Re: console knowledge

[Ralf Baechle <ralf@oss.sgi.com>]

On Fri, Dec 01, 2000 at 11:15:50AM -0700, Gordon McNutt wrote:

> > /dev/console (as chardev 5/1) differs from another device in some important
> > ways:
> >
> >  - When opened by a process without controlling tty it will not become a
> >    CTTY even if the NOCTTY flag is not set.
> 
> What do you mean by "controlling tty"?
> output, but perhaps you can clarify.

Controlling terminal is a fundamental UNIX term; you should check a good
UNIX book about it.  The glibc info pages also have some words about it.

> And why is the distinction noted above important? I assume it has something
> to do with keyboard input/screen

Reread my posting, it describes some of the differences in the behaviour
of for example /dev/console and /dev/ttyS0 even though both refer to the
same device.

That could be different.  The classic UNIX setup is sending /dev/console to
the printer on one serial and having the system's console terminal on
another.  Any arbitrary device combination would be possible.

  Ralf