1GETTY(8) System Manager's Manual GETTY(8)
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6 getty - set terminal mode
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9 getty [ type [ tty ] ]
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12 Getty is usually invoked by init(8) to open and initialize the tty
13 line, read a login name, and invoke login(1). getty attempts to adapt
14 the system to the speed and type of terminal being used.
15 The argument tty is the special device file in /dev to open for the
17 terminal (e.g., ``ttyh0''). If there is no argument or the argument is
18 ``-'', the tty line is assumed to be open as file descriptor 0.
19 The type argument can be used to make getty treat the terminal line
21 specially. This argument is used as an index into the gettytab(5)
22 database, to determine the characteristics of the line. If there is no
23 argument, or there is no such table, the default table is used. If
24 there is no /etc/gettytab a set of system defaults is used. If indi‐
25 cated by the table located, getty will clear the terminal screen, print
26 a banner heading, and prompt for a login name. Usually either the ban‐
27 ner of the login prompt will include the system hostname. Then the
28 user's name is read, a character at a time. If a null character is
29 received, it is assumed to be the result of the user pushing the
30 `break' (`interrupt') key. The speed is usually then changed and the
31 `login:' is typed again; a second `break' changes the speed again and
32 the `login:' is typed once more. Successive `break' characters cycle
33 through the same standard set of speeds.
34 The user's name is terminated by a new-line or carriage-return charac‐
36 ter. The latter results in the system being set to treat carriage
37 returns appropriately (see tty(4)).
38 The user's name is scanned to see if it contains any lower-case alpha‐
40 betic characters; if not, and if the name is nonempty, the system is
41 told to map any future upper-case characters into the corresponding
42 lower-case characters.
43 Finally, login is called with the user's name as an argument.
45 Most of the default actions of getty can be circumvented, or modified,
47 by a suitable gettytab table.
48 Getty can be set to timeout after some interval, which will cause dial
50 up lines to hang up if the login name is not entered reasonably
51 quickly.
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54 ttyxx: No such device or address. ttyxx: No such file or address. A
55 terminal which is turned on in the ttys file cannot be opened, likely
56 because the requisite lines are either not configured into the system,
57 the associated device was not attached during boot-time system configu‐
58 ration, or the special file in /dev does not exist.
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61 /etc/gettytab
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64 gettytab(5), init(8), login(1), ioctl(2), tty(4), ttys(5)
654th Berkeley Distribution November 17, 1996 GETTY(8)