xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/tty.4 (revision 09a53ad8f1318c5daae6cfb19d97f4f6459f0013)
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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.It Dv TIOCGETD Fa int *ldisc
131Return the current line discipline in the integer pointed to by
132.Fa ldisc .
133.It Dv TIOCSBRK Fa void
134Set the terminal hardware into BREAK condition.
135.It Dv TIOCCBRK Fa void
136Clear the terminal hardware BREAK condition.
137.It Dv TIOCSDTR Fa void
138Assert data terminal ready (DTR).
139.It Dv TIOCCDTR Fa void
140Clear data terminal ready (DTR).
141.It Dv TIOCGPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
142Return the current process group with which the terminal is associated
143in the integer pointed to by
144.Fa tpgrp .
145This is the underlying call that implements the
146.Xr termios 4
147.Fn tcgetattr
148call.
149.It Dv TIOCSPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
150Associate the terminal with the process group (as an integer) pointed to by
151.Fa tpgrp .
152This is the underlying call that implements the
153.Xr termios 4
154.Fn tcsetattr
155call.
156.It Dv TIOCGETA Fa struct termios *term
157Place the current value of the termios state associated with the
158device in the termios structure pointed to by
159.Fa term .
160This is the underlying call that implements the
161.Xr termios 4
162.Fn tcgetattr
163call.
164.It Dv TIOCSETA Fa struct termios *term
165Set the termios state associated with the device immediately.
166This is the underlying call that implements the
167.Xr termios 4
168.Fn tcsetattr
169call with the
170.Dv TCSANOW
171option.
172.It Dv TIOCSETAW Fa struct termios *term
173First wait for any output to complete, then set the termios state
174associated with the device.
175This is the underlying call that implements the
176.Xr termios 4
177.Fn tcsetattr
178call with the
179.Dv TCSADRAIN
180option.
181.It Dv TIOCSETAF Fa struct termios *term
182First wait for any output to complete, clear any pending input,
183then set the termios state associated with the device.
184This is the underlying call that implements the
185.Xr termios 4
186.Fn tcsetattr
187call with the
188.Dv TCSAFLUSH
189option.
190.It Dv TIOCOUTQ Fa int *num
191Place the current number of characters in the output queue in the
192integer pointed to by
193.Fa num .
194.It Dv TIOCSTI Fa char *cp
195Simulate typed input.
196Pretend as if the terminal received the character pointed to by
197.Fa cp .
198.It Dv TIOCNOTTY Fa void
199This call is obsolete but left for compatibility.
200In the past, when a process that did not have a controlling terminal (see
201.Em The Controlling Terminal
202in
203.Xr termios 4 )
204first opened a terminal device, it acquired that terminal as its
205controlling terminal.
206For some programs this was a hazard as they
207did not want a controlling terminal in the first place, and this
208provided a mechanism to disassociate the controlling terminal from
209the calling process.
210It
211.Em must
212be called by opening the file
213.Pa /dev/tty
214and calling
215.Dv TIOCNOTTY
216on that file descriptor.
217.Pp
218The current system does not allocate a controlling terminal to
219a process on an
220.Fn open
221call: there is a specific ioctl called
222.Dv TIOCSCTTY
223to make a terminal the controlling
224terminal.
225In addition, a program can
226.Fn fork
227and call the
228.Fn setsid
229system call which will place the process into its own session - which
230has the effect of disassociating it from the controlling terminal.
231This is the new and preferred method for programs to lose their controlling
232terminal.
233.It Dv TIOCSTOP Fa void
234Stop output on the terminal (like typing ^S at the keyboard).
235.It Dv TIOCSTART Fa void
236Start output on the terminal (like typing ^Q at the keyboard).
237.It Dv TIOCSCTTY Fa void
238Make the terminal the controlling terminal for the process (the process
239must not currently have a controlling terminal).
240.It Dv TIOCDRAIN Fa void
241Wait until all output is drained.
242.It Dv TIOCEXCL Fa void
243Set exclusive use on the terminal.
244No further opens are permitted except by root.
245Of course, this means that programs that are run by
246root (or setuid) will not obey the exclusive setting - which limits
247the usefulness of this feature.
248.It Dv TIOCNXCL Fa void
249Clear exclusive use of the terminal.
250Further opens are permitted.
251.It Dv TIOCFLUSH Fa int *what
252If the value of the int pointed to by
253.Fa what
254contains the
255.Dv FREAD
256bit as defined in
257.In sys/file.h ,
258then all characters in the input queue are cleared.
259If it contains the
260.Dv FWRITE
261bit, then all characters in the output queue are cleared.
262If the value of the integer is zero, then it behaves as if both the
263.Dv FREAD
264and
265.Dv FWRITE
266bits were set (i.e., clears both queues).
267.It Dv TIOCGWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
268Put the window size information associated with the terminal in the
269.Va winsize
270structure pointed to by
271.Fa ws .
272The window size structure contains the number of rows and columns (and pixels
273if appropriate) of the devices attached to the terminal.
274It is set by user software
275and is the means by which most full\&-screen oriented programs determine the
276screen size.
277The
278.Va winsize
279structure is defined in
280.In sys/ioctl.h .
281.It Dv TIOCSWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
282Set the window size associated with the terminal to be the value in
283the
284.Va winsize
285structure pointed to by
286.Fa ws
287(see above).
288.It Dv TIOCCONS Fa int *on
289If
290.Fa on
291points to a non-zero integer, redirect kernel console output (kernel printf's)
292to this terminal.
293If
294.Fa on
295points to a zero integer, redirect kernel console output back to the normal
296console.
297This is usually used on workstations to redirect kernel messages
298to a particular window.
299.It Dv TIOCMSET Fa int *state
300The integer pointed to by
301.Fa state
302contains bits that correspond to modem state.
303Following is a list of defined variables and the modem state they represent:
304.Pp
305.Bl -tag -width TIOCMXCTS -compact
306.It TIOCM_LE
307Line Enable.
308.It TIOCM_DTR
309Data Terminal Ready.
310.It TIOCM_RTS
311Request To Send.
312.It TIOCM_ST
313Secondary Transmit.
314.It TIOCM_SR
315Secondary Receive.
316.It TIOCM_CTS
317Clear To Send.
318.It TIOCM_CAR
319Carrier Detect.
320.It TIOCM_CD
321Carrier Detect (synonym).
322.It TIOCM_RNG
323Ring Indication.
324.It TIOCM_RI
325Ring Indication (synonym).
326.It TIOCM_DSR
327Data Set Ready.
328.El
329.Pp
330This call sets the terminal modem state to that represented by
331.Fa state .
332Not all terminals may support this.
333.It Dv TIOCMGET Fa int *state
334Return the current state of the terminal modem lines as represented
335above in the integer pointed to by
336.Fa state .
337.It Dv TIOCMBIS Fa int *state
338The bits in the integer pointed to by
339.Fa state
340represent modem state as described above, however the state is OR-ed
341in with the current state.
342.It Dv TIOCMBIC Fa int *state
343The bits in the integer pointed to by
344.Fa state
345represent modem state as described above, however each bit which is on
346in
347.Fa state
348is cleared in the terminal.
349.El
350.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
351The total number of input and output bytes
352through all terminal devices
353are available via the
354.Va kern.tk_nin
355and
356.Va kern.tk_nout
357read-only
358.Xr sysctl 8
359variables.
360.Sh SEE ALSO
361.Xr stty 1 ,
362.Xr ioctl 2 ,
363.Xr ng_tty 4 ,
364.Xr pty 4 ,
365.Xr termios 4 ,
366.Xr getty 8
367