tty_init_dev(9)

💖 tty_init_dev(9) 💖

okay bestie, this one comes straight from the Kernel API Manual, section 9, and it's literally the glow-up routine for a tty device ✨.

🌸 NAME 🌸

tty_init_dev — initialise a tty device 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

struct tty_struct * tty_init_dev (struct tty_driver *driver , int idx );

🫶 ARGUMENTS 🫶

• driver — the tty driver we are opening a device on 👑 main character driver energy.
• idx — device index 💅 the little number that says which one.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Prepare a tty device. This may not be a "new" clean device — it could also be an active device, no cap. The pty drivers require special handling because of this, iykyk.

Locking tea ☕: the function is called under the tty_mutex, which protects us from the tty struct or the driver itself going away. literally holding the lock so nobody ghosts mid-operation 💀

On exit the tty device has the line discipline attached and a reference count of 1. If a pair was created for pty/tty use and the other was a pty master then it too has a reference count of 1. both of them at 1, periodt 💅

WSH 06/09/97: Rewritten to remove races and properly clean up after a failed open. The new code protects the open with a mutex, so it's really quite straightforward. The mutex locking can probably be relaxed for the (most common) case of reopening a tty.

🔥 RETURN 🔥

new tty structure — iconic, returned to you 🌈

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

Kernel file: ./drivers/tty/tty_io.c — and the whole squad, in order:

• free_tty_struct(9), tty_free_file(9), tty_name(9), get_tty_driver(9), tty_dev_name_to_number(9), tty_find_polling_driver(9), tty_wakeup(9), tty_release_redirect(9), __tty_hangup(9), tty_hangup(9)
• tty_vhangup(9), tty_vhangup_self(9), tty_vhangup_session(9), tty_hung_up_p(9), stop_tty(9), start_tty(9), tty_read(9), tty_write(9), tty_send_xchar(9), pty_line_name(9)
• tty_line_name(9), tty_driver_lookup_tty(9), tty_init_termios(9), tty_standard_install(9), tty_driver_install_tty(9), tty_driver_remove_tty(9), tty_reopen(9), tty_save_termios(9), tty_flush_works(9), release_one_tty(9)
• tty_kref_put(9), release_tty(9), tty_release_checks(9), tty_kclose(9), tty_release_struct(9), tty_release(9), tty_open_current_tty(9), tty_lookup_driver(9), tty_kopen_exclusive(9), tty_kopen_shared(9)
• tty_open_by_driver(9), tty_open(9), tty_poll(9), tiocsti(9), tiocgwinsz(9), tty_do_resize(9), tiocswinsz(9), tioccons(9), tiocsetd(9), tiocgetd(9)
• send_break(9), tty_get_tiocm(9), tty_tiocmget(9), tty_tiocmset(9), tty_get_icount(9), alloc_tty_struct(9), tty_put_char(9), tty_register_device(9), tty_register_device_attr(9), tty_unregister_device(9)
• __tty_alloc_driver(9), tty_driver_kref_put(9), tty_register_driver(9), tty_unregister_driver(9)

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xoxo, signed with love by ./drivers/tty, dated October 2026, and filed under tty_init_dev(9) 💖🫶🎀