Classnotes | UNIX01 | RecentChanges | Preferences Though the common defaults detailed in the previous section should be completely valid for most purposes, there are a few options for getty worth mentionning in case the need ever arises to use them. Many of these are particularily important if you are a UNIX administrator where dial-up is offered (such as an ISP or an automated TTD system).
getty options
-h
Enable hardware flow control. This is especially usefull if getty is acting over a modem connection (as an ISP would have), or some other device which offers hardware flow control (RTS/CTS).
-i
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.
-l login_program
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).
-n
Do not prompt the user for a login name. This can be used in connection with -l option to invoke a non-standard login process such as a BBS or automated TTD system. Note that with the -n option, getty gets no input from 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 getty starts (usually /bin/login) is run as root.
-t timeout
Terminate if no user name could be read within timeout seconds. This option should probably not be used with hard-wired lines.
