/dev/tty*

**syednasirraza** · November 13th, 2012

hi all
can sum1 plz explian what does this fol means??? a little bit in detail plz as i m new to it

nasir@NASIR:~$ ls /dev/tty*
/dev/tty /dev/tty23 /dev/tty39 /dev/tty54 /dev/ttyS10 /dev/ttyS26
/dev/tty0 /dev/tty24 /dev/tty4 /dev/tty55 /dev/ttyS11 /dev/ttyS27
/dev/tty1 /dev/tty25 /dev/tty40 /dev/tty56 /dev/ttyS12 /dev/ttyS28
/dev/tty10 /dev/tty26 /dev/tty41 /dev/tty57 /dev/ttyS13 /dev/ttyS29
/dev/tty11 /dev/tty27 /dev/tty42 /dev/tty58 /dev/ttyS14 /dev/ttyS3
/dev/tty12 /dev/tty28 /dev/tty43 /dev/tty59 /dev/ttyS15 /dev/ttyS30
/dev/tty13 /dev/tty29 /dev/tty44 /dev/tty6 /dev/ttyS16 /dev/ttyS31
/dev/tty14 /dev/tty3 /dev/tty45 /dev/tty60 /dev/ttyS17 /dev/ttyS4
/dev/tty15 /dev/tty30 /dev/tty46 /dev/tty61 /dev/ttyS18 /dev/ttyS5
/dev/tty16 /dev/tty31 /dev/tty47 /dev/tty62 /dev/ttyS19 /dev/ttyS6
/dev/tty17 /dev/tty32 /dev/tty48 /dev/tty63 /dev/ttyS2 /dev/ttyS7
/dev/tty18 /dev/tty33 /dev/tty49 /dev/tty7 /dev/ttyS20 /dev/ttyS8
/dev/tty19 /dev/tty34 /dev/tty5 /dev/tty8 /dev/ttyS21 /dev/ttyS9
/dev/tty2 /dev/tty35 /dev/tty50 /dev/tty9 /dev/ttyS22 /dev/ttyUSB0
/dev/tty20 /dev/tty36 /dev/tty51 /dev/ttyprintk /dev/ttyS23 /dev/ttyUSB1
/dev/tty21 /dev/tty37 /dev/tty52 /dev/ttyS0 /dev/ttyS24 /dev/ttyUSB2
/dev/tty22 /dev/tty38 /dev/tty53 /dev/ttyS1 /dev/ttyS25

**Wim Sturkenboom** · November 13th, 2012

tty are terminals
ttyS are serial ports
ttyUSB are, to my knowledge, devices for communication via USB (e.g. USB to serial converters)
never heard of ttyprintk, possibly syslog output via some port

**Impavidus** · November 13th, 2012

So they're all low level I/O interfaces, no ordinary files in the windows sense. Don't worry, you won't need them.

**syednasirraza** · November 14th, 2012

thnx for reply...it would be even more beneficial for me if sum1 can refer an article describing these terminals and I/O interfaces

**blade4** · November 14th, 2012

Here you go :

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=833765

The discussion is small but it touches all the basics .

BTW , to access a tty terminal the command is Ctrl+Alt+F1 - use it if you ever get your system hung . You'll have to log into it though .