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(libc.info)Is It a Terminal

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Identifying Terminals
=====================

   The functions described in this chapter only work on files that
correspond to terminal devices.  You can find out whether a file
descriptor is associated with a terminal by using the `isatty' function.

   Prototypes for the functions in this section are declared in the
header file `unistd.h'.

 - Function: int isatty (int FILEDES)
     This function returns `1' if FILEDES is a file descriptor
     associated with an open terminal device, and 0 otherwise.

   If a file descriptor is associated with a terminal, you can get its
associated file name using the `ttyname' function.  See also the
`ctermid' function, described in Note: Identifying the Terminal.

 - Function: char * ttyname (int FILEDES)
     If the file descriptor FILEDES is associated with a terminal
     device, the `ttyname' function returns a pointer to a
     statically-allocated, null-terminated string containing the file
     name of the terminal file.  The value is a null pointer if the
     file descriptor isn't associated with a terminal, or the file name
     cannot be determined.

 - Function: int ttyname_r (int FILEDES, char *BUF, size_t LEN)
     The `ttyname_r' function is similar to the `ttyname' function
     except that it places its result into the user-specified buffer
     starting at BUF with length LEN.

     The normal return value from `ttyname_r' is 0.  Otherwise an error
     number is returned to indicate the error.  The following `errno'
     error conditions are defined for this function:

    `EBADF'
          The FILEDES argument is not a valid file descriptor.

    `ENOTTY'
          The FILEDES is not associated with a terminal.

    `ERANGE'
          The buffer length LEN is too small to store the string to be
          returned.