Re: Questions from a kernel hacker wannabe

Zack Weinberg (zack@bitmover.com)
Wed, 25 Aug 1999 23:55:10 -0700


mullein wrote:
> The consoles are instances of the getty program (mingetty is the version
> used in rh 5.2 and suse 6.1) called from /etc/inittab. it shows up in ps
> ax as /sbin/mingetty ttyX. I don't know how it traps alt+fX, but mingetty
> source would probably be illuminating as to how userland processes can.

Unless X is involved, console switching happens entirely within the
kernel. See drivers/char/vt.c, include/linux/vt.h. Mingetty (and
agetty, and util-linux getty) don't do anything.

The X server source will show you how to trap console switches - but
you probably don't want to.

See also the "screen" program for an idea of how to implement
something very similar purely in user space.

zw

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