DRAWTERM(8) DRAWTERM(8)
NAME
drawterm - connect to Plan 9 CPU servers from other
operating systems
SYNOPSIS
drawterm [ -a authaddr ] [ -c cpuaddr ] [ -d depth ] [ -r
root ] [ -nm ]
DESCRIPTION
Drawterm is not a Plan 9 program. It is a program that
users of non-Plan 9 systems can use to establish graphical
cpu(1) connections with Plan 9 CPU servers. Just as a real
Plan 9 terminal does, drawterm serves its local name space
as well as some devices (the keyboard, mouse, and screen) to
a remote CPU server, which mounts this name space on
/mnt/term and starts a shell. Typically, either explicitly
or via the profile, one uses the shell to start rio(1).
By default, drawterm uses the CPU server CPUSERV and the
authentication server AUTHSERV. The -a and -c options spec-
ify alternate servers. (Edit the source to set appropriate
local values for the variables AUTHSERV and CPUSERV).
On Windows systems, the file system served by the terminal
(and mounted on /mnt/term) is the tree rooted at c:/. The
-r option specifies a different file system root. In Win-
dows, the depth of the virtual screen provided by drawterm
matches the depth of the actual screen. To present a screen
with a different depth, use the -d option. Both options do
nothing on non-Windows systems.
The -n option causes drawterm to prompt for authentication
via netkey-style challenge/response rather than using the
password-based protocol typically used by terminals.
By default, drawterm queues mouse events to guard against
lost events due to network latency. The -m option turns
this behavior off.
Drawterm has been ported to Digital Unix, Irix, Linux,
Solaris, and Windows. Binaries are kept in
/sys/src/cmd/unix/drawterm/bin.
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/unix/drawterm
DIAGNOSTICS
The Unix versions of drawterm print diagnostics to standard
error. The Windows version displays message boxes.
Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 12/18/25)
DRAWTERM(8) DRAWTERM(8)
SEE ALSO
cpu(1), rio(1)
BUGS
Although at first drawterm may seem like a Plan 9 terminal,
in fact it is just a way to provide a CPU server with some
terminal devices. The difference is important because one
cannot run terminal-resident programs when using drawterm.
The illusion can be improved by delicate adjustments in
/usr/$user/lib/profile.
It would be nice to be able to change the default servers
without recompiling.
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 12/18/25)