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(libc.info)Access to the Terminal

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Access to the Controlling Terminal
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   Processes in the foreground job of a controlling terminal have
unrestricted access to that terminal; background processes do not.  This
section describes in more detail what happens when a process in a
background job tries to access its controlling terminal.

   When a process in a background job tries to read from its controlling
terminal, the process group is usually sent a `SIGTTIN' signal.  This
normally causes all of the processes in that group to stop (unless they
handle the signal and don't stop themselves).  However, if the reading
process is ignoring or blocking this signal, then `read' fails with an
`EIO' error instead.

   Similarly, when a process in a background job tries to write to its
controlling terminal, the default behavior is to send a `SIGTTOU'
signal to the process group.  However, the behavior is modified by the
`TOSTOP' bit of the local modes flags (Note: Local Modes).  If this
bit is not set (which is the default), then writing to the controlling
terminal is always permitted without sending a signal.  Writing is also
permitted if the `SIGTTOU' signal is being ignored or blocked by the
writing process.

   Most other terminal operations that a program can do are treated as
reading or as writing.  (The description of each operation should say
which.)

   For more information about the primitive `read' and `write'
functions, see Note: I/O Primitives.