xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/pty.4 (revision 7660b554bc59a07be0431c17e0e33815818baa69)
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32.\"     @(#)pty.4	8.2 (Berkeley) 11/30/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
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35.Dd November 30, 1993
36.Dt PTY 4
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm pty
40.Nd pseudo terminal driver
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Cd "device pty"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46driver provides support for a device-pair termed a
47.Em pseudo terminal .
48A pseudo terminal is a pair of character devices, a
49.Em master
50device and a
51.Em slave
52device.
53The slave device provides to a process an interface identical
54to that described in
55.Xr tty 4 .
56However, whereas all other devices which provide the
57interface described in
58.Xr tty 4
59have a hardware device of some sort behind them, the slave
60device has, instead, another process manipulating
61it through the master half of the pseudo terminal.
62That is, anything written on the master device is
63given to the slave device as input and anything written
64on the slave device is presented as input on the master
65device.
66.Pp
67The following
68.Xr ioctl 2
69calls apply only to pseudo terminals:
70.Bl -tag -width TIOCREMOTE
71.It Dv TIOCSTOP
72Stops output to a terminal (e.g. like typing
73.Ql ^S ) .
74Takes
75no parameter.
76.It Dv TIOCSTART
77Restarts output (stopped by
78.Dv TIOCSTOP
79or by typing
80.Ql ^S ) .
81Takes no parameter.
82.It Dv TIOCPKT
83Enable/disable
84.Em packet
85mode.
86Packet mode is enabled by specifying (by reference)
87a nonzero parameter and disabled by specifying (by reference)
88a zero parameter.
89When applied to the master side of a pseudo terminal, each subsequent
90.Xr read 2
91from the terminal will return data written on the slave part of
92the pseudo terminal preceded by a zero byte (symbolically
93defined as
94.Dv TIOCPKT_DATA ) ,
95or a single byte reflecting control
96status information.  In the latter case, the byte is an inclusive-or
97of zero or more of the bits:
98.Bl -tag -width TIOCPKT_FLUSHWRITE
99.It Dv TIOCPKT_FLUSHREAD
100whenever the read queue for the terminal is flushed.
101.It Dv TIOCPKT_FLUSHWRITE
102whenever the write queue for the terminal is flushed.
103.It Dv TIOCPKT_STOP
104whenever output to the terminal is stopped a la
105.Ql ^S .
106.It Dv TIOCPKT_START
107whenever output to the terminal is restarted.
108.It Dv TIOCPKT_DOSTOP
109whenever
110.Em t_stopc
111is
112.Ql ^S
113and
114.Em t_startc
115is
116.Ql ^Q .
117.It Dv TIOCPKT_NOSTOP
118whenever the start and stop characters are not
119.Ql ^S/^Q .
120.Pp
121While this mode is in use, the presence of control status information
122to be read from the master side may be detected by a
123.Xr select 2
124for exceptional conditions.
125.Pp
126This mode is used by
127.Xr rlogin 1
128and
129.Xr rlogind 8
130to implement a remote-echoed, locally
131.Ql ^S/^Q
132flow-controlled
133remote login with proper back-flushing of output; it can be
134used by other similar programs.
135.El
136.It Dv TIOCUCNTL
137Enable/disable a mode that allows a small number of simple user
138.Xr ioctl 2
139commands to be passed through the pseudo-terminal,
140using a protocol similar to that of
141.Dv TIOCPKT .
142The
143.Dv TIOCUCNTL
144and
145.Dv TIOCPKT
146modes are mutually exclusive.
147This mode is enabled from the master side of a pseudo terminal
148by specifying (by reference)
149a nonzero parameter and disabled by specifying (by reference)
150a zero parameter.
151Each subsequent
152.Xr read 2
153from the master side will return data written on the slave part of
154the pseudo terminal preceded by a zero byte,
155or a single byte reflecting a user control operation on the slave side.
156A user control command consists of a special
157.Xr ioctl 2
158operation with no data; the command is given as
159.Dv UIOCCMD Ns (n) ,
160where
161.Ar n
162is a number in the range 1-255.
163The operation value
164.Ar n
165will be received as a single byte on the next
166.Xr read 2
167from the master side.
168The
169.Xr ioctl 2
170.Dv UIOCCMD Ns (0)
171is a no-op that may be used to probe for
172the existence of this facility.
173As with
174.Dv TIOCPKT
175mode, command operations may be detected with a
176.Xr select 2
177for exceptional conditions.
178.It Dv TIOCREMOTE
179A mode for the master half of a pseudo terminal, independent
180of
181.Dv TIOCPKT .
182This mode causes input to the pseudo terminal
183to be flow controlled and not input edited (regardless of the
184terminal mode).
185Each write to the control terminal produces
186a record boundary for the process reading the terminal.
187In normal usage, a write of data is like the data typed as a line
188on the terminal; a write of 0 bytes is like typing an end-of-file
189character.
190.Dv TIOCREMOTE
191can be used when doing remote line
192editing in a window manager, or whenever flow controlled input
193is required.
194.El
195.Sh FILES
196.Bl -tag -width /dev/tty[p-sP-S][0-9a-v]x -compact
197.It Pa /dev/pty[p-sP-S][0-9a-v]
198master pseudo terminals
199.It Pa /dev/tty[p-sP-S][0-9a-v]
200slave pseudo terminals
201.El
202.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
203None.
204.Sh SEE ALSO
205.Xr tty 4
206.Sh HISTORY
207The
208.Nm
209driver appeared in
210.Bx 4.2 .
211