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+.TH SLEEPING-GETTY 8 SLEEPING-GETTY
+.SH NAME
+sleeping\-getty \- Do not start a fullblown getty before it is necessary
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B sleeping\-getty
+.I vtno
+.I getty-command
+.IR argument \ ...
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.B sleeping\-getty
+shall wait until
+.I vtno
+(a number of a virtual terminal) becomes the foreground console.
+Then, it shall
+.BR execvp (3)
+to
+.IR getty-command ,
+with
+.I getty-command
+and all following arguments as the command line arguments.
+.PP
+Note that
+.B sleeping-getty
+works on VT:s, not TTY:s. It cannot wait for a serial console to
+become, active, only virtual terminals.
+.SH EXAMPLE
+.nf
+/sbin/\fBsleeping\-getty\fP \fI15\fP /sbin/got tty\fI15\fP TERM=linux
+/sbin/\fBsleeping\-getty\fP \fI16\fP /sbin/got tty\fI16\fP TERM=linux
+/sbin/\fBsleeping\-getty\fP \fI20\fP /sbin/agetty -8 -s 38400 tty\fI20\fP linux
+.fi
+.SH NOTES
+.B sleeping\-getty
+does not acquire the TTY. That would be a waste of CPU cycles.
+This means, if naïvely used, that if you start your computer,
+log in on
+.BR tty1 ,
+and start
+.BR X ,
+and have
+.B startx
+configured to start
+.B X
+on the next available VT.
+.B X
+will start on VT\ 2. This is probably not want you want.
+Instead you should edit
+.B startx
+to ensure that a VT lower than a preferred number
+(customarily 7) will not be used.
+.SH RATIONALE
+It is nice to have a score or two of TTY:s available. However,
+starting them, can require some unnecessary CPU time and will
+was memory until they are actually used. This becomes extra
+important on resource contained machines.
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+.BR getty (8),
+.BR mingetty (8),
+.BR agetty (8),
+.BR got (8),
+.BR vtchs (1),
+.BR inittab (5)
+.SH AUTHORS
+Mattias Andrée
+.RI < maandree@kth.se >