openvt(1) — Linux manual page

OPENVT(1)                General Commands Manual               OPENVT(1)

NAME

       openvt - start a program on a new virtual terminal (VT).

SYNOPSIS

       openvt [-c vtnumber] [OPTIONS] [--] command

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".

SEE ALSO

       chvt(1), login(1)

COLOPHON

       This page is part of the kbd (Linux keyboard tools) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.kbd-project.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, send it to kbd@lists.altlinux.org.  This page was
       obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/legionus/kbd.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.  (At that
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       man-pages@man7.org

kbd                            19 Jul 1996                     OPENVT(1)

Pages that refer to this page: deallocvt(1)

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