On Thu, 5 Sep 2002 04:08:53 -0700 Max Webb <hbwebb@citlink.net> wrote:
Thanks. I know about the 1970's dummy terminal/ mainframe concept, and knew that PTS stood for pseudo terminal (and "s" I thought might be session). So its pseudo terminal slave....Now here is the strange part. I know that I have one true hardware terminal :0 (what ever it is called) and I had one terminal emulator open (Konsole) which would be pts/0 . I didn't have any other terminal emulator sessions open. Why the pts/1 then ?!?!
The pts/1 may be some hidden program you started. All the programs have a point of origin. Maybe pts/1 is some KDE program that needs a console to start. "In the beginning......", there was no X and you could only login to REAL ttys, ie. "boot in ascii mode". But that was a long time ago. It looks like you are booting directly into X (the windows system). For your learning experience, try hitting the key combo <control><alt><F2> you will drop out of X and be at the REAL consoles. Login and see what "who" tells you. <alt><F1> thru <alt><F6> are your basic REAL consoles. <alt><F7> is reserved for X. Once you start X, and create Xterms, they are assigned pty numbers to keep track of them. There is a kernel parameter which sets the limit, I think 256 is the max. The X server number, becomes their reference. The first X server number is :0. By the way, you can have a second X server going, to really make things interesting. Go to a REAL console, like <control><alt><F3> and type in startx -- :1 Now you have :0 on <alt><F7> and :1 on <alt><F8>. Look at the "who" for ptys on <alt><F8>.
Also and even more important: You seem very knowledgable, could you recommend some good (books) UNIX/Linux dictionaries that also contain acronyms like pts (etc) and good definitions. Also, what are some good reference books on Linux/UNIX? or online forums for UNIX/LINUX novices to gain knowledge from? I really need some advice. Thanks again. Max the IBM fan.
I really want and need to learn, and not just be a GUI moron.
P.S. Just bought an IBM Laptop and SuSEd it ... am reading this on a 21" IBM P260 CRT.
THANKS Max
On Thursday 05 September 2002 02:50 am, Derek Fountain wrote:
On Thursday 05 September 2002 10:28 am, you wrote:
I attend a small community college in a rural portion of the southwestern U.S. Very few people here even know what Linux is, and most of the people, at my small college in the CIS department, venerate Bill Gates as some sort of diety.
A bit conservative are they? ;o)
USER LINE LOGIN-TIME FROM max :0 Sep 4 21:19 (console) max pts/0 Sep 4 21:19 max pts/1 Sep 4 22:51 max@linux:~>
I understand everything but the column "LINE". I know that its the line to a session, but what do the acronyms pts/0 , pts/1 stand for? and I think
:0 means my screen? and what does (console) mean?
pts stands for pseudo terminal slave. A terminal (or console) is traditionally a keyboard/screen combination you sit and type at. Old UNIX boxes would have dozens of them hanging off the back, all connected with miles of cable. A pseudo terminal provides just the same facility only without the hardware. In other words, it's an xterm window or a konsole window, or whatever utility you use. They pop into life as you ask for them and get given sequential numbers: pts/0, then pts/1 and so on. The physical console is the hardware which is actually attached to your box - you probably only have one. That's labelled ":0" and is refered to as the actual "console".
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