{
    "mode": "info",
    "parameter": "pkttyagent",
    "section": "",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/info/pkttyagent/json",
    "generated": "2026-07-05T13:01:36Z",
    "synopsis": "pkttyagent [--version] [--help]\npkttyagent [--process { pid | pid,pid-start-time } |\n--system-bus-name busname] [--notify-fd fd] [--fallback]",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "pkttyagent - Textual authentication helper\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "pkttyagent [--version] [--help]\n\npkttyagent [--process { pid | pid,pid-start-time } |\n--system-bus-name busname] [--notify-fd fd] [--fallback]\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "pkttyagent is used to start a textual authentication agent for the\nsubject specified by either --process or --system-bus-name. If neither\nof these options are given, the parent process is used.\n\nTo get notified when the authentication agent has been registered\neither listen to the Changed D-Bus signal or use --notify-fd to pass\nthe number of a file descriptor that has been passed to the program.\nThis file descriptor will then be closed when the authentication agent\nhas been successfully registered.\n\nIf --fallback is used, the textual authentication agent will not\nreplace an existing authentication agent.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "RETURN VALUE": {
            "content": "If the authentication agent could not be registered, pkttyagent exits\nwith an exit code of 127. Diagnostic messages are printed on standard\nerror.\n\nIf one or more of the options passed are malformed, pkttyagent exits\nwith an exit code of 126. If stdin is a tty, then this manual page is\nalso shown.\n\nIf the authentication agent was successfully registered, pkttyagent\nwill keep running, interacting with the user as needed. When its\nservices are no longer needed, the process can be killed.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "NOTES": {
            "content": "Since process identifiers can be recycled, the caller should always use\npid,pid-start-time when using the --process option. The value of\npid-start-time can be determined by consulting e.g. the proc(5) file\nsystem depending on the operating system. If only pid is passed to the\n--process option, then pkttyagent will look up the start time itself\nbut note that this may be racy.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "AUTHOR": {
            "content": "Written by David Zeuthen <davidz@redhat.com> with a lot of help from\nmany others.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "BUGS": {
            "content": "Please send bug reports to either the distribution or the polkit-devel\nmailing list, see the link\nhttp://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/polkit-devel on how to\nsubscribe.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "polkit(8), pkaction(1), pkcheck(1), pkexec(1)\n\npolkit                             May 2009                      PKTTYAGENT(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "pkttyagent - Textual authentication helper",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "polkit",
            "section": "8",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/polkit/8/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "pkaction",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pkaction/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "pkcheck",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pkcheck/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "pkexec",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pkexec/1/json"
        }
    ]
}