Terminals for BSD 4.3 system managers

The following discusses terminals for BSD 4.3 system managers.

Traditionally, 4.3 BSD system managers enable or disable terminal ports by modifying the /etc/ttys file and sending a HUP signal to the init program.

AIX stores terminal port information in the ODM and starts terminals when the init program reads the /etc/inittab file. In AIX, use the SMIT interface to configure terminal ports.

There is no fixed mapping between the port and the device special file name in the /dev directory. Consequently, it is confusing to system managers who are new to AIX which port is to be configured. When using SMIT, the first planar serial port (physically labeled s1) is referred to as location 00-00-S1, adapter sa0, and port s1 in the SMIT menus. The second planar serial port (physically labeled s2) is referred to as location 00-00-S2, adapter sa1, and port s2.

Use the penable and pdisable commands to enable and disable a port.