AGETTY
Section: Maintenance Commands (8)
Index
Return to Main Contents
NAME
agetty
-
alternative System V/SunOS 4 getty
SYSTEM V SYNOPSIS
agetty [-ih] [-l login] [-m] [-t timeout] [-T term] port speed,...
SUNOS 4 SYNOPSIS
agetty [-h] [-l login] [-m] [-t timeout] speed,... port
DESCRIPTION
agetty opens a tty port, prompts for a login name and invokes
the /bin/login command. It is normally invoked by init(8).
agetty has several non-standard features that are useful
for hard-wired and for dial-in lines:
- o
-
Adapts to parity bits and to line editing, end-of-line, and
uppercase-only characters when it reads a login name.
The program can handle 7-bit characters with even, odd, none or space
parity, and 8-bit characters with no parity. The following special
characters are recognized: @ and Control-U (kill); #, DEL and
back space (erase); carriage return and line feed (end of line).
- o
-
Optionally deduces the baud rate from the CONNECT messages produced by
Hayes(tm)-compatible modems.
This program does not use any configuration file.
ARGUMENTS
- port
-
A path name relative to the /dev directory. If a "-" is
specified, agetty assumes that its standard input is
already connected to a tty port and that a connection to a
remote user has already been established.
Under System V, a "-" port argument should be preceded
by a "--".
- speed,...
-
A comma-separated list of one or more baud rates. Each time
agetty receives a BREAK character it advances through
the list, which is treated as if it were circular.
Baud rates should be specified in descending order, so that the
null character (Ctrl-@) can also be used for baud rate switching.
OPTIONS
- -h
-
Enable hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control. It is left up to the
application to disable software (XON/XOFF) flow protocol where
appropriate.
- -i (System V only)
-
Do not display the contents of /etc/issue before writing the
login prompt. Terminals or communications hardware may become confused
when receiving lots of text at the wrong baud rate; dial-up scripts
may fail if the login prompt is preceded by too much text.
- -l login
-
Invoke the specified login program instead of /bin/login.
For example, one that asks for an additional dial-up password or
one that uses a different password file.
- -m
-
Try to extract the baud rate from the connect status message
produced by some Hayes(tm)-compatible modems. These status
messages are of the form: "<junk><speed><junk>".
agetty assumes that the modem emits its status message at
the same speed as specified with (the first) speed value
on the command line.
Since the -m feature may fail on heavily-loaded systems,
you still should enable BREAK processing by enumerating all
expected baud rates on the command line.
- -t timeout
-
Terminate if no user name could be read within timeout
seconds. This option is useful for dial-in lines.
- -T term
-
Specifies a value for the TERM environment variable.
SYSTEM V EXAMPLES
This section shows sample entries for the /etc/inittab file.
System V.4 note: the port monitor facility should not listen on
lines that are already being handled by agetty. One way to
achieve this is to edit the /etc/inittab file so that the
/usr/lib/saf/sac entry is turned off.
For a hard-wired line:
t0:234:respawn:/usr/sbin/agetty -T vt100 term/a 19200
For a dial-in line with a 2400/1200/300 baud modem:
t1:234:respawn:/usr/sbin/agetty -mt60 term/b 2400,1200,300
The latter requires that the DTR and CD modem
control lines are enabled (with Sun equipment, see the
eeprom(8) manual page).
Some systems support multiple device entries for the same physical
port, so that a single modem can be used for dial-in and for dial-out
purposes. With Solaris 2.2 the dial-out and dial-in devices have
different major numbers; with other System V implementations the
dial-out and dial-in device minor numbers differ by, e.g., 128. On some
systems it may be necessary to mknod(8) the /dev/whatever entries
by hand.
SUNOS 4 EXAMPLES
This section shows sample entries for the /etc/ttytab file.
Note that init(8) appends the port name to the command
specified in the inittab file.
For a hard-wired line:
ttya "/usr/etc/agetty 9600" vt100 on local
For a dial-in line with a 2400/1200/300 baud modem:
ttyb "/usr/etc/agetty -mt60 2400,1200,300" unknown on modem
The latter requires that the DTR and CD modem
control lines are enabled (see the eeprom(8) manual page).
SunOS 4 supports multiple device entries for the same physical
port, so that a single modem can be used for dial-in and for dial-out
purposes. The dial-out device minor number is 128 higher than that
of the dial-in device. It may be necessary to mknod the
/dev/whatever entries by hand.
FILES
/etc/utmp, the system status file (System V only).
/etc/issue, printed before the login prompt (System V only).
/dev/console, problem reports (if syslog(3) is not used).
/etc/inittab (System V init(8) configuration file).
/etc/ttytab (SunOS 4 init(8) configuration file).
BUGS
The baud-rate detection feature (the -m option) requires that
agetty be scheduled soon enough after completion of a dial-in
call (within 30 ms with modems that talk at 2400 baud). For robustness,
always use the -m option in combination with a multiple baud
rate command-line argument, so that BREAK processing is enabled.
The text in the /etc/issue file (System V only) and the login prompt
are always output with 7-bit characters and space parity.
The baud-rate detection feature (the -m option) requires that
the modem emits its status message after raising the DCD line.
DIAGNOSTICS
Depending on how the program was configured, all diagnostics are
written to the console device or reported via the syslog(3) facility.
Error messages are produced if the port argument does not
specify a terminal device; if there is no /etc/utmp entry for the
current process (System V only); and so on.
AUTHOR(S)
W.Z. Venema <wietse@wzv.win.tue.nl>
Eindhoven University of Technology
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Den Dolech 2, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
CREATION DATE
Sat Nov 25 22:51:05 MET 1989
LAST MODIFICATION
93/08/22 13:57:02
VERSION/RELEASE
1.30
Index
- NAME
-
- SYSTEM V SYNOPSIS
-
- SUNOS 4 SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- ARGUMENTS
-
- OPTIONS
-
- SYSTEM V EXAMPLES
-
- SUNOS 4 EXAMPLES
-
- FILES
-
- BUGS
-
- DIAGNOSTICS
-
- AUTHOR(S)
-
- CREATION DATE
-
- LAST MODIFICATION
-
- VERSION/RELEASE
-
This document was created by
man2html,
using the manual pages.
Time: 21:54:51 GMT, February 02, 2023