This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
Contents
Application Usage
This function is a method for portably obtaining a file descriptor of a master terminal device for a
pseudo-terminal. The grantpt() and ptsname() functions can be used to manipulate mode and ownership
permissions, and to obtain the name of the slave device, respectively.
Copyright
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard
for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document.
The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2017 POSIX_OPENPT(3POSIX)
Description
The posix_openpt() function shall establish a connection between a master device for a pseudo-terminal
and a file descriptor. The file descriptor shall be allocated as described in Section2.14, FileDescriptorAllocation and can be used by other I/O functions that refer to that pseudo-terminal.
The file status flags and file access modes of the open file description shall be set according to the
value of oflag.
Values for oflag are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive OR of flags from the following list, defined in
<fcntl.h>:
O_RDWR Open for reading and writing.
O_NOCTTY If set posix_openpt() shall not cause the terminal device to become the controlling terminal
for the process.
The behavior of other values for the oflag argument is unspecified.
Errors
The posix_openpt() function shall fail if:
EMFILE All file descriptors available to the process are currently open.
ENFILE The maximum allowable number of files is currently open in the system.
The posix_openpt() function may fail if:
EINVAL The value of oflag is not valid.
EAGAIN Out of pseudo-terminal resources.
ENOSR Out of STREAMS resources.
Thefollowingsectionsareinformative.Examples
OpeningaPseudo-TerminalandReturningtheNameoftheSlaveDeviceandaFileDescriptor
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int masterfd, slavefd;
char *slavedevice;
masterfd = posix_openpt(O_RDWR|O_NOCTTY);
if (masterfd == -1
|| grantpt (masterfd) == -1
|| unlockpt (masterfd) == -1
|| (slavedevice = ptsname (masterfd)) == NULL)
return -1;
printf("slave device is: %s\n", slavedevice);
slavefd = open(slavedevice, O_RDWR|O_NOCTTY);
if (slavefd < 0)
return -1;
Future Directions
None.
Name
posix_openpt — open a pseudo-terminal device
Prolog
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
Rationale
The standard developers considered the matter of adding a special device for cloning master pseudo-
terminals: the /dev/ptmx device. However, consensus could not be reached, and it was felt that adding a
new function would permit other implementations. The posix_openpt() function is designed to complement
the grantpt(), ptsname(), and unlockpt() functions.
On implementations supporting the /dev/ptmx clone device, opening the master device of a pseudo-terminal
is simply:
mfdp = open("/dev/ptmx", oflag );
if (mfdp < 0)
return -1;
Return Value
Upon successful completion, the posix_openpt() function shall open a file descriptor for a master pseudo-
terminal device and return a non-negative integer representing the file descriptor. Otherwise, -1 shall
be returned and errno set to indicate the error.
See Also
Section2.14, FileDescriptorAllocation, grantpt(), open(), ptsname(), unlockpt()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, <fcntl.h>, <stdlib.h>Synopsis
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int posix_openpt(int oflag);
