{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "pkttyagent",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pkttyagent/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-03T00:26:36Z",
    "synopsis": "pkttyagent [--version] [--help]\npkttyagent [--process { pid | pid,pid-start-time } | --system-bus-name busname]\n[--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 } | --system-bus-name busname]\n[--notify-fd fd] [--fallback]\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "pkttyagent is used to start a textual authentication agent for the subject specified by\neither --process or --system-bus-name. If neither of these options are given, the parent\nprocess is used.\n\nTo get notified when the authentication agent has been registered either listen to the\nChanged D-Bus signal or use --notify-fd to pass the number of a file descriptor that has been\npassed to the program. This 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 replace an existing\nauthentication agent.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "RETURN VALUE": {
            "content": "If the authentication agent could not be registered, pkttyagent exits with an exit code of\n127. Diagnostic messages are printed on standard error.\n\nIf one or more of the options passed are malformed, pkttyagent exits with an exit code of\n126. If stdin is a tty, then this manual page is also shown.\n\nIf the authentication agent was successfully registered, pkttyagent will keep running,\ninteracting with the user as needed. When its services are no longer needed, the process can\nbe killed.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "NOTES": {
            "content": "Since process identifiers can be recycled, the caller should always use pid,pid-start-time\nwhen using the --process option. The value of pid-start-time can be determined by consulting\ne.g. the proc(5) file system depending on the operating system. If only pid is passed to the\n--process option, then pkttyagent will look up the start time itself but note that this may\nbe racy.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "AUTHOR": {
            "content": "Written by David Zeuthen <davidz@redhat.com> with a lot of help from many others.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "BUGS": {
            "content": "Please send bug reports to either the distribution or the polkit-devel mailing list, see the\nlink http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/polkit-devel on how to subscribe.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "polkit(8), pkaction(1), pkcheck(1), pkexec(1)\n\n\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"
        }
    ]
}