xref: /openbsd-src/share/man/man4/tty.4 (revision b2ea75c1b17e1a9a339660e7ed45cd24946b230e)
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35.\"     @(#)tty.4	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
36.\"
37.Dd August 14, 1992
38.Dt TTY 4
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm tty
42.Nd general terminal interface
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Fd #include <sys/ioctl.h>
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46This section describes the interface to the terminal drivers
47in the system.
48.Ss Terminal Special Files
49Each hardware terminal port on the system usually has a terminal special device
50file associated with it in the directory
51.Pa /dev/
52(for
53example,
54.Pa /dev/tty03 ) .
55When a user logs into
56the system on one of these hardware terminal ports, the system has already
57opened the associated device and prepared the line for normal interactive
58use (see
59.Xr getty 8 ) .
60There is also a special case of a terminal file that connects not to
61a hardware terminal port, but to another program on the other side.
62These special terminal devices are called
63.Em ptys
64and provide the mechanism necessary to give users the same interface to the
65system when logging in over a network (using
66.Xr rlogin 1 ,
67or
68.Xr telnet 1
69for example).  Even in these cases the details of how the terminal
70file was opened and set up is already handled by special software
71in the system.
72Thus, users do not normally need to worry about the details of
73how these lines are opened or used.
74.Pp
75For hardware terminal ports, dial-out is supported through matching
76device nodes called calling units.  For instance, the terminal called
77.Pa /dev/tty03
78would have a matching calling unit called
79.Pa /dev/cua03 .
80These two devices are normally differentiated by creating the calling
81unit device node with a minor number 128 greater than the dial-in
82device node.  Whereas the dial-in device (the
83.Em tty )
84normally
85requires a hardware signal to indicate to the system that it is active,
86the dial-out device (the
87.Em cua )
88does not, and hence can communicate unimpeded
89with a device such as a modem.  This means that a process like
90.Xr getty 8
91will wait on a dial-in device until a connection is established.
92Meanwhile, a dial-out connection can be established on the dial-out
93device (for the very same hardware terminal port) without disturbing
94anything else on the system.  The
95.Xr getty 8
96process does not even notice that anything is happening on the terminal
97port.  If a connecting call comes in after the dial-out connection has
98finished, the
99.Xr getty 8
100process will deal with it properly, without having noticed the
101intervening dial-out action.
102For more information on dial-out, see
103.Xr tip 1 ,
104.Xr cu 1 ,
105and
106.Xr uucp 1 .
107.Pp
108When an interactive user logs in, the system prepares the line to
109behave in a certain way (called a
110.Em "line discipline" ) ,
111the particular details of which is described in
112.Xr stty 1
113at the command level, and in
114.Xr termios 4
115at the programming level.  A user may be concerned with changing
116settings associated with his particular login terminal and should refer
117to the preceding man pages for the common cases.  The remainder of
118this man page is concerned
119with describing details of using and controlling terminal devices
120at a low level, such as that possibly required by a program wishing
121to provide features similar to those provided by the system.
122.Ss Line disciplines
123A terminal file is used like any other file in the system in that
124it can be opened, read, and written to using standard system
125calls.  For each existing terminal file, there is a software processing module
126called a
127.Em "line discipline"
128is associated with it.  The
129.Em "line discipline"
130essentially glues the low level device driver code with the high
131level generic interface routines (such as
132.Xr read 2
133and
134.Xr write 2 ),
135and is responsible for implementing the semantics associated
136with the device.  When a terminal file is first opened by a program,
137the default
138.Em "line discipline"
139called the
140.Dv termios
141line discipline is associated with the file.  This is the primary
142line discipline that is used in most cases and provides the semantics
143that users normally associate with a terminal.  When the
144.Dv termios
145line discipline is in effect, the terminal file behaves and is
146operated according to the rules described in
147.Xr termios 4 .
148Please refer to that man page for a full description of the terminal
149semantics.
150The operations described here
151generally represent features common
152across all
153.Em "line disciplines" ,
154although some of these calls may not
155make sense in conjunction with a line discipline other than
156.Dv termios ,
157and some may not be supported by the underlying
158hardware (or lack thereof, as in the case of ptys).
159.Ss Terminal File Operations
160All of the following operations are invoked using the
161.Xr ioctl 2
162system call.  Refer to that man page for a description of
163the
164.Em request
165and
166.Em argp
167parameters.
168In addition to the ioctl
169.Em requests
170defined here, the specific line discipline
171in effect will define other
172.Em requests
173specific to it (actually
174.Xr termios 4
175defines them as function calls, not ioctl
176.Em requests . )
177The following section lists the available ioctl requests.  The
178name of the request, a description of its purpose, and the typed
179.Em argp
180parameter (if any)
181are listed.  For example, the first entry says
182.Pp
183.D1 Em "TIOCSETD int *ldisc"
184.Pp
185and would be called on the terminal associated with
186file descriptor zero by the following code fragment:
187.Bd -literal
188	int ldisc;
189
190	ldisc = TTYDISC;
191	ioctl(0, TIOCSETD, &ldisc);
192.Ed
193.Ss Terminal File Request Descriptions
194.Bl -tag -width TIOCGWINSZ
195.It Dv TIOCSETD Fa int *ldisc
196Change to the new line discipline pointed to by
197.Fa ldisc .
198The available line disciplines are listed in
199.Pa Aq sys/ttycom.h
200and currently are:
201.Pp
202.Bl -tag -width TIOCGWINSZ -compact
203.It TTYDISC
204Termios interactive line discipline.
205.It TABLDISC
206Tablet line discipline.
207.It SLIPDISC
208Serial IP line discipline.
209.It PPPDISC
210Point to Point Protocol line discipline.
211.It STRIPDISC
212Starmode Radio IP line discipline.
213.El
214.Pp
215.It Dv TIOCGETD Fa int *ldisc
216Return the current line discipline in the integer pointed to by
217.Fa ldisc .
218.It Dv TIOCSBRK Fa void
219Set the terminal hardware into BREAK condition.
220.It Dv TIOCCBRK Fa void
221Clear the terminal hardware BREAK condition.
222.It Dv TIOCSDTR Fa void
223Assert data terminal ready (DTR).
224.It Dv TIOCCDTR Fa void
225Clear data terminal ready (DTR).
226.It Dv TIOCGPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
227Return the current process group the terminal is associated
228with in the integer pointed to by
229.Fa tpgrp .
230This is the underlying call that implements the
231.Xr termios 4
232.Fn tcgetattr
233call.
234.It Dv TIOCSPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
235Associate the terminal with the process group (as an integer) pointed to by
236.Fa tpgrp .
237This is the underlying call that implements the
238.Xr termios 4
239.Fn tcsetattr
240call.
241.It Dv TIOCGETA Fa struct termios *term
242Place the current value of the termios state associated with the
243device in the termios structure pointed to by
244.Fa term .
245This is the underlying call that implements the
246.Xr termios 4
247.Fn tcgetattr
248call.
249.It Dv TIOCSETA Fa struct termios *term
250Set the termios state associated with the device immediately.
251This is the underlying call that implements the
252.Xr termios 4
253.Fn tcsetattr
254call with the
255.Dv TCSANOW
256option.
257.It Dv TIOCSETAW Fa struct termios *term
258First wait for any output to complete, then set the termios state
259associated with the device.
260This is the underlying call that implements the
261.Xr termios 4
262.Fn tcsetattr
263call with the
264.Dv TCSADRAIN
265option.
266.It Dv TIOCSETAF Fa struct termios *term
267First wait for any output to complete, clear any pending input,
268then set the termios state associated with the device.
269This is the underlying call that implements the
270.Xr termios 4
271.Fn tcsetattr
272call with the
273.Dv TCSAFLUSH
274option.
275.It Dv TIOCOUTQ Fa int *num
276Place the current number of characters in the output queue in the
277integer pointed to by
278.Fa num .
279.It Dv TIOCSTI Fa char *cp
280Simulate typed input.  Pretend as if the terminal received the
281character pointed to by
282.Fa cp .
283.It Dv TIOCNOTTY Fa void
284This call is obsolete but left for compatibility.  In the past, when
285a process that didn't have a controlling terminal (see
286.Em The Controlling Terminal
287in
288.Xr termios 4 )
289first opened a terminal device, it acquired that terminal as its
290controlling terminal.  For some programs this was a hazard as they
291didn't want a controlling terminal in the first place, and this
292provided a mechanism to disassociate the controlling terminal from
293the calling process.  It
294.Em must
295be called by opening the file
296.Pa /dev/tty
297and calling
298.Dv TIOCNOTTY
299on that file descriptor.
300.Pp
301The current system does not allocate a controlling terminal to
302a process on an
303.Fn open
304call: there is a specific ioctl called
305.Dv TIOCSCTTY
306to make a terminal the controlling
307terminal.
308In addition, a program can
309.Fn fork
310and call the
311.Fn setsid
312system call which will place the process into its own session - which
313has the effect of disassociating it from the controlling terminal.  This
314is the new and preferred method for programs to lose their controlling
315terminal.
316.It Dv TIOCSTOP Fa void
317Stop output on the terminal (like typing ^S at the keyboard).
318.It Dv TIOCSTART Fa void
319Start output on the terminal (like typing ^Q at the keyboard).
320.It Dv TIOCSCTTY Fa void
321Make the terminal the controlling terminal for the process (the process
322must not currently have a controlling terminal).
323.It Dv TIOCDRAIN Fa void
324Wait until all output is drained.
325.It Dv TIOCEXCL Fa void
326Set exclusive use on the terminal.  No further opens are permitted
327except by root.  Of course, this means that programs that are run by
328root (or setuid) will not obey the exclusive setting - which limits
329the usefulness of this feature.
330.It Dv TIOCNXCL Fa void
331Clear exclusive use of the terminal.  Further opens are permitted.
332.It Dv TIOCFLUSH Fa int *what
333If the value of the int pointed to by
334.Fa what
335contains the
336.Dv FREAD
337bit as defined in
338.Pa Aq sys/fcntl.h ,
339then all characters in the input queue are cleared.  If it contains
340the
341.Dv FWRITE
342bit, then all characters in the output queue are cleared.  If the
343value of the integer is zero, then it behaves as if both the
344.Dv FREAD
345and
346.Dv FWRITE
347bits were set (i.e. clears both queues).
348.It Dv TIOCGWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
349Put the window size information associated with the terminal in the
350.Va winsize
351structure pointed to by
352.Fa ws .
353The window size structure contains the number of rows and columns (and pixels
354if appropriate) of the devices attached to the terminal.  It is set by user software
355and is the means by which most full\&-screen oriented programs determine the
356screen size.  The
357.Va winsize
358structure is defined in
359.Pa Aq sys/ioctl.h .
360.It Dv TIOCSWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
361Set the window size associated with the terminal to be the value in
362the
363.Va winsize
364structure pointed to by
365.Fa ws
366(see above).
367.It Dv TIOCCONS Fa int *on
368If
369.Fa on
370points to a non-zero integer, redirect kernel console output
371.Po
372kernel
373.Fn printf Ns s
374.Pc
375to this terminal.
376If
377.Fa on
378points to a zero integer, redirect kernel console output back to the normal
379console.  This is usually used on workstations to redirect kernel messages
380to a particular window.
381.It Dv TIOCMSET Fa int *state
382The integer pointed to by
383.Fa state
384contains bits that correspond to modem state.  Following is a list
385of defined variables and the modem state they represent:
386.Pp
387.Bl -tag -width TIOCMXCTS -compact
388.It TIOCM_LE
389Line Enable.
390.It TIOCM_DTR
391Data Terminal Ready.
392.It TIOCM_RTS
393Request To Send.
394.It TIOCM_ST
395Secondary Transmit.
396.It TIOCM_SR
397Secondary Receive.
398.It TIOCM_CTS
399Clear To Send.
400.It TIOCM_CAR
401Carrier Detect.
402.It TIOCM_CD
403Carrier Detect (synonym).
404.It TIOCM_RNG
405Ring Indication.
406.It TIOCM_RI
407Ring Indication (synonym).
408.It TIOCM_DSR
409Data Set Ready.
410.El
411.Pp
412This call sets the terminal modem state to that represented by
413.Fa state .
414Not all terminals may support this.
415.It Dv TIOCMGET Fa int *state
416Return the current state of the terminal modem lines as represented
417above in the integer pointed to by
418.Fa state .
419.It Dv TIOCMBIS Fa int *state
420The bits in the integer pointed to by
421.Fa state
422represent modem state as described above; however, the state is OR-ed
423in with the current state.
424.It Dv TIOCMBIC Fa int *state
425The bits in the integer pointed to by
426.Fa state
427represent modem state as described above; however, each bit which is on
428in
429.Fa state
430is cleared in the terminal.
431.It Dv TIOCSFLAGS Fa int *state
432The bits in the integer pointed to by
433.Fa state
434contain bits that correspond to serial port state. Following is a list
435of defined variables and the serial port state they represent:
436.Pp
437.Bl -tag -width TIOCFLAG_SOFTCAR -compact
438.It TIOCFLAG_SOFTCAR
439Ignore hardware carrier.
440.It TIOCFLAG_CLOCAL
441Set clocal on open.
442.It TIOCFLAG_CRTSCTS
443Set crtscts on open.
444.It TIOCFLAG_MDMBUF
445Set mdmbuf on open.
446.El
447.Pp
448This call sets the serial port state to that represented by
449.Fa state .
450Not all serial ports may support this.
451.It Dv TIOCGFLAGS Fa int *state
452Return the current state of the serial port as represented
453above in the integer pointed to by
454.Fa state .
455.El
456.Sh SEE ALSO
457.Xr stty 1 ,
458.Xr tty 1 ,
459.Xr ioctl 2 ,
460.Xr pty 4 ,
461.Xr termios 4 ,
462.Xr ttys 5 ,
463.Xr getty 8
464.Sh HISTORY
465The cua support is inspired by similar support in SunOS.
466