diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS b/CONTRIBUTORS
index d3482694..7a409b94 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -66,3 +66,6 @@ Axel Gruber <axel@agm.de>
 
 Arnold Niessen <niessen@iae.nl> <arnold.niessen@philips.com>
  for translating the OSD texts to the Dutch language
+
+Jürgen Sauer <jojo@automatix.de>
+ for implementing the -t option to set the controlling terminal
diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index 7e0d8ea8..6c4195be 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -435,3 +435,6 @@ Video Disk Recorder Revision History
 - Fixed a problem with Daylight Saving Time when displaying the times of
   recordings.
 - Added Dutch language texts (thanks to Arnold Niessen).
+- The new command line option -t can be used to set the controlling terminal
+  (thanks to Jürgen Sauer). This is especially useful when starting VDR through
+  an entry in /etc/inittab (see INSTALL).
diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index c334ed6d..6910f6b4 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -71,6 +71,11 @@ If the program shall run as a daemon, use the --daemon option. This
 will completely detach it from the terminal and will continue as a
 background process.
 
+When starting the program through an entry in /etc/inittab, use the --terminal
+option to set the controlling terminal, as in
+
+vdr:123:respawn:/usr/local/bin/vdr --terminal=/dev/tty8 -w 60
+
 Automatic restart in case of hangups:
 -------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/vdr.c b/vdr.c
index 938afcf0..71f3222b 100644
--- a/vdr.c
+++ b/vdr.c
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
  *
  * The project's page is at http://www.cadsoft.de/people/kls/vdr
  *
- * $Id: vdr.c 1.54 2001/02/24 16:18:43 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: vdr.c 1.55 2001/03/31 10:18:25 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #include <getopt.h>
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
   const char *ConfigDirectory = NULL;
   bool DaemonMode = false;
   int WatchdogTimeout = DEFAULTWATCHDOG;
+  char *Terminal = NULL;
 
   static struct option long_options[] = {
       { "config",   required_argument, NULL, 'c' },
@@ -84,12 +85,13 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
       { "port",     required_argument, NULL, 'p' },
       { "video",    required_argument, NULL, 'v' },
       { "watchdog", required_argument, NULL, 'w' },
+      { "terminal", required_argument, NULL, 't' },
       { 0 }
     };
   
   int c;
   int option_index = 0;
-  while ((c = getopt_long(argc, argv, "c:dD:hl:p:v:w:", long_options, &option_index)) != -1) {
+  while ((c = getopt_long(argc, argv, "c:dD:hl:p:v:w:t:", long_options, &option_index)) != -1) {
         switch (c) {
           case 'c': ConfigDirectory = optarg;
                     break;
@@ -117,9 +119,10 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
                            "                           2 = errors and info, 3 = errors, info and debug\n"
                            "  -p PORT,  --port=PORT    use PORT for SVDRP (default: %d)\n"
                            "                           0 turns off SVDRP\n"
-                           "  -v DIR,   --video=DIR    use DIR as video directory (default is %s)\n"
+                           "  -v DIR,   --video=DIR    use DIR as video directory (default: %s)\n"
                            "  -w SEC,   --watchdog=SEC activate the watchdog timer with a timeout of SEC\n"
                            "                           seconds (default: %d); '0' disables the watchdog\n"
+                           "  -t TTY,   --terminal=TTY controlling tty\n"
                            "\n"
                            "Report bugs to <vdr-bugs@cadsoft.de>\n",
                            DEFAULTSVDRPPORT,
@@ -145,6 +148,8 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
                        abort();
                        }
                     break;
+          case 't': Terminal = optarg;
+                    break;
           case 'v': VideoDirectory = optarg;
                     while (optarg && *optarg && optarg[strlen(optarg) - 1] == '/')
                           optarg[strlen(optarg) - 1] = 0;
@@ -195,6 +200,13 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
      abort();
 #endif
      }
+  else if (Terminal) {
+     // Claim new controlling terminal
+     stdin  = freopen(Terminal, "r", stdin);
+     stdout = freopen(Terminal, "w", stdout);
+     stderr = freopen(Terminal, "w", stderr);
+     }
+
   isyslog(LOG_INFO, "VDR version %s started", VDRVERSION);
 
   // Configuration data: