AGETTY(8) System Administration AGETTY(8)
NAME
agetty - alternative Linux getty
SYNOPSIS
agetty [options] port [baud_rate...] [term]
DESCRIPTION
agetty opens a tty port, prompts for a login name and invokes the /bin/login command. It is normally invoked
by init(8).
agetty has several non-standard features that are useful for hard-wired and for dial-in lines:
· Adapts the tty settings to parity bits and to erase, kill, end-of-line and uppercase characters when it
reads a login name. The program can handle 7-bit characters with even, odd, none or space parity, and
8-bit characters with no parity. The following special characters are recognized: Control-U (kill); DEL
and back space (erase); carriage return and line feed (end of line). See also --erase-chars and
--kill-chars options.
· Optionally deduces the baud rate from the CONNECT messages produced by Hayes(tm)-compatible modems.
· Optionally does not hang up when it is given an already opened line (useful for call-back applica‐
tions).
· Optionally does not display the contents of the /etc/issue file.
· Optionally displays an alternative issue file instead of /etc/issue.
· Optionally does not ask for a login name.
· Optionally invokes a non-standard login program instead of /bin/login.
· Optionally turns on hard-ware flow control
· Optionally forces the line to be local with no need for carrier detect.
This program does not use the /etc/gettydefs (System V) or /etc/gettytab (SunOS 4) files.
ARGUMENTS
port A path name relative to the /dev directory. If a "-" is specified, agetty assumes that its standard
input is already connected to a tty port and that a connection to a remote user has already been estab‐
lished.
Under System V, a "-" port argument should be preceded by a "--".
baud_rate,...
A comma-separated list of one or more baud rates. Each time agetty receives a BREAK character it
advances through the list, which is treated as if it were circular.
Baud rates should be specified in descending order, so that the null character (Ctrl-@) can also be
used for baud rate switching.
This argument is optional and unnecessary for virtual terminals. The default for serial terminals is
'9600'.
option is added to the /bin/login command line by default. The --login-options option changes this
default behaviour and then only \u is replaced by the username and no other option is added to the
login command line.
-c, --noreset
Don't reset terminal cflags (control modes). See termios(3) for more details.
-E, --remote
If -H fakehost option is given then -r fakehost options is added to the /bin/login command line.
-f, --issue-file issue_file
Display the contents of issue_file instead of /etc/issue. This allows custom messages to be displayed
on different terminals. The -i option will override this option.
-h, --flow-control
Enable hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control. It is left up to the application to disable software (XON/XOFF)
flow protocol where appropriate.
-H, --host login_host
Write the specified login_host into the utmp file. (Normally, no login host is given, since agetty is
used for local hardwired connections and consoles. However, this option can be useful for identifying
terminal concentrators and the like.
-i, --noissue
Do not display the contents of /etc/issue (or other) before writing the login prompt. Terminals or com‐
munications hardware may become confused when receiving lots of text at the wrong baud rate; dial-up
scripts may fail if the login prompt is preceded by too much text.
-I, --init-string initstring
Set an initial string to be sent to the tty or modem before sending anything else. This may be used to
initialize a modem. Non printable characters may be sent by writing their octal code preceded by a
backslash (\). For example to send a linefeed character (ASCII 10, octal 012) write \012.
-l, --login-program login_program
Invoke the specified login_program instead of /bin/login. This allows the use of a non-standard login
program (for example, one that asks for a dial-up password or that uses a different password file).
-L, --local-line
Force the line to be a local line with no need for carrier detect. This can be useful when you have a
locally attached terminal where the serial line does not set the carrier detect signal.
-m, --extract-baud
Try to extract the baud rate the CONNECT status message produced by Hayes(tm)-compatible modems. These
status messages are of the form: "<junk><speed><junk>". agetty assumes that the modem emits its status
message at the same speed as specified with (the first) baud_rate value on the command line.
Since the -m feature may fail on heavily-loaded systems, you still should enable BREAK processing by
enumerating all expected baud rates on the command line.
-n, --skip-login
Do not prompt the user for a login name. This can be used in connection with -l option to invoke a non-
standard login process such as a BBS system. Note that with the -n option, agetty gets no input from
user who logs in and therefore won't be able to figure out parity, character size, and newline process‐
ing of the connection. It defaults to space parity, 7 bit characters, and ASCII CR (13) end-of-line
-r, --chroot "directory"
Change root to the specified directory.
-R, --hangup
Do call vhangup() for a virtually hangup of the specified terminal.
-s, --keep-baud
Try to keep the existing baud rate. The baud rates from the command line are used when agetty receives
a BREAK character.
-t, --timeout timeout
Terminate if no user name could be read within timeout seconds. This option should probably not be used
with hard-wired lines.
-U, --detect-case
Turn on support for detecting an uppercase only terminal. This setting will detect a login name con‐
taining only capitals as indicating an uppercase only terminal and turn on some upper to lower case
conversions. Note that this has no support for any unicode characters.
-w, --wait-cr
Wait for the user or the modem to send a carriage-return or a linefeed character before sending the
/etc/issue (or other) file and the login prompt. Very useful in connection with the -I option.
--noclear
Do not clear the screen before prompting for the login name (the screen is normally cleared).
--nohints
Do not print hints about Num, Caps and Scroll Locks.
--nonewline
Do not print a newline before writing out /etc/issue.
--nohostname
By default the hostname will be printed. With this option enabled, no hostname at all will be shown.
--long-hostname
By default the hostname is only printed until the first dot. With this option enabled, the fully qual‐
ified hostname by gethostname() or (if not found) by getaddrinfo() is shown.
--erase-chars string
This option specifies additional characters that should be interpreted as a backspace ("ignore the pre‐
vious character") when the user types the login name. The default additional ´erase´ has been ´#´, but
since util-linux 2.23 no additional erase characters are enabled by default.
--kill-chars string
This option specifies additional characters that should be interpreted as a kill ("ignore all previous
characters") when the user types the login name. The default additional ´kill´ has been ´@´, but since
util-linux 2.23 no additional kill characters are enabled by default.
--version
Display version information and exit.
--help Display help text and exit.
For a old style dial-in line with a 9600/2400/1200 baud modem:
/sbin/agetty -mt60 ttyS1 9600,2400,1200
For a Hayes modem with a fixed 115200 bps interface to the machine: (the example init string turns off modem
echo and result codes, makes modem/computer DCD track modem/modem DCD, makes a DTR drop cause a dis-connection
and turn on auto-answer after 1 ring.)
/sbin/agetty -w -I 'ATE0Q1&D2&C1S0=1\015' 115200 ttyS1
SECURITY NOTICE
If you use the --login-program and --login-options options, be aware that a malicious user may try to enter
lognames with embedded options, which then get passed to the used login program. Agetty does check for a lead‐
ing "-" and makes sure the logname gets passed as one parameter (so embedded spaces will not create yet
another parameter), but depending on how the login binary parses the command line that might not be suffi‐
cient. Check that the used login program can not be abused this way.
Some programs use "--" to indicate that the rest of the commandline should not be interpreted as options. Use
this feature if available by passing "--" before the username gets passed by \u.
ISSUE ESCAPES
The issue-file (/etc/issue or the file set with the -f option) may contain certain escape codes to display the
system name, date and time etc. All escape codes consist of a backslash (\) immediately followed by one of the
letters explained below.
4 or 4{interface}
Insert the IPv4 address of the machine hostname or IPv4 address the configured network interface if the
interface argument is specified (e.g. \4{eth0}).
6 or 6{interface}
Insert the IPv6 address of the machine hostname or IPv6 address the configured network interface if the
interface argument is specified (e.g. \6{eth0}}
b Insert the baudrate of the current line.
d Insert the current date.
s Insert the system name, the name of the operating system. Same as `uname -s'. See also \S escape code.
S or S{VARIABLE}
Insert the VARIABLE data from /etc/os-release. If the VARIABLE argument is not specified then use
PRETTY_NAME from the file or the system name (see \s). This escape code allows to keep /etc/issue dis‐
tribution and release independent. Note that \S{ANSI_COLOR} is converted to the real terminal escape
sequence.
l Insert the name of the current tty line.
m Insert the architecture identifier of the machine. Same as `uname -m'.
n Insert the nodename of the machine, also known as the hostname. Same as `uname -n'.
v Insert the version of the OS, eg. the build-date etc.
Example: On my system, the following /etc/issue file:
This is \n.\o (\s \m \r) \t
displays as
This is thingol.orcan.dk (Linux i386 1.1.9) 18:29:30
FILES
/var/run/utmp
the system status file.
/etc/issue
printed before the login prompt.
/etc/os-release
operating system identification data.
/dev/console
problem reports (if syslog(3) is not used).
/etc/inittab
init(8) configuration file for SysV-style init daemon.
BUGS
The baud-rate detection feature (the -m option) requires that agetty be scheduled soon enough after completion
of a dial-in call (within 30 ms with modems that talk at 2400 baud). For robustness, always use the -m option
in combination with a multiple baud rate command-line argument, so that BREAK processing is enabled.
The text in the /etc/issue file (or other) and the login prompt are always output with 7-bit characters and
space parity.
The baud-rate detection feature (the -m option) requires that the modem emits its status message after raising
the DCD line.
DIAGNOSTICS
Depending on how the program was configured, all diagnostics are written to the console device or reported via
the syslog(3) facility. Error messages are produced if the port argument does not specify a terminal device;
if there is no utmp entry for the current process (System V only); and so on.
AUTHORS
Werner Fink ⟨[email protected]⟩
Karel Zak ⟨[email protected]⟩
The original agetty for serial terminals was written by W.Z. Venema <[email protected]> and ported to
Linux by Peter Orbaek <[email protected]>.
AVAILABILITY
The agetty command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.ker‐
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