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AGETTY(8) System Manager's Manual AGETTY(8)

NAME

agetty - alternative Linux getty

SYNOPSIS

agetty [-8ihLmnUw] [-f issue_file] [-l login_program] [-I init] [-t timeout] [-H login_host] port baud_rate,... [term]
agetty [-8ihLmnw] [-f issue_file] [-l login_program] [-I init] [-t timeout] [-H login_host] baud_rate,... port [term]

DESCRIPTION


agetty opens a tty port, prompts for a login name and invokes the /bin/login command. It is normally invoked by init(8).

agetty has several non-standard features that are useful for hard-wired and for dial-in lines:

Adapts the tty settings to parity bits and to erase, kill, end-of-line and uppercase characters when it reads a login name. The program can handle 7-bit characters with even, odd, none or space parity, and 8-bit characters with no parity. The following special characters are recognized: @ and Control-U (kill); #, DEL and back space (erase); carriage return and line feed (end of line). See also --erase-chars and --kill-chars options.
Optionally deduces the baud rate from the CONNECT messages produced by Hayes(tm)-compatible modems.
Optionally does not hang up when it is given an already opened line (useful for call-back applications).
Optionally does not display the contents of the /etc/issue file.
Optionally displays an alternative issue file instead of /etc/issue.
Optionally does not ask for a login name.
Optionally invokes a non-standard login program instead of /bin/login.
Optionally turns on hard-ware flow control
Optionally forces the line to be local with no need for carrier detect.

This program does not use the /etc/gettydefs (System V) or /etc/gettytab (SunOS 4) files.

ARGUMENTS




  

  
A path name relative to the /dev directory. If a "-" is
      specified, agetty assumes that its standard input is already
      connected to a tty port and that a connection to a remote user has already
      been established.
    
Under System V, a "-" port argument should be
        preceded by a "--".

  

  

  
A comma-separated list of one or more baud rates. Each time agetty
      receives a BREAK character it advances through the list, which is treated
      as if it were circular.
    
Baud rates should be specified in descending order, so that
        the null character (Ctrl-@) can also be used for baud rate
      switching.

  

  

  
The value to be used for the TERM environment variable. This overrides
      whatever init(8) may have set, and is inherited by login and the
    shell.








OPTIONS





  
-8

  
Assume that the tty is 8-bit clean, hence disable parity detection.

  

  
Enable hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control. It is left up to the application
      to disable software (XON/XOFF) flow protocol where appropriate.

  

  
Do not display the contents of /etc/issue (or other) before writing
      the login prompt. Terminals or communications hardware may become confused
      when receiving lots of text at the wrong baud rate; dial-up scripts may
      fail if the login prompt is preceded by too much text.

  

  
If -H fakehost option is given then -h fakehost options is
      added to the the /bin/login command line.

  

  
Display the contents of issue_file instead of /etc/issue.
      This allows custom messages to be displayed on different terminals. The -i
      option will override this option.

  

  
Set an initial string to be sent to the tty or modem before sending
      anything else. This may be used to initialize a modem. Non printable
      characters may be sent by writing their octal code preceded by a backslash
      (\). For example to send a linefeed character (ASCII 10, octal 012) write
      \012.

  
-l login_program

  
Invoke the specified login_program instead of /bin/login. This
      allows the use of a non-standard login program (for example, one that asks
      for a dial-up password or that uses a different password file).

  

  
Write the specified login_host into the utmp file. (Normally, no
      login host is given, since agetty is used for local hardwired
      connections and consoles. However, this option can be useful for
      identifying terminal concentrators and the like.

  
-L [=mode]

  
Control CLOCAL line flag, the optional argument mode is 'auto',
      'always' or 'never'. If the mode argument is omitted then the
      default is 'always'. If the -L option is ommitted at all then the default
      is 'auto'.
    
The mode 'always' forces the line to be a local line
        with no need for carrier detect. This can be useful when you have a
        locally attached terminal where the serial line does not set the carrier
        detect signal.

    
The mode 'never' explicitly clears CLOCAL flags from
        line setting and the carrier detect signal is expected on the line.

    
The mode 'auto' (agetty default) does not modify CLOCAL
        setting and follows the setting enabled by kernel.

  

  

  
Try to extract the baud rate the CONNECT status message produced by
      Hayes(tm)-compatible modems. These status messages are of the form:
      "<junk><speed><junk>". agetty assumes
      that the modem emits its status message at the same speed as specified
      with (the first) baud_rate value on the command line.
    
Since the -m feature may fail on heavily-loaded
        systems, you still should enable BREAK processing by enumerating all
        expected baud rates on the command line.

  

  

  
Do not prompt the user for a login name. This can be used in connection
      with -l option to invoke a non-standard login process such as a BBS
      system. Note that with the -n option, agetty gets no input from
      user who logs in and therefore won't be able to figure out parity,
      character size, and newline processing of the connection. It defaults to
      space parity, 7 bit characters, and ASCII CR (13) end-of-line character.
      Beware that the program that agetty starts (usually /bin/login) is
      run as root.

  
-t timeout

  
Terminate if no user name could be read within timeout seconds.
      This option should probably not be used with hard-wired lines.

  

  
Force the line to be a local line with no need for carrier detect. This
      can be useful when you have a locally attached terminal where the serial
      line does not set the carrier detect signal.

  

  
Turn on support for detecting an uppercase only terminal. This setting
      will detect a login name containing only capitals as indicating an
      uppercase only terminal and turn on some upper to lower case conversions.
      Note that this has no support for any unicode characters.

  

  
Wait for the user or the modem to send a carriage-return or a linefeed
      character before sending the /etc/issue (or other) file and the
      login prompt. Very useful in connection with the -I option.

  

  
This option specifies additional chars that should be interpreted as a
      backspace (ignore previous char) when user specifies login name. The
      default is ´#´, specify empty string to disable the
    default.

  

  
This option specifies additional chars that should be interpreted as a
      kill (ignore all previous chars) when user specifies login name. The
      default is ´@´, specify empty string to disable the
    default.








EXAMPLES


This section shows examples for the process field of an entry in
    the /etc/inittab file. You'll have to prepend appropriate values for
    the other fields. See inittab(5) for more details.


For a hard-wired line or a console tty: /sbin/agetty 9600
  ttyS1


For a directly connected terminal without proper carriage detect
    wiring: (try this if your terminal just sleeps instead of giving you a
    password: prompt.) /sbin/agetty -L 9600 ttyS1 vt100


For a old style dial-in line with a 9600/2400/1200 baud modem:
    /sbin/agetty -mt60 ttyS1 9600,2400,1200


For a Hayes modem with a fixed 115200 bps interface to the
    machine: (the example init string turns off modem echo and result codes,
    makes modem/computer DCD track modem/modem DCD, makes a DTR drop cause a
    dis-connection and turn on auto-answer after 1 ring.) /sbin/agetty -w -I
    'ATE0Q1&D2&C1S0=1\015' 115200 ttyS1








ISSUE ESCAPES


The issue-file (/etc/issue or the file set with the -f
    option) may contain certain escape codes to display the system name, date
    and time etc. All escape codes consist of a backslash (\) immediately
    followed by one of the letters explained below.





  

  
Insert the baudrate of the current line.

  

  
Insert the current date.

  

  
Insert the system name, the name of the operating system.

  

  
Insert the name of the current tty line.

  

  
Insert the architecture identifier of the machine, eg. i486

  

  
Insert the nodename of the machine, also known as the hostname.

  

  
Insert the NIS domainname of the machine.

  

  
Insert the DNS domainname of the machine.

  

  
Insert the release number of the OS, eg. 1.1.9.

  

  
Insert the current time.

  

  
Insert the number of current users logged in.

  

  
Insert the string "1 user" or "<n> users" where
      <n> is the number of current users logged in.

  

  
Insert the version of the OS, eg. the build-date etc.

  

  

    

    
This is \n.\o (\s \m \r) \t

  

  

  

    
This is thingol.orcan.dk (Linux i386 1.1.9) 18:29:30
    

    

  








FILES


/var/run/utmp, the system status file.
/etc/issue, printed before the login prompt.
/dev/console, problem reports (if syslog(3) is not used).
/etc/inittab, init(8) configuration file.






BUGS




The baud-rate detection feature (the -m option) requires
    that agetty be scheduled soon enough after completion of a dial-in
    call (within 30 ms with modems that talk at 2400 baud). For robustness,
    always use the -m option in combination with a multiple baud rate
    command-line argument, so that BREAK processing is enabled.


The text in the /etc/issue file (or other) and the login
    prompt are always output with 7-bit characters and space parity.


The baud-rate detection feature (the -m option) requires
    that the modem emits its status message after raising the DCD
  line.






DIAGNOSTICS




Depending on how the program was configured, all diagnostics are
    written to the console device or reported via the syslog(3) facility. Error
    messages are produced if the port argument does not specify a
    terminal device; if there is no utmp entry for the current process (System V
    only); and so on.






AUTHOR(S)


W.Z. Venema <wietse@wzv.win.tue.nl>
Eindhoven University of Technology
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Den Dolech 2, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Peter Orbaek <poe@daimi.aau.dk>
Linux port and more options. Still maintains the code.
Eric Rasmussen <ear@usfirst.org>
Added -f option to display custom login messages on different terminals.







AVAILABILITY


The agetty command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is
    available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/.