We had virtual links that just used clever use of pipes around the
shell. It was clunky. Even in the NTP (pre-internet Arpanet) days we
had ptys.
------ Original Message ------
From "ron minnich" <rminnich(a)gmail.com>
To "Tom Lyon" <pugs78(a)gmail.com>
Cc "Bakul Shah" <bakul(a)iitbombay.org>; "The Eunuchs Hysterical
Society"
<tuhs(a)tuhs.org>
Date 8/15/2025 9:49:16 PM
Subject [TUHS] Re: pseudo tty history
was there ever a telnet or other remote access program
that predated
ptys on Unix? Was telnet the driving force for ptys? Did the folks
implementing Unix networking bring in ptys before, or as part of, or
after networking, i.e. did folks building networking for Unix realize
they needed ptys once they started working on telnet, or did they plan
for ptys from the get go? I was an observer for some of this stuff, but
as a 20-year-old at UDEL I was also quite out of the loop.
I also realize there were multiple Unix networking efforts, so this
question is somewhat simplistic.
I'm assuming rsh came a bit later.
On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 4:19 PM Tom Lyon <pugs78(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>Yeah, I was thinking that 4.1c BSD must've had them for rlogin and
>telnet.
>
>Which got me looking for Fabry and Bill Joy's design/planning
>documents for 4.2, which are not in the TUHS archives.
>Anyone got them??
>
>On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM Warner Losh <imp(a)bsdimp.com> wrote:
>>At the very least, 4.2BSD had them for telnet and rlogin. They were
>>static, though. You had to MAKEDEV enough units.
>>
>>Warner
>>
>>On Fri, Aug 15, 2025, 5:00 PM ron minnich <rminnich(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>That was my guess. I figured the people who did the work are on this
>>>list, and primary sources rule.
>>>
>>>On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 3:56 PM Ron Natalie <ron(a)ronnatalie.com>
>>>wrote:
>>>>I think that wikipedia history is somewhat garbled when it comes to
>>>>the UNIX implementations.
>>>>
>>>>