Date: Sun, 30 Apr 95 17:37:47 MDT From: terry@cs.weber.edu (Terry Lambert) To: pvinci@ix.netcom.com (Paul Vinciguerra) Cc: questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: [Q] NCONS vs. ptys Message-ID: <9504302337.AA04354@cs.weber.edu> In-Reply-To: <199504300447.VAA11899@ix2.ix.netcom.com> from "Paul Vinciguerra" at Apr 29, 95 09:47:00 pm
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> What is the difference between virtual consoles and pty's? A virtual consle is like a pty, but contains device state information for the console hardware as well. For instance, scan code mode, memory containing screen contents, screen graphics mode, cursor location, current attributes, etc., etc.. A pty is just a pipe with cannonical processing on one end (the slave end) so that programs think they are using a tty. > I also understand that the number of xterms is limited by the number of > pty's. That's right. Xterms use pty's to make the programs running in them (like your shell) think they are talking to a physica device. Telnet, rlogin, screen, and other programs all use pty's to fool programs into talking to them. The 'p' in 'pty' stands for pseudo -- it's a pretend tty. Terry Lambert terry@cs.weber.edu --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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