TTYSLOT(3)                          Linux Programmer's Manual                          TTYSLOT(3)



NAME
       ttyslot - find the slot of the current user's terminal in some file

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>    /* on BSD-like systems, and Linux */
       #include <stdlib.h>    /* on System V-like systems */

       int ttyslot(void);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       ttyslot():
           _BSD_SOURCE ||
           _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_ < 500 && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED

DESCRIPTION
       The legacy function ttyslot() returns the index of the current user's entry in some file.

       Now "What file?" you ask.  Well, let's first look at some history.

   Ancient history
       There used to be a file /etc/ttys in UNIX V6, that was read by the init(8) program to find
       out what to do with each terminal line.  Each line consisted  of  three  characters.   The
       first  character  was  either  '0' or '1', where '0' meant "ignore".  The second character
       denoted the terminal: '8' stood for "/dev/tty8".  The third character was an  argument  to
       getty(8)  indicating  the sequence of line speeds to try ('-' was: start trying 110 baud).
       Thus a typical line was "18-".  A hang on some line was solved by changing the  '1'  to  a
       '0', signaling init, changing back again, and signaling init again.

       In  UNIX V7 the format was changed: here the second character was the argument to getty(8)
       indicating the sequence of line speeds to try ('0'  was:  cycle  through  300-1200-150-110
       baud;  '4' was for the on-line console DECwriter) while the rest of the line contained the
       name of the tty.  Thus a typical line was "14console".

       Later systems have  more  elaborate  syntax.   System  V-like  systems  have  /etc/inittab
       instead.

   Ancient history (2)
       On the other hand, there is the file /etc/utmp listing the people currently logged in.  It
       is maintained by login(1).  It has a fixed size, and the appropriate index in the file was
       determined  by  login(1)  using  the  ttyslot()  call  to  find  the number of the line in
       /etc/ttys (counting from 1).

   The semantics of ttyslot
       Thus, the function ttyslot() returns the index of the controlling terminal of the  calling
       process  in  the  file /etc/ttys, and that is (usually) the same as the index of the entry
       for the current user in the file /etc/utmp.  BSD still has the /etc/ttys file, but  System
       V-like systems do not, and hence cannot refer to it.  Thus, on such systems the documenta‐
       tion says that ttyslot() returns the current user's index  in  the  user  accounting  data
       base.

RETURN VALUE
       If successful, this function returns the slot number.  On error (e.g., if none of the file
       descriptors 0, 1 or 2 is associated with a terminal that occurs  in  this  data  base)  it
       returns 0 on UNIX V6 and V7 and BSD-like systems, but -1 on System V-like systems.

ATTRIBUTES
   Multithreading (see pthreads(7))
       The ttyslot() function calls thread-unsafe function getttyent(), so it is not thread-safe.

CONFORMING TO
       SUSv1; marked as LEGACY in SUSv2; removed in POSIX.1-2001.  SUSv2 requires -1 on error.

NOTES
       The   utmp   file  is  found  various  places  on  various  systems,  such  as  /etc/utmp,
       /var/adm/utmp, /var/run/utmp.

       The glibc2  implementation  of  this  function  reads  the  file  _PATH_TTYS,  defined  in
       <ttyent.h>  as  "/etc/ttys".   It  returns 0 on error.  Since Linux systems do not usually
       have "/etc/ttys", it will always return 0.

       Minix also has fttyslot(fd).

SEE ALSO
       getttyent(3), ttyname(3), utmp(5)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.74 of the Linux man-pages project.  A  description  of  the
       project,  information  about  reporting  bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be
       found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU                                         2013-07-22                                 TTYSLOT(3)