Re: bootmisc.sh

[Roger Leigh <rleigh@codelibre.net>]

On Wed, Jan 04, 2012 at 11:10:11AM +0000, Balint Szigeti wrote:
> I found this
>  : > /var/run/utmp
> in /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh on Debian 6.0.3
> 
> Can you explain what does " : > " mean?

: is a builtin shell command that does nothing.  Thus piping its
output (nothing) to /var/run/utmp has the effect of creating
/var/run/utmp if absent, and truncating it to zero length if
already present.  The result is that when the system boot up,
/var/run/utmp is present and empty prior to any logins.


Regards,
Roger

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