NAME
getty —
set terminal mode
SYNOPSIS
getty |
[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(1).
The argument tty is the special device file in /dev to open for the terminal (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 specially.
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
heading, 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(5) 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 reasonably quickly.
RESOURCES
getty is started by
init(8), with a process priority, umask, and resource limits based on
the “default” entry in
/etc/login.conf.
FILES
- /etc/gettytab
DIAGNOSTICS
- ttyxx: No such device or address.
- ttyxx: No such file or address.
- A terminal which is turned on in the ttys(5) 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.
SEE ALSO
login(1), ioctl(2), tty(4), gettytab(5), login.conf(5), ttys(5), init(8)
HISTORY
A getty program appeared in
Version 2 AT&T UNIX.