NAME

ports - create character device files and inittab entries for ports boards

SYNOPSIS

/sbin/ports

DESCRIPTION

The ports command creates character device files in /dev and adds new entries in /sbin/inittab for 4 asynchronous RS-232 ports and 1 parallel printer port. A port is named ttysn, where s is the slot number and n is a number from 1 to 5.

If the board configuration has changed, ports does the following:

Remove any tty device files for a board that no longer resides in a slot.

Remove device files of other boards such as the NI if a ports board now resides in the slot that previously held an NI. A message warning that a device file is being removed is sent to the console.

Make new tty device files for the ports boards if needed.

Make new inittab entries for the ports boards.

If the configuration has not changed, the ports program exits without doing anything.

Any devices, such as a printer or a modem, that are added to a ports board should link the names that are to be used for the devices to the corresponding tty device files that were created [see ln(1)]. The command can be used only by the super-user.

EXAMPLE

A parallel printer is added to a ports board that is in slot
1.  The corresponding slot is tty15.  The user should use ln
to link an appropriate name such as lp1 to  the  tty  device
file.
     ln /dev/tty15 /dev/lp1

FILES

/sbin/inittab
/dev/ttysn

SEE ALSO

ln(1) in the User's Reference Manual

NOTES

A warning is issued for each device  file  that  is  removed
provided  it is not a tty device file.  If a ports board has
been removed and lp1 has been linked to a tty  device  file,
the message is as follows:
     Warning: /dev/lp1 is being removed.