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<div class="section" id="module-pty">
<span id="pty-pseudo-terminal-utilities"></span><h1>35.9. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-pty" title="(Linux) Pseudo-Terminal Handling for Linux."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">pty</span></tt></a> — Pseudo-terminal utilities<a class="headerlink" href="#module-pty" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p><em>Platforms: </em>Linux</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-pty" title="(Linux) Pseudo-Terminal Handling for Linux."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">pty</span></tt></a> module defines operations for handling the pseudo-terminal
concept: starting another process and being able to write to and read from its
controlling terminal programmatically.</p>
<p>Because pseudo-terminal handling is highly platform dependent, there is code to
do it only for Linux. (The Linux code is supposed to work on other platforms,
but hasn’t been tested yet.)</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-pty" title="(Linux) Pseudo-Terminal Handling for Linux."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">pty</span></tt></a> module defines the following functions:</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="pty.fork">
<tt class="descclassname">pty.</tt><tt class="descname">fork</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pty.fork" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Fork. Connect the child’s controlling terminal to a pseudo-terminal. Return
value is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(pid,</span> <span class="pre">fd)</span></tt>. Note that the child gets <em>pid</em> 0, and the <em>fd</em> is
<em>invalid</em>. The parent’s return value is the <em>pid</em> of the child, and <em>fd</em> is a
file descriptor connected to the child’s controlling terminal (and also to the
child’s standard input and output).</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="pty.openpty">
<tt class="descclassname">pty.</tt><tt class="descname">openpty</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pty.openpty" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Open a new pseudo-terminal pair, using <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.openpty" title="os.openpty"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.openpty()</span></tt></a> if possible, or
emulation code for generic Unix systems. Return a pair of file descriptors
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(master,</span> <span class="pre">slave)</span></tt>, for the master and the slave end, respectively.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="pty.spawn">
<tt class="descclassname">pty.</tt><tt class="descname">spawn</tt><big>(</big><em>argv</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>master_read</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>stdin_read</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pty.spawn" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Spawn a process, and connect its controlling terminal with the current
process’s standard io. This is often used to baffle programs which insist on
reading from the controlling terminal.</p>
<p>The functions <em>master_read</em> and <em>stdin_read</em> should be functions which read from
a file descriptor. The defaults try to read 1024 bytes each time they are
called.</p>
</dd></dl>
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