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/.

Linux                                              1994-10-31                                         CONSOLE(4)