isatty - test if a file descriptor is a terminal¶

Synopsis¶

isatty [FILE DESCRIPTOR]

Description¶

isatty tests if a file descriptor is a terminal (as opposed to a file). The name is derived from the system call of the same name, which for historical reasons refers to a teletypewriter (TTY).

FILE DESCRIPTOR may be either the number of a file descriptor, or one of the strings stdin, stdout, or stderr.

If the specified file descriptor is a terminal device, the exit status of the command is zero. Otherwise, the exit status is non-zero. No messages are printed to standard error.

Examples¶

From an interactive shell, the commands below exit with a return value of zero:

isattyisatty stdoutisatty 2echo | isatty 1

And these will exit non-zero:

echo | isattyisatty 9isatty stdout \> fileisatty 2 2\> file