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(1) (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),  init(1),  loadkeys(1),  mknod(1),  openvt(1),  console_codes(4),
       console_ioctl(4),  tty(4),  ttyS(4),  charsets(7),  agetty(8),  mapscrn(8),   mingetty(8),
       resizecons(8), setfont(8)

COLOPHON

       This  page  is  part of release 4.04 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/.