pty bugs & features

[Leslie Mikesell]

In article <3964 at auspex.auspex.com> guy at auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) writes:

>Even "ttys", i.e.  serial ports, to which, say, a printer or plotter is
>attached?

>What happens if, for whatever reason, a ^Q sent by said printer or
>plotter is lost?  Is the idea that you detach the printer from the
>session, attach the session to a regular terminal, and type ^Q at it?

Most printers will supply a ^Q when powered up, when the lid is closed,
when the on-line button is pressed, etc.   I'd prefer for the computer
to wait for such an occurrance rather than trying to guess when the
paper supply has been replenished.  The real problem is when you have
placed a long distance call to or from a modem on a unix machine and
pick up a ^S from line noise.  I've even seen cases where the device
driver would lock up so that even a kill -9 wouldn't release the
process and there was no way to drop the call without physical access to
the modem.

Les Mikesell
  les at chinet.chi.il.us