openvt - Man Page
start a program on a new virtual terminal (VT).
Synopsis
Description
openvt will find the first available VT, and run on it the given command with the given command options , standard input, output and error are directed to that terminal. The current search path ($PATH) is used to find the requested command. If no command is specified then the environment variable $SHELL is used.
Options
- -c, --console=VTNUMBER
Use the given VT number and not the first available. Note you must have write access to the supplied VT for this to work.
- -f, --force
Force opening a VT without checking whether it is already in use.
- -e, --exec
Directly execute the given command, without forking. This option is meant for use in /etc/inittab.
- -s, --switch
Switch to the new VT when starting the command. The VT of the new command will be made the new current VT.
- -u, --user
Figure out the owner of the current VT, and run login as that user. Suitable to be called by init. Shouldn't be used with -c or -l.
- -l, --login
Make the command a login shell. A - is prepended to the name of the command to be executed.
- -v, --verbose
Be a bit more verbose.
- -w, --wait
wait for command to complete. If -w and -s are used together then openvt will switch back to the controlling terminal when the command completes.
- -V, --version
print program version and exit.
- -h, --help
show this text and exit.
- --
end of options to openvt.
Note
If openvt is compiled with a getopt_long() and you wish to set options to the command to be run, then you must supply the end of options -- flag before the command.
Examples
openvt can be used to start a shell on the next free VT, by using the command:
openvt bash
To start the shell as a login shell, use:
openvt -l bash
To get a long listing you must supply the -- separator:
openvt -- ls -l
History
Earlier, openvt was called open. It was written by Jon Tombs <jon@gtex02.us.es> or <jon@robots.ox.ac.uk>. The -w idea is from "sam".