OPENPTY(3)		   Linux Programmers Manual		   OPENPTY(3)



NAME
       openpty, login_tty, forkpty - tty utility functions

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

       int openpty(int *amaster, int *aslave, char *name,
		   struct termios *termp, struct winsize *winp);

       pid_t forkpty(int *amaster, char *name, struct termios *termp,
		     struct winsize *winp);

       #include 

       int login_tty(int fd);

       Link with -lutil.

DESCRIPTION
       The  openpty()  function finds an available pseudo-terminal and returns
       file descriptors for the master and slave in amaster  and  aslave.   If
       name  is  not  NULL, the filename of the slave is returned in name.  If
       termp is not NULL, the terminal parameters of the slave will be set  to
       the values in termp.  If winp is not NULL, the window size of the slave
       will be set to the values in winp.

       The login_tty() function prepares for a login on the tty fd (which  may
       be  a real tty device, or the slave of a pseudo-terminal as returned by
       openpty()) by creating a new session, making fd the controlling	termi
       nal  for the calling process, setting fd to be the standard input, out
       put, and error streams of the current process, and closing fd.

       The forkpty() function combines openpty(), fork(2), and login_tty()  to
       create a new process operating in a pseudo-terminal.  The file descrip
       tor of the master side of the pseudo-terminal is returned  in  amaster,
       and the filename of the slave in name if it is not NULL.  The termp and
       winp arguments, if not NULL, will determine the terminal attributes and
       window size of the slave side of the pseudo-terminal.

RETURN VALUE
       If a call to openpty(), login_tty(), or forkpty() is not successful, -1
       is returned and	errno  is  set	to  indicate  the  error.   Otherwise,
       openpty(),  login_tty(),  and  the child process of forkpty() return 0,
       and the parent process of forkpty() returns the process ID of the child
       process.

ERRORS
       openpty() will fail if:

       ENOENT There are no available ttys.

       login_tty()  will  fail	if ioctl(2) fails to set fd to the controlling
       terminal of the calling process.

       forkpty() will fail if either openpty() or fork(2) fails.

CONFORMING TO
       These are BSD functions, present in libc5 and glibc2.

NOTES
       In versions of glibc before 2.0.92, openpty() returns file  descriptors
       for  a  BSD pseudo-terminal pair; since glibc 2.0.92, it first attempts
       to open a Unix 98 pseudo-terminal pair, and falls back to opening a BSD
       pseudo-terminal pair if that fails.

BUGS
       Nobody  knows  how much space should be reserved for name.  So, calling
       openpty() or forkpty() with non-NULL name may not be secure.

SEE ALSO
       fork(2), ttyname(3), pty(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU				  2003-07-18			    OPENPTY(3)