Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Name

agetty

Synopsis

agetty [options] port baudrate [term]

System administration command. agetty opens a tty port, prompts for login, and invokes the login command with the user’s name as an argument. While reading the name, agetty attempts to adapt the system to the speed and type of device being used. agetty is usually invoked by init using parameters specified in the /etc/inittab file, or in newer distributions of linux by an upstart event using parameters given in /etc/event.d/tty[1–6] files. On some systems this command may also be invoked as getty or replaced by an alternative command like mingetty. (See discussion of upstart in Chapter 2.)

You must specify a port, which agetty will search for in the /dev directory. You may use -, in which case agetty reads from standard input. You must also specify baudrate, which may be a comma-separated list of rates through which agetty will step. Optionally, you may specify the term, which is used to override the TERM environment variable.

Options

−8

Disable parity detection and assume tty is 8-bit clean.

-f file

Specify the use of file instead of /etc/issue upon connection to terminal. It is overridden by -i.

-h

Specify hardware, not software, flow control.

-H hostname

Write login hostname into the utmp file. By default, no login host is specified.

-I string

Specify string to be sent to the tty or modem.

-i

Suppress printing of /etc/issue before printing the login prompt.

-l program

Specify the use of program instead of /bin/login.

-L

Do not require carrier ...