UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

stty: : Not a typewriter

the above error comes after i execute the script below o hpux B.11.00

#!/usr/bin/ksh

/bin/su - <oraid> -c "svrmgrl" << EOF
connect internal
startup
exit
EOF
echo "# End "`date +%D" "%T` >> time.log

I assume that you actually have something sensible in place of "<oraid>".

The stty command sends ioctl's to its stdin. You can do this:
stty -a > stty.out
but you cannot do this:
stty -a > stty.out < /dev/null
because /dev/null is not a tty device. Ther ioctl's will fail.

Some people put stty commands in their startup scripts (.profile for ksh). Ideally, they should test to see if the shell is interactive.

When you run "su -", you are asking for the startup scripts to run. But the su statement does not have stdin connected to a tty. So the stty in the start script fails and you get the error message.

I assume that you actually have something sensible in place of "<oraid>".

>> yes, i have.

The stty command sends ioctl's to its stdin. You can do this:

>> ioctl.. hmmm, i did a man ioctl and after reading, my understanding is that it controls the input and ouput of a device. am i right?

stty -a > stty.out
but you cannot do this:
stty -a > stty.out < /dev/null
because /dev/null is not a tty device. Ther ioctl's will fail.

>> hmmm, does /dev/null and 2&>1 differ?

Some people put stty commands in their startup scripts (.profile for ksh). Ideally, they should test to see if the shell is interactive.

When you run "su -", you are asking for the startup scripts to run. But the su statement does not have stdin connected to a tty. So the stty in the start script fails and you get the error message.

>> so u mean that we can actually connect a tty to the command su - ?

I have seen that same error message upon reboot. It escapes me as to what it was related, but I do remember seeing it at boot time on HPUX systems 11.0.

The proverbial " Xxxx is not a typewriter" phrase. I think I will look on the ITRC site for HPUX support. Maybe I will get a hit!

www.itrc.hp.com

When it happens at boot time it is usually because someone did a "su -" inside a start-up script. Also some scripts will actually source a .profile to set some environment variables.