forkpty

OPENPTY(3)                 Linux Programmer's Manual                OPENPTY(3)

NAME
       openpty, login_tty, forkpty - terminal utility functions

SYNOPSIS
       #include <pty.h>

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

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

       #include <utmp.h>

       int login_tty(int fd);

       Link with -lutil.

DESCRIPTION
       The  openpty()  function  finds an available pseudoterminal 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 terminal fd (which
       may  be a real terminal device, or the slave of a pseudoterminal as re-
       turned by openpty()) by creating a new session, making fd the  control-
       ling  terminal  for  the calling process, setting fd to be the standard
       input, output, 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 pseudoterminal.  The file  descrip-
       tor  of  the  master side of the pseudoterminal is returned in amaster.
       If name is not NULL, the buffer it points to  is  used  to  return  the
       filename of the slave.  The termp and winp arguments, if not NULL, will
       determine the terminal attributes and window size of the slave side  of
       the pseudoterminal.

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() fails if:

       ENOENT There are no available terminals.

       login_tty() fails if ioctl(2) fails to set fd to the controlling termi-
       nal of the calling process.

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

ATTRIBUTES
       For an  explanation  of  the  terms  used  in  this  section,  see  at-
       tributes(7).

       +---------------------+---------------+------------------------+
       |Interface            | Attribute     | Value                  |
       +---------------------+---------------+------------------------+
       |forkpty(), openpty() | Thread safety | MT-Safe locale         |
       +---------------------+---------------+------------------------+
       |login_tty()          | Thread safety | MT-Unsafe race:ttyname |
       +---------------------+---------------+------------------------+

CONFORMING TO
       These  are  BSD functions, present in glibc.  They are not standardized
       in POSIX.

NOTES
       The const modifiers were added to the structure  pointer  arguments  of
       openpty() and forkpty() in glibc 2.8.

       In  versions of glibc before 2.0.92, openpty() returns file descriptors
       for a BSD pseudoterminal pair; since glibc 2.0.92, it first attempts to
       open  a  UNIX  98  pseudoterminal pair, and falls back to opening a BSD
       pseudoterminal 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 5.05 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU                               2017-09-15                        OPENPTY(3)