NAME

       getpt - open a new pseudoterminal master

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #define _GNU_SOURCE             /* See feature_test_macros(7) */
       #include <stdlib.h>

       int getpt(void);

DESCRIPTION

       getpt()  opens  a new pseudoterminal device and returns a file descriptor that refers to that device.  It
       is equivalent to opening the pseudoterminal multiplexor device

           open("/dev/ptmx", O_RDWR);

       on Linux systems, though the pseudoterminal multiplexor device is located elsewhere on some systems  that
       use the GNU C library.

RETURN VALUE

       getpt()  returns  an  open file descriptor upon successful completion.  Otherwise, it returns -1 and sets
       errno to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       getpt() can fail with various errors described in open(2).

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
       ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │ Interface                                                                   │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │ getpt()                                                                     │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

VERSIONS

       Use posix_openpt(3) instead.

STANDARDS

       GNU.

HISTORY

       glibc 2.1.

SEE ALSO

       grantpt(3), posix_openpt(3), ptsname(3), unlockpt(3), ptmx(4), pty(7)

Linux man-pages 6.15                               2025-05-17                                           getpt(3)