console(7) console(7)
NAME
console - console terminal devices
DESCRIPTION
A console terminal is a terminal used to display kernel
message and other system status messages, or to interact with
basic system services, such as init(1M). The physical system
console is the console terminal used by the kernel and
selected by boot(4) or Sassign(4); this must be a console-
capable device, as indicated by the C flag in the
characteristics field of the last line in the device driver's
Master(4) file; the Master file should also have a K flag in
the characteristics field.
/dev/console - the physical system console
The file /dev/console is the physical system console.
Programmers should write console messages to
/dev/console.
/dev/console is defined by init(1M) to be whatever
device is returned by sysi86 (SI86GCON), which in turn
is the console device defined by the console line in
/etc/conf/sassign.d/kernel or /stand/boot. See
Sassign(4) and boot(4) for respective syntaxes; the
definition in the boot(4) file takes precedence.
/dev/syscon - the virtual system console
The file /dev/syscon is the virtual system console; that
is, it ``floats'' to whatever device was last used to
change system states. Usually /dev/console and
/dev/syscon are identical. init(1M) uses /dev/syscon to
prompt for system state changes and for other
interactions.
/dev/sysmsg - the direct console driver
The file /dev/sysmsg is a node for the sysmsg pseudo-
device driver. This driver sends I/O to the physical
system console via console I/O entry points, rather than
the STREAMS interfaces. /dev/sysmsg is used during the
sysinit phase of init since the console may not yet have
been fully initialized, and since init can not remake
the /dev/console node until the root file system becomes
writeable).
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 1
console(7) console(7)
Files
/dev/console
/dev/syscon
/dev/sysmsg
REFERENCES
boot(4), init(1M), inittab(4), Master(4), Sassign(4)
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 2