Doc/lib/libpty.tex

   1 \section{\module{pty} ---
   2          Pseudo-terminal utilities}
   3 \declaremodule{standard}{pty}
   4   \platform{IRIX, Linux}
   5 \modulesynopsis{Pseudo-Terminal Handling for SGI and Linux.}
   6 \moduleauthor{Steen Lumholt}{}
   7 \sectionauthor{Moshe Zadka}{moshez@zadka.site.co.il}
   8
   9
  10 The \module{pty} module defines operations for handling the
  11 pseudo-terminal concept: starting another process and being able to
  12 write to and read from its controlling terminal programmatically.
  13
  14 Because pseudo-terminal handling is highly platform dependant, there
  15 is code to do it only for SGI and Linux. (The Linux code is supposed
  16 to work on other platforms, but hasn't been tested yet.)
  17
  18 The \module{pty} module defines the following functions:
  19
  20 \begin{funcdesc}{fork}{}
  21 Fork. Connect the child's controlling terminal to a pseudo-terminal.
  22 Return value is \code{(\var{pid}, \var{fd})}. Note that the child
  23 gets \var{pid} 0, and the \var{fd} is \emph{invalid}. The parent's
  24 return value is the \var{pid} of the child, and \var{fd} is a file
  25 descriptor connected to the child's controlling terminal (and also
  26 to the child's standard input and output).
  27 \end{funcdesc}
  28
  29 \begin{funcdesc}{openpty}{}
  30 Open a new pseudo-terminal pair, using \function{os.openpty()} if
  31 possible, or emulation code for SGI and generic \UNIX{} systems.
  32 Return a pair of file descriptors \code{(\var{master}, \var{slave})},
  33 for the master and the slave end, respectively.
  34 \end{funcdesc}
  35
  36 \begin{funcdesc}{spawn}{argv\optional{, master_read\optional{, stdin_read}}}
  37 Spawn a process, and connect its controlling terminal with the current
  38 process's standard io. This is often used to baffle programs which
  39 insist on reading from the controlling terminal.
  40
  41 The functions \var{master_read} and \var{stdin_read} should be
  42 functions which read from a file-descriptor. The defaults try to read
  43 1024 bytes each time they are called.
  44 \end{funcdesc}