expectperl-discuss

[Expectperl-discuss] Please point me to the right mailing list

[Carlyle S. <car...@db...>]

Hello,

I am a system administrator in a large corporation which
has not included Expect.pm and its siblings IO::Tty and IO::Stty
in the packaging.

I have written a perl script which creates a terminal for a child
process which uses the terminal rather than standard IO;
much as expect does but very simply and of very limited
scope.

This script works fine on AIX but not on SunOS or Linux.

I need to know how to get the name of the slave side after
opening the control side (/dev/ptc on AIX and /dev/ptmx on
the others). On AIX ttyname does this for me but it returns
"Inappropriate ioctl for device" elsewhere.

I don't mean to take up time and space on this list but I have been
looking unsuccessfully for a suitable mailing list more suited to
my problem.

Thank you for any pointers.

Best regards,
Carlyle
--

Informationen (einschließlich Pflichtangaben) zu einzelnen, innerhalb der EU tätigen Gesellschaften und Zweigniederlassungen des Konzerns Deutsche Bank finden Sie unter http://www.db.com/de/content/pflichtangaben.htm. Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/ oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Adressat sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese E-Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser E-Mail ist nicht gestattet.

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Re: [Expectperl-discuss] Please point me to the right mailing list

[Roland G. <rgi...@cp...>]

Can you post the relevant parts of the script?

PTY-handling is hard, that's why IO::Tty is doing it in C. And you have 
no way of installing IO::Tty locally? If you worry about distribution, 
have a look at PAR, the Perl Archiver, on CPAN which lets you package 
required modules, even binary ones, with your script.

Servus, Roland

Carlyle Sutphen wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am a system administrator in a large corporation which
> has not included Expect.pm and its siblings IO::Tty and IO::Stty
> in the packaging.
> 
> I have written a perl script which creates a terminal for a child
> process which uses the terminal rather than standard IO;
> much as expect does but very simply and of very limited
> scope.
> 
> This script works fine on AIX but not on SunOS or Linux.
> 
> I need to know how to get the name of the slave side after
> opening the control side (/dev/ptc on AIX and /dev/ptmx on
> the others). On AIX ttyname does this for me but it returns
> "Inappropriate ioctl for device" elsewhere.
> 
> I don't mean to take up time and space on this list but I have been
> looking unsuccessfully for a suitable mailing list more suited to
> my problem.
> 
> Thank you for any pointers.
> 
> Best regards,
> Carlyle
> --
> 
> Informationen (einschließlich Pflichtangaben) zu einzelnen, innerhalb der EU tätigen Gesellschaften und Zweigniederlassungen des Konzerns Deutsche Bank finden Sie unter http://www.db.com/de/content/pflichtangaben.htm. Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/ oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Adressat sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese E-Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser E-Mail ist nicht gestattet.
> 
> Please refer to http://www.db.com/en/content/eu_disclosures.htm for information (including mandatory corporate particulars) on selected Deutsche Bank branches and group companies registered or incorporated in the European Union. This e-mail may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient (or have received this e-mail in error) please notify the sender immediately and delete this e-mail. Any unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this e-mail is strictly forbidden.
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft
> Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008.
> http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/
> _______________________________________________
> Expectperl-discuss mailing list
> Exp...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/expectperl-discuss
> 

Re: [Expectperl-discuss] Please point me to the right mailing list

[Carlyle S. <car...@db...>]

Thank you for picking this up.

No, I can't install IO::Tty. I would have to justify rolling out non-standard packages on many
hundreds of servers. But if I can't get this to fly, I may look at PAR.

I only need the slave side (pts) name. I'm sure it must be something simple. The rest
works fine.

Here is the relevant code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Fcntl; # Needed for O_RDWR and O_NOCTTY flags to sysopen
use POSIX qw/setsid ttyname/;
use POSIX ":sys_wait_h";
#
# Set up my variables and read the command line parameters.
#
# Open the control side and set non blocking
sysopen( PTC, "/dev/ptc", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY ) or die "Can't open a pseudo-terminal. $!";
$s = select(PTC); $| = 1; select($s);
# Get the name of the slave side
$ptyname = ttyname(fileno(PTC)) or die "Cannot get slave name: $?, $!\n";
$pid = fork;
if ($pid < 0) {
 die "Can't fork: $1\n";
}
if( $pid == 0 ) { # I'm the son ; exec the program...
  # Break away from the old controling terminal.
  setsid() or die "Can't setsid: $!\n";
  # Open the slave side of the new one and set non-blocking IO
  sysopen( PTS, $ptyname, O_RDWR ) or die "Can't open a pseudo-terminal (child). $!";
  $s = select(PTS); $| = 1; select($s);
  close STDIN;
  close STDOUT;
  close STDERR;
  open(STDIN,"<&PTS");
  open(STDOUT,">&PTS");
  open(STDERR,">&STDOUT");
  $| = 1;
  exec $prog-needing-tty;
}
$| = 1;
while( sysread(PTC, $_, 1) ) {
    print "$_";
    $buf = $buf . $_;
    #
    # Check for specific string from child
    # and send the correct responses.
    #
    if( ($kid = waitpid(-1, WNOHANG)) > 0 ) {
        last;
    }
}
# Cleanup and exit


Regards,
Carlyle.

Roland Giersig <rgi...@cp...> wrote on 06.02.2008 14:47:49:

> Can you post the relevant parts of the script?
>
> PTY-handling is hard, that's why IO::Tty is doing it in C. And you have
> no way of installing IO::Tty locally? If you worry about distribution,
> have a look at PAR, the Perl Archiver, on CPAN which lets you package
> required modules, even binary ones, with your script.
>
> Servus, Roland
>
> Carlyle Sutphen wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am a system administrator in a large corporation which
> > has not included Expect.pm and its siblings IO::Tty and IO::Stty
> > in the packaging.
> >
> > I have written a perl script which creates a terminal for a child
> > process which uses the terminal rather than standard IO;
> > much as expect does but very simply and of very limited
> > scope.
> >
> > This script works fine on AIX but not on SunOS or Linux.
> >
> > I need to know how to get the name of the slave side after
> > opening the control side (/dev/ptc on AIX and /dev/ptmx on
> > the others). On AIX ttyname does this for me but it returns
> > "Inappropriate ioctl for device" elsewhere.
> >
> > I don't mean to take up time and space on this list but I have been
> > looking unsuccessfully for a suitable mailing list more suited to
> > my problem.
> >
> > Thank you for any pointers.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Carlyle
> > --
> >
> > Informationen (einschließlich Pflichtangaben) zu einzelnen,
> innerhalb der EU tätigen Gesellschaften und Zweigniederlassungen des
> Konzerns Deutsche Bank finden Sie unter http://www.db.
> com/de/content/pflichtangaben.htm. Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche
> und/ oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der
> richtige Adressat sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben,
> informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese
> E-Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe
> dieser E-Mail ist nicht gestattet.
> >
> > Please refer to http://www.db.com/en/content/eu_disclosures.htm
> for information (including mandatory corporate particulars) on
> selected Deutsche Bank branches and group companies registered or
> incorporated in the European Union. This e-mail may contain
> confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the
> intended recipient (or have received this e-mail in error) please
> notify the sender immediately and delete this e-mail. Any
> unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in
> this e-mail is strictly forbidden.
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft
> > Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008.
> > http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Expectperl-discuss mailing list
> > Exp...@li...
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/expectperl-discuss
> >

--

Informationen (einschließlich Pflichtangaben) zu einzelnen, innerhalb der EU tätigen Gesellschaften und Zweigniederlassungen des Konzerns Deutsche Bank finden Sie unter http://www.db.com/de/content/pflichtangaben.htm. Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/ oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Adressat sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese E-Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser E-Mail ist nicht gestattet.

Please refer to http://www.db.com/en/content/eu_disclosures.htm for information (including mandatory corporate particulars) on selected Deutsche Bank branches and group companies registered or incorporated in the European Union. This e-mail may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient (or have received this e-mail in error) please notify the sender immediately and delete this e-mail. Any unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this e-mail is strictly forbidden.

Re: [Expectperl-discuss] Please point me to the right mailing list

[Roland G. <rgi...@cp...>]

Carlyle Sutphen wrote:
> Thank you for picking this up.
> 
> No, I can't install IO::Tty. I would have to justify rolling out non-standard packages on many
> hundreds of servers.

Comparing "rolling out a self-written custom script that probably 
doesn't has an automatic testsuite" to "installing a proven-in-use 
module" I fail to see the problem... :-) (don't flame me, I know, 
company policies... *sigh*)

> But if I can't get this to fly, I may look at PAR.

What I meant was installing the module in a private lib-dir. And yes, 
then you can package this up with PAR.

> I only need the slave side (pts) name. I'm sure it must be something simple. The rest
> works fine.

No, I don't think it can be done with pure perl. In C you have ptsname() 
for that purpose, but as it is not POSIX there is no standard perl 
binding to that that I am aware of (other than in IO::Tty).

Generally speaking, pty handling is a black magic and VERY system-dependent.

But come to think of, I have a nifty work-around! Use "ssh -t localhost 
cmd" to spawn the command with a terminal as stdin/out and interact with 
that via open2() or open3(). How does that sound?

Hope this helps,

Roland

> Here is the relevant code:
> 
> #!/usr/bin/perl -w
> use strict;
> use Fcntl; # Needed for O_RDWR and O_NOCTTY flags to sysopen
> use POSIX qw/setsid ttyname/;
> use POSIX ":sys_wait_h";
> #
> # Set up my variables and read the command line parameters.
> #
> # Open the control side and set non blocking
> sysopen( PTC, "/dev/ptc", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY ) or die "Can't open a pseudo-terminal. $!";
> $s = select(PTC); $| = 1; select($s);
> # Get the name of the slave side

That won't work, you need ptsname() here. That this works in AIX is... 
well, I can't say non-standard, because there is no standard... :-)

> $ptyname = ttyname(fileno(PTC)) or die "Cannot get slave name: $?, $!\n";
> $pid = fork;
> if ($pid < 0) {
>  die "Can't fork: $1\n";
> }
> if( $pid == 0 ) { # I'm the son ; exec the program...
>   # Break away from the old controling terminal.
>   setsid() or die "Can't setsid: $!\n";
>   # Open the slave side of the new one and set non-blocking IO
>   sysopen( PTS, $ptyname, O_RDWR ) or die "Can't open a pseudo-terminal (child). $!";
>   $s = select(PTS); $| = 1; select($s);
>   close STDIN;
>   close STDOUT;
>   close STDERR;
>   open(STDIN,"<&PTS");
>   open(STDOUT,">&PTS");
>   open(STDERR,">&STDOUT");
>   $| = 1;
>   exec $prog-needing-tty;
> }
> $| = 1;
> while( sysread(PTC, $_, 1) ) {
>     print "$_";
>     $buf = $buf . $_;
>     #
>     # Check for specific string from child
>     # and send the correct responses.
>     #
>     if( ($kid = waitpid(-1, WNOHANG)) > 0 ) {
>         last;
>     }
> }
> # Cleanup and exit
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Carlyle.
> 
> Roland Giersig <rgi...@cp...> wrote on 06.02.2008 14:47:49:
> 
>> Can you post the relevant parts of the script?
>>
>> PTY-handling is hard, that's why IO::Tty is doing it in C. And you have
>> no way of installing IO::Tty locally? If you worry about distribution,
>> have a look at PAR, the Perl Archiver, on CPAN which lets you package
>> required modules, even binary ones, with your script.
>>
>> Servus, Roland
>>
>> Carlyle Sutphen wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I am a system administrator in a large corporation which
>>> has not included Expect.pm and its siblings IO::Tty and IO::Stty
>>> in the packaging.
>>>
>>> I have written a perl script which creates a terminal for a child
>>> process which uses the terminal rather than standard IO;
>>> much as expect does but very simply and of very limited
>>> scope.
>>>
>>> This script works fine on AIX but not on SunOS or Linux.
>>>
>>> I need to know how to get the name of the slave side after
>>> opening the control side (/dev/ptc on AIX and /dev/ptmx on
>>> the others). On AIX ttyname does this for me but it returns
>>> "Inappropriate ioctl for device" elsewhere.
>>>
>>> I don't mean to take up time and space on this list but I have been
>>> looking unsuccessfully for a suitable mailing list more suited to
>>> my problem.
>>>
>>> Thank you for any pointers.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Carlyle
>>> --
>>>
>>> Informationen (einschließlich Pflichtangaben) zu einzelnen,
>> innerhalb der EU tätigen Gesellschaften und Zweigniederlassungen des
>> Konzerns Deutsche Bank finden Sie unter http://www.db.
>> com/de/content/pflichtangaben.htm. Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche
>> und/ oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der
>> richtige Adressat sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben,
>> informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese
>> E-Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe
>> dieser E-Mail ist nicht gestattet.
>>> Please refer to http://www.db.com/en/content/eu_disclosures.htm
>> for information (including mandatory corporate particulars) on
>> selected Deutsche Bank branches and group companies registered or
>> incorporated in the European Union. This e-mail may contain
>> confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the
>> intended recipient (or have received this e-mail in error) please
>> notify the sender immediately and delete this e-mail. Any
>> unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in
>> this e-mail is strictly forbidden.
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft
>>> Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008.
>>> http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Expectperl-discuss mailing list
>>> Exp...@li...
>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/expectperl-discuss
>>>
> 
> --
> 
> Informationen (einschließlich Pflichtangaben) zu einzelnen, innerhalb der EU tätigen Gesellschaften und Zweigniederlassungen des Konzerns Deutsche Bank finden Sie unter http://www.db.com/de/content/pflichtangaben.htm. Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/ oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Adressat sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese E-Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser E-Mail ist nicht gestattet.
> 
> Please refer to http://www.db.com/en/content/eu_disclosures.htm for information (including mandatory corporate particulars) on selected Deutsche Bank branches and group companies registered or incorporated in the European Union. This e-mail may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient (or have received this e-mail in error) please notify the sender immediately and delete this e-mail. Any unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this e-mail is strictly forbidden.
> 
> 

Re: [Expectperl-discuss] Please point me to the right mailing list

[Carlyle S. <car...@db...>]

I answered all your comments including the mention of ptsname().

Roland Giersig <rgi...@cp...> wrote on 06.02.2008 16:56:30:

> Carlyle Sutphen wrote:
> > Thank you for picking this up.
> >
> > No, I can't install IO::Tty. I would have to justify rolling out
> non-standard packages on many
> > hundreds of servers.
>
> Comparing "rolling out a self-written custom script that probably
> doesn't has an automatic testsuite" to "installing a proven-in-use
> module" I fail to see the problem... :-) (don't flame me, I know,
> company policies... *sigh*)

Yes, we just don't fight global engineering any more :(
The testing is not automized, true, but the scripts we roll out
generally never get developed any further. The are written to
do a simple task and last forever or until an OS upgrade breaks them.

>
> > But if I can't get this to fly, I may look at PAR.
>
> What I meant was installing the module in a private lib-dir. And yes,
> then you can package this up with PAR.

I understood that. Sounds good. I will certainly look into that at least
for future use.

>
> > I only need the slave side (pts) name. I'm sure it must be
> something simple. The rest
> > works fine.
>
> No, I don't think it can be done with pure perl. In C you have ptsname()
> for that purpose, but as it is not POSIX there is no standard perl
> binding to that that I am aware of (other than in IO::Tty).
>
> Generally speaking, pty handling is a black magic and VERY system-dependent.
>
> But come to think of, I have a nifty work-around! Use "ssh -t localhost
> cmd" to spawn the command with a terminal as stdin/out and interact with
> that via open2() or open3(). How does that sound?

I'll try that but it sounds too simple, it can't work ;-P

>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Roland
>
> > Here is the relevant code:
> >
> > #!/usr/bin/perl -w
> > use strict;
> > use Fcntl; # Needed for O_RDWR and O_NOCTTY flags to sysopen
> > use POSIX qw/setsid ttyname/;
> > use POSIX ":sys_wait_h";
> > #
> > # Set up my variables and read the command line parameters.
> > #
> > # Open the control side and set non blocking
> > sysopen( PTC, "/dev/ptc", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY ) or die "Can't open a
> pseudo-terminal. $!";
> > $s = select(PTC); $| = 1; select($s);
> > # Get the name of the slave side
>
> That won't work, you need ptsname() here. That this works in AIX is...
> well, I can't say non-standard, because there is no standard... :-)

I saw that. I also found something else:
####################
sub ptsname {
  my $fd = shift;

  my $name = '/dev/pts/';
  my $pty;

  unless( ioctl( \*$fd, &TIOCGPTN, $pty ) ) {
    unless( ioctl( \*$fd, &DEF_TIOCGPTN, $pty ) ) {
      ioctl( \*$fd, &TIOCGPTN|0x00040000, $pty );
    }
  }

  $pty = ord(unpack("A", $pty));

  return $name.$pty;
}
####################

For my purpose I would drop the GLOB ref. But how do I get the defines from
unistd.h into variables my perl script. Then I could replace the function refs.

>
> > $ptyname = ttyname(fileno(PTC)) or die "Cannot get slave name: $?, $!\n";
> > $pid = fork;
> > if ($pid < 0) {
> >  die "Can't fork: $1\n";
> > }
> > if( $pid == 0 ) { # I'm the son ; exec the program...
> >   # Break away from the old controling terminal.
> >   setsid() or die "Can't setsid: $!\n";
> >   # Open the slave side of the new one and set non-blocking IO
> >   sysopen( PTS, $ptyname, O_RDWR ) or die "Can't open a pseudo-
> terminal (child). $!";
> >   $s = select(PTS); $| = 1; select($s);
> >   close STDIN;
> >   close STDOUT;
> >   close STDERR;
> >   open(STDIN,"<&PTS");
> >   open(STDOUT,">&PTS");
> >   open(STDERR,">&STDOUT");
> >   $| = 1;
> >   exec $prog-needing-tty;
> > }
> > $| = 1;
> > while( sysread(PTC, $_, 1) ) {
> >     print "$_";
> >     $buf = $buf . $_;
> >     #
> >     # Check for specific string from child
> >     # and send the correct responses.
> >     #
> >     if( ($kid = waitpid(-1, WNOHANG)) > 0 ) {
> >         last;
> >     }
> > }
> > # Cleanup and exit
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> > Carlyle.
> >
> > Roland Giersig <rgi...@cp...> wrote on 06.02.2008 14:47:49:
> >
> >> Can you post the relevant parts of the script?
> >>
> >> PTY-handling is hard, that's why IO::Tty is doing it in C. And you have
> >> no way of installing IO::Tty locally? If you worry about distribution,
> >> have a look at PAR, the Perl Archiver, on CPAN which lets you package
> >> required modules, even binary ones, with your script.
> >>
> >> Servus, Roland
> >>
> >> Carlyle Sutphen wrote:
> >>> Hello,
> >>>
> >>> I am a system administrator in a large corporation which
> >>> has not included Expect.pm and its siblings IO::Tty and IO::Stty
> >>> in the packaging.
> >>>
> >>> I have written a perl script which creates a terminal for a child
> >>> process which uses the terminal rather than standard IO;
> >>> much as expect does but very simply and of very limited
> >>> scope.
> >>>
> >>> This script works fine on AIX but not on SunOS or Linux.
> >>>
> >>> I need to know how to get the name of the slave side after
> >>> opening the control side (/dev/ptc on AIX and /dev/ptmx on
> >>> the others). On AIX ttyname does this for me but it returns
> >>> "Inappropriate ioctl for device" elsewhere.
> >>>
> >>> I don't mean to take up time and space on this list but I have been
> >>> looking unsuccessfully for a suitable mailing list more suited to
> >>> my problem.
> >>>
> >>> Thank you for any pointers.
> >>>
> >>> Best regards,
> >>> Carlyle

--

Informationen (einschließlich Pflichtangaben) zu einzelnen, innerhalb der EU tätigen Gesellschaften und Zweigniederlassungen des Konzerns Deutsche Bank finden Sie unter http://www.db.com/de/content/pflichtangaben.htm. Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/ oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Adressat sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese E-Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser E-Mail ist nicht gestattet.

Please refer to http://www.db.com/en/content/eu_disclosures.htm for information (including mandatory corporate particulars) on selected Deutsche Bank branches and group companies registered or incorporated in the European Union. This e-mail may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient (or have received this e-mail in error) please notify the sender immediately and delete this e-mail. Any unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this e-mail is strictly forbidden.

Re: [Expectperl-discuss] Please point me to the right mailing list

[Roland G. <rgi...@cp...>]

>> But come to think of, I have a nifty work-around! Use "ssh -t localhost
>> cmd" to spawn the command with a terminal as stdin/out and interact with
>> that via open2() or open3(). How does that sound?
> 
> I'll try that but it sounds too simple, it can't work ;-P

Yes it will work. :-P
And probably save you a lot of coding...

>   unless( ioctl( \*$fd, &TIOCGPTN, $pty ) ) {
>     unless( ioctl( \*$fd, &DEF_TIOCGPTN, $pty ) ) {
>       ioctl( \*$fd, &TIOCGPTN|0x00040000, $pty );
> 
> For my purpose I would drop the GLOB ref. But how do I get the defines from
> unistd.h into variables my perl script. Then I could replace the function refs.

Easy. Just look up the values for TIOCGPTN etc. in the .h files and put 
them hard-coded into you program, eg

  ioctl($fd, 0x47110815, $pty);

But I don't recommend that, use ssh instead, because that's more 
reliable and portable...

Hope this helps,

Roland