TTYNAME(3)

NAME
ttyname, ttyname_r, isatty - get name of associated terminal (tty) from file descriptor

LIBRARY
libc

SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
char *
ttyname(int fd);
int
ttyname_r(int fd, char *buf, size_t len);
int
isatty(int fd);

DESCRIPTION
These functions operate on file descriptors for terminal type devices.

The isatty() function determines if the file descriptor fd refers to a valid terminal type device.

The ttyname() function gets the related device name of a file descriptor for which isatty() is true.

The ttyname() function returns the name stored in a static buffer which will be overwritten on subsequent calls. The ttyname_r() function takes a buffer and length as arguments to avoid this problem.

RETURN VALUES
The ttyname() function returns the null terminated name if the device is found and isatty() is true; otherwise a NULL pointer is returned. The ttyname_r() function returns 0 if successful. Otherwise an error number is returned.

ERRORS
The ttyname_r() may fail and return the following error codes:

[ENOTTY]
    The fd argument is not a valid file descriptor.

[ERANGE]
    The bufsize argument is smaller than the length of the string to be returned.

SEE ALSO
fdevname(3), ptsname(3), tcgetattr(3), tty(4)

HISTORY
The isatty() and ttyname() functions appeared in AT&T UNIX. The ttyname_r() function appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.