CONSOLE
CONSOLE
NAMEDESCRIPTION
FILES
SEE ALSO
COLOPHON
NAME
console − console terminal and virtual consoles
DESCRIPTION
A Linux system has up to 63 virtual consoles (character devices with major number 4 and minor number 1 to 63), usually called /dev/ttyn with 1 ≤ n ≤ 63. The current console is also addressed by /dev/console or /dev/tty0, the character device with major number 4 and minor number 0. The device files /dev/* are usually created using the script MAKEDEV, or using mknod(1), usually with mode 0622 and owner root.tty.
Before kernel version 1.1.54 the number of virtual consoles was compiled into the kernel (in tty.h: #define NR_CONSOLES 8) and could be changed by editing and recompiling. Since version 1.1.54 virtual consoles are created on the fly, as soon as they are needed.
Common ways to start a process on a console are: (a) tell init(8) (in inittab(5)) to start a mingetty(8) (or agetty(8)) on the console; (b) ask openvt(1) to start a process on the console; (c) start X—it will find the first unused console, and display its output there. (There is also the ancient doshell(8).)
Common ways to switch consoles are: (a) use Alt+Fn or Ctrl+Alt+Fn to switch to console n; AltGr+Fn might bring you to console n+12 [here Alt and AltGr refer to the left and right Alt keys, respectively]; (b) use Alt+RightArrow or Alt+LeftArrow to cycle through the presently allocated consoles; (c) use the program chvt(1). (The key mapping is user settable, see loadkeys(1); the above mentioned key combinations are according to the default settings.)
The command deallocvt(1) (formerly disalloc) will free the memory taken by the screen buffers for consoles that no longer have any associated process.
Properties
Consoles carry a lot of state. I hope to document that some
other time. The most important fact is that the consoles
simulate vt100 terminals. In particular, a console is reset
to the initial state by printing the two characters ESC c.
All escape sequences can be found in
console_codes(4).
FILES
/dev/console
/dev/tty*
SEE ALSO
chvt(1), deallocvt(1), loadkeys(1), mknod(1), openvt(1), console_codes(4), console_ioctl(4), tty(4), ttyS(4), charsets(7), agetty(8), init(8), mapscrn(8), mingetty(8), resizecons(8), setfont(8)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.69 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/.
Opportunity
Personal Opportunity - Free software gives you access to billions of dollars of software at no cost. Use this software for your business, personal use or to develop a profitable skill. Access to source code provides access to a level of capabilities/information that companies protect though copyrights. Open source is a core component of the Internet and it is available to you. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. The potential is endless for those who understand the opportunity.
Business Opportunity - Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.
Free Software
Free Software provides computer programs and capabilities at no cost but more importantly, it provides the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software. The importance of free software is a matter of access, not price. Software at no cost is a benefit but ownership rights to the software and source code is far more significant.
Free Office Software - The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.
Free Books
The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books in an online readable format. The collection includes great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are yours to read and use without restrictions.
Source Code - Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.
Education
Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT - Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.
Linux Manual Pages - A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.
