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, you should use the Web-based System Manager Devices application or SMIT 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 should 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.
Like System V, AIX uses terminfo entries in /usr/lib/terminfo/?/* files. Users with 4.3 BSD Systems may find the following commands helpful:
| captoinfo (1) | Converts a termcap file to a terminfo file |
| tic(1) | Translates the terminfo files from source to compiled format. |
AIX includes source for many terminfo entries. Some of these may need to be compiled with the tic command. The termcap file is provided in /lib/libtermcap/termcap.src file.
Dave Regan has donated his program untic to the public domain. This program uncompiles terminfo entries so that the source form may be modified and recompiled with tic. It is available from sites that archive comp.sources.unix.