info > pts(4)

man perldoc info pydoc3 ri search

📝 NAME

ptmx, pts — pseudoterminal master and slave

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command / Description	Details
🔓 Open pseudoterminal master	open("/dev/ptmx", ...)	Returns a file descriptor for the master and creates a slave in /dev/pts/
🔍 Get slave device path	ptsname(fd)	Returns the path of the slave associated with the master
🔑 Grant access to slave	grantpt(fd)	Changes permissions and ownership of the slave device
🔓 Unlock slave	unlockpt(fd)	Unlocks the slave so it can be opened
🔄 Data flow between master and slave	Write to master → read from slave as input; write to slave → read from master as input	Bidirectional communication like a real terminal
🖥️ Terminal emulators	Used by xterm(1)	Interpret master data as terminal input
🌐 Remote login	Used by sshd(8)	Master data sent over network to client terminal
🔀 Feed input to pipe‑refusing programs	e.g., su(1), passwd(1)	Pseudoterminals bypass pipe/stdio restrictions

📖 DESCRIPTION

The file /dev/ptmx (the pseudoterminal multiplexor device) is a character file with major number 5 and minor number 2, usually with mode 0666 and ownership root:root. It is used to create a pseudoterminal master and slave pair.

When a process opens /dev/ptmx, it gets a file descriptor for a pseudoterminal master and a pseudoterminal slave device is created in the /dev/pts directory. Each file descriptor obtained by opening /dev/ptmx is an independent pseudoterminal master with its own associated slave, whose path can be found by passing the file descriptor to ptsname(3).

Before opening the pseudoterminal slave, you must pass the master's file descriptor to grantpt(3) and unlockpt(3).

Once both the pseudoterminal master and slave are open, the slave provides processes with an interface that is identical to that of a real terminal.

Data written to the slave is presented on the master file descriptor as input. Data written to the master is presented to the slave as input.

In practice, pseudoterminals are used for implementing terminal emulators such as xterm(1), in which data read from the pseudoterminal master is interpreted by the application in the same way a real terminal would interpret the data, and for implementing remote‑login programs such as sshd(8), in which data read from the pseudoterminal master is sent across the network to a client program that is connected to a terminal or terminal emulator.

Pseudoterminals can also be used to send input to programs that normally refuse to read input from pipes (such as su(1) and passwd(1)).

🗂️ FILES

• /dev/ptmx
• /dev/pts/*

⚠️ NOTES

The Linux support for the above (known as UNIX 98 pseudoterminal naming) is done using the devpts filesystem, which should be mounted on /dev/pts.

🔗 SEE ALSO

• getpt(3)
• grantpt(3)
• ptsname(3)
• unlockpt(3)
• pty(7)

📜 COLOPHON

This page is part of release 5.10 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 https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

📝 NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 📖 DESCRIPTION 🗂️ FILES ⚠️ NOTES 🔗 SEE ALSO 📜 COLOPHON