GETTY(8) BSD System Manager's Manual GETTY(8)NAMEgetty - set terminal mode
SYNOPSISgetty [type [tty]]
DESCRIPTION
The getty program is called by init(8) to open and initialize the tty
line, read a login name, and invoke login(8). If getty notices an se-
quence of characters that appear to be an initialization packet from a
PPP session it invokes the ppp(8) utility directly. By default the
ppp(8) utility will see the user as the name ppp_direct.
The argument tty is the special device file in /dev to open for the ter-
minal (for example, ``ttyh0''). If there is no argument or the argument
is `-', the tty line is assumed to be open as file descriptor 0.
The type argument can be used to make getty treat the terminal line spe-
cially. This argument is used as an index into the gettytab 5 database,
to determine the characteristics of the line. If there is no argument,
or there is no such table, the default table is used. If there is no
/etc/gettytab a set of system defaults is used. If indicated by the
table located, getty will clear the terminal screen, print a banner head-
ing, and prompt for a login name. Usually either the banner or the login
prompt will include the system hostname.
Most of the default actions of getty can be circumvented, or modified, by
a suitable gettytab table.
The getty program can be set to timeout after some interval, which will
cause dial up lines to hang up if the login name is not entered reason-
ably quickly.
The getty program can attempt to determine the serial line speed if so
configured by the gettytab entry; each time getty receives a break, it
cycles to the next entry in a series of gettytab entries to try.
A line may optionally be used for both dial-in and dial-out service.
This is enabled by the bi flag in the initial gettytab entry. For bidi-
rectional service, getty synchronizes with dial-out use via lock files
(see tip(1) and uucico(8)).
DIAGNOSTICS
ttyxx: No such device or address.
ttyxx: No such file or address. A terminal which is turned on in the
ttys file cannot be opened, likely because the requisite lines are either
not configured into the system, the associated device was not attached
during boot-time system configuration, or the special file in /dev does
not exist.
FILES
/etc/gettytab
SEE ALSOtip(1), ioctl(2), tty(4), gettytab(5), ttys(5), init(8), login(8),
uucico(8)HISTORY
A getty program appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
4th Berkeley Distribution June 4, 1993 1