4.2BSD/usr/man/man5/ttys.5

.TH TTYS 5  "18 July 1983"
.SH NAME
ttys \- terminal initialization data
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.I ttys
file is read by the
.I init
program and specifies which terminal special files are to have
a process created for them so that people can log in.
There is one line in the 
.I ttys
file per special file.
.PP
The first character of a line in the 
.I ttys
file is either `0' or `1'.  If the first character on the line is a `0', the 
.I init
program ignores that line.  If the first character on the line is a `1', the
.I init
program creates a login process for that line.
The second character on each line is used as an argument to
.IR getty (8),
which performs such tasks as baud-rate recognition, reading the login name,
and calling
.I login.
For normal lines, the character is `0';
other characters can be used, for example, with hard-wired terminals
where speed recognition is unnecessary or which have special characteristics.
.RI ( Getty
will have to be fixed in such cases.)
The remainder of the line is the terminal's entry in the device directory, /dev.
.SH FILES
/etc/ttys
.SH "SEE ALSO"
gettytab(5), init(8), getty(8), login(1)