mirror/ncurses
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/ThomasDickey/ncurses-snapshots.git synced 2026-01-26 11:04:35 +00:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity
ncurses/doc/html/man/tput.1.html
Thomas E. Dickey 0096bd402c
snapshot of project "ncurses", label v6_6
2025-12-31 00:42:14 +00:00

584 lines
34 KiB
HTML
Raw Blame History

<!--
* t
****************************************************************************
* Copyright 2018-2024,2025 Thomas E. Dickey *
* Copyright 1998-2016,2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
* *
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
* copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
* "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including *
* without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, *
* distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell *
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is *
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: *
* *
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included *
* in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. *
* *
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS *
* OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF *
* MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. *
* IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, *
* DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR *
* OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR *
* THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. *
* *
* Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright *
* holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the *
* sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
* authorization. *
****************************************************************************
* @Id: tput.1,v 1.149 2025/11/12 01:05:03 tom Exp @
-->
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="generator" content="Manpage converted by man2html - see https://invisible-island.net/scripts/readme.html#others_scripts">
<TITLE>tput 1 2025-11-11 ncurses 6.6 User commands</TITLE>
<link rel="author" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1 class="no-header">tput 1 2025-11-11 ncurses 6.6 User commands</H1>
<PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG> User commands <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> - initialize a terminal, exercise its capabilities, or query <EM>term-</EM>
<EM>info</EM> database
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>] [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] {<EM>cap-code</EM> [<EM>parameter</EM> ...]} ...
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>] [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] [<STRONG>-x</STRONG>] <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>] [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] <STRONG>init</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>] [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] <STRONG>reset</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>] [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>] <STRONG>-S</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>] <STRONG>-V</STRONG>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses the <EM>terminfo</EM> library and database to make terminal-specific
capabilities and information available to the shell, to initialize or
reset the terminal, or to report a description of the current (or
specified) terminal type. Terminal capabilities are accessed by <EM>cap-</EM>
<EM>code</EM>.
<STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> discusses terminal capabilities at length and presents a
complete list of standardized <EM>cap-codes</EM>. <STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG> presents other
widely used but non-standard capabilities.
When retrieving capability values, the result depends upon the
capability's type.
Boolean <STRONG>tput</STRONG> sets its exit status to <STRONG>0</STRONG> if the terminal possesses <EM>cap-</EM>
<EM>code</EM>, and <STRONG>1</STRONG> if it does not.
numeric <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes <EM>cap-code</EM>'s decimal value to the standard output
stream if defined (<STRONG>-1</STRONG> if it is not) followed by a newline.
string <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes <EM>cap-code</EM>'s value to the standard output stream if
defined, without a trailing newline.
Before using a value returned on the standard output, the application
should test <STRONG>tput</STRONG>'s exit status to be sure it is 0; see section "EXIT
STATUS" below.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Operands">Operands</a></H3><PRE>
Generally, an operand is a <EM>cap-code</EM>, a capability code from the
terminal database, or a parameter thereto. Three others are specially
recognized by <STRONG>tput</STRONG>: <STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>reset</STRONG>, and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>. Although these resemble
capability codes, they in fact receive special handling; we term them
"pseudo-capabilities".
<EM>cap-code</EM> indicates a capability from the terminal database.
If <EM>cap-code</EM> is of string type and takes parameters, <STRONG>tput</STRONG>
interprets arguments following <EM>cap-code</EM> as the parameters,
up to the (fixed) quantity the capability requires.
Most parameters are numeric. Only a few terminal
capabilities require string parameters; <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a table to
decide which to pass as strings. Normally <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses
<STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> to perform the substitution. If no parameters are
given for the capability, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the string without
performing the substitution.
<STRONG>init</STRONG> initializes the terminal. If the terminal database is
present and an entry for the user's terminal type exists,
the following occur.
(1) <STRONG>tput</STRONG> retrieves the terminal's mode settings. It
successively tests the file descriptors corresponding
to
<STRONG>o</STRONG> the standard error stream,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> the standard output stream,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> the standard input stream, and
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>/dev/tty</EM>
to obtain terminal settings. Having retrieved them,
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> remembers which descriptor to use for further
updates.
(2) If the terminal dimensions cannot be obtained from the
operating system, but the environment or terminal type
database entry describes them, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> updates the
operating system's notion of them.
(3) <STRONG>tput</STRONG> updates the terminal modes.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> Tab expansion is turned on or off per the
specification in the entry, and
<STRONG>o</STRONG> if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs (every 8
spaces) are set.
(4) If initialization capabilities, detailed in subsection
"Tabs and Initialization" of <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, are present,
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes them to the standard output stream.
(5) <STRONG>tput</STRONG> flushes the standard output stream.
If an entry lacks the information needed for an activity
above, that activity is silently skipped.
<STRONG>reset</STRONG> re-initializes the terminal. A reset differs from
initialization in two ways.
(1) <STRONG>tput</STRONG> sets the terminal modes to a "sane" state,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> enabling canonical ("cooked") and echo modes,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> disabling cbreak and raw modes,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> enabling newline translation, and
<STRONG>o</STRONG> setting any special input characters to their
default values.
(2) If any reset capabilities are defined for the terminal
type, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes them to the output stream.
Otherwise, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses any defined initialization
capabilities. Reset capabilities are detailed in
subsection "Tabs and Initialization" of <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
<STRONG>longname</STRONG> A <EM>terminfo</EM> entry begins with one or more names by which an
application can refer to the entry, before the list of
terminal capabilities. The names are separated by "|"
characters. X/Open Curses terms the last name the "long
name", and indicates that it may include blanks.
<STRONG>tic</STRONG> warns if the last name does not include blanks, to
accommodate old <EM>terminfo</EM> entries that treated the long name
as an optional feature. The long name is often referred to
as the description field.
If the terminal database is present and an entry for the
user's terminal type exists, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> reports its description to
the standard output stream, without a trailing newline. See
<STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
<EM>Note:</EM> Redirecting the output of "<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>init</STRONG>" or "<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>reset</STRONG>" to a file
will capture only part of their actions. Changes to the terminal modes
are not affected by file descriptor redirection, since the terminal
modes are altered via <STRONG>ioctl(2)</STRONG>.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></H3><PRE>
If <STRONG>tput</STRONG> is invoked via link with any of the names <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG>, or
<STRONG>reset</STRONG>, it operates as if run with the corresponding (pseudo-)capability
operand. For example, executing a link named <STRONG>reset</STRONG> that points to <STRONG>tput</STRONG>
has the same effect as "<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>reset</STRONG>".
This feature was introduced by <EM>ncurses</EM> 5.2 in 2000. It is rarely used.
<STRONG>clear</STRONG> is a separate program, which is both smaller and more frequently
executed.
<STRONG>init</STRONG> has the same name as another program in widespread use.
<STRONG>reset</STRONG> is provided by the <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG> utility (also via a link named
<STRONG>reset</STRONG>).
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Terminal-Size">Terminal Size</a></H3><PRE>
Besides the pseudo-capabilities (such as <STRONG>init</STRONG>), <STRONG>tput</STRONG> treats the <STRONG>lines</STRONG>
and <STRONG>cols</STRONG> <EM>cap-codes</EM> specially: it may call <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG> to obtain the
terminal size.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> First, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> attempts to obtain these capabilities from the terminal
database. This generally fails for terminal emulators, which lack
a fixed window size and thus omit the capabilities.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> It then asks the operating system for the terminal's size, which
generally works, unless the connection is via a serial line that
does not support "NAWS": negotiations about window size.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> Finally, it inspects the environment variables <EM>LINES</EM> and <EM>COLUMNS</EM>,
which may override the terminal size.
If the <STRONG>-T</STRONG> option is given, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> ignores the environment variables by
calling <STRONG>use_tioctl(TRUE)</STRONG>, relying upon the operating system (or,
ultimately, the terminal database).
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-OPTIONS">OPTIONS</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>-S</STRONG> retrieves more than one capability per invocation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG>.
The capabilities must be passed to <STRONG>tput</STRONG> from the standard
input stream instead of from the command line (see section
"EXAMPLES" below). Only one <EM>cap-code</EM> is allowed per line.
The <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option changes the meanings of the <STRONG>0</STRONG> and <STRONG>1</STRONG> exit
statuses (see section "EXIT STATUS" below).
Some capabilities use string parameters rather than numeric
ones. <STRONG>tput</STRONG> employs a built-in table and the presence of
parameters in its input to decide how to interpret them, and
whether to use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG>.
<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>type</EM> indicates the terminal's <EM>type</EM>. Normally this option is
unnecessary, because a default is taken from the <EM>TERM</EM>
environment variable. If specified, the environment variables
<EM>LINES</EM> and <EM>COLUMNS</EM> are also ignored.
<STRONG>-v</STRONG> causes <STRONG>tput</STRONG> to operate verbosely, reporting warnings.
<STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of <EM>ncurses</EM> associated with <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, and exits
with a successful status.
<STRONG>-x</STRONG> prevents "<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>clear</STRONG>" from attempting to clear the scrollback
buffer.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXIT-STATUS">EXIT STATUS</a></H2><PRE>
Normally, one should interpret <STRONG>tput</STRONG>'s exit statuses as follows.
<STRONG>Status</STRONG> <STRONG>Meaning</STRONG> <STRONG>When</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG> <STRONG>Not</STRONG> <STRONG>Specified</STRONG>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<STRONG>0</STRONG> Boolean or string capability present
<STRONG>1</STRONG> Boolean or numeric capability absent
<STRONG>2</STRONG> usage error or no terminal type specified
<STRONG>3</STRONG> unrecognized terminal type
<STRONG>4</STRONG> unrecognized capability code
<STRONG>&gt;4</STRONG> system error (4 + <STRONG>errno</STRONG>)
When the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is used, some statuses change meanings.
<STRONG>Status</STRONG> <STRONG>Meaning</STRONG> <STRONG>When</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG> <STRONG>Specified</STRONG>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<STRONG>0</STRONG> all operands interpreted
<STRONG>1</STRONG> unused
<STRONG>4</STRONG> some operands not interpreted
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-ENVIRONMENT">ENVIRONMENT</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> reads up to three environment variables if the <STRONG>-T</STRONG> option is not
specified.
<EM>COLUMNS</EM> specifies the width of the screen in characters.
<EM>LINES</EM> specifies the height of the screen in characters.
<EM>TERM</EM> denotes the terminal type. Each terminal type is distinct,
though many are similar.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
<EM>/usr/share/tabset</EM>
tab stop initialization database
<EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>
compiled terminal description database
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
Over time <EM>ncurses</EM> <STRONG>tput</STRONG> has differed from that of System V in two
important respects, one now mostly historical.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> "<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <EM>cap-code</EM>" writes to the standard output, which need not be a
terminal device. However, the operands that manipulate terminal
modes might not use the standard output.
System V <EM>tput</EM>'s <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> operands use logic from 4.1cBSD
<EM>tset</EM>, manipulating terminal modes. It checks the same file
descriptors (and <EM>/dev/tty</EM>) for association with a terminal device
as <EM>ncurses</EM> now does, and if none are, finally assumes a 1200 baud
terminal. When updating terminal modes, it ignores errors.
Until <EM>ncurses</EM> 6.1 (see section "HISTORY" below), <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not
modify terminal modes. It now employs a scheme similar to
System V, using functions shared with <STRONG>tset</STRONG> (and ultimately based on
4.4BSD <EM>tset</EM>). If it is not able to open a terminal (for instance,
when run by <STRONG>cron(1)</STRONG>), <STRONG>tput</STRONG> exits with an error status.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> System V <EM>tput</EM> assumes that the type of a <EM>cap-code</EM> operand is
numeric if all the characters of its value are decimal numbers; if
they are not, it treats <EM>cap-code</EM> as a string capability.
Most implementations that provide support for <EM>cap-code</EM> operands use
the <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> function to expand its parameters. That function
expects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring <STRONG>tput</STRONG>
to know which type to use.
<EM>ncurses</EM> <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a table to determine the parameter types for the
standard <EM>cap-code</EM> operands, and an internal function to analyze
nonstandard <EM>cap-code</EM> operands.
While more reliable than System V's utility, a portability problem
is introduced by this analysis. An OpenBSD developer adapted the
internal library function from <EM>ncurses</EM> to port NetBSD's <EM>termcap</EM>-
based <EM>tput</EM> to <EM>terminfo</EM>, and modified it to interpret multiple <EM>cap-</EM>
<EM>codes</EM> (and parameters) on the command line. Portable applications
should not rely upon this feature; <EM>ncurses</EM> offers it to support
applications written specifically for OpenBSD.
<EM>ncurses</EM>'s implementation of <EM>tput</EM>, unlike others, accepts both <EM>termcap</EM>
and <EM>terminfo</EM> <EM>cap-codes</EM> if <EM>termcap</EM> support is compiled in. In that
case, however, <EM>termcap</EM> and <EM>terminfo</EM> codes have two ambiguities; <EM>ncurses</EM>
assumes the <EM>terminfo</EM> code.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>cap-code</EM> <STRONG>dl</STRONG> means <STRONG>delete_line</STRONG> to <EM>termcap</EM> but <STRONG>parm_delete_line</STRONG>
to <EM>terminfo</EM>. <EM>termcap</EM> uses the code <STRONG>DL</STRONG> for <STRONG>parm_delete_line</STRONG>. <EM>term-</EM>
<EM>info</EM> uses the code <STRONG>dl1</STRONG> for <STRONG>delete_line</STRONG>.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>cap-code</EM> <STRONG>ed</STRONG> means <STRONG>exit_delete_mode</STRONG> to <EM>termcap</EM> but <STRONG>clr_eos</STRONG> to
<EM>terminfo</EM>. <EM>termcap</EM> uses the code <STRONG>cd</STRONG> for <STRONG>clr_eos</STRONG>. <EM>terminfo</EM> uses the
code <STRONG>rmdc</STRONG> for <STRONG>exit_delete_mode</STRONG>.
The <STRONG>longname</STRONG> operand, <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option, and the parameter-substitution
features used in the <STRONG>cup</STRONG> example below, were not supported in AT&amp;T/USL
<EM>curses</EM> before SVr4 (1989). Later, 4.3BSD-Reno (1990) added support for
<STRONG>longname</STRONG>, and in 1994, NetBSD added support for the parameter-
substitution features.
IEEE Std 1003.1/The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7
(POSIX.1-2008) documents only the <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG>, and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> operands. A
few observations of interest arise from that selection.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>ncurses</EM> supports <STRONG>clear</STRONG> as it does any other standard <EM>cap-code</EM>. The
others (<STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>) do not correspond to terminal
capabilities.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>tput</EM> on SVr4-based systems such as Solaris, IRIX64, and HP-UX,
as well as others such as AIX and Tru64, also support standard <EM>cap-</EM>
<EM>code</EM> operands.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize <EM>termcap</EM> codes rather than
<EM>terminfo</EM> capability codes in their respective <EM>tput</EM> commands. Since
2010, NetBSD's <EM>tput</EM> uses <EM>terminfo</EM> codes. Before that, it (like
FreeBSD) recognized <EM>termcap</EM> codes.
Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses <EM>ncurses</EM> <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, configured for both
<EM>terminfo</EM> (tested first) and <EM>termcap</EM> (as a fallback).
Because (apparently) all <EM>certified</EM> Unix systems support the full set of
capability codes, the reason for documenting only a few may not be
apparent.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differently, with <EM>cap-code</EM> and
the other features used in this implementation.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> That is, there are two standards for <EM>tput</EM>: POSIX (a subset) and
X/Open Curses (the full implementation). POSIX documents a subset
to avoid the complication of including X/Open Curses and the
terminal capability database.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> While it is certainly possible to write a <EM>tput</EM> program without
using <EM>curses</EM>, no system with a <EM>curses</EM> implementation provides a
<EM>tput</EM> utility that does not also support standard <EM>cap-codes</EM>.
X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) is the first version to document
utilities. However that part of X/Open Curses does not follow existing
practice (that is, System V <EM>curses</EM> behavior).
<STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit status 4 to "invalid operand", which may have the
same meaning as "unknown capability". For instance, the source
code for Solaris <EM>xcurses</EM> uses the term "invalid" in this case.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit status 255 to a numeric variable that is not
specified in the <EM>terminfo</EM> database. That likely is a documentation
error, mistaking the "-1" written to the standard output to
indicate an absent or canceled numeric capability for an (unsigned)
exit status.
The various System V implementations (AIX, HP-UX, Solaris) use the same
exit statuses as <EM>ncurses</EM>.
NetBSD <EM>curses</EM> documents exit statuses that correspond to neither
<EM>ncurses</EM> nor X/Open Curses.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
Bill Joy wrote a <EM>tput</EM> command during development of 4BSD in October
1980. This initial version only cleared the screen, and did not ship
with official distributions.
System V developed a different <EM>tput</EM> command.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr2 (1984) provided a rudimentary <EM>tput</EM> that checked the parameter
against each capability name and returned the corresponding value.
This version of <EM>tput</EM> did not use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> for parameterized
capabilities.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr3 (1987) replaced that with a more extensive program whose
support for <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> operands (more than half the program)
incorporated the <STRONG>reset</STRONG> feature of BSD <EM>tset</EM> written by Eric Allman.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr4 (1989) added color initialization by using the <STRONG>orig_colors</STRONG>
(<STRONG>oc</STRONG>) and <STRONG>orig_pair</STRONG> (<STRONG>op</STRONG>) capabilities in its <STRONG>init</STRONG> logic.
Keith Bostic refactored BSD <EM>tput</EM> for shipment in 4.3BSD-Reno (1990),
making it follow the interface of System V <EM>tput</EM> by accepting some
parameters named for <EM>terminfo</EM> (pseudo-)capabilities: <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG>,
<STRONG>longname</STRONG>, and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>. However, because he had only <EM>termcap</EM> available,
it accepted <EM>termcap</EM> codes for other capabilities. Also, Bostic's BSD
<EM>tput</EM> did not modify the terminal modes as the earlier BSD <EM>tset</EM> had
done. At the same time, Bostic added a shell script named "clear" that
used <EM>tput</EM> to clear the screen. These became the "modern" BSD
implementation of <EM>tput</EM>.
The origin of <EM>ncurses</EM> <STRONG>tput</STRONG> lies outside both System V and BSD, in Ross
Ridge's <EM>mytinfo</EM> package, published on <EM>comp.sources.unix</EM> in December
1992. Ridge's program made more sophisticated use of the terminal
capabilities than the BSD program. Eric Raymond used that <EM>tput</EM> program
(and other parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM>) in <EM>ncurses</EM> in June 1995. Incorporating
the portions dealing with terminal capabilities almost without change,
Raymond made improvements to the way command-line parameters were
handled.
Before <EM>ncurses</EM> 6.1 (2018), its <STRONG>tset</STRONG> and <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utilities differed.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tset</STRONG> was more effective, resetting the terminal's modes and special
input characters.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> On the other hand, <STRONG>tset</STRONG>'s repertoire of terminal capabilities for
resetting the terminal was more limited; it had only equivalents of
<STRONG>reset_1string</STRONG> (<STRONG>rs1</STRONG>), <STRONG>reset_2string</STRONG> (<STRONG>rs2</STRONG>), and <STRONG>reset_file</STRONG> (<STRONG>rf</STRONG>), and
not the tab stop and margin update features of <STRONG>tput</STRONG>.
The <EM>reset</EM> program is traditionally an alias for <STRONG>tset</STRONG> due to its ability
to reset the terminal's modes and special input characters.
As of <EM>ncurses</EM> 6.1, the "reset" features of the two programs are
(mostly) the same. Two minor differences remain.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> When issuing a reset, the <STRONG>tset</STRONG> program checks whether the device
appears to be a pseudoterminal (as might be used by a terminal
emulator program), and, if it does not, waits one second in case it
is communicating with a hardware terminal.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to
different streams; that is, standard error for <STRONG>tset</STRONG> and standard
output for <STRONG>tput</STRONG>.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>init</STRONG>
Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the
<EM>TERM</EM> environment variable. If the system does not reliably
initialize the terminal upon login, this command can be included
in <EM>$HOME/.profile</EM> after exporting the <EM>TERM</EM> environment variable.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T5620</STRONG> <STRONG>reset</STRONG>
Reset an AT&amp;T 5620 terminal, overriding the terminal type in the
<EM>TERM</EM> environment variable.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cnorm</STRONG>
Set cursor to normal visibility.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>home</STRONG>
Move the cursor to line 0, column 0: the upper left corner of
the screen, usually known as the "home" cursor position.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
Clear the screen: write the <STRONG>clear_screen</STRONG> capability's value to
the standard output stream.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cols</STRONG>
Report the number of columns used by the current terminal type.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-Tadm3a</STRONG> <STRONG>cols</STRONG>
Report the number of columns used by an ADM-3A terminal.
<STRONG>strong=`tput</STRONG> <STRONG>smso`</STRONG> <STRONG>normal=`tput</STRONG> <STRONG>rmso`</STRONG>
Set shell variables to capability values: <STRONG>strong</STRONG> and <STRONG>normal</STRONG>, to
begin and end, respectively, stand-out mode for the terminal.
One might use these to present a prompt.
printf "${strong}Username:${normal} "
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>hc</STRONG>
Indicate via exit status whether the terminal is a hard copy
device.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>23</STRONG> <STRONG>4</STRONG>
Move the cursor to line 23, column 4.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG>
Report the value of the <STRONG>cursor_address</STRONG> (<STRONG>cup</STRONG>) capability (used
for cursor movement), with no parameters substituted.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
Report the <EM>terminfo</EM> database's description of the terminal type
specified in the <EM>TERM</EM> environment variable.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG>
Process multiple capabilities. The <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option can be profitably
used with a shell "here document".
$ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG> <STRONG>&lt;&lt;!</STRONG>
&gt; <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
&gt; <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG>
&gt; <STRONG>bold</STRONG>
&gt; <STRONG>!</STRONG>
The foregoing clears the screen, moves the cursor to position
(10, 10) and turns on bold (extra bright) mode.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>clear</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG> <STRONG>bold</STRONG>
Perform the same actions as the foregoing "<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG>" example.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="clear.1.html">clear(1)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG>stty(1)</STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="tabs.1.html">tabs(1)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>,
<STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG>
ncurses 6.6 2025-11-11 <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
<div class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h3-Operands">Operands</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Terminal-Size">Terminal Size</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h2-OPTIONS">OPTIONS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-EXIT-STATUS">EXIT STATUS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-ENVIRONMENT">ENVIRONMENT</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Reference in New Issue View Git Blame Copy Permalink