<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>33.8. pty — Pseudo-terminal utilities — Python v3.1.1 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '../', VERSION: '3.1.1', COLLAPSE_MODINDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python v3.1.1 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="top" title="Python v3.1.1 documentation" href="../index.html" /> <link rel="up" title="33. 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Unix Specific Services</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-pty"> <h1>33.8. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pty</span></tt> — Pseudo-terminal utilities<a class="headerlink" href="#module-pty" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p><em>Platforms: </em>IRIX, Linux</p> <p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pty</span></tt> module defines operations for handling the pseudo-terminal concept: starting another process and being able to write to and read from its controlling terminal programmatically.</p> <p>Because pseudo-terminal handling is highly platform dependent, there is code to do it only for SGI and Linux. (The Linux code is supposed to work on other platforms, but hasn’t been tested yet.)</p> <p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pty</span></tt> module defines the following functions:</p> <dl class="function"> <dt id="pty.fork"> <tt class="descclassname">pty.</tt><tt class="descname">fork</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pty.fork" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Fork. Connect the child’s controlling terminal to a pseudo-terminal. Return value is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(pid,</span> <span class="pre">fd)</span></tt>. Note that the child gets <em>pid</em> 0, and the <em>fd</em> is <em>invalid</em>. The parent’s return value is the <em>pid</em> of the child, and <em>fd</em> is a file descriptor connected to the child’s controlling terminal (and also to the child’s standard input and output).</dd></dl> <dl class="function"> <dt id="pty.openpty"> <tt class="descclassname">pty.</tt><tt class="descname">openpty</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pty.openpty" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd>Open a new pseudo-terminal pair, using <a title="os.openpty" class="reference external" href="os.html#os.openpty"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.openpty()</span></tt></a> if possible, or emulation code for SGI and generic Unix systems. Return a pair of file descriptors <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(master,</span> <span class="pre">slave)</span></tt>, for the master and the slave end, respectively.</dd></dl> <dl class="function"> <dt id="pty.spawn"> <tt class="descclassname">pty.</tt><tt class="descname">spawn</tt><big>(</big><em>argv</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>master_read</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>stdin_read</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#pty.spawn" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Spawn a process, and connect its controlling terminal with the current process’s standard io. This is often used to baffle programs which insist on reading from the controlling terminal.</p> <p>The functions <em>master_read</em> and <em>stdin_read</em> should be functions which read from a file descriptor. The defaults try to read 1024 bytes each time they are called.</p> </dd></dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="tty.html" title="previous chapter">33.7. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">tty</span></tt> — Terminal control functions</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="fcntl.html" title="next chapter">33.9. <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">fcntl</span></tt> — The <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">fcntl()</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">ioctl()</span></tt> system calls</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../_sources/library/pty.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" size="18" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../modindex.html" title="Global Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="fcntl.html" title="33.9. fcntl — The fcntl() and ioctl() system calls" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="tty.html" title="33.7. tty — Terminal control functions" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="../index.html">Python v3.1.1 documentation</a> »</li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="unix.html" >33. 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