xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/tty.4 (revision 1ffa7b76c40339c17a0fb2a09fac93f287cfc046)
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34.\"     @(#)tty.4	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
35.\"
36.Dd August 14, 1992
37.Dt TTY 4
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm tty
41.Nd general terminal interface
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.In sys/ioctl.h
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45This section describes the interface to the terminal drivers
46in the system.
47.Ss Terminal Special Files
48Each hardware terminal port on the system usually has two terminal special
49device files associated with it in the directory
50.Pa /dev/
51(for example,
52.Pa /dev/tty03
53and
54.Pa /dev/dty03 ) .
55.Pp
56The
57.Pa /dev/ttyXX
58special file is used for dialin modems and terminals.
59When a user logs into
60the system on one of these hardware terminal ports, the system has already
61opened the associated device and prepared the line for normal interactive
62use (see
63.Xr getty 8 ) .
64.Pp
65The
66.Pa /dev/dtyXX
67special file is a SunOS-compatible dialout device.  Unlike
68the dialin device, opening the dialout device never blocks.  If the
69corresponding dialin device is already opened (not blocked in the open waiting
70for carrier), then the dialout open will fail immediately; otherwise it will
71succeed immediately.  While the dialout device is open, the dialin device may
72not be opened.  If the dialin open is blocking, it will wait until the dialout
73device is closed (and carrier is detected); otherwise it will fail immediately.
74.Pp
75There is also a special case of a terminal file that connects not to
76a hardware terminal port, but to another program on the other side.
77These special terminal devices are called
78.Em ptys
79and provide the mechanism necessary to give users the same interface to the
80system when logging in over a network (using
81.Xr rlogin 1 ,
82or
83.Xr telnet 1
84for example.)  Even in these cases the details of how the terminal
85file was opened and set up is already handled by special software
86in the system.
87Thus, users do not normally need to worry about the details of
88how these lines are opened or used.  Also, these lines are often used
89for dialing out of a system (through an out-calling modem), but again
90the system provides programs that hide the details of accessing
91these terminal special files (see
92.Xr tip 1 ) .
93.Pp
94When an interactive user logs in, the system prepares the line to
95behave in a certain way (called a
96.Em line discipline ) ,
97the particular details of which is described in
98.Xr stty 1
99at the command level, and in
100.Xr termios 4
101at the programming level.  A user may be concerned with changing
102settings associated with his particular login terminal and should refer
103to the preceding man pages for the common cases.  The remainder of
104this man page is concerned
105with describing details of using and controlling terminal devices
106at a low level, such as that possibly required by a program wishing
107to provide features similar to those provided by the system.
108.Ss Line disciplines
109A terminal file is used like any other file in the system in that
110it can be opened, read, and written to using standard system
111calls.  For each existing terminal file, there is a software processing module
112called a
113.Em line discipline
114associated with it.  The
115.Em line discipline
116essentially glues the low level device driver code with the high
117level generic interface routines (such as
118.Xr read 2
119and
120.Xr write 2 ) ,
121and is responsible for implementing the semantics associated
122with the device.  When a terminal file is first opened by a program,
123the default
124.Em line discipline
125called the
126.Dv termios
127line discipline is associated with the file.  This is the primary
128line discipline that is used in most cases and provides the semantics
129that users normally associate with a terminal.  When the
130.Dv termios
131line discipline is in effect, the terminal file behaves and is
132operated according to the rules described in
133.Xr termios 4 .
134Please refer to that man page for a full description of the terminal
135semantics.
136The operations described here
137generally represent features common
138across all
139.Em line disciplines ,
140however some of these calls may not
141make sense in conjunction with a line discipline other than
142.Dv termios ,
143and some may not be supported by the underlying
144hardware (or lack thereof, as in the case of ptys).
145.Ss Terminal File Operations
146All of the following operations are invoked using the
147.Xr ioctl 2
148system call.  Refer to that man page for a description of
149the
150.Em request
151and
152.Em argp
153parameters.
154In addition to the ioctl
155.Em requests
156defined here, the specific line discipline
157in effect will define other
158.Em requests
159specific to it (actually
160.Xr termios 4
161defines them as function calls, not ioctl
162.Em requests . )
163The following section lists the available ioctl requests.  The
164name of the request, a description of its purpose, and the typed
165.Em argp
166parameter (if any)
167are listed.  For example, the first entry says
168.Pp
169.D1 Em TIOCSLINED char name[32]
170.Pp
171and would be called on the terminal associated with
172file descriptor zero by the following code fragment:
173.Bd -literal
174	ioctl(0, TIOCSLINED, "termios");
175.Ed
176.Ss Terminal File Request Descriptions
177.Bl -tag -width TIOCGWINSZ
178.It Dv TIOCSLINED Fa char name[32]
179Change to the new line discipline called
180.Fa name .
181.Pp
182.It Dv TIOCGLINED Fa char name[32]
183Return the current line discipline in the string pointed to by
184.Fa name .
185.It Dv TIOCSBRK Fa void
186Set the terminal hardware into BREAK condition.
187.It Dv TIOCCBRK Fa void
188Clear the terminal hardware BREAK condition.
189.It Dv TIOCSDTR Fa void
190Assert data terminal ready (DTR).
191.It Dv TIOCCDTR Fa void
192Clear data terminal ready (DTR).
193.It Dv TIOCGPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
194Return the current process group the terminal is associated
195with in the integer pointed to by
196.Fa tpgrp .
197This is the underlying call that implements the
198.Xr tcgetpgrp 3
199call.
200.It Dv TIOCSPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
201Associate the terminal with the process group (as an integer) pointed to by
202.Fa tpgrp .
203This is the underlying call that implements the
204.Xr tcsetpgrp 3
205call.
206.It Dv TIOCGETA Fa struct termios *term
207Place the current value of the termios state associated with the
208device in the termios structure pointed to by
209.Fa term .
210This is the underlying call that implements the
211.Xr tcgetattr 3
212call.
213.It Dv TIOCSETA Fa struct termios *term
214Set the termios state associated with the device immediately.
215This is the underlying call that implements the
216.Xr tcsetattr 3
217call with the
218.Dv TCSANOW
219option.
220.It Dv TIOCSETAW Fa struct termios *term
221First wait for any output to complete, then set the termios state
222associated with the device.
223This is the underlying call that implements the
224.Xr tcsetattr 3
225call with the
226.Dv TCSADRAIN
227option.
228.It Dv TIOCSETAF Fa struct termios *term
229First wait for any output to complete, clear any pending input,
230then set the termios state associated with the device.
231This is the underlying call that implements the
232.Xr tcsetattr 3
233call with the
234.Dv TCSAFLUSH
235option.
236.It Dv TIOCOUTQ Fa int *num
237Place the current number of characters in the output queue in the
238integer pointed to by
239.Fa num .
240.It Dv TIOCSTI Fa char *cp
241Simulate typed input.  Pretend as if the terminal received the
242character pointed to by
243.Fa cp .
244.It Dv TIOCNOTTY Fa void
245This call is obsolete but left for compatibility.  In the past, when
246a process that didn't have a controlling terminal (see
247.Em The Controlling Terminal
248in
249.Xr termios 4 )
250first opened a terminal device, it acquired that terminal as its
251controlling terminal.  For some programs this was a hazard as they
252didn't want a controlling terminal in the first place, and this
253provided a mechanism to disassociate the controlling terminal from
254the calling process.  It
255.Em must
256be called by opening the file
257.Pa /dev/tty
258and calling
259.Dv TIOCNOTTY
260on that file descriptor.
261.Pp
262The current system does not allocate a controlling terminal to
263a process on an
264.Fn open
265call: there is a specific ioctl called
266.Dv TIOCSCTTY
267to make a terminal the controlling
268terminal.
269In addition, a program can
270.Fn fork
271and call the
272.Fn setsid
273system call which will place the process into its own session - which
274has the effect of disassociating it from the controlling terminal.  This
275is the new and preferred method for programs to lose their controlling
276terminal.
277.It Dv TIOCSTOP Fa void
278Stop output on the terminal (like typing ^S at the keyboard).
279.It Dv TIOCSTART Fa void
280Start output on the terminal (like typing ^Q at the keyboard).
281.It Dv TIOCSCTTY Fa void
282Make the terminal the controlling terminal for the process (the process
283must not currently have a controlling terminal).
284.It Dv TIOCDRAIN Fa void
285Wait until all output is drained.
286.It Dv TIOCEXCL Fa void
287Set exclusive use on the terminal.  No further opens are permitted
288except by root.  Of course, this means that programs that are run by
289root (or setuid) will not obey the exclusive setting - which limits
290the usefulness of this feature.
291.It Dv TIOCNXCL Fa void
292Clear exclusive use of the terminal.  Further opens are permitted.
293.It Dv TIOCFLUSH Fa int *what
294If the value of the int pointed to by
295.Fa what
296contains the
297.Dv FREAD
298bit as defined in
299.Pa Aq sys/fcntl.h ,
300then all characters in the input queue are cleared.  If it contains
301the
302.Dv FWRITE
303bit, then all characters in the output queue are cleared.  If the
304value of the integer is zero, then it behaves as if both the
305.Dv FREAD
306and
307.Dv FWRITE
308bits were set (i.e. clears both queues).
309.It Dv TIOCGWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
310Put the window size information associated with the terminal in the
311.Va winsize
312structure pointed to by
313.Fa ws .
314The window size structure contains the number of rows and columns (and pixels
315if appropriate) of the devices attached to the terminal.  It is set by user software
316and is the means by which most full\&-screen oriented programs determine the
317screen size.  The
318.Va winsize
319structure is defined in
320.Pa Aq sys/ioctl.h .
321.It Dv TIOCSWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
322Set the window size associated with the terminal to be the value in
323the
324.Va winsize
325structure pointed to by
326.Fa ws
327(see above).
328.It Dv TIOCCONS Fa int *on
329If
330.Fa on
331points to a non-zero integer, redirect kernel console output (kernel printf's)
332to this terminal.
333If
334.Fa on
335points to a zero integer, redirect kernel console output back to the normal
336console.  This is usually used on workstations to redirect kernel messages
337to a particular window.
338.It Dv TIOCMSET Fa int *state
339The integer pointed to by
340.Fa state
341contains bits that correspond to modem state.  Following is a list
342of defined variables and the modem state they represent:
343.Pp
344.Bl -tag -width TIOCMXCTS -compact
345.It TIOCM_LE
346Line Enable.
347.It TIOCM_DTR
348Data Terminal Ready.
349.It TIOCM_RTS
350Request To Send.
351.It TIOCM_ST
352Secondary Transmit.
353.It TIOCM_SR
354Secondary Receive.
355.It TIOCM_CTS
356Clear To Send.
357.It TIOCM_CAR
358Carrier Detect.
359.It TIOCM_CD
360Carrier Detect (synonym).
361.It TIOCM_RNG
362Ring Indication.
363.It TIOCM_RI
364Ring Indication (synonym).
365.It TIOCM_DSR
366Data Set Ready.
367.El
368.Pp
369This call sets the terminal modem state to that represented by
370.Fa state .
371Not all terminals may support this.
372.It Dv TIOCMGET Fa int *state
373Return the current state of the terminal modem lines as represented
374above in the integer pointed to by
375.Fa state .
376.It Dv TIOCMBIS Fa int *state
377The bits in the integer pointed to by
378.Fa state
379represent modem state as described above, however the state is OR-ed
380in with the current state.
381.It Dv TIOCMBIC Fa int *state
382The bits in the integer pointed to by
383.Fa state
384represent modem state as described above, however each bit which is on
385in
386.Fa state
387is cleared in the terminal.
388.It Dv TIOCSFLAGS Fa int *state
389The bits in the integer pointed to by
390.Fa state
391contain bits that correspond to serial port state. Following is a list
392of defined variables and the serial port state they represent:
393.Pp
394.Bl -tag -width TIOCFLAG_SOFTCAR -compact
395.It TIOCFLAG_SOFTCAR
396Ignore hardware carrier.
397.It TIOCFLAG_CLOCAL
398Set clocal on open.
399.It TIOCFLAG_CRTSCTS
400Set crtscts on open.
401.It TIOCFLAG_MDMBUF
402Set mdmbuf on open.
403.El
404.Pp
405This call sets the serial port state to that represented by
406.Fa state .
407Not all serial ports may support this.
408.It Dv TIOCGFLAGS Fa int *state
409Return the current state of the serial port as represented
410above in the integer pointed to by
411.Fa state .
412.El
413.Sh COMPATIBILITY
414Two ioctls are maintained for backwards compatibility.  They provide
415methods to get and set the current line discipline, but are not
416extensible.
417.Bl -tag -width TIOCGWINSZ
418.It Dv TIOCSETD Fa int *ldisc
419Change to the new line discipline pointed to by
420.Fa ldisc .
421The old list of available line disciplines are listed in
422.Pa Aq sys/ttycom.h
423and are:
424.Pp
425.Bl -tag -width TIOCGWINSZ -compact
426.It TTYDISC
427Termios interactive line discipline.
428.It TABLDISC
429Tablet line discipline.
430.It SLIPDISC
431Serial IP line discipline.
432.It PPPDISC
433Point to Point Protocol line discipline.
434.It STRIPDISC
435Starmode Radio IP line discipline.
436.El
437.Pp
438.It Dv TIOCGETD Fa int *ldisc
439Return the current line discipline in the integer pointed to by
440.Fa ldisc .
441.El
442.Sh SEE ALSO
443.Xr stty 1 ,
444.Xr ioctl 2 ,
445.Xr tcgetattr 3 ,
446.Xr tcsetattr 3 ,
447.Xr pty 4 ,
448.Xr termios 4 ,
449.Xr getty 8 ,
450.Xr linedisc 9
451.Sh HISTORY
452Separate dialout device files were implemented in SunOS 4.  They were cloned
453by Charles M. Hannum for
454.Nx 1.4 .
455