mirror of https://github.com/mkerrisk/man-pages
94 lines
2.9 KiB
Groff
94 lines
2.9 KiB
Groff
.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl), Mon Oct 31 21:03:19 MET 1994
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.\"
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.\" This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or
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.\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
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.\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
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.\" the License, or (at your option) any later version.
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.\"
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.\" Modified, Sun Feb 26 14:58:45 1995, faith@cs.unc.edu
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.\" "
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.TH CONSOLE 4 1994-10-31 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
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.SH NAME
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console \- console terminal and virtual consoles
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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A Linux system has up to 63 \fIvirtual consoles\fP
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(character devices with major number 4 and minor number 1 to 63),
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usually called \fI/dev/tty\fP\fIn\fP with 1 \(<= \fIn\fP \(<= 63.
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The current console is also addressed by
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\fI/dev/console\fP or \fI/dev/tty0\fP, the character device with
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major number 4 and minor number 0.
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The device files /dev/* are usually created using the script MAKEDEV,
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or using
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.BR mknod (1),
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usually with mode 0622 and owner root.tty.
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.LP
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Before kernel version 1.1.54 the number of virtual consoles was
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compiled into the kernel (in tty.h: #define NR_CONSOLES 8)
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and could be changed by editing and recompiling.
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Since version 1.1.54 virtual consoles are created on the fly,
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as soon as they are needed.
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.LP
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Common ways to start a process on a console are:
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(a) tell
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.BR init (8)
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(in
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.BR inittab (5))
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to start a
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.BR mingetty (8)
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(or
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.BR agetty (8))
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on the console;
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(b) ask
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.BR openvt (1)
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to start a process on the console;
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(c) start X \(em it will find the first unused console,
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and display its output there.
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(There is also the ancient
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.BR doshell (8).)
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.LP
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Common ways to switch consoles are: (a) use Alt+F\fIn\fP or
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Ctrl+Alt+F\fIn\fP to switch to console \fIn\fP; AltGr+F\fIn\fP
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might bring you to console \fIn\fP+12 [here Alt and AltGr refer
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to the left and right Alt keys, respectively];
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(b) use Alt+RightArrow or Alt+LeftArrow to cycle through
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the presently allocated consoles; (c) use the program
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.BR chvt (1).
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(The key mapping is user settable, see
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.BR loadkeys (1);
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the above mentioned key combinations are according to the default settings.)
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.LP
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The command
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.BR deallocvt (1)
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(formerly \fBdisalloc\fP)
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will free the memory taken by the screen buffers for consoles
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that no longer have any associated process.
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.SS Properties
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Consoles carry a lot of state.
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I hope to document that some other time.
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The most important fact is that the consoles simulate vt100 terminals.
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In particular, a console is reset to the initial state by printing the two
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characters ESC c.
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All escape sequences can be found in
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.BR console_codes (4).
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.SH FILES
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.I /dev/console
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.br
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.I /dev/tty*
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.SH "SEE ALSO"
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.BR chvt (1),
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.BR deallocvt (1),
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.BR loadkeys (1),
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.BR mknod (1),
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.BR openvt (1),
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.BR console_codes (4),
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.BR console_ioctl (4),
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.BR tty (4),
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.BR ttyS (4),
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.BR charsets (7),
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.BR agetty (8),
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.BR init (8),
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.BR mapscrn (8),
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.BR mingetty (8),
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.BR resizecons (8),
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.BR setfont (8)
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