forktty(8)

forktty 💅

okay bestie, this is forktty(8) — yes, section 8, from the System Manager's Manual. she's a tiny little icon and she wants to attach a program to a CTTY. no cap. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

forktty — attach a program to a CTTY. periodt. 💖

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

forktty [-dhnpVvw] [-l /dev/tty??] [-c command] prog_to_run

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

forktty is a tiny little program that can be used to run a program in a new session. The program forks, redirects stdin to /dev/null — which returns the prompt — disconnects from the controlling terminal, optionally connects to a user-specified terminal, and runs a program. it's giving main character energy for background processes, fr fr. 💅

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -c command — execute bash -c command in the new session. 🫶
• -d — prepend a dash - to the program name passed in argument 0. used for login shells. 💖
• -f — fork only, do not use setsid() nor NOCTTY to disconnect from the current CTTY.
• --fdi <int>, --fdo <int>, --fde <int> — copy stdin, stdout or stderr, into a file descriptor <int> using dup2(2). Thus, a backgrounded program may interact via those new fd's. The values 0,1,2 are reserved and closed during the fork. 🫶
• -h — print a help message. 🎀
• -l /dev/tty?? — connect to terminal /dev/tty??; &<int> uses the file descriptor <int>. 🦋
• -n — don't initialize terminal. the tty is not set in raw -echo mode. See stty(1). 🌸
• -p — pipe stdin and stdout to the terminal.
• -r — use open(NONBLOCK) stty() close() open() sequence. ✨
• --sane — initialize the tty in VT style echo mode.
• -v — enable verbose output. repeat to increase the verbosity. 🔥
• -V — report version. 👑
• -w — wait for child program termination before exit.

The program runs with stdin redirected to /dev/null if no new terminal is given. 💜

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

forktty --sane -l /dev/ttyS0 -- lynx -restriction=all
forktty -n -l /dev/ttyS0 -c 'reset && exec lynx -restrictions=all'
forktty -n -l /dev/ttyS0 -- bash -c 'reset && exec lynx
-restrictions=all'
forktty -c 'sleep 1; echo $0'
forktty -d -c 'sleep 1; echo $0'
forktty -d -- bash -c 'sleep 1; echo $0'
forktty -- bash -login -c 'sleep 1; echo $0'

💀 BUGS 💀

None known. literally none, bestie. not a single one. 💀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

fork(2), setsid(2) — go read them, iykyk. 🦋

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💖 source: System Manager's Manual · manual: forktty(8) · date: 28 Sep 2002 — mwah, bestie, go be iconic. 💋