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Low-Level Terminal Interface

This chapter describes functions that are specific to terminal devices. You can use these functions to do things like turn off input echoing; set serial line characteristics such as line speed and flow control; and change which characters are used for end-of-file, command-line editing, sending signals, and similar control functions.

Most of the functions in this chapter operate on file descriptors. See Low-Level I/O, for more information about what a file descriptor is and how to open a file descriptor for a terminal device.

• Is It a Terminal: How to determine if a file is a terminal device, and what its name is.
• I/O Queues: About flow control and typeahead.
• Canonical or Not: Two basic styles of input processing.
• Terminal Modes: How to examine and modify flags controlling details of terminal I/O: echoing, signals, editing. Posix.
• BSD Terminal Modes: BSD compatible terminal mode setting
• Line Control: Sending break sequences, clearing terminal buffers ...
• Noncanon Example: How to read single characters without echo.
• Pseudo-Terminals: How to open a pseudo-terminal.