On Thu, Feb 23, 2006 at 03:18:54PM -0000, Demon News wrote: > > During the course of my work I have recently come across references to tty. > In ps, /dev/ and others. I realised that although I see this all the time > I don't actually know what it means. I searched the usual suspects and > although I found that tty was/is a system used by the deaf to make > telephone calls I have not been able to find out how/why it is used in > Debian/Linux. I did find the getty man and can see that this handles the > logon and stuff from a tty connection. And I know the a pty is a pseudo type > connect. What I don't understand is why I have ttys in ps and /dev/ and how > they relate to the structure of the system. Is it a historical thing? I know > they are something to do with modems and terminal connections also that they > can be used for things like voice recording. > > Any pointers to further reading that explains what these things actually are > and how they are used would be most welcome. > > I'm off to the admin manual to see if that has any info. TIA for any help. Hi $RANDOM $USER, I think you need to investigate the UNIX roots on Gnu/Linux. All this comes from there. Long ago, computers where multi-user mainframes with console terminal, so the idea is that they created a system to duplicate these historical bits. The next thing is to get a book like the 'unix philosophy'[0]. It states that everthing is treated like a file: the screen, the mouse, the printer, etc. This is what is in the /dev file system: dev meaning device. cheers, Kev [0] this I believe is a book by Eric Raymond, a historical figure in Unix and Gnu/Linux -- | .''`. == Debian GNU/Linux == | my web site: | | : :' : The Universal | debian.home.pipeline.com | | `. `' Operating System | go to counter.li.org and | | `- http://www.debian.org/ | be counted! #238656 | | my keysever: pgp.mit.edu | my NPO: cfsg.org |
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