A path name relative to the /dev directory. If a "−" is specified, agetty assumes that its standard input is already connected to a tty port and that a connection to a remote user has already been established.

Under System V, a "−" port argument should be preceded by a "−−".

A comma-separated list of one or more baud rates. Each time agetty receives a BREAK character it advances through the list, which is treated as if it were circular.

Baud rates should be specified in descending order, so that the null character (Ctrl−@) can also be used for baud-rate switching.

This argument is optional and unnecessary for virtual terminals.

The default for serial terminals is keep the current baud rate (see −−keep−baud) and if unsuccessful then default to '9600'.

The value to be used for the TERM environment variable. This overrides whatever init(8) may have set, and is inherited by login and the shell.

The default is 'vt100', or 'linux' for Linux on a virtual terminal, or 'hurd' for GNU Hurd on a virtual terminal.

Assume that the tty is 8-bit clean, hence disable parity detection.

Log the specified user automatically in without asking for a login name and password. The −f username option is added to the /bin/login command line by default. The −−login−options option changes this default behavior and then only \u is replaced by the username and no other option is added to the login command line.

Don't reset terminal cflags (control modes). See termios(3) for more details.

If an −H fakehost option is given, then an −r fakehost option is added to the /bin/login command line.

Display the contents of issue_file instead of /etc/issue. This allows custom messages to be displayed on different terminals. The −i option will override this option.

Enable hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control. It is left up to the application to disable software (XON/XOFF) flow protocol where appropriate.

Write the specified login_host into the utmp file. (Normally, no login host is given, since agetty is used for local hardwired connections and consoles. However, this option can be useful for identifying terminal concentrators and the like.)

Do not display the contents of /etc/issue (or other) before writing the login prompt. Terminals or communications hardware may become confused when receiving lots of text at the wrong baud rate; dial-up scripts may fail if the login prompt is preceded by too much text.

Set an initial string to be sent to the tty or modem before sending anything else. This may be used to initialize a modem. Non-printable characters may be sent by writing their octal code preceded by a backslash (\). For example, to send a linefeed character (ASCII 10, octal 012), write \012.

Do not clear the screen before prompting for the login name (the screen is normally cleared).

Invoke the specified login_program instead of /bin/login. This allows the use of a non-standard login program (for example, one that asks for a dial-up password or that uses a different password file).

Control the CLOCAL line flag. The optional mode argument is 'auto', 'always' or 'never'. If the mode argument is omitted, then the default is 'always'. If the −−local−line option is not given at all, then the default is 'auto'.

The mode 'always' forces the line to be a local line with no need for carrier detect. This can be useful when you have a locally attached terminal where the serial line does not set the carrier-detect signal.

The mode 'never' explicitly clears the CLOCAL flag from the line setting and the carrier-detect signal is expected on the line.

The mode 'auto' (agetty default) does not modify the CLOCAL setting and follows the setting enabled by the kernel.

Try to extract the baud rate from the CONNECT status message produced by Hayes(tm)−compatible modems. These status messages are of the form: "<junk><speed><junk>". agetty assumes that the modem emits its status message at the same speed as specified with (the first) baud_rate value on the command line.

Since the −m feature may fail on heavily-loaded systems, you still should enable BREAK processing by enumerating all expected baud rates on the command line.

Do not prompt the user for a login name. This can be used in connection with the −l option to invoke a non-standard login process such as a BBS system. Note that with the −n option, agetty gets no input from the user who logs in and therefore won't be able to figure out parity, character size, and newline processing of the connection. It defaults to space parity, 7 bit characters, and ASCII CR (13) end-of-line character. Beware that the program that agetty starts (usually /bin/login) is run as root.

Do not print a newline before writing out /etc/issue.

Options that are passed to the login program. \u is replaced by the login name. The default /bin/login command line is "/bin/login -- <username>".

Please read the SECURITY NOTICE below if you want to use this.

Wait for any key before dropping to the login prompt. Can be combined with −−autologin to save memory by lazily spawning shells.

Change root to the specified directory.

Call vhangup() to do a virtual hangup of the specified terminal.

Try to keep the existing baud rate. The baud rates from the command line are used when agetty receives a BREAK character.

Terminate if no user name could be read within timeout seconds. This option should probably not be used with hardwired lines.

Turn on support for detecting an uppercase-only terminal. This setting will detect a login name containing only capitals as indicating an uppercase-only terminal and turn on some upper-to-lower case conversions. Note that this has no support for any Unicode characters.

Wait for the user or the modem to send a carriage-return or a linefeed character before sending the /etc/issue (or other) file and the login prompt. Very useful in connection with the −I option.

Do not print hints about Num, Caps and Scroll Locks.

By default the hostname will be printed. With this option enabled, no hostname at all will be shown.

By default the hostname is only printed until the first dot. With this option enabled, the fully qualified hostname by gethostname() or (if not found) by getaddrinfo() is shown.

This option specifies additional characters that should be interpreted as a backspace ("ignore the previous character") when the user types the login name. The default additional 'erase' has been '#', but since util-linux 2.23 no additional erase characters are enabled by default.

This option specifies additional characters that should be interpreted as a kill ("ignore all previous characters") when the user types the login name. The default additional 'kill' has been '@', but since util-linux 2.23 no additional kill characters are enabled by default.

Change directory before the login.

Sleep seconds before open tty.

Run login with this priority.

Ask all running agetty instances to reload and update their displayed prompts, if the user has not yet commenced logging in. After doing so the command will exit. This feature might be unsupported on systems without Linux inotify(7).

Display version information and exit.

Display help text and exit.

Insert the IPv4 address of the specified network interface (for example: \4{eth0}). If the interface argument is not specified, then select the first fully configured (UP, non-LOCALBACK, RUNNING) interface. If not any configured interface is found, fall back to the IP address of the machine's hostname.

The same as \4 but for IPv6.

Insert the baudrate of the current line.

Insert the current date.

Translate the human-readable name to an escape sequence and insert it (for example: \e{red}Alert text.\e{reset}). If the name argument is not specified, then insert \033. The currently supported names are: black, blink, blue, bold, brown, cyan, darkgray, gray, green, halfbright, lightblue, lightcyan, lightgray, lightgreen, lightmagenta, lightred, magenta, red, reset, reverse, and yellow. All unknown names are silently ignored.

Insert the system name (the name of the operating system). Same as `uname −s'. See also the \S escape code.

Insert the VARIABLE data from /etc/os-release. If this file does not exist then fall back to /usr/lib/os-release. If the VARIABLE argument is not specified, then use PRETTY_NAME from the file or the system name (see \s). This escape code allows to keep /etc/issue distribution and release independent. Note that \S{ANSI_COLOR} is converted to the real terminal escape sequence.

Insert the name of the current tty line.

Insert the architecture identifier of the machine. Same as `uname −m'.

Insert the nodename of the machine, also known as the hostname. Same as `uname −n'.

Insert the NIS domainname of the machine. Same as `hostname −d'.

Insert the DNS domainname of the machine.

Insert the release number of the OS. Same as `uname −r'.

Insert the current time.

Insert the number of current users logged in.

Insert the string "1 user" or "<n> users" where <n> is the number of current users logged in.

Insert the version of the OS, e.g. the build-date etc.

the system status file.

printed before the login prompt.

operating system identification data.

problem reports (if syslog(3) is not used).

init(8) configuration file for SysV-style init daemon.