[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#598891: [v-admins] Bug#598891: sysvinit: shutdown time message is too noisy, prints too many messages

[Debian bug at v.nix.is]

On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 20:41, Petter Reinholdtsen <pere at hungry.com> wrote:
>> This is way too noisy if you have a scheduled reboot and multiple
>> users on your system, they all have to C-l their terminals after
>> each message.
>
> Why is this too noisy?  It seem just noisy enought for me.

Because it's enough to say the equivalent of "we're rebooting in 4
hours" and then "we're just about to reboot, save any work you have
*now*".

Being reminded >10 times in 4 hours I think is a bit too much.

Basically I'd like the shutdown command to wall() about as much as an
equivalent E-Mail announcing a reboot.

If you're going to reboot a machine in 4 hours you'll probably only
send out one E-Mail announcing that, and maybe one a few minutes
before the reboot. Sending out 17 E-Mails would be unnecessary noise,
and so IMO is sending 17 wall() messages.

But obviously you like it on the noisier side, so perhaps there should
be a relative verbosity option to help people who like it quieter.

As it is I'll probably not use shutdown for console announcements, but
wrap it in a little shellscript and call wall() myself.

But not having to do that would probably make the program more useful
for more people.

Thanks for your time.