getty

[SAM_24]

Hi,

Getty allows user to login into the system from console. I want to understand why there are so many lines for getty in /etc/inittab.

cons:123456:respawn:/usr/sbin/getty console console # system console
#ttp1:234:respawn:/usr/sbin/getty -h tty0p1 9600
#ttp2:234:respawn:/usr/sbin/getty -h tty0p2 9600
#ttp3:234:respawn:/usr/sbin/getty -h tty0p3 9600
#ttp4:234:respawn:/usr/sbin/getty -h tty0p4 9600
#ttp5:234:respawn:/usr/sbin/getty -h tty0p5 9600

What are ttp1 to ttp5?

Thanks.

[Mark Grant]

These are for having a login on directly attached serial terminals plugged into serial ports. You probably don't have any but in the old days we all did :)

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi,

Those are serial ports. Used by either dumb terminals or modems.
The getty entry for the console will reference console & generally be referencing all 6 run states and will not state a baud rate.

Rgds,
Jeff

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

Logins to the console are only one of the uses for getty. In the old days of UNIX, when almost all connections were using serial terminals, you could have hundreds of these, each spawning a login (or a UUCP connection).

Note that the '#' comments out these entries so that they are not used. Each of these refer to a hard-wired serial port connection; depending upon whether or not you have a MUX installed on your bos these may or may not be valid TTY devices.