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PTY(4)			     Kernel Interfaces Manual			  PTY(4)

NAME
     pty -- old-style compatibility pseudo-terminal driver

SYNOPSIS
     device pty

DESCRIPTION
     The  pty driver provides support for the traditional BSD naming scheme that
     was used for accessing pseudo-terminals before it was replaced  by  pts(4).
     This traditional naming is still used in Linux.  When the device /dev/ptyXX
     is being opened, a new terminal shall be created with the pts(4) driver.  A
     device  node  for	this  terminal	shall  be  created,  which  has the name
     /dev/ttyXX.

     The pty driver also provides a cloning System V /dev/ptmx device.

     New code should not try to allocate pseudo-terminals using this  interface.
     It  is only provided for compatibility with older C libraries that tried to
     open such devices when posix_openpt(2) was being called,  and  for  running
     Linux binaries.

FILES
     The  BSD-style  compatibility pseudo-terminal driver uses the following de-
     vice names:

     /dev/pty[l-sL-S][0-9a-v]  Pseudo-terminal master devices.

     /dev/tty[l-sL-S][0-9a-v]  Pseudo-terminal slave devices.

     /dev/ptmx		       Control device, returns a file  descriptor  to  a
			       new master pseudo-terminal when opened.

DIAGNOSTICS
     None.

SEE ALSO
     posix_openpt(2), pts(4), tty(4)

HISTORY
     A pseudo-terminal driver appeared in 4.2BSD.

BUGS
     Unlike  previous implementations, the master and slave device nodes are de-
     stroyed when the PTY becomes unused.  A call to stat(2)  on  a  nonexistent
     master  device  will  already cause a new master device node to be created.
     The master device can only be destroyed by opening and closing it.

     The pty driver cannot be unloaded, because it cannot determine if it is be-
     ing used.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	October 28, 2019			  PTY(4)

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