xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/tty.4 (revision 7660b554bc59a07be0431c17e0e33815818baa69)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
13.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
14.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
15.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\"     @(#)tty.4	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd August 14, 1992
36.Dt TTY 4
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm tty
40.Nd general terminal interface
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.In sys/ioctl.h
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44This section describes the interface to the terminal drivers
45in the system.
46.Ss Terminal Special Files
47Each hardware terminal port on the system usually has a terminal special device
48file associated with it in the directory ``/dev/'' (for
49example, ``/dev/tty03'').
50When a user logs into
51the system on one of these hardware terminal ports, the system has already
52opened the associated device and prepared the line for normal interactive
53use (see
54.Xr getty 8 . )
55There is also a special case of a terminal file that connects not to
56a hardware terminal port, but to another program on the other side.
57These special terminal devices are called
58.Em ptys
59and provide the mechanism necessary to give users the same interface to the
60system when logging in over a network (using
61.Xr rlogin 1 ,
62or
63.Xr telnet 1
64for example).
65Even in these cases the details of how the terminal
66file was opened and set up is already handled by special software
67in the system.
68Thus, users do not normally need to worry about the details of
69how these lines are opened or used.
70Also, these lines are often used
71for dialing out of a system (through an out-calling modem), but again
72the system provides programs that hide the details of accessing
73these terminal special files (see
74.Xr tip 1 ) .
75.Pp
76When an interactive user logs in, the system prepares the line to
77behave in a certain way (called a
78.Em "line discipline" ) ,
79the particular details of which is described in
80.Xr stty 1
81at the command level, and in
82.Xr termios 4
83at the programming level.
84A user may be concerned with changing
85settings associated with his particular login terminal and should refer
86to the preceding man pages for the common cases.
87The remainder of this man page is concerned
88with describing details of using and controlling terminal devices
89at a low level, such as that possibly required by a program wishing
90to provide features similar to those provided by the system.
91.Ss Line disciplines
92A terminal file is used like any other file in the system in that
93it can be opened, read, and written to using standard system
94calls.
95For each existing terminal file, there is a software processing module
96called a
97.Em "line discipline"
98is associated with it.  The
99.Em "line discipline"
100essentially glues the low level device driver code with the high
101level generic interface routines (such as
102.Xr read 2
103and
104.Xr write 2 ) ,
105and is responsible for implementing the semantics associated
106with the device.
107When a terminal file is first opened by a program, the default
108.Em "line discipline"
109called the
110.Dv termios
111line discipline is associated with the file.
112This is the primary
113line discipline that is used in most cases and provides the semantics
114that users normally associate with a terminal.
115When the
116.Dv termios
117line discipline is in effect, the terminal file behaves and is
118operated according to the rules described in
119.Xr termios 4 .
120Please refer to that man page for a full description of the terminal
121semantics.
122The operations described here
123generally represent features common
124across all
125.Em "line disciplines" ,
126however some of these calls may not
127make sense in conjunction with a line discipline other than
128.Dv termios ,
129and some may not be supported by the underlying
130hardware (or lack thereof, as in the case of ptys).
131.Ss Terminal File Operations
132All of the following operations are invoked using the
133.Xr ioctl 2
134system call.
135Refer to that man page for a description of the
136.Em request
137and
138.Em argp
139parameters.
140In addition to the ioctl
141.Em requests
142defined here, the specific line discipline
143in effect will define other
144.Em requests
145specific to it (actually
146.Xr termios 4
147defines them as function calls, not ioctl
148.Em requests . )
149The following section lists the available ioctl requests.
150The name of the request, a description of its purpose, and the typed
151.Em argp
152parameter (if any)
153are listed.  For example, the first entry says
154.Pp
155.D1 Em "TIOCSETD int *ldisc"
156.Pp
157and would be called on the terminal associated with
158file descriptor zero by the following code fragment:
159.Bd -literal
160	int ldisc;
161
162	ldisc = TTYDISC;
163	ioctl(0, TIOCSETD, &ldisc);
164.Ed
165.Ss Terminal File Request Descriptions
166.Bl -tag -width TIOCGWINSZ
167.It Dv TIOCSETD Fa int *ldisc
168Change to the new line discipline pointed to by
169.Fa ldisc .
170The available line disciplines are listed in
171.In sys/ttycom.h
172and currently are:
173.Pp
174.Bl -tag -width NETGRAPHDISC -compact
175.It TTYDISC
176Termios interactive line discipline.
177.It TABLDISC
178Tablet line discipline.
179.It SLIPDISC
180Serial IP line discipline.
181.It PPPDISC
182PPP line discipline.
183.It NETGRAPHDISC
184Netgraph
185.Xr ng_tty 4
186line discipline.
187.El
188.Pp
189.It Dv TIOCGETD Fa int *ldisc
190Return the current line discipline in the integer pointed to by
191.Fa ldisc .
192.It Dv TIOCSBRK Fa void
193Set the terminal hardware into BREAK condition.
194.It Dv TIOCCBRK Fa void
195Clear the terminal hardware BREAK condition.
196.It Dv TIOCSDTR Fa void
197Assert data terminal ready (DTR).
198.It Dv TIOCCDTR Fa void
199Clear data terminal ready (DTR).
200.It Dv TIOCGPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
201Return the current process group with which the terminal is associated
202in the integer pointed to by
203.Fa tpgrp .
204This is the underlying call that implements the
205.Xr termios 4
206.Fn tcgetattr
207call.
208.It Dv TIOCSPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
209Associate the terminal with the process group (as an integer) pointed to by
210.Fa tpgrp .
211This is the underlying call that implements the
212.Xr termios 4
213.Fn tcsetattr
214call.
215.It Dv TIOCGETA Fa struct termios *term
216Place the current value of the termios state associated with the
217device in the termios structure pointed to by
218.Fa term .
219This is the underlying call that implements the
220.Xr termios 4
221.Fn tcgetattr
222call.
223.It Dv TIOCSETA Fa struct termios *term
224Set the termios state associated with the device immediately.
225This is the underlying call that implements the
226.Xr termios 4
227.Fn tcsetattr
228call with the
229.Dv TCSANOW
230option.
231.It Dv TIOCSETAW Fa struct termios *term
232First wait for any output to complete, then set the termios state
233associated with the device.
234This is the underlying call that implements the
235.Xr termios 4
236.Fn tcsetattr
237call with the
238.Dv TCSADRAIN
239option.
240.It Dv TIOCSETAF Fa struct termios *term
241First wait for any output to complete, clear any pending input,
242then set the termios state associated with the device.
243This is the underlying call that implements the
244.Xr termios 4
245.Fn tcsetattr
246call with the
247.Dv TCSAFLUSH
248option.
249.It Dv TIOCOUTQ Fa int *num
250Place the current number of characters in the output queue in the
251integer pointed to by
252.Fa num .
253.It Dv TIOCSTI Fa char *cp
254Simulate typed input.
255Pretend as if the terminal received the character pointed to by
256.Fa cp .
257.It Dv TIOCNOTTY Fa void
258This call is obsolete but left for compatibility.
259In the past, when a process that didn't have a controlling terminal (see
260.Em The Controlling Terminal
261in
262.Xr termios 4 )
263first opened a terminal device, it acquired that terminal as its
264controlling terminal.
265For some programs this was a hazard as they
266didn't want a controlling terminal in the first place, and this
267provided a mechanism to disassociate the controlling terminal from
268the calling process.
269It
270.Em must
271be called by opening the file
272.Pa /dev/tty
273and calling
274.Dv TIOCNOTTY
275on that file descriptor.
276.Pp
277The current system does not allocate a controlling terminal to
278a process on an
279.Fn open
280call: there is a specific ioctl called
281.Dv TIOSCTTY
282to make a terminal the controlling
283terminal.
284In addition, a program can
285.Fn fork
286and call the
287.Fn setsid
288system call which will place the process into its own session - which
289has the effect of disassociating it from the controlling terminal.
290This is the new and preferred method for programs to lose their controlling
291terminal.
292.It Dv TIOCSTOP Fa void
293Stop output on the terminal (like typing ^S at the keyboard).
294.It Dv TIOCSTART Fa void
295Start output on the terminal (like typing ^Q at the keyboard).
296.It Dv TIOCSCTTY Fa void
297Make the terminal the controlling terminal for the process (the process
298must not currently have a controlling terminal).
299.It Dv TIOCDRAIN Fa void
300Wait until all output is drained.
301.It Dv TIOCEXCL Fa void
302Set exclusive use on the terminal.
303No further opens are permitted except by root.
304Of course, this means that programs that are run by
305root (or setuid) will not obey the exclusive setting - which limits
306the usefulness of this feature.
307.It Dv TIOCNXCL Fa void
308Clear exclusive use of the terminal.
309Further opens are permitted.
310.It Dv TIOCFLUSH Fa int *what
311If the value of the int pointed to by
312.Fa what
313contains the
314.Dv FREAD
315bit as defined in
316.In sys/file.h ,
317then all characters in the input queue are cleared.
318If it contains the
319.Dv FWRITE
320bit, then all characters in the output queue are cleared.
321If the value of the integer is zero, then it behaves as if both the
322.Dv FREAD
323and
324.Dv FWRITE
325bits were set (i.e. clears both queues).
326.It Dv TIOCGWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
327Put the window size information associated with the terminal in the
328.Va winsize
329structure pointed to by
330.Fa ws .
331The window size structure contains the number of rows and columns (and pixels
332if appropriate) of the devices attached to the terminal.
333It is set by user software
334and is the means by which most full\&-screen oriented programs determine the
335screen size.
336The
337.Va winsize
338structure is defined in
339.In sys/ioctl.h .
340.It Dv TIOCSWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
341Set the window size associated with the terminal to be the value in
342the
343.Va winsize
344structure pointed to by
345.Fa ws
346(see above).
347.It Dv TIOCCONS Fa int *on
348If
349.Fa on
350points to a non-zero integer, redirect kernel console output (kernel printf's)
351to this terminal.
352If
353.Fa on
354points to a zero integer, redirect kernel console output back to the normal
355console.
356This is usually used on workstations to redirect kernel messages
357to a particular window.
358.It Dv TIOCMSET Fa int *state
359The integer pointed to by
360.Fa state
361contains bits that correspond to modem state.
362Following is a list of defined variables and the modem state they represent:
363.Pp
364.Bl -tag -width TIOCMXCTS -compact
365.It TIOCM_LE
366Line Enable.
367.It TIOCM_DTR
368Data Terminal Ready.
369.It TIOCM_RTS
370Request To Send.
371.It TIOCM_ST
372Secondary Transmit.
373.It TIOCM_SR
374Secondary Receive.
375.It TIOCM_CTS
376Clear To Send.
377.It TIOCM_CAR
378Carrier Detect.
379.It TIOCM_CD
380Carrier Detect (synonym).
381.It TIOCM_RNG
382Ring Indication.
383.It TIOCM_RI
384Ring Indication (synonym).
385.It TIOCM_DSR
386Data Set Ready.
387.El
388.Pp
389This call sets the terminal modem state to that represented by
390.Fa state .
391Not all terminals may support this.
392.It Dv TIOCMGET Fa int *state
393Return the current state of the terminal modem lines as represented
394above in the integer pointed to by
395.Fa state .
396.It Dv TIOCMBIS Fa int *state
397The bits in the integer pointed to by
398.Fa state
399represent modem state as described above, however the state is OR-ed
400in with the current state.
401.It Dv TIOCMBIC Fa int *state
402The bits in the integer pointed to by
403.Fa state
404represent modem state as described above, however each bit which is on
405in
406.Fa state
407is cleared in the terminal.
408.El
409.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
410The total number of input and output bytes
411through all terminal devices
412are available via the
413.Va kern.tk_nin
414and
415.Va kern.tk_nout
416read-only
417.Xr sysctl 8
418variables.
419.Sh SEE ALSO
420.Xr stty 1 ,
421.Xr ioctl 2 ,
422.Xr ng_tty 4 ,
423.Xr pty 4 ,
424.Xr termios 4 ,
425.Xr getty 8
426