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

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