Synopsis

bind '#c' /dev

/dev/cons
/dev/consctl
/dev/keyboard
/dev/memory
/dev/pin
/dev/pointer
/dev/random
/dev/sysname
/dev/time
/dev/user

Reading the cons file returns characters typed on the keyboard. Normally, characters are buffered until a newline ('\n') is entered to enable erase and kill processing via special characters:

^U	A control-U, ^U, typed at the keyboard kills the current input line (removes all characters from the buffer of characters not yet read via cons).
\b	A backspace erases the previous non-kill, non-erase character from the input buffer. Killing and erasing only delete characters back to, but not including, the last newline.

Typed keystrokes produce 16-bit characters that are translated into the variable-length UTF encoding (see utf) before putting them into the buffer. A read of length greater than zero causes the process to wait until a newline or a ^D ends the buffer, and then returns as much of the buffer as the argument to read allows, but only up to one complete line.

A terminating ^D is not put into the buffer. The next read will return immediately with unread bytes typed since the last newline but before the ^D. Thus, a ^D entered at the start of a line will cause a read system call to return 0 bytes, the equivalent of reading at the end of a file.

A sys-write to cons causes the characters to be printed on the console screen.

consctl (write-only)

"rawon"

• Characters are not echoed as they are typed.

• Backspace and ^D are not treated specially.

• Characters are available to read as soon as they are typed.

keyboard (read-only)

null (read-write)

pointer (read-only)

The integers are the device's coordinates on the screen (x and y) and a bit mask with the 1, 2, and 4 bits set when the pointer's left, middle, and right buttons, respectively, are down.

pin (read-write*)

random (read-only)

The rest of the files contain (mostly) read-only strings. Each string has a fixed length: a read of more than that gives a result of that fixed length (the result does not include a terminating zero byte); a read of less than that length leaves the file offset so the rest of the string (but no more) will be read the next time. To reread the file without closing it, sys->seek must be used to reset the offset.

When the file contains numeric data, each number is formatted in decimal as an 11-digit number with leading blanks and one trailing blank: twelve bytes total. There is no trailing newline character.

sysname (read-write)

user (read-write*)

On hosted systems, this value can be changed only by processes owned by the initiator of the emu program.

memory (read-only)

• amount of memory in use

• upper size limit

• number of allocations done

• number of frees done

• number of extensions done

• name of the pool

This `clock' can be reset by writing the desired time value (in decimal format) to the time file.

See Also

utf

Notes

When running the Inferno native kernel, two control-T's followed by certain letters generate console output for debugging:

^T^Tp	prints data about kernel processes
^T^Ts	prints the kernel stack
^T^Tx	prints data about memory allocation
^T^Tr	reboots the system

These sequences have no special meaning when running the emulator (emu).