tty — Terminal control functions

Source code: Lib/tty.py

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The tty module defines functions for putting the tty into cbreak and raw modes.

Availability: Unix.

Because it requires the termios module, it will work only on Unix.

The tty module defines the following functions:

tty.cfmakeraw(mode)

Convert the tty attribute list mode, which is a list like the one returned by termios.tcgetattr(), to that of a tty in raw mode.

Added in version 3.12.

tty.cfmakecbreak(mode)

Convert the tty attribute list mode, which is a list like the one returned by termios.tcgetattr(), to that of a tty in cbreak mode.

This clears the ECHO and ICANON local mode flags in mode as well as setting the minimum input to 1 byte with no delay.

Added in version 3.12.

Changed in version 3.12.2: The ICRNL flag is no longer cleared. This matches Linux and macOS stty cbreak behavior and what setcbreak() historically did.

tty.setraw(fd, when=termios.TCSAFLUSH)

Change the mode of the file descriptor fd to raw. If when is omitted, it defaults to termios.TCSAFLUSH, and is passed to termios.tcsetattr(). The return value of termios.tcgetattr() is saved before setting fd to raw mode; this value is returned.

Changed in version 3.12: The return value is now the original tty attributes, instead of None.

tty.setcbreak(fd, when=termios.TCSAFLUSH)

Change the mode of file descriptor fd to cbreak. If when is omitted, it defaults to termios.TCSAFLUSH, and is passed to termios.tcsetattr(). The return value of termios.tcgetattr() is saved before setting fd to cbreak mode; this value is returned.

This clears the ECHO and ICANON local mode flags as well as setting the minimum input to 1 byte with no delay.

Changed in version 3.12: The return value is now the original tty attributes, instead of None.

Changed in version 3.12.2: The ICRNL flag is no longer cleared. This restores the behavior of Python 3.11 and earlier as well as matching what Linux, macOS, & BSDs describe in their stty(1) man pages regarding cbreak mode.

See also

Module termios

Low-level terminal control interface.