plugh is a much-hacked getty for people who want to have a shell running _all the time_ on some tty. It sets up the terminal, writes accounting information to utmp and wtmp, then becomes the user and runs their shell without (hopefully) and fuss, muss, or bother. plugh takes 4 arguments: user, tty, gettydefs type, and terminal type. The gettydefs type is VC for console gettys and the line speed for serial lines and modems. The tty is one of the ttys in /dev -- you do NOT supply the leading /dev, because plugh will add that for you. The terminal type is what you'd expect -- linux for the console, and whatever sort of serial terminal you've got for serial lines. To run plugh, edit lines in your /etc/inittab to call plugh instead of getty. If you're running a Mastodon system and use ogetty, you'd replace c:M:respawn:/sbin/getty ttyc VC linux with cc:M:respawn:/home/orc/tmp/ogetty/plugh orc ttyc VC linux to have the user `orc' constantly logged into ttyc (ALT-F12) NOTE: This code has not been reviewed to ensure that it isn't a heaping plate of security violations. If you allow other people to use your system, it would be a good idea to make this program readable only by root. The /etc/gettydefs code is from mgetty-0.18, and the mgetty-README and mgetty-THANKS files are from that distribution to properly credit Gert Doering and all the other people who contributed to mgetty up through version 0.18 Plugh is pronounced `ploof'. -david parsons orc@pell.chi.il.us