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CONSOLE
!!!CONSOLE
NAME
DESCRIPTION
PROPERTIES
FILES
SEE ALSO
----
!!NAME


console - console terminal and virtual consoles
!!DESCRIPTION


A Linux system has up to 63 ''virtual consoles''
(character devices with major number 4 and minor number 1 to
63), usually called __/dev/tty__''n'' with 1 ''n''
63. The current console is also addressed by
__/dev/console__ or __/dev/tty0__, the character
device with major number 4 and minor number 0. The device
files /dev/* are usually created using the script MAKEDEV,
or using mknod(1), usually with mode 0622 and owner
root.tty.


Before kernel version 1.1.54 the number of virtual consoles
was compiled into the kernel (in tty.h: #define NR_CONSOLES
8) and could be changed by editing and recompiling. Since
version 1.1.54 virtual consoles are created on the fly, as
soon as they are needed.


Common ways to start a process on a console are: (a) tell
init(8) (in inittab(5)) to start a getty(8) on the console;
(b) ask open(1) to start a process on the console; (c) start
X - it will find the first unused console, and display its
output there. (There is also the ancient
doshell(8).)


Common ways to switch consoles are: (a) use Alt+F''n'' or
Ctrl+Alt+F''n'' to switch to console ''n'';
!AltGr+F''n'' might bring you to console ''n''+12 [[here
Alt and !AltGr refer to the left and right Alt keys,
respectively]; (b) use Alt+!RightArrow or Alt+!LeftArrow to
cycle through the presently allocated consoles; (c) use the
program chvt(1). (The key mapping is user settable, see
loadkeys(1); the above mentioned key combinations are
according to the default settings.)


The command deallocvt(1) (formerly __disalloc__)
will free the memory taken by the screen buffers for
consoles that no longer have any associated
process.
!!PROPERTIES


Consoles carry a lot of state. I hope to document that some
other time. The most important fact is that the consoles
simulate vt100 terminals. In particular, a console is reset
to the initial state by printing the two characters ESC c.
All escape sequences can be found in
console_codes(4).
!!FILES


''/dev/console
/dev/tty*''
!!SEE ALSO


charsets(4), console_codes(4),
console_ioctl(4), mknod(1), tty(4),
ttys(4), getty(8), init(8),
chvt(1), open(1), deallocvt(1),
loadkeys(1), resizecons(8),
consolechars(8), mapscrn(8).
----

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Last edited on Tuesday, June 4, 2002 12:25:02 am by "perry"

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