--- console.4	2000/03/10 04:47:37	1.1
+++ console.4	2000/03/10 04:53:03
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@
 .\"
 .\" Modified, Sun Feb 26 14:58:45 1995, faith@cs.unc.edu
 .\" Modified, Oct 28 1997, dirson@debian.org
+.\" Updated for console driver version 2 by ESR.
 .\"
-.TH CONSOLE 4 "28 Oct 1997" "Console tools" "Linux User's Manual"
+.TH CONSOLE 4 "9 Mar 2000" "Console tools" "Linux User's Manual"
 
 .SH NAME
 console \- console terminal and virtual consoles
@@ -23,12 +24,6 @@
 The device files /dev/* are usually created using the script MAKEDEV,
 or using mknod(1), usually with mode 0622 and owner root.tty.
 
-Before kernel version 1.1.54 the number of virtual consoles was
-compiled into the kernel (in tty.h: #define NR_CONSOLES 8)
-and could be changed by editing and recompiling.
-Since version 1.1.54 virtual consoles are created on the fly,
-as soon as they are needed.
-
 Common ways to start a process on a console are: (a) tell init(8)
 (in inittab(5)) to start a getty(8) on the console; (b) ask open(1)
 to start a process on the console; (c) start X - it will find the
@@ -48,12 +43,9 @@
 will free the memory taken by the screen buffers for consoles
 that no longer have any associated process.
 
-.SH PROPERTIES
-Consoles carry a lot of state. I hope to document that some other time.
-The most important fact is that the consoles simulate vt100 terminals.
-In particular, a console is reset to the initial state by printing the two
-characters ESC c.
-All escape sequences can be found in
+The console has a built-in terminal emulation resembling that of a DEC
+VT100; actually it implements a large subset of ANSI X3.64/ECMA-48.
+The escape sequences can be found in
 .BR console_codes (4).
 
 .SH FILES