xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/pty.4 (revision b52f49a9a0f22207ad5130ad8faba08de3ed23d8)
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32.\"     @(#)pty.4	8.2 (Berkeley) 11/30/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
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.  The slave device provides to a process
53an 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.  Packet mode is enabled by specifying (by reference)
86a nonzero parameter and disabled by specifying (by reference)
87a zero parameter.  When applied to the master side of a pseudo
88terminal, each subsequent
89.Xr read 2
90from the terminal will return data written on the slave part of
91the pseudo terminal preceded by a zero byte (symbolically
92defined as
93.Dv TIOCPKT_DATA ) ,
94or a single byte reflecting control
95status information.  In the latter case, the byte is an inclusive-or
96of zero or more of the bits:
97.Bl -tag -width TIOCPKT_FLUSHWRITE
98.It Dv TIOCPKT_FLUSHREAD
99whenever the read queue for the terminal is flushed.
100.It Dv TIOCPKT_FLUSHWRITE
101whenever the write queue for the terminal is flushed.
102.It Dv TIOCPKT_STOP
103whenever output to the terminal is stopped a la
104.Ql ^S .
105.It Dv TIOCPKT_START
106whenever output to the terminal is restarted.
107.It Dv TIOCPKT_DOSTOP
108whenever
109.Em t_stopc
110is
111.Ql ^S
112and
113.Em t_startc
114is
115.Ql ^Q .
116.It Dv TIOCPKT_NOSTOP
117whenever the start and stop characters are not
118.Ql ^S/^Q .
119.Pp
120While this mode is in use, the presence of control status information
121to be read from the master side may be detected by a
122.Xr select 2
123for exceptional conditions.
124.Pp
125This mode is used by
126.Xr rlogin 1
127and
128.Xr rlogind 8
129to implement a remote-echoed, locally
130.Ql ^S/^Q
131flow-controlled
132remote login with proper back-flushing of output; it can be
133used by other similar programs.
134.El
135.It Dv TIOCUCNTL
136Enable/disable a mode that allows a small number of simple user
137.Xr ioctl 2
138commands to be passed through the pseudo-terminal,
139using a protocol similar to that of
140.Dv TIOCPKT .
141The
142.Dv TIOCUCNTL
143and
144.Dv TIOCPKT
145modes are mutually exclusive.
146This mode is enabled from the master side of a pseudo terminal
147by specifying (by reference)
148a nonzero parameter and disabled by specifying (by reference)
149a zero parameter.
150Each subsequent
151.Xr read 2
152from the master side will return data written on the slave part of
153the pseudo terminal preceded by a zero byte,
154or a single byte reflecting a user control operation on the slave side.
155A user control command consists of a special
156.Xr ioctl 2
157operation with no data; the command is given as
158.Dv UIOCCMD Ns (n) ,
159where
160.Ar n
161is a number in the range 1-255.
162The operation value
163.Ar n
164will be received as a single byte on the next
165.Xr read 2
166from the master side.
167The
168.Xr ioctl 2
169.Dv UIOCCMD Ns (0)
170is a no-op that may be used to probe for
171the existence of this facility.
172As with
173.Dv TIOCPKT
174mode, command operations may be detected with a
175.Xr select 2
176for exceptional conditions.
177.It Dv TIOCREMOTE
178A mode for the master half of a pseudo terminal, independent
179of
180.Dv TIOCPKT .
181This mode causes input to the pseudo terminal
182to be flow controlled and not input edited (regardless of the
183terminal mode).  Each write to the control terminal produces
184a record boundary for the process reading the terminal.  In
185normal usage, a write of data is like the data typed as a line
186on the terminal; a write of 0 bytes is like typing an end-of-file
187character.
188.Dv TIOCREMOTE
189can be used when doing remote line
190editing in a window manager, or whenever flow controlled input
191is required.
192.El
193.Sh FILES
194.Bl -tag -width /dev/tty[p-sP-S][0-9a-v]x -compact
195.It Pa /dev/pty[p-sP-S][0-9a-v]
196master pseudo terminals
197.It Pa /dev/tty[p-sP-S][0-9a-v]
198slave pseudo terminals
199.El
200.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
201None.
202.Sh SEE ALSO
203.Xr tty 4
204.Sh HISTORY
205The
206.Nm
207driver appeared in
208.Bx 4.2 .
209