getpt (3) Linux Manual Page

getpt – open a new pseudoterminal master

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).

Versions

getpt() is provided in glibc since version 2.1.

Attributes

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

Interface	Attribute	Value
getpt()	Thread safety	MT-Safe

Conforming To

getpt() is glibc-specific; use posix_openpt(3) instead.

See Also

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

Colophon

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