xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/tty.4 (revision 0572ccaa4543b0abef8ef81e384c1d04de9f3da1)
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28.\"     @(#)tty.4	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
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31.Dd December 26, 2009
32.Dt TTY 4
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm tty
36.Nd general terminal interface
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.In sys/ioctl.h
39.Sh DESCRIPTION
40This section describes the interface to the terminal drivers
41in the system.
42.Ss Terminal Special Files
43Each hardware terminal port on the system usually has a terminal special device
44file associated with it in the directory ``/dev/'' (for
45example, ``/dev/tty03'').
46When a user logs into
47the system on one of these hardware terminal ports, the system has already
48opened the associated device and prepared the line for normal interactive
49use (see
50.Xr getty 8 . )
51There is also a special case of a terminal file that connects not to
52a hardware terminal port, but to another program on the other side.
53These special terminal devices are called
54.Em ptys
55and provide the mechanism necessary to give users the same interface to the
56system when logging in over a network (using
57.Xr rlogin 1 ,
58or
59.Xr telnet 1
60for example).
61Even in these cases the details of how the terminal
62file was opened and set up is already handled by special software
63in the system.
64Thus, users do not normally need to worry about the details of
65how these lines are opened or used.
66Also, these lines are often used
67for dialing out of a system (through an out-calling modem), but again
68the system provides programs that hide the details of accessing
69these terminal special files (see
70.Xr tip 1 ) .
71.Pp
72When an interactive user logs in, the system prepares the line to
73behave in a certain way (called a
74.Em "line discipline" ) ,
75the particular details of which is described in
76.Xr stty 1
77at the command level, and in
78.Xr termios 4
79at the programming level.
80A user may be concerned with changing
81settings associated with his particular login terminal and should refer
82to the preceding man pages for the common cases.
83The remainder of this man page is concerned
84with describing details of using and controlling terminal devices
85at a low level, such as that possibly required by a program wishing
86to provide features similar to those provided by the system.
87.Ss Terminal File Operations
88All of the following operations are invoked using the
89.Xr ioctl 2
90system call.
91Refer to that man page for a description of the
92.Em request
93and
94.Em argp
95parameters.
96In addition to the ioctl
97.Em requests
98defined here, the specific line discipline
99in effect will define other
100.Em requests
101specific to it (actually
102.Xr termios 4
103defines them as function calls, not ioctl
104.Em requests . )
105The following section lists the available ioctl requests.
106The name of the request, a description of its purpose, and the typed
107.Em argp
108parameter (if any)
109are listed.
110For example, the first entry says
111.Pp
112.D1 Em "TIOCSPGRP int *tpgrp"
113.Pp
114and would be called on the terminal associated with
115file descriptor zero by the following code fragment:
116.Bd -literal
117	int pgrp;
118
119	pgrp = getpgrp();
120	ioctl(0, TIOCSPGRP, &pgrp);
121.Ed
122.Ss Terminal File Request Descriptions
123.Bl -tag -width TIOCGWINSZ
124.It Dv TIOCSETD Fa int *ldisc
125This call is obsolete but left for compatibility.
126Before
127.Fx 8.0 ,
128it would change to the new line discipline pointed to by
129.Fa ldisc .
130.Pp
131.It Dv TIOCGETD Fa int *ldisc
132Return the current line discipline in the integer pointed to by
133.Fa ldisc .
134.It Dv TIOCSBRK Fa void
135Set the terminal hardware into BREAK condition.
136.It Dv TIOCCBRK Fa void
137Clear the terminal hardware BREAK condition.
138.It Dv TIOCSDTR Fa void
139Assert data terminal ready (DTR).
140.It Dv TIOCCDTR Fa void
141Clear data terminal ready (DTR).
142.It Dv TIOCGPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
143Return the current process group with which the terminal is associated
144in the integer pointed to by
145.Fa tpgrp .
146This is the underlying call that implements the
147.Xr termios 4
148.Fn tcgetattr
149call.
150.It Dv TIOCSPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
151Associate the terminal with the process group (as an integer) pointed to by
152.Fa tpgrp .
153This is the underlying call that implements the
154.Xr termios 4
155.Fn tcsetattr
156call.
157.It Dv TIOCGETA Fa struct termios *term
158Place the current value of the termios state associated with the
159device in the termios structure pointed to by
160.Fa term .
161This is the underlying call that implements the
162.Xr termios 4
163.Fn tcgetattr
164call.
165.It Dv TIOCSETA Fa struct termios *term
166Set the termios state associated with the device immediately.
167This is the underlying call that implements the
168.Xr termios 4
169.Fn tcsetattr
170call with the
171.Dv TCSANOW
172option.
173.It Dv TIOCSETAW Fa struct termios *term
174First wait for any output to complete, then set the termios state
175associated with the device.
176This is the underlying call that implements the
177.Xr termios 4
178.Fn tcsetattr
179call with the
180.Dv TCSADRAIN
181option.
182.It Dv TIOCSETAF Fa struct termios *term
183First wait for any output to complete, clear any pending input,
184then set the termios state associated with the device.
185This is the underlying call that implements the
186.Xr termios 4
187.Fn tcsetattr
188call with the
189.Dv TCSAFLUSH
190option.
191.It Dv TIOCOUTQ Fa int *num
192Place the current number of characters in the output queue in the
193integer pointed to by
194.Fa num .
195.It Dv TIOCSTI Fa char *cp
196Simulate typed input.
197Pretend as if the terminal received the character pointed to by
198.Fa cp .
199.It Dv TIOCNOTTY Fa void
200This call is obsolete but left for compatibility.
201In the past, when a process that did not have a controlling terminal (see
202.Em The Controlling Terminal
203in
204.Xr termios 4 )
205first opened a terminal device, it acquired that terminal as its
206controlling terminal.
207For some programs this was a hazard as they
208did not want a controlling terminal in the first place, and this
209provided a mechanism to disassociate the controlling terminal from
210the calling process.
211It
212.Em must
213be called by opening the file
214.Pa /dev/tty
215and calling
216.Dv TIOCNOTTY
217on that file descriptor.
218.Pp
219The current system does not allocate a controlling terminal to
220a process on an
221.Fn open
222call: there is a specific ioctl called
223.Dv TIOCSCTTY
224to make a terminal the controlling
225terminal.
226In addition, a program can
227.Fn fork
228and call the
229.Fn setsid
230system call which will place the process into its own session - which
231has the effect of disassociating it from the controlling terminal.
232This is the new and preferred method for programs to lose their controlling
233terminal.
234.It Dv TIOCSTOP Fa void
235Stop output on the terminal (like typing ^S at the keyboard).
236.It Dv TIOCSTART Fa void
237Start output on the terminal (like typing ^Q at the keyboard).
238.It Dv TIOCSCTTY Fa void
239Make the terminal the controlling terminal for the process (the process
240must not currently have a controlling terminal).
241.It Dv TIOCDRAIN Fa void
242Wait until all output is drained.
243.It Dv TIOCEXCL Fa void
244Set exclusive use on the terminal.
245No further opens are permitted except by root.
246Of course, this means that programs that are run by
247root (or setuid) will not obey the exclusive setting - which limits
248the usefulness of this feature.
249.It Dv TIOCNXCL Fa void
250Clear exclusive use of the terminal.
251Further opens are permitted.
252.It Dv TIOCFLUSH Fa int *what
253If the value of the int pointed to by
254.Fa what
255contains the
256.Dv FREAD
257bit as defined in
258.In sys/file.h ,
259then all characters in the input queue are cleared.
260If it contains the
261.Dv FWRITE
262bit, then all characters in the output queue are cleared.
263If the value of the integer is zero, then it behaves as if both the
264.Dv FREAD
265and
266.Dv FWRITE
267bits were set (i.e., clears both queues).
268.It Dv TIOCGWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
269Put the window size information associated with the terminal in the
270.Va winsize
271structure pointed to by
272.Fa ws .
273The window size structure contains the number of rows and columns (and pixels
274if appropriate) of the devices attached to the terminal.
275It is set by user software
276and is the means by which most full\&-screen oriented programs determine the
277screen size.
278The
279.Va winsize
280structure is defined in
281.In sys/ioctl.h .
282.It Dv TIOCSWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
283Set the window size associated with the terminal to be the value in
284the
285.Va winsize
286structure pointed to by
287.Fa ws
288(see above).
289.It Dv TIOCCONS Fa int *on
290If
291.Fa on
292points to a non-zero integer, redirect kernel console output (kernel printf's)
293to this terminal.
294If
295.Fa on
296points to a zero integer, redirect kernel console output back to the normal
297console.
298This is usually used on workstations to redirect kernel messages
299to a particular window.
300.It Dv TIOCMSET Fa int *state
301The integer pointed to by
302.Fa state
303contains bits that correspond to modem state.
304Following is a list of defined variables and the modem state they represent:
305.Pp
306.Bl -tag -width TIOCMXCTS -compact
307.It TIOCM_LE
308Line Enable.
309.It TIOCM_DTR
310Data Terminal Ready.
311.It TIOCM_RTS
312Request To Send.
313.It TIOCM_ST
314Secondary Transmit.
315.It TIOCM_SR
316Secondary Receive.
317.It TIOCM_CTS
318Clear To Send.
319.It TIOCM_CAR
320Carrier Detect.
321.It TIOCM_CD
322Carrier Detect (synonym).
323.It TIOCM_RNG
324Ring Indication.
325.It TIOCM_RI
326Ring Indication (synonym).
327.It TIOCM_DSR
328Data Set Ready.
329.El
330.Pp
331This call sets the terminal modem state to that represented by
332.Fa state .
333Not all terminals may support this.
334.It Dv TIOCMGET Fa int *state
335Return the current state of the terminal modem lines as represented
336above in the integer pointed to by
337.Fa state .
338.It Dv TIOCMBIS Fa int *state
339The bits in the integer pointed to by
340.Fa state
341represent modem state as described above, however the state is OR-ed
342in with the current state.
343.It Dv TIOCMBIC Fa int *state
344The bits in the integer pointed to by
345.Fa state
346represent modem state as described above, however each bit which is on
347in
348.Fa state
349is cleared in the terminal.
350.El
351.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
352The total number of input and output bytes
353through all terminal devices
354are available via the
355.Va kern.tk_nin
356and
357.Va kern.tk_nout
358read-only
359.Xr sysctl 8
360variables.
361.Sh SEE ALSO
362.Xr stty 1 ,
363.Xr ioctl 2 ,
364.Xr ng_tty 4 ,
365.Xr pty 4 ,
366.Xr termios 4 ,
367.Xr getty 8
368