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.\" This man page was written by Jeremy Phelps <jphelps@notreached.net>.
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.TH GETPT 3 "2002-10-09" "PTY Control" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
getpt \- open the pseudo-terminal master (PTM)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <stdlib.h>
.sp
.B "int getpt(void)"
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B getpt()
opens a pseudo-terminal master and returns its file descriptor.
It is equivalent to
.BI "open(" \fI"/dev/ptmx" , O_RDWR|O_NOCTTY ) 
on Linux systems, though the pseudo-terminal master is located
elsewhere on some systems that use GNU Libc.

.SH "RETURN VALUE"
.B getpt()
returns an open file descriptor upon successful completion. Otherwise, it
returns \-1 and sets
.I errno
to indicate the error.
.SH CONFORMING TO
.B getpt()
is specific to GNU Libc.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR grantpt (3),
.BR ptsname (3),
.BR posix_openpt (3),
.BR unlockpt (3),
.BR ptmx (4)