bind #c /dev /dev/cons /dev/consctl /dev/drivers /dev/jit /dev/keyboard /dev/klog /dev/kprint /dev/memory /dev/msec /dev/null /dev/notquiterandom /dev/pointer /dev/random /dev/scancode /dev/sysctl /dev/sysname /dev/time /dev/user
Reading the cons file returns characters typed on the keyboard. Normally, characters are buffered to enable erase and kill processing. A control-U, ^U, typed at the keyboard kills the current input line (removes all characters from the buffer of characters not yet read via cons), and a backspace erases the previous non-kill, non-erase character from the input buffer. Killing and erasing only delete characters back to, but not including, the last newline. Typed keystrokes produce 21-bit runes that are translated into the variable-length UTF encoding (see utf(6)) before putting them into the buffer. A read of length greater than zero causes the process to wait until a newline or a ^D ends the buffer, and then returns as much of the buffer as the argument to read allows, but only up to one complete line. A terminating ^D is not put into the buffer. If part of the line remains, the next read will return bytes from that remainder and not part of any new line that has been typed since. A single line containing a ^D can be used as an end of file indication to programs that take interactive input.
If the string rawon has been written to the consctl file and the file is still open, cons is in raw mode: characters are not echoed as they are typed, backspace, ^U and ^D are not treated specially, and characters are available to read as soon as they are typed. Ordinary mode is reentered when rawoff is written to consctl or this file is closed.
A write to cons causes the characters to be printed on the console screen.
The keyboard file returns the underlying tokens produced by the keyboard hardware as they are produced; in the emulation environment, it is like an always-raw cons file.
The null file throws away anything written to it and always returns zero bytes when read.
The klog file returns the tail of messages written by the native kernel debugging function kprint (mainly used when debugging interrupt handlers in device drivers). It is available only in native kernel implementations.
The kprint file returns console output: messages written by kernel print statements and messages written by processes to this driver's cons file. Until kprint is opened, system console output is handled normally. Once kprint has been opened, if the machine's console is a serial line, the data is sent both to the serial console and to kprint; if the console is a graphics screen, the data is sent only to kprint.
A read of the pointer file returns the status of the mouse or other pointing device: its position and button state. The read blocks until the state has changed since the last read. The read returns 49 bytes: the letter m followed by four fields containing decimal integers, each 11 characters wide followed by a blank. The integers are: x and y, coordinates of the pointer on the screen; a bit mask with the 1, 2, and 4 bits when the pointer's left, middle, and right buttons, respectively, are down; and a time stamp in units of milliseconds.
Writing to the pointer file, using the same format, causes the pointer to move to the specified x, y position (the button and millisecond fields are ignored, and optional). If there is a visible image representing the pointer's position, that will move too.
The random device returns as many bytes of random data as are requested in the read.
The notquiterandom device returns as many bytes of pseudo-random data as are requested in the read; this is typically faster than random but the results are more predictable.
The scancode device provides access to the raw scan codes of the primary keyboard . While it is open, key strokes are diverted from cons and keyboard . The first read(2) after opening returns an identifier string which defines the format of data delivered by subsequent reads. Known ones are defined in scancode(6). The most common format is a single byte per scan code, where the top bit is 1 for up and 0 for down, and the bottom 7 bits are the scan code. Some input devices have a larger scan code space; in this case scan codes are often delivered as two byte little endian quantities, where the top bit is the up/down signifier, and the bottom 15 bits are the scan code. In all cases the meaning of the individual scan codes is device specific.
The rest of the files contain (mostly) read-only strings. Each string has a fixed length: a read (see sys-read(2)) of more than that gives a result of that fixed length (the result does not include a terminating zero byte); a read of less than that length leaves the file offset so the rest of the string (but no more) will be read the next time. To reread the file without closing it, seek must be used to reset the offset. When the file contains numeric data, each number is formatted in decimal as an 11-digit number with leading blanks and one trailing blank: twelve bytes total.
The sysctl file can be read to return the current Inferno version. Writing the string reboot to it attempts to reboot the system, writing halt attempts to halt the system. Writing nobroken ensures that broken processes have all associated memory freed before being destroyed, writing broken ensures that they are left in this state to allow debugging (the default). Only the privileged user is allowed to write to this file.
The sysname file holds the textual name of the machine. It can only be written by the privileged user.
The user file contains the name of the user associated with the current process. It can only be written by the privileged user. In the emulation environment, writing to this file also attempts to set the user id in the host operating system to the specified value.
The memory file returns a formatted presentation of the state of the memory allocation pools in the system. Each line of output returned reports, for a single pool, the amount of memory in use, the upper size limit, the high water mark, the number of allocations done, the number of frees done, the number of extensions done, the largest chunk available and the name of the pool.
The drivers file returns a list of the device drivers loaded in the system. Each line gives the name of the device for bind(1), such as #c, followed by the name of the driver as used in the system configuration file.
The other files served by the cons device are all single numbers:
The system can be rebooted by typing ^T^Tr.
| CONS(3) | Rev: Tue Mar 31 02:42:38 GMT 2015 |