xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/pts.4 (revision 193d9e768ba63fcfb187cfd17f461f7d41345048)
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31.Dd August 20, 2008
32.Dt PTS 4
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm pts
36.Nd pseudo-terminal driver
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The
39.Nm
40driver provides support for a device-pair termed a
41.Em pseudo-terminal .
42A pseudo-terminal is a pair of character devices, a
43.Em master
44device and a
45.Em slave
46device.
47The slave device provides to a process an interface identical
48to that described in
49.Xr tty 4 .
50However, whereas all other devices which provide the
51interface described in
52.Xr tty 4
53have a hardware device of some sort behind them, the slave
54device has, instead, another process manipulating
55it through the master half of the pseudo-terminal.
56That is, anything written on the master device is
57given to the slave device as input and anything written
58on the slave device is presented as input on the master
59device.
60.Pp
61The following
62.Xr ioctl 2
63calls apply only to pseudo-terminals:
64.Bl -tag -width TIOCPTMASTER
65.It Dv TIOCPKT
66Enable/disable
67.Em packet
68mode.
69Packet mode is enabled by specifying (by reference)
70a nonzero parameter and disabled by specifying (by reference)
71a zero parameter.
72When applied to the master side of a pseudo-terminal, each subsequent
73.Xr read 2
74from the terminal will return data written on the slave part of
75the pseudo-terminal preceded by a zero byte (symbolically
76defined as
77.Dv TIOCPKT_DATA ) ,
78or a single byte reflecting control
79status information.
80In the latter case, the byte is an inclusive-or
81of zero or more of the bits:
82.Bl -tag -width TIOCPKT_FLUSHWRITE
83.It Dv TIOCPKT_FLUSHREAD
84whenever the read queue for the terminal is flushed.
85.It Dv TIOCPKT_FLUSHWRITE
86whenever the write queue for the terminal is flushed.
87.It Dv TIOCPKT_STOP
88whenever output to the terminal is stopped a la
89.Ql ^S .
90.It Dv TIOCPKT_START
91whenever output to the terminal is restarted.
92.It Dv TIOCPKT_DOSTOP
93whenever
94.Dv VSTOP
95is
96.Ql ^S
97and
98.Dv VSTART
99is
100.Ql ^Q .
101.It Dv TIOCPKT_NOSTOP
102whenever the start and stop characters are not
103.Ql ^S/^Q .
104.El
105.Pp
106While this mode is in use, the presence of control status information
107to be read from the master side may be detected by a
108.Xr select 2
109for exceptional conditions.
110.Pp
111This mode is used by
112.Xr rlogin 1
113and
114.Xr rlogind 8
115to implement a remote-echoed, locally
116.Ql ^S/^Q
117flow-controlled
118remote login with proper back-flushing of output; it can be
119used by other similar programs.
120.It Dv TIOCGPTN
121Obtain device unit number, which can be used to generate the filename of
122the pseudo-terminal slave device.
123This
124.Xr ioctl 2
125should not be used directly.
126Instead, the
127.Xr ptsname 3
128function should be used.
129.It Dv TIOCPTMASTER
130Determine whether the file descriptor is pointing to a pseudo-terminal
131master device.
132This
133.Xr ioctl 2
134should not be used directly.
135It is used to implement routines like
136.Xr grantpt 3 .
137.El
138.Sh FILES
139The files used by this
140pseudo-terminals implementation are:
141.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /dev/pts/[num]"
142.It Pa /dev/pts/[num]
143Pseudo-terminal slave devices.
144.El
145.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
146None.
147.Sh SEE ALSO
148.Xr posix_openpt 2 ,
149.Xr grantpt 3 ,
150.Xr ptsname 3 ,
151.Xr pty 4 ,
152.Xr tty 4
153.Sh HISTORY
154A
155pseudo-terminal driver appeared in
156.Bx 4.2 .
157In
158.Fx 8.0 ,
159it was replaced with the
160.Nm
161driver.
162