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Differences between version 7 and predecessor to the previous major change of TTY.
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| Newer page: | version 7 | Last edited on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 4:02:27 am | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
| Older page: | version 6 | Last edited on Monday, August 16, 2004 10:23:28 pm | by CraigBox | Revert |
@@ -1,11 +1,9 @@
An [Acronym] for __T__ele__Ty__pe.
-A console; a device that looks like a typewriter. Something that has
a screen
and some kind of keyboard
.
+A console; a device that looks like a typewriter. In abstract terms, something with
a standard input (stdin(3)), standard output (stdout(3)),
and a standard error (stderr(3)). ''AddToMe: this is not very accurate; whoever knows better please correct this.'' There are many different standards for [TTY]s defining keymaps and capabilities and the control sequences these generate and are accessed by, respectively. [VT100] is the most widely followed such standard
.
-An abstract
TTY has a standard input
, standard output, and
a standard error -- stdin(3)
, stdout(3) and stderr(3)
.
+[
TTY]s are rarely implemented in hardware these days; typically
, their behaviour is provided by
a TerminalEmulator. In fact
, what looks like a [TTY] is nowadays often a [PTY]
.
-There are many different kinds
of TTY. These
days you'll find terminal emulators
(such as xterm(1
) and [Screen]) using a "vt-100" compatible
terminal type
, used
for things like mapping key codes
to characters
. getty(8) or similar is
often invoked by Linux distributions on boot to start terminals on the virtual consoles
(ctrl+alt+f1 and up
).
+In [Unix]-alike systems, an instance
of getty(8) is given initial control of an actual [
TTY]
. Its purpose harkens back to the
days of serial connections; getty
(8
) is responsible for setting things up so the
terminal and the computer can talk to each other. It then displays the familiar login prompt
, waiting
for a user
to identify himself, and passes control on to login(1)
. On [Linux] systems, some variant of
getty(8) (
often agetty
(8)) is launched for every virtual console configured
).
-You can use
stty(1) to modify some characteristics of your terminal - for example,
characters used to delete previous character/word, local echo (for entering passwords).
-
-The Windows [SSH]/[Telnet] program [PuTTY] is a play on the TTY acronym
.
+You can change the settings of a terminal using
stty(1), allowing you
to configure such settings as
characters used to delete previous character/word, whether
local echo is disabled
(for entering passwords), and others more
.
