfortunately, I couldn't see a way to
> > do that, and I didn't want to treat the first virtual console differently
> > from the others...)
>
> Here's an idea off the top of my head.  Don't run a login on the first
> wscons terminal.  Just leave it as a message console.  When wscons starts

Someone proposed that to me when I was trying to preserve the login
messages.  I can't remember now why I didn't do it.  (Maybe the X server
would see the console as "free" and run X on it?)

For a long time, however, I did almost that, except that I didn't skip the
login prompt on the first terminal...  I changed my behavior when I
modified ttyaction and the first console got cleared anyway.


> > Depending on why you don't want to see these messages, one or more of the
> > above may help.  (And, out of curiosity: Why don't you want to see them?)
>
> I actually have the same question for you.  Whenever I log into a Linux
> box it drives me nuts when the screen clears as soon as I log out.  What's
> so great about clearing the screen?

A fair question.  (^&

I suppose that there are at least two things that make it seem natural and
desirable to me:

 * As a matter of principle, the information about who last logged on
   and what their last commands were (and output---such as partial
   displays of email) are not any business of the next person who logs
   in.  (On a home machine, this is purely principle.  In a semi-public
   terminal setting, this seems a desirable behavior.)

 * For local logins (oddly, not so much for remote logins), logging out
   ``feels'' more like exiting a GUI application.  I expect the window to
   close when the application exits.  Sure, it *could* hang around, until
   I either explicitly close it or exit the windowing system.

   Maybe it's because xterms (and shell windows on my old Amiga) feel
   akin to a local login.


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu