.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)ttyname.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" $FreeBSD$ .\" .Dd July 18, 2014 .Dt TTYNAME 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm ttyname , .Nm ttyname_r , .Nm isatty .Nd get name of associated terminal (tty) from file descriptor .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In unistd.h .Ft char * .Fn ttyname "int fd" .Ft int .Fn ttyname_r "int fd" "char *buf" "size_t len" .Ft int .Fn isatty "int fd" .Sh DESCRIPTION These functions operate on file descriptors for terminal type devices. .Pp The .Fn isatty function determines if the file descriptor .Fa fd refers to a valid terminal type device. .Pp The .Fn ttyname function gets the related device name of a file descriptor for which .Fn isatty is true. .Pp The .Fn ttyname function returns the name stored in a static buffer which will be overwritten on subsequent calls. The .Fn ttyname_r function takes a buffer and length as arguments to avoid this problem. .Sh RETURN VALUES The .Fn isatty function returns 1 if .Fa fd refers to a terminal type device; otherwise, it returns 0 and may set .Va errno to indicate the error. The .Fn ttyname function returns the null terminated name if the device is found and .Fn isatty is true; otherwise a .Dv NULL pointer is returned. The .Fn ttyname_r function returns 0 if successful. Otherwise an error number is returned. .Sh ERRORS These functions may fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EBADF The .Fa fd argument is not a valid file descriptor. .It Bq Er ENOTTY The file associated with .Fa fd is not a terminal. .El .Pp Additionally, .Fn ttyname_r may fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er ERANGE The .Fa bufsize argument is smaller than the length of the string to be returned. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr fdevname 3 , .Xr ptsname 3 , .Xr tcgetattr 3 , .Xr tty 4 .Sh HISTORY The .Fn isatty and .Fn ttyname functions appeared in .At v7 . The .Fn ttyname_r function appeared in .Fx 6.0 .