<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>8.11 pty -- Pseudo-terminal utilities</title> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="8.11 pty -- Pseudo-terminal utilities"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="lib"> <META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document"> <META NAME="distribution" CONTENT="global"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset="> <link rel="STYLESHEET" href="lib.css"> <link rel="first" href="lib.html"> <link rel="contents" href="contents.html" title="Contents"> <link rel="index" href="genindex.html" title="Index"> <LINK REL="next" href="module-fcntl.html"> <LINK REL="previous" href="module-tty.html"> <LINK REL="up" href="unix.html"> <LINK REL="next" href="module-fcntl.html"> </head> <body> <DIV CLASS="navigation"> <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2"> <tr> <td><A href="module-tty.html"><img src="../icons/previous.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Previous Page" width="32"></A></td> <td><A href="unix.html"><img src="../icons/up.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Up One Level" width="32"></A></td> <td><A href="module-fcntl.html"><img src="../icons/next.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Next Page" width="32"></A></td> <td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td> <td><A href="contents.html"><img src="../icons/contents.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Contents" width="32"></A></td> <td><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src="../icons/modules.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Module Index" width="32"></a></td> <td><A href="genindex.html"><img src="../icons/index.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Index" width="32"></A></td> </tr></table> <b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" href="module-tty.html">8.10 tty </A> <b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" href="unix.html">8. Unix Specific Services</A> <b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" href="module-fcntl.html">8.12 fcntl </A> <br><hr> </DIV> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <H1><A NAME="SECTION00101100000000000000000"> 8.11 <tt class="module">pty</tt> -- Pseudo-terminal utilities</A> </H1> <p class="availability">Availability: <span class="platform">IRIX, Linux</span>.</p> <P> The <tt class="module">pty</tt> 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> Because pseudo-terminal handling is highly platform dependant, there is code to do it only for SGI and Linux. (The Linux code is supposed to work on other platforms, but hasn't been tested yet.) <P> The <tt class="module">pty</tt> module defines the following functions: <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-2173"><tt class="function">fork</tt></a></b>() <dd> Fork. Connect the child's controlling terminal to a pseudo-terminal. Return value is <code>(<var>pid</var>, <var>fd</var>)</code>. Note that the child gets <var>pid</var> 0, and the <var>fd</var> is <i>invalid</i>. The parent's return value is the <var>pid</var> of the child, and <var>fd</var> is a file descriptor connected to the child's controlling terminal (and also to the child's standard input and output. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-2174"><tt class="function">openpty</tt></a></b>() <dd> Open a new pseudo-terminal pair, using <tt class="function">os.openpty()</tt> if possible, or emulation code for SGI and generic Unix systems. Return a pair of file descriptors <code>(<var>master</var>, <var>slave</var>)</code>, for the master and the slave end, respectively. </dl> <P> <dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-2175"><tt class="function">spawn</tt></a></b>(<var>argv</var><big>[</big><var>, master_read</var><big>[</big><var>, stdin_read</var><big>]</big><big>]</big>) <dd> 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> The functions <var>master_read</var> and <var>stdin_read</var> should be functions which read from a file-descriptor. The defaults try to read 1024 bytes each time they are called. </dl> <DIV CLASS="navigation"> <p><hr> <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2"> <tr> <td><A href="module-tty.html"><img src="../icons/previous.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Previous Page" width="32"></A></td> <td><A href="unix.html"><img src="../icons/up.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Up One Level" width="32"></A></td> <td><A href="module-fcntl.html"><img src="../icons/next.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Next Page" width="32"></A></td> <td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td> <td><A href="contents.html"><img src="../icons/contents.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Contents" width="32"></A></td> <td><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src="../icons/modules.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Module Index" width="32"></a></td> <td><A href="genindex.html"><img src="../icons/index.gif" border="0" height="32" alt="Index" width="32"></A></td> </tr></table> <b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" href="module-tty.html">8.10 tty </A> <b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" href="unix.html">8. Unix Specific Services</A> <b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" href="module-fcntl.html">8.12 fcntl </A> <hr> <span class="release-info">Release 2.2, documentation updated on December 21, 2001.</span> </DIV> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <ADDRESS> See <i><a href="about.html">About this document...</a></i> for information on suggesting changes. </ADDRESS> </BODY> </HTML>