1.\" 2.\" Copyright (c) 2001 Jonathan Lemon <jlemon@FreeBSD.org> 3.\" All rights reserved. 4.\" 5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 7.\" are met: 8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 9.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 10.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 12.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 13.\" 14.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 15.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 16.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 17.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 18.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 19.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 20.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 21.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 22.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 23.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 24.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 25.\" 26.Dd April 14, 2011 27.Dt CONSCONTROL 8 28.Os 29.Sh NAME 30.Nm conscontrol 31.Nd control physical console devices 32.Sh SYNOPSIS 33.Nm 34.Op Cm list 35.Nm 36.Cm mute on | off 37.Nm 38.Cm add | delete 39.Ar console 40.Nm 41.Cm set | unset Ar console 42.Sh DESCRIPTION 43The 44.Nm 45utility is used to examine and modify the physical devices which back 46the virtual console devices. 47If no arguments 48(or only the 49.Cm list 50command) 51are specified, 52the current console settings are shown. 53.Pp 54There are two types of logical consoles; a high level console which 55is represented by 56.Pa /dev/console , 57and a low level console. 58The low level console is used for kernel 59.Xr printf 9 60and 61.Xr ddb 4 62debugger support, 63while the high level console is used by user programs like 64.Xr syslogd 8 . 65Multiple device support is implemented only for the low level console; 66the high level console is set to the first device in the console list. 67.Pp 68Multiple console support may be invoked by passing the kernel the 69.Fl D 70flag from the boot loader, or by using 71.Nm 72to change the list of console devices after the system has booted. 73.Pp 74The following options are available: 75.Bl -tag -width indent 76.It Cm add | delete Ar console 77Add or delete a physical device from the logical console. 78The device must support low-level console operations. 79Adding a device will place it at the front of the list of console 80devices; the first device is used for the high level console. 81.Pp 82The 83.Ar console 84argument 85is the name of a console device in 86.Pa /dev ; 87the name of the directory may be omitted. 88.It Cm mute on | off 89Change the state of console muting. 90All console output is suppressed when console muting is 91.Cm on . 92.It Cm set | unset Ar console 93Set or unset the virtual console. 94When unset, output from the system, such as the kernel 95.Xr printf 9 , 96always goes out to the real main console. 97When set, it goes to another. 98This is an interface to the tty ioctl 99.Dv TIOCCONS . 100.El 101.Sh SEE ALSO 102.Xr syscons 4 , 103.Xr tty 4 , 104.Xr vt 4 , 105.Xr boot 8 , 106.Xr loader 8 107.Sh HISTORY 108The 109.Nm 110utility first appeared in 111.Fx 5.0 . 112.Sh AUTHORS 113.An Jonathan Lemon 114