dynamic tty/pty allocation

[Darren Reed]

How many programs (like finger) will this break ?

I know on a machine i have access on which uses dynamic
'tty' allocation for some of its connections, occasionally doing
a finger(1) will return "stat: device not present" and exit.

What sort of contingencies are there to stop a user logging off
or the tty otherwise 'disappearing' in the middle of programs
which check other users by checking both utmp and their device
for things like idle time, etc ??

Upgrading the tty subsystem is one thing, but dynamic allocation
it seems could break quite a few other programs.

-darren