xref: /openbsd-src/lib/libutil/openpty.3 (revision 43003dfe3ad45d1698bed8a37f2b0f5b14f20d4f)
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33.Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $
34.Dt OPENPTY 3
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm openpty ,
38.Nm login_tty ,
39.Nm forkpty
40.Nd tty utility functions
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Fd #include <termios.h>
43.Fd #include <util.h>
44.Ft int
45.Fn openpty "int *amaster" "int *aslave" "char *name" "struct termios *termp" "struct winsize *winp"
46.Ft int
47.Fn login_tty "int fd"
48.Ft pid_t
49.Fn forkpty "int *amaster" "char *name" "struct termios *termp" "struct winsize *winp"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Fn openpty ,
53.Fn login_tty ,
54and
55.Fn forkpty
56functions perform manipulations on ttys and pseudo-ttys.
57.Pp
58The
59.Fn openpty
60function finds an available pseudo-tty and returns file descriptors
61for the master and slave in
62.Fa amaster
63and
64.Fa aslave .
65If
66.Fa name
67is non-null, the filename of the slave is returned in
68.Fa name
69(a string of at least 16 characters).
70If
71.Fa termp
72is non-null, the terminal parameters of the slave will be set to the
73values in
74.Fa termp .
75If
76.Fa winp
77is non-null, the window size of the slave will be set to the values in
78.Fa winp .
79.Pp
80The
81.Fn openpty
82function works in the following way:
83first it attempts to allocate the pseudo-tty through the
84.Pa /dev/ptm
85device (see
86.Xr pty 4
87for details) and if that fails it searches for a free pseudo-tty by iterating
88through all existing pseudo-tty devices in
89.Pa /dev .
90When a free pseudo-tty is found, its ownership is changed to
91the UID of the caller, permissions are set to correct values,
92and all earlier uses of that device are revoked (see
93.Xr revoke 2
94for details).
95The first method can work for any user, the second method requires
96super-user privileges in most cases.
97.Pp
98The
99.Fn login_tty
100function prepares for a login on the tty
101.Fa fd
102(which may be a real tty device, or the slave of a pseudo-tty as
103returned by
104.Fn openpty )
105by creating a new session, making
106.Fa fd
107the controlling terminal for the current process, setting
108.Fa fd
109to be the standard input, output, and error streams of the current
110process, and closing
111.Fa fd .
112.Pp
113The
114.Fn forkpty
115function combines
116.Fn openpty ,
117.Fn fork ,
118and
119.Fn login_tty
120to create a new process operating in a pseudo-tty.
121The file
122descriptor of the master side of the pseudo-tty is returned in
123.Fa amaster ,
124and the filename of the slave in
125.Fa name
126if it is non-null.
127The
128.Fa termp
129and
130.Fa winp
131parameters, if non-null, will determine the terminal attributes and
132window size of the slave side of the pseudo-tty.
133.Sh RETURN VALUES
134If a call to
135.Fn openpty ,
136.Fn login_tty ,
137or
138.Fn forkpty
139is not successful, \-1 is returned and
140.Va errno
141is set to indicate the error.
142Otherwise,
143.Fn openpty ,
144.Fn login_tty ,
145and the child process of
146.Fn forkpty
147return 0, and the parent process of
148.Fn forkpty
149returns the process ID of the child process.
150.Sh FILES
151.Bl -tag -width /dev/tty[p-zP-T][0-9a-zA-Z]x -compact
152.It Pa /dev/pty[p-zP-T][0-9a-zA-Z]
153master pseudo terminals
154.It Pa /dev/tty[p-zP-T][0-9a-zA-Z]
155slave pseudo terminals
156.It Pa /dev/ptm
157pseudo terminal management device
158.El
159.Sh ERRORS
160.Fn openpty
161will fail if:
162.Bl -tag -width Er
163.It Bq Er ENOENT
164There are no available ttys.
165.El
166.Pp
167.Fn login_tty
168will fail if
169.Fn ioctl
170fails to set
171.Fa fd
172to the controlling terminal of the current process.
173.Fn forkpty
174will fail if either
175.Fn openpty
176or
177.Fn fork
178fails.
179.Sh SEE ALSO
180.Xr fork 2 ,
181.Xr revoke 2 ,
182.Xr pty 4
183