stopping a process in inittab 2273

It *clearly* indicates that there are variations. You happen to think RedHat-Madrivia define a typical Linux system, I don't. As noted: wonderful... and worthless.

That isn't true.

That is in fact *exactly* what it was designed to do. It's a bit elegant too, and very UNIXish.

(I'll resist describing the two "solutions" you posted. )

I've never done systems admin on a windows machine, have no idea how, and have idea why you are bring it up either.

Not true. Try it. If that were true, every user would be dumped if the runlevel is changed. They aren't.

Of course, but 1) you haven't investigated how it works, 2) you've never used it, and 3) you are a bit stubborn (a natural characteristic, and I don't mean that in any derogatory way, anyone at your age with your considerable talents is almost guaranteed to be a bit that way).

If you do try it, I think you'll find it very useful. It isn't common with today's desktop machines that are used typically as a workstation by one person, but if you ever do systems admin on a large unix system that supports multiple users, or if you set one up as some sort of process controller, you'll find a lot of really great uses for runlevels.

I used to have a computer set up with a modem monitoring a telephone line and counting rings. If I dialed up that number and listened for it to ring 3 times, which might be 2, 3 or 4 actual rings on the line, and then hung up, the box would detect it and switch runlevels for five minutes. That allowed "remote control" from anywhere without having to actually connect to the computer in any other way. (It also would have "cheated" AT&T out of long distance toll charges too... except AT&T owned the computer and the phone line too. What it actually did was enable another modem on an 800 number line so that I could then dial up that computer.)

Your posted methods were, ahem, less than suitable. And in fact there *are* enough runlevels to include said functionality.

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