Re: Ctrl-Alt-Del problem

[Bill Hogan <bhogan@rahul.net>]

   Once upon a time, long before I started running Debian GNU/Linux,
there lived in my /etc/inittab file a line that looked like this:

	# What to do at the "Three Finger Salute".
	ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -rf now
 
   I do *not* have this line in my /etc/inittab file at present and I
am *not* suggesting that anyone put it into their /etc/inittab file
and use it (the

	    `shutdown -t3 -rf now'

bit doesn't look right to me) but merely point out that `ctrlaltdel'
is in fact one of the actions named in inittab(5):

       ctrlaltdel
              The process will be executed when init receives the
              SIGINT signal.  This means that someone on the sys-
              tem console has pressed the CTRL-ALT-DEL key combi-
              nation. Typically one wants to execute some sort of
              shutdown either to get into single-user level or to
              reboot the machine.
 
    If I were going to employ this action, I think I would want to do
someting more like

	# What to do at the "Three Finger Salute".
	xx::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -h now

     
because if the situation is so desperate that I have to resort to the
three-finger salute then I don't think I necessarily want to reboot.

     Bill

-- 
<bhogan@rahul.net> |- "... we're just not geared to doing things
right!  It's like the old joke about the Junior Programming Manager
who says 'Come on team, I want you to get this application coded
quickly, so you'll have plenty of time for debugging.'" [Interview
with C.J.Date, Computer Literacy Bookshops Bulletin, Fall 1995]