xref: /dragonfly/share/man/man4/pty.4 (revision cfd1aba3)
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28.\"     @(#)pty.4	8.2 (Berkeley) 11/30/93
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32.Dd November 30, 1993
33.Dt PTY 4
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm pty
37.Nd pseudo terminal driver
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Cd "pseudo-device pty"
40.Sh DESCRIPTION
41The
42.Nm
43driver provides support for a device-pair termed a
44.Em pseudo terminal .
45A pseudo terminal is a pair of character devices, a
46.Em master
47device and a
48.Em slave
49device.  The slave device provides to a process
50an interface identical
51to that described in
52.Xr tty 4 .
53However, whereas all other devices which provide the
54interface described in
55.Xr tty 4
56have a hardware device of some sort behind them, the slave
57device has, instead, another process manipulating
58it through the master half of the pseudo terminal.
59That is, anything written on the master device is
60given to the slave device as input and anything written
61on the slave device is presented as input on the master
62device.
63.Pp
64The following
65.Xr ioctl 2
66calls apply only to pseudo terminals:
67.Bl -tag -width ".Dv TIOCREMOTE"
68.It Dv TIOCSTOP
69Stops output to a terminal (e.g. like typing
70.Ql ^S ) .
71Takes
72no parameter.
73.It Dv TIOCSTART
74Restarts output (stopped by
75.Dv TIOCSTOP
76or by typing
77.Ql ^S ) .
78Takes no parameter.
79.It Dv TIOCPKT
80Enable/disable
81.Em packet
82mode.  Packet mode is enabled by specifying (by reference)
83a nonzero parameter and disabled by specifying (by reference)
84a zero parameter.  When applied to the master side of a pseudo
85terminal, each subsequent
86.Xr read 2
87from the terminal will return data written on the slave part of
88the pseudo terminal preceded by a zero byte (symbolically
89defined as
90.Dv TIOCPKT_DATA ) ,
91or a single byte reflecting control
92status information.  In the latter case, the byte is an inclusive-or
93of zero or more of the bits:
94.Bl -tag -width TIOCPKT_FLUSHWRITE
95.It Dv TIOCPKT_FLUSHREAD
96whenever the read queue for the terminal is flushed.
97.It Dv TIOCPKT_FLUSHWRITE
98whenever the write queue for the terminal is flushed.
99.It Dv TIOCPKT_STOP
100whenever output to the terminal is stopped a la
101.Ql ^S .
102.It Dv TIOCPKT_START
103whenever output to the terminal is restarted.
104.It Dv TIOCPKT_DOSTOP
105whenever
106.Em t_stopc
107is
108.Ql ^S
109and
110.Em t_startc
111is
112.Ql ^Q .
113.It Dv TIOCPKT_NOSTOP
114whenever the start and stop characters are not
115.Ql ^S/^Q .
116.Pp
117While this mode is in use, the presence of control status information
118to be read from the master side may be detected by a
119.Xr select 2
120for exceptional conditions.
121.Pp
122This mode is used by
123.Xr rlogin 1
124and
125.Xr rlogind 8
126to implement a remote-echoed, locally
127.Ql ^S/^Q
128flow-controlled
129remote login with proper back-flushing of output; it can be
130used by other similar programs.
131.El
132.It Dv TIOCUCNTL
133Enable/disable a mode that allows a small number of simple user
134.Xr ioctl 2
135commands to be passed through the pseudo-terminal,
136using a protocol similar to that of
137.Dv TIOCPKT .
138The
139.Dv TIOCUCNTL
140and
141.Dv TIOCPKT
142modes are mutually exclusive.
143This mode is enabled from the master side of a pseudo terminal
144by specifying (by reference)
145a nonzero parameter and disabled by specifying (by reference)
146a zero parameter.
147Each subsequent
148.Xr read 2
149from the master side will return data written on the slave part of
150the pseudo terminal preceded by a zero byte,
151or a single byte reflecting a user control operation on the slave side.
152A user control command consists of a special
153.Xr ioctl 2
154operation with no data; the command is given as
155.Dv UIOCCMD Ns (n) ,
156where
157.Ar n
158is a number in the range 1-255.
159The operation value
160.Ar n
161will be received as a single byte on the next
162.Xr read 2
163from the master side.
164The
165.Xr ioctl 2
166.Dv UIOCCMD Ns (0)
167is a no-op that may be used to probe for
168the existence of this facility.
169As with
170.Dv TIOCPKT
171mode, command operations may be detected with a
172.Xr select 2
173for exceptional conditions.
174.It Dv TIOCREMOTE
175A mode for the master half of a pseudo terminal, independent
176of
177.Dv TIOCPKT .
178This mode causes input to the pseudo terminal
179to be flow controlled and not input edited (regardless of the
180terminal mode).  Each write to the control terminal produces
181a record boundary for the process reading the terminal.  In
182normal usage, a write of data is like the data typed as a line
183on the terminal; a write of 0 bytes is like typing an end-of-file
184character.
185.Dv TIOCREMOTE
186can be used when doing remote line
187editing in a window manager, or whenever flow controlled input
188is required.
189.El
190.Sh FILES
191.Bl -tag -width /dev/tty[p-sP-S][0-9a-v]x -compact
192.It Pa /dev/pty[p-sP-S][0-9a-v]
193master pseudo terminals
194.It Pa /dev/tty[p-sP-S][0-9a-v]
195slave pseudo terminals
196.El
197.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
198None.
199.Sh SEE ALSO
200.Xr tty 4
201.Sh HISTORY
202The
203.Nm
204driver appeared in
205.Bx 4.2 .
206