[TUHS] pseudo tty history

[Ron Natalie]

We had virtual links that just used clever use of pipes around the 
shell.  It was clunky.   Even in the NTP (pre-internet Arpanet) days we 
had ptys.



------ Original Message ------
>From "ron minnich" <rminnich at gmail.com>
To "Tom Lyon" <pugs78 at gmail.com>
Cc "Bakul Shah" <bakul at iitbombay.org>; "The Eunuchs Hysterical Society" 
<tuhs at tuhs.org>
Date 8/15/2025 9:49:16 PM
Subject [TUHS] Re: pseudo tty history

>was there ever a telnet or other remote access program that predated 
>ptys on Unix? Was telnet the driving force for ptys? Did the folks 
>implementing Unix networking bring in ptys before, or as part of, or 
>after networking, i.e. did folks building networking for Unix realize 
>they needed ptys once they started working on telnet, or did they plan 
>for ptys from the get go? I was an observer for some of this stuff, but 
>as a 20-year-old at UDEL I was also quite out of the loop.
>
>  I also realize there were multiple Unix networking efforts, so this 
>question is somewhat simplistic.
>
>I'm assuming rsh came a bit later.
>
>On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 4:19 PM Tom Lyon <pugs78 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>Yeah, I was thinking that 4.1c BSD must've had them for rlogin and 
>>telnet.
>>
>>Which got me looking for Fabry and Bill Joy's design/planning 
>>documents for 4.2, which are not in the TUHS archives.
>>Anyone got them??
>>
>>On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:
>>>At the very least, 4.2BSD had them for telnet and rlogin. They were 
>>>static, though. You had to MAKEDEV enough units.
>>>
>>>Warner
>>>
>>>On Fri, Aug 15, 2025, 5:00 PM ron minnich <rminnich at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>That was my guess. I figured the people who did the work are on this 
>>>>list, and primary sources rule.
>>>>
>>>>On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 3:56 PM Ron Natalie <ron at ronnatalie.com> 
>>>>wrote:
>>>>>I think that wikipedia history is somewhat garbled when it comes to 
>>>>>the UNIX implementations.
>>>>>
>>>>>
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