This section describes the interface to the terminal drivers
in the system.
Terminal Special Files
Each hardware terminal port on the system usually has a terminal special device
file associated with it in the directory ``/dev/'' (for
example, ``/dev/tty03'').
When a user logs into
the system on one of these hardware terminal ports, the system has already
opened the associated device and prepared the line for normal interactive
use (see
getty(8).)
There is also a special case of a terminal file that connects not to
a hardware terminal port, but to another program on the other side.
These special terminal devices are called
ptys
and provide the mechanism necessary to give users the same interface to the
system when logging in over a network (using
rlogin(1),
or
telnet(1)
for example).
Even in these cases the details of how the terminal
file was opened and set up is already handled by special software
in the system.
Thus, users do not normally need to worry about the details of
how these lines are opened or used.
Also, these lines are often used
for dialing out of a system (through an out-calling modem), but again
the system provides programs that hide the details of accessing
these terminal special files (see
tip(1)).
When an interactive user logs in, the system prepares the line to
behave in a certain way (called a
line discipline )
the particular details of which is described in
stty(1)
at the command level, and in
termios(4)
at the programming level.
A user may be concerned with changing
settings associated with his particular login terminal and should refer
to the preceding man pages for the common cases.
The remainder of this man page is concerned
with describing details of using and controlling terminal devices
at a low level, such as that possibly required by a program wishing
to provide features similar to those provided by the system.
Line disciplines
A terminal file is used like any other file in the system in that
it can be opened, read, and written to using standard system
calls.
For each existing terminal file, there is a software processing module
called a
line discipline
is associated with it.
The
line discipline
essentially glues the low level device driver code with the high
level generic interface routines (such as
read(2)
and
write(2)),
and is responsible for implementing the semantics associated
with the device.
When a terminal file is first opened by a program, the default
line discipline
called the
termios
line discipline is associated with the file.
This is the primary
line discipline that is used in most cases and provides the semantics
that users normally associate with a terminal.
When the
termios
line discipline is in effect, the terminal file behaves and is
operated according to the rules described in
termios(4).
Please refer to that man page for a full description of the terminal
semantics.
The operations described here
generally represent features common
across all
line disciplines
however some of these calls may not
make sense in conjunction with a line discipline other than
termios
and some may not be supported by the underlying
hardware (or lack thereof, as in the case of ptys).
Terminal File Operations
All of the following operations are invoked using the
ioctl(2)
system call.
Refer to that man page for a description of the
request
and
argp
parameters.
In addition to the ioctl
requests
defined here, the specific line discipline
in effect will define other
requests
specific to it (actually
termios(4)
defines them as function calls, not ioctl
requests .
The following section lists the available ioctl requests.
The name of the request, a description of its purpose, and the typed
argp
parameter (if any)
are listed.
For example, the first entry says
and would be called on the terminal associated with
file descriptor zero by the following code fragment:
int ldisc;
ldisc = TTYDISC;
ioctl(0, TIOCSETD, &ldisc);
Terminal File Request Descriptions
TIOCSETD Fa int *ldisc
Change to the new line discipline pointed to by
Fa ldisc .
The available line disciplines are listed in
#include <sys/ttycom.h>
and currently are:
TTYDISC
Termios interactive line discipline.
TABLDISC
Tablet line discipline.
SLIPDISC
Serial IP line discipline.
PPPDISC
PPP line discipline.
NETGRAPHDISC
Netgraph
ng_tty4
line discipline.
TIOCGETD Fa int *ldisc
Return the current line discipline in the integer pointed to by
Fa ldisc .
TIOCSBRK Fa void
Set the terminal hardware into BREAK condition.
TIOCCBRK Fa void
Clear the terminal hardware BREAK condition.
TIOCSDTR Fa void
Assert data terminal ready (DTR).
TIOCCDTR Fa void
Clear data terminal ready (DTR).
TIOCGPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
Return the current process group with which the terminal is associated
in the integer pointed to by
Fa tpgrp .
This is the underlying call that implements the
termios(4)
tcgetattr ();
call.
TIOCSPGRP Fa int *tpgrp
Associate the terminal with the process group (as an integer) pointed to by
Fa tpgrp .
This is the underlying call that implements the
termios(4)
tcsetattr ();
call.
TIOCGETA Fa struct termios *term
Place the current value of the termios state associated with the
device in the termios structure pointed to by
Fa term .
This is the underlying call that implements the
termios(4)
tcgetattr ();
call.
TIOCSETA Fa struct termios *term
Set the termios state associated with the device immediately.
This is the underlying call that implements the
termios(4)
tcsetattr ();
call with the
TCSANOW
option.
TIOCSETAW Fa struct termios *term
First wait for any output to complete, then set the termios state
associated with the device.
This is the underlying call that implements the
termios(4)
tcsetattr ();
call with the
TCSADRAIN
option.
TIOCSETAF Fa struct termios *term
First wait for any output to complete, clear any pending input,
then set the termios state associated with the device.
This is the underlying call that implements the
termios(4)
tcsetattr ();
call with the
TCSAFLUSH
option.
TIOCOUTQ Fa int *num
Place the current number of characters in the output queue in the
integer pointed to by
Fa num .
TIOCSTI Fa char *cp
Simulate typed input.
Pretend as if the terminal received the character pointed to by
Fa cp .
TIOCNOTTY Fa void
This call is obsolete but left for compatibility.
In the past, when a process that did not have a controlling terminal (see
The Controlling Terminal
in
termios(4))
first opened a terminal device, it acquired that terminal as its
controlling terminal.
For some programs this was a hazard as they
did not want a controlling terminal in the first place, and this
provided a mechanism to disassociate the controlling terminal from
the calling process.
It
must
be called by opening the file
/dev/tty
and calling
TIOCNOTTY
on that file descriptor.
The current system does not allocate a controlling terminal to
a process on an
open ();
call: there is a specific ioctl called
TIOCSCTTY
to make a terminal the controlling
terminal.
In addition, a program can
fork ();
and call the
setsid ();
system call which will place the process into its own session - which
has the effect of disassociating it from the controlling terminal.
This is the new and preferred method for programs to lose their controlling
terminal.
TIOCSTOP Fa void
Stop output on the terminal (like typing ^S at the keyboard).
TIOCSTART Fa void
Start output on the terminal (like typing ^Q at the keyboard).
TIOCSCTTY Fa void
Make the terminal the controlling terminal for the process (the process
must not currently have a controlling terminal).
TIOCDRAIN Fa void
Wait until all output is drained.
TIOCEXCL Fa void
Set exclusive use on the terminal.
No further opens are permitted except by root.
Of course, this means that programs that are run by
root (or setuid) will not obey the exclusive setting - which limits
the usefulness of this feature.
TIOCNXCL Fa void
Clear exclusive use of the terminal.
Further opens are permitted.
TIOCFLUSH Fa int *what
If the value of the int pointed to by
Fa what
contains the
FREAD
bit as defined in
In sys/file.h ,
then all characters in the input queue are cleared.
If it contains the
FWRITE
bit, then all characters in the output queue are cleared.
If the value of the integer is zero, then it behaves as if both the
FREAD
and
FWRITE
bits were set (i.e., clears both queues).
TIOCGWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
Put the window size information associated with the terminal in the
winsize
structure pointed to by
Fa ws .
The window size structure contains the number of rows and columns (and pixels
if appropriate) of the devices attached to the terminal.
It is set by user software
and is the means by which most full-screen oriented programs determine the
screen size.
The
winsize
structure is defined in
In sys/ioctl.h .
TIOCSWINSZ Fa struct winsize *ws
Set the window size associated with the terminal to be the value in
the
winsize
structure pointed to by
Fa ws
(see above).
TIOCCONS Fa int *on
If
Fa on
points to a non-zero integer, redirect kernel console output (kernel printf's)
to this terminal.
If
Fa on
points to a zero integer, redirect kernel console output back to the normal
console.
This is usually used on workstations to redirect kernel messages
to a particular window.
TIOCMSET Fa int *state
The integer pointed to by
Fa state
contains bits that correspond to modem state.
Following is a list of defined variables and the modem state they represent:
TIOCM_LE
Line Enable.
TIOCM_DTR
Data Terminal Ready.
TIOCM_RTS
Request To Send.
TIOCM_ST
Secondary Transmit.
TIOCM_SR
Secondary Receive.
TIOCM_CTS
Clear To Send.
TIOCM_CAR
Carrier Detect.
TIOCM_CD
Carrier Detect (synonym).
TIOCM_RNG
Ring Indication.
TIOCM_RI
Ring Indication (synonym).
TIOCM_DSR
Data Set Ready.
This call sets the terminal modem state to that represented by
Fa state .
Not all terminals may support this.
TIOCMGET Fa int *state
Return the current state of the terminal modem lines as represented
above in the integer pointed to by
Fa state .
TIOCMBIS Fa int *state
The bits in the integer pointed to by
Fa state
represent modem state as described above, however the state is OR-ed
in with the current state.
TIOCMBIC Fa int *state
The bits in the integer pointed to by
Fa state
represent modem state as described above, however each bit which is on
in
Fa state
is cleared in the terminal.
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
The total number of input and output bytes
through all terminal devices
are available via the
kern.tk_nin
and
kern.tk_nout
read-only
sysctl(8)
variables.
