---
name: "mingetty"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "mingetty"
version: "1.08-7"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mingetty"
---

# mingetty(8)

minimal getty for consoles

## NAME

mingetty - minimal getty for consoles

## SYNOPSIS

**mingetty** \[--noclear\] \[--nonewline\] \[--noissue\] \[--nohangup\] \[--nohostname\] \[--long-hostname\] \[--loginprog=/bin/login\] \[--nice=10\] \[--delay=5\] \[--chdir=/home\] \[--chroot=/chroot\] \[--autologin username\] \[--loginpause\] *tty*

## DESCRIPTION

**mingetty** is a minimal getty for use on virtual consoles. Unlike  [**agetty**(8)](/agetty/8.md), **mingetty** is not suitable for serial lines. I recommend using [**mgetty**(8)](/mgetty/8.md) for this purpose.

## OPTIONS

- **--noclear**

  Do not clear the screen before prompting for the login name (the screen is normally cleared).

- **--nonewline**

  Do not print a newline before writing out /etc/issue.

- **--noissue**

  Do not output /etc/issue.

- **--nohangup**

  Do not call vhangup() to disable writing to this tty by other applications.

- **--nohostname**

  Do not print the hostname before the login prompt.

- **--long-hostname**

  By default the hostname is only printed until the first dot. With this option enabled, the full text from gethostname() is shown.

- **--loginprog /bin/login**

  Change the login app.

- **--nice 10**

  Change the priority by calling nice().

- **--delay 5**

  Sleep this many seconds after startup of mingetty.

- **--chdir /home**

  Change into this directory before calling the login prog.

- **--chroot /chroot**

  Call chroot() with this directory name.

- **--autologin username**

  Log the specified user automatically in without asking for a login name and password. Check the -f option from **/bin/login** for this.

- **--loginpause**

  Wait for any key before dropping to the login prompt. Can be combined with **--autologin** to save memory by lazily spawning shells.

## ISSUE ESCAPES

**mingetty** recognizes the following escapes sequences which might be embedded in the  */etc/issue* file:

- **\\d**

  insert current day (localtime),

- **\\l**

  insert line on which  **mingetty** is running,

- **\\m**

  inserts machine architecture (uname -m),

- **\\n**

  inserts machine's network node hostname (uname -n),

- **\\o**

  inserts domain name,

- **\\r**

  inserts operating system release (uname -r),

- **\\t**

  insert current time (localtime),

- **\\s**

  inserts operating system name,

- **\\u**

  resp. **\\U** the current number of users which are currently logged in. \\U inserts "*n* users", where as \\u only inserts "*n*".

- **\\v**

  inserts operating system version (uname -v).

## EXAMPLE

"**Linux eos i386 #1 Tue Mar 19 21:54:09 MET 1996**" was produced by putting "**\\s \\n \\m \\v**" into */etc/issue*.

## FILES

*/etc/issue*, */var/run/utmp*.

## SEE ALSO

[**mgetty**(8)](/mgetty/8.md), [**agetty**(8)](/agetty/8.md).

## AUTHOR

Copyright © 1996 Florian La Roche \<laroche@redhat.com\>. Man-page written by David Frey \<David.Frey@eos.lugs.ch\> and Florian La Roche.