Controlling Terminal

The C switch displays the controlling terminal's device identification rather than the user's name. Under UNIX, the user's name is set by the UNIX login, whereas the terminal device is determined by the user's connection to the host. Under Windows, the controlling terminal device name will be the network ID of the workstation (i.e. the machine name or, lacking that, the IP address.) In either case, a suffix one or more suffixes is usually added to distinguish between multiple connections originating from the same device. Examples:

ID

Meaning

pts/1:571

UNIX: first pseudo-terminal (network connection), process ID = 571

ttyS1:1009

UNIX: connection on serial port S1, process ID = 1009

JACKT42:01

Windows: machine name=JACKT42, first A-Shell window on that machine