vtlmgr(1M) (RM400 only) vtlmgr(1M)
NAME
vtlmgr - monitors and opens virtual terminals
SYNOPSIS
vtlmgr [-k]
DESCRIPTION
When you invoke the vtlmgr command (usually from within your
.profile), it places itself in the background and monitors /dev/vtmon
for signals from the keyboard/display driver to open new virtual ter-
minals.
The -k option sends a SIGHUP signal to all open virtual terminals when
you log off (by entering <CTRL-D> from your home virtual terminal).
This automatically closes, if possible, existing virtual terminals.
For virtual terminals that cannot be closed automatically, you are
asked if you want to close them manually.
After running vtlmgr, you open new virtual terminals and then switch
between them by entering a hot-key sequence, specifically:
ALT - SYS-REQ key
where key is either a function key whose number corresponds to the
number of the virtual terminal to switch to, for example, pressing F1
switches you to /dev/vt01 (virtual terminal 01), pressing F2 switches
you to /dev/vt02 (virtual terminal 02), and so forth, or one of the
letters in the following table:
____________________________________________
| key Interpretation |
|___________________________________________|
| h home virtual terminal (/dev/vt00) |
| n next virtual terminal |
| p previous virtual terminal |
| f force a switch to a virtual terminal|
|___________________________________________|
Use the f key only when the current virtual terminal is essentially
locked up or stuck in graphics mode. This will cause the virtual ter-
minal to be reset to a sane text state and all processes associated
with the virtual terminal will be killed.
When the hot-key sequence is entered, the executable program pointed
to by the $SHELL variable is executed in the new virtual terminal. If
$SHELL is NULL or pointing to a program which is not executable,
/bin/sh is executed. The newly opened virtual terminal inherits the
environment in effect when the vtlmgr command is invoked.
You may perform setup on each new virtual terminal as it is created by
vtlmgr through the .vtlrc file. This file should be in your home
directory. Its contents are a shell script that will be run by /bin/sh
before the shell prompt is displayed. In this way it is similar to
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vtlmgr(1M) (RM400 only) vtlmgr(1M)
your .profile file. However, you may not set and export environment
variables to the shell for the virtual terminal because a different
shell runs the .vtlrc shell script.
The system administrator can control how many virtual terminals are
available by setting a parameter in the file
/etc/default/workstations. Virtual terminals 0-8 are configured by
default and the default keyboard map makes up to 13 virtual terminals
available (i.e. an additional 4 virtual terminals can readily be
defined within the default settings). The default virtual terminals
are the home terminal and one corresponding to each function key. An
application can make two more available to the end-user (by reprogram-
ming the keyboard map), or can reserve the last two for programmatic
use only, making 15 virtual terminals available in all.
Note that processes that are no longer visible may still be continu-
ing. Standard output is directed to the current virtual terminal's
screen. For example, you can issue a cat command on one virtual termi-
nal, switch to another virtual terminal to start an application, and
then switch to another to do an edit. The cat output will be lost if
the virtual terminal scrolls the data off the screen unless you ini-
tially redirect the output to a file.
DIAGNOSTICS
The vtlmgr command will fail under the following conditions:
- An illegal option is specified.
- The device cannot be opened.
- The command is invoked from a remote terminal.
- /dev/vtmon cannot be opened.
- $SHELL is set and is not executable.
- $SHELL is not set and /bin/sh cannot be invoked.
SEE ALSO
vtgetty(1M), keyboard(7).
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