.\" $OpenBSD: tty.4,v 1.53 2019/09/07 10:28:27 schwarze Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: tty.4,v 1.4 1996/03/19 04:26:01 paulus Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)tty.4 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94 .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: September 7 2019 $ .Dt TTY 4 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm tty , .Nm cua .Nd general terminal interface .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/ioctl.h .Sh DESCRIPTION This section describes the interface to the terminal drivers in the system. .Ss Terminal Special Files Each hardware terminal port (such as a serial port) on the system usually has a terminal special device file associated with it in the directory .Pa /dev/ (for example, .Pa /dev/tty03 ) . When a user logs into the system on one of these hardware terminal ports, the system has already opened the associated device and prepared the line for normal interactive use (see .Xr getty 8 ) . There is also a special case of a terminal file that connects not to a hardware terminal port, but to another program on the other side. These special terminal devices are called .Em ptys and provide the mechanism necessary to give users the same interface to the system when logging in over a network (using .Xr ssh 1 or .Xr telnet 1 for example). Even in these cases the details of how the terminal file was opened and set up is already handled by special software in the system. Thus, users do not normally need to worry about the details of how these lines are opened or used. .Pp For hardware terminal ports, dial-out is supported through matching device nodes called calling units. For instance, the terminal called .Pa /dev/tty03 would have a matching calling unit called .Pa /dev/cua03 . These two devices are normally differentiated by creating the calling unit device node with a minor number 128 greater than the dial-in device node. Whereas the dial-in device (the .Em tty ) normally requires a hardware signal to indicate to the system that it is active, the dial-out device (the .Em cua ) does not, and hence can communicate unimpeded with a device such as a modem, or with another system over a serial link. This means that a process like .Xr getty 8 will wait on a dial-in device until a connection is established. Meanwhile, a dial-out connection can be established on the dial-out device (for the very same hardware terminal port) without disturbing anything else on the system. The .Xr getty 8 process does not even notice that anything is happening on the terminal port. If a connecting call comes in after the dial-out connection has finished, the .Xr getty 8 process will deal with it properly, without having noticed the intervening dial-out action. For more information on dial-out, see .Xr cu 1 . .Pp When an interactive user logs in, the system prepares the line to behave in a certain way (called a .Em "line discipline" ) , the particular details of which are described in .Xr stty 1 at the command level, and in .Xr termios 4 at the programming level. A user may be concerned with changing settings associated with his particular login terminal and should refer to the preceding man pages for the common cases. The remainder of this man page is concerned with describing details of using and controlling terminal devices at a low level, such as that possibly required by a program wishing to provide features similar to those provided by the system. .Ss Line disciplines A terminal file is used like any other file in the system in that it can be opened, read, and written to using standard system calls. For each existing terminal file, there is a software processing module called a .Em "line discipline" associated with it. The .Em "line discipline" essentially glues the low level device driver code with the high level generic interface routines (such as .Xr read 2 and .Xr write 2 ) , and is responsible for implementing the semantics associated with the device. When a terminal file is first opened by a program, the default .Em "line discipline" called the .Dv termios line discipline is associated with the file. This is the primary line discipline that is used in most cases and provides the semantics that users normally associate with a terminal. When the .Dv termios line discipline is in effect, the terminal file behaves and is operated according to the rules described in .Xr termios 4 . Please refer to that man page for a full description of the terminal semantics. The operations described here generally represent features common across all .Em "line disciplines" , although some of these calls may not make sense in conjunction with a line discipline other than .Dv termios , and some may not be supported by the underlying hardware (or lack thereof, as in the case of ptys). .Ss Terminal File Operations All of the following operations are invoked using the .Xr ioctl 2 system call. Refer to that man page for a description of the .Em request and .Em argp parameters. In addition to the ioctl .Em requests defined here, the specific line discipline in effect will define other .Em requests specific to it (actually .Xr termios 4 defines them as function calls, not ioctl .Em requests ) . The following section lists the available ioctl requests. The name of the request, a description of its purpose, and the typed .Em argp parameter (if any) are listed. For example, the first entry says .Pp .D1 Em "TIOCSETD int *ldisc" .Pp and would be called on the terminal associated with file descriptor zero by the following code fragment: .Bd -literal int ldisc; ldisc = TTYDISC; ioctl(0, TIOCSETD, &ldisc); .Ed .Ss Terminal File Request Descriptions .Bl -tag -width TIOCGWINSZ .It Dv TIOCSETD Fa int *ldisc Change to the new line discipline pointed to by .Fa ldisc . The available line disciplines currently available are: .Pp .Bl -tag -width TIOCGWINSZ -compact .It TTYDISC Termios interactive line discipline. .It PPPDISC Point-to-Point Protocol line discipline. .It NMEADISC NMEA 0183 line discipline. .It MSTSDISC Meinberg Standard Time String line discipline. .El .It Dv TIOCGETD Fa int *ldisc Return the current line discipline in the integer pointed to by .Fa ldisc . .It Dv TIOCSBRK Fa void Set the terminal hardware into BREAK condition. .It Dv TIOCCBRK Fa void Clear the terminal hardware BREAK condition. .It Dv TIOCSDTR Fa void Assert data terminal ready (DTR). .It Dv TIOCCDTR Fa void Clear data terminal ready (DTR). .It Dv TIOCGPGRP Fa int *tpgrp Return the current process group the terminal is associated with in the integer pointed to by .Fa tpgrp . This is the underlying call that implements the .Xr tcgetpgrp 3 call. .It Dv TIOCSPGRP Fa int *tpgrp Associate the terminal with the process group (as an integer) pointed to by .Fa tpgrp . This is the underlying call that implements the .Xr tcsetpgrp 3 call. .It Dv TIOCGETA Fa struct termios *term Place the current value of the termios state associated with the device in the termios structure pointed to by .Fa term . This is the underlying call that implements the .Xr tcgetattr 3 call. .It Dv TIOCSETA Fa struct termios *term Set the termios state associated with the device immediately. This is the underlying call that implements the .Xr tcsetattr 3 call with the .Dv TCSANOW option. .It Dv TIOCSETAW Fa struct termios *term First wait for any output to complete, then set the termios state associated with the device. This is the underlying call that implements the .Xr tcsetattr 3 call with the .Dv TCSADRAIN option. .It Dv TIOCSETAF Fa struct termios *term First wait for any output to complete, clear any pending input, then set the termios state associated with the device. This is the underlying call that implements the .Xr tcsetattr 3 call with the .Dv TCSAFLUSH option. .It Dv TIOCOUTQ Fa int *num Place the current number of characters in the output queue in the integer pointed to by .Fa num . .It Dv TIOCNOTTY Fa void This call is obsolete but left for compatibility. In the past, when a process that didn't have a controlling terminal .Po see .Em The Controlling Terminal in .Xr termios 4 .Pc first opened a terminal device, it acquired that terminal as its controlling terminal. For some programs this was a hazard as they didn't want a controlling terminal in the first place, and this provided a mechanism to disassociate the controlling terminal from the calling process. It .Em must be called by opening the file .Pa /dev/tty and calling .Dv TIOCNOTTY on that file descriptor. .Pp The current system does not allocate a controlling terminal to a process on an .Xr open 2 call: there is a specific ioctl called .Dv TIOCSCTTY to make a terminal the controlling terminal. In addition, a program can .Xr fork 2 and call the .Xr setsid 2 system call which will place the process into its own session - which has the effect of disassociating it from the controlling terminal. This is the new and preferred method for programs to lose their controlling terminal. .It Dv TIOCSETVERAUTH Fa int *secs Indicate that the current user has successfully authenticated to this session. Future authentication checks may then be bypassed by performing a .Dv TIOCCHKVERAUTH check. The verified authentication status will expire after .Fa secs seconds. Only root may perform this operation. .It Dv TIOCCLRVERAUTH Fa void Clear any verified auth status associated with this session. .It Dv TIOCCHKVERAUTH Fa void Check the verified auth status of this session. The calling process must have the same real user ID and parent process as the process which called .Dv TIOCSETVERAUTH . A zero return indicates success. .It Dv TIOCSTOP Fa void Stop output on the terminal (like typing ^S at the keyboard). .It Dv TIOCSTART Fa void Start output on the terminal (like typing ^Q at the keyboard). .It Dv TIOCSCTTY Fa void Make the terminal the controlling terminal for the process (the process must not currently have a controlling terminal). .It Dv TIOCDRAIN Fa void Wait until all output is drained. .It Dv TIOCEXCL Fa void Set exclusive use on the terminal. No further opens are permitted except by root. Of course, this means that programs that are run by root (or setuid) will not obey the exclusive setting - which limits the usefulness of this feature. .It Dv TIOCNXCL Fa void Clear exclusive use of the terminal. Further opens are permitted. .It Dv TIOCFLUSH Fa int *what If the value of the int pointed to by .Fa what contains the .Dv FREAD bit as defined in .In sys/fcntl.h , then all characters in the input queue are cleared. If it contains the .Dv FWRITE bit, then all characters in the output queue are cleared. If the value of the integer is zero, then it behaves as if both the .Dv FREAD and .Dv FWRITE bits were set (i.e., clears both queues). .It Dv TIOCGWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws Put the window size information associated with the terminal in the .Va winsize structure pointed to by .Fa ws . The window size structure contains the number of rows and columns (and pixels if appropriate) of the devices attached to the terminal. It is set by user software and is the means by which most full\&-screen oriented programs determine the screen size. .It Dv TIOCSWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws Set the window size associated with the terminal to be the value in the .Va winsize structure pointed to by .Fa ws (see above). .It Dv TIOCCONS Fa int *on If .Fa on points to a non-zero integer, redirect kernel console output .Po see .Xr printf 9 .Pc to this terminal. If .Fa on points to a zero integer, redirect kernel console output back to the normal console. This is usually used on workstations to redirect kernel messages to a particular window. .It Dv TIOCMSET Fa int *state The integer pointed to by .Fa state contains bits that correspond to modem state. Following is a list of defined variables and the modem state they represent: .Pp .Bl -tag -width TIOCMXCTS -compact .It TIOCM_LE Line Enable. .It TIOCM_DTR Data Terminal Ready. .It TIOCM_RTS Request To Send. .It TIOCM_ST Secondary Transmit. .It TIOCM_SR Secondary Receive. .It TIOCM_CTS Clear To Send. .It TIOCM_CAR Carrier Detect. .It TIOCM_CD Carrier Detect (synonym). .It TIOCM_RNG Ring Indication. .It TIOCM_RI Ring Indication (synonym). .It TIOCM_DSR Data Set Ready. .El .Pp This call sets the terminal modem state to that represented by .Fa state . Not all terminals may support this. .It Dv TIOCMGET Fa int *state Return the current state of the terminal modem lines as represented above in the integer pointed to by .Fa state . .It Dv TIOCMBIS Fa int *state The bits in the integer pointed to by .Fa state represent modem state as described above; however, the state is OR-ed in with the current state. .It Dv TIOCMBIC Fa int *state The bits in the integer pointed to by .Fa state represent modem state as described above; however, each bit which is on in .Fa state is cleared in the terminal. .It Dv TIOCGTSTAMP Fa struct timeval *timeval Return the (single) timestamp. .It Dv TIOCSTSTAMP Fa struct tstamps *tstamps Chooses the conditions which will cause the current system time to be immediately copied to the terminal timestamp storage. This is often used to determine exactly the moment at which one or more of these events occurred, though only one can be monitored. Only .Dv TIOCM_CTS and .Dv TIOCM_CAR are honoured in .Va tstamps.ts_set and .Va tstamps.ts_clr ; these indicate which raising and lowering events on the respective lines should cause a timestamp capture. .It Dv TIOCSFLAGS Fa int *state The bits in the integer pointed to by .Fa state contain bits that correspond to serial port state. Following is a list of defined variables and the serial port state they represent: .Pp .Bl -tag -width TIOCFLAG_SOFTCAR -compact .It TIOCFLAG_SOFTCAR Ignore hardware carrier. .It TIOCFLAG_CLOCAL Set clocal on open. .It TIOCFLAG_CRTSCTS Set crtscts on open. .It TIOCFLAG_MDMBUF Set mdmbuf on open. .El .Pp This call sets the serial port state to that represented by .Fa state . Not all serial ports may support this. .It Dv TIOCGFLAGS Fa int *state Return the current state of the serial port as represented above in the integer pointed to by .Fa state . .It Dv TIOCSTAT Fa void Causes the kernel to write a status message to the terminal that displays the current load average, the name of the command in the foreground, its process ID, the symbolic wait channel, the number of user and system seconds used, the percentage of CPU the process is getting, and the resident set size of the process. .El .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /dev/tty -compact .It Pa /dev/tty controlling terminal, if any .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr cu 1 , .Xr stty 1 , .Xr tty 1 , .Xr ioctl 2 , .Xr pty 4 , .Xr termios 4 , .Xr ttys 5 , .Xr getty 8 .Sh HISTORY A console typewriter device .Pa /dev/tty and asynchronous communication interfaces .Pa /dev/tty[0-5] first appeared in .At v1 . The cua support is inspired by similar support in SunOS.