NAME

getty  − set terminal mode

SYNOPSIS

/etc/getty [ type ]

DESCRIPTION

Getty attempts to adapt the system to the type of terminal being used.  Getty is called by init(8) immediately after making a connection. Init first reads the entry in the /etc/ttys file for the terminal line being opened, and then calls getty, passing the second character in the entry as an argument. Getty uses this character to select an entry from the /etc/gettytab file.  This entry describes characteristics of the terminal, including its baud rate.  If there is no argument, or there is no such table, the default table is used.  If there is no /etc/gettytab file, a set of system defaults is used. 

If indicated by the table located, getty will clear the terminal screen, print a banner heading, and prompt for a login name.  Usually either the banner of the login prompt will include the system hostname.  Then the user’s name is read, a character at a time.  If a null character is received, it is assumed to be the result of the user pushing the ‘break’ (‘interrupt’) key.  The speed is usually then changed and the ‘login:’ is typed again; a second ‘break’ changes the speed again and the ‘login:’ is typed once more.  Successive ‘break’ characters cycle through the some standard set of speeds. 

The user’s name is terminated by a new-line or carriage-return character.  The latter results in the system being set to treat carriage returns appropriately (see tty(4)).

The user’s name is scanned to see if it contains any lower-case alphabetic characters; if not, and if the name is nonempty, the system is told to map any future upper-case characters into the corresponding lower-case characters. 

Finally, login is called with the user’s name as argument. 

Most of the default actions of getty can be circumvented, or modified, by a suitable gettytab table. 

Getty can be set to timeout after some interval, which will cause dial up lines to hang up if the login name is not entered reasonably quickly. 

FILES

/etc/gettytab

SEE ALSO

gettytab(5), init(8), login(1), ioctl(2), tty(4), ttys(5)
Balance System Administrator’s Guide

BUGS

Currently, the format of /etc/ttys limits the permitted table names to a single character, this should be expanded. 

/etc/ttys should be replaced completely. 

4BSD