newvt(1)

newvt -- opens virtual terminals.

Synopsis

newvt [-e prog] [-n vt_number]

Description

Use the newvt command to open a new virtual terminal. The newly opened virtual terminal will inherit your environment.

Up to 15 virtual terminals are supported (the default is 15). See workstations(4) for information on how to change the number of available virtual terminals on your system.

-e: Specifies a program (prog) to execute in the new virtual terminal. Without the -e option, the program pointed to by the SHELL environment variable is started in the new virtual terminal. If $SHELL is NULL or points to a nonexecutable program, then /bin/sh is invoked. The new virtual terminal will close when you exit the program.
-n: Specifies a particular virtual terminal (vt_number) to open. If the -n option is not specified, then the next available virtual terminal is opened.

The newvt command will fail under the following conditions:

An invalid option is specified.
The device cannot be opened.
newvt is invoked from a remote terminal.
No virtual terminals are available (-n option not specified).
The requested virtual terminal is not available (-n option specified).
The requested virtual terminal cannot be opened.
The specified command cannot be executed (-e option specified).
The $SHELL program cannot be executed ($SHELL set and -e option not specified).
/dev/vtmon cannot be opened.

Notices

No graphical applications should be run in vt0 if there is the possibility that they may hang. Also, the <Alt><SysReq>-F key should not be used on vt0 when running a graphical application. Running autocad on vt0 and using the <Alt><SysReq>-F keys to exit the application kills vt0.

References

vtgetty(1M), vtlmgr(1), workstations(4)