1 .\" Copyright (c) 1994 Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl), Mon Oct 31 21:03:19 MET 1994
3 .\" %%%LICENSE_START(GPLv2+_DOC_ONEPARA)
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10 .\" Modified, Sun Feb 26 14:58:45 1995, faith@cs.unc.edu
12 .TH CONSOLE 4 1994-10-31 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
14 console \- console terminal and virtual consoles
16 A Linux system has up to 63
18 (character devices with major number 4 and minor number 1 to 63),
24 The current console is also addressed by
28 the character device with
29 major number 4 and minor number 0.
32 are usually created using the script MAKEDEV,
35 usually with mode 0622 and owner
38 Before kernel version 1.1.54 the number of virtual consoles was
39 compiled into the kernel (in
41 #define NR_CONSOLES 8)
42 and could be changed by editing and recompiling.
43 Since version 1.1.54 virtual consoles are created on the fly,
44 as soon as they are needed.
46 Common ways to start a process on a console are:
58 to start a process on the console;
59 (c) start X\(emit will find the first unused console,
60 and display its output there.
61 (There is also the ancient
64 Common ways to switch consoles are: (a) use Alt+F\fIn\fP or
65 Ctrl+Alt+F\fIn\fP to switch to console
68 might bring you to console \fIn\fP+12 [here Alt and AltGr refer
69 to the left and right Alt keys, respectively];
70 (b) use Alt+RightArrow or Alt+LeftArrow to cycle through
71 the presently allocated consoles; (c) use the program
73 (The key mapping is user settable, see
75 the above mentioned key combinations are according to the default settings.)
81 will free the memory taken by the screen buffers for consoles
82 that no longer have any associated process.
84 Consoles carry a lot of state.
85 I hope to document that some other time.
86 The most important fact is that the consoles simulate vt100 terminals.
87 In particular, a console is reset to the initial state by printing the two
89 All escape sequences can be found in
90 .BR console_codes (4).
101 .BR console_codes (4),
102 .BR console_ioctl (4),