{ "content": [ { "type": "text", "text": "# tput (man)\n\n## NAME\n\ntput, reset - initialize a terminal or query terminfo database\n\n## SYNOPSIS\n\ntput [-Ttype] capname [parameters]\ntput [-Ttype] [-x] clear\ntput [-Ttype] init\ntput [-Ttype] reset\ntput [-Ttype] longname\n\n## DESCRIPTION\n\nThe tput utility uses the terminfo database to make the values of terminal-dependent capabil‐\nities and information available to the shell (see sh(1)), to initialize or reset the termi‐\nnal, or return the long name of the requested terminal type. The result depends upon the ca‐\npability's type:\n\n## TLDR\n\n> View and modify terminal settings and capabilities.\n\n- Move the cursor to a screen location:\n `tput cup {{row}} {{column}}`\n- Set foreground (af) or background (ab) color:\n `tput {{setaf|setab}} {{ansi_color_code}}`\n- Reverse text and background colors:\n `tput rev`\n- Reset all terminal text attributes:\n `tput sgr0`\n- Show number of columns, lines, or colors:\n `tput {{cols|lines|colors}}`\n- Enable or disable word wrap:\n `tput {{smam|rmam}}`\n- Hide or show the terminal cursor:\n `tput {{civis|cnorm}}`\n- Save or restore terminal text status (smcup also captures scroll wheel events):\n `tput {{smcup|rmcup}}`\n\n*Source: tldr-pages*\n\n## Sections\n\n- **NAME**\n- **SYNOPSIS** (2 subsections)\n- **DESCRIPTION** (9 subsections)\n- **EXAMPLES** (11 subsections)\n- **FILES** (1 subsections)\n- **EXIT CODES**\n- **DIAGNOSTICS**\n- **HISTORY**\n- **PORTABILITY**\n- **SEE ALSO**\n\nUse structuredContent.sections for detailed options, examples, and full documentation.\n" } ], "structuredContent": { "command": "tput", "section": "", "mode": "man", "summary": "tput, reset - initialize a terminal or query terminfo database", "synopsis": "tput [-Ttype] capname [parameters]\ntput [-Ttype] [-x] clear\ntput [-Ttype] init\ntput [-Ttype] reset\ntput [-Ttype] longname", "tldr_summary": "View and modify terminal settings and capabilities.", "tldr_examples": [ { "description": "Move the cursor to a screen location", "command": "tput cup {{row}} {{column}}" }, { "description": "Set foreground (af) or background (ab) color", "command": "tput {{setaf|setab}} {{ansi_color_code}}" }, { "description": "Reverse text and background colors", "command": "tput rev" }, { "description": "Reset all terminal text attributes", "command": "tput sgr0" }, { "description": "Show number of columns, lines, or colors", "command": "tput {{cols|lines|colors}}" }, { "description": "Enable or disable word wrap", "command": "tput {{smam|rmam}}" }, { "description": "Hide or show the terminal cursor", "command": "tput {{civis|cnorm}}" }, { "description": "Save or restore terminal text status (smcup also captures scroll wheel events)", "command": "tput {{smcup|rmcup}}" } ], "tldr_source": "official", "flags": [ { "flag": "-S", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "passed to tput from the standard input instead of from the command line (see example). Only one capname is allowed per line. The -S option changes the meaning of the 0 and 1 boolean and string exit codes (see the EXIT CODES section). Because some capabilities may use string parameters rather than numbers, tput uses a table and the presence of parameters in its input to decide whether to use tparm(3X), and how to interpret the parameters." }, { "flag": "-T", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "fault is taken from the environment variable TERM. If -T is specified, then the shell variables LINES and COLUMNS will also be ignored." }, { "flag": "-V", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-x", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "bility." } ], "examples": [ "Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the environmental variable", "TERM. This command should be included in everyone's .profile after the environmental", "variable TERM has been exported, as illustrated on the profile(5) manual page.", "Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in the environmental vari‐", "able TERM.", "Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 0, column 0 (the upper left corner of the", "screen, usually known as the “home” cursor position).", "Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.", "Print the number of columns for the current terminal.", "Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.", "Set the shell variables bold, to begin stand-out mode sequence, and offbold, to end", "standout mode sequence, for the current terminal. This might be followed by a prompt:", "echo \"${bold}Please type in your name: ${offbold}\\c\"", "Set exit code to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy terminal.", "Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.", "Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with no parameters substituted.", "Print the long name from the terminfo database for the type of terminal specified in the", "environmental variable TERM.", "tput -S < clear", "> cup 10 10", "> bold", "> !", "This example shows tput processing several capabilities in one invocation. It clears", "the screen, moves the cursor to position 10, 10 and turns on bold (extra bright) mode.", "The list is terminated by an exclamation mark (!) on a line by itself." ], "see_also": [ { "name": "clear", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/clear/1/json" }, { "name": "stty", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/stty/1/json" }, { "name": "tabs", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/tabs/1/json" }, { "name": "tset", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/tset/1/json" }, { "name": "termcap", "section": "3NCURSES", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/termcap/3NCURSES/json" }, { "name": "terminfo", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/terminfo/5/json" } ], "section_outline": [ { "name": "NAME", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SYNOPSIS", "lines": 5, "subsections": [ { "name": "tput -S <<", "lines": 1 }, { "name": "tput -V", "lines": 1 } ] }, { "name": "DESCRIPTION", "lines": 20, "subsections": [ { "name": "Options", "lines": 1 }, { "name": "-S", "lines": 8, "flag": "-S" }, { "name": "-T", "lines": 3, "flag": "-T" }, { "name": "-V", "lines": 1, "flag": "-V" }, { "name": "-x", "lines": 2, "flag": "-x" }, { "name": "Commands", "lines": 74 }, { "name": "longname", "lines": 5 }, { "name": "Aliases", "lines": 34 }, { "name": "Terminal Size", "lines": 16 } ] }, { "name": "EXAMPLES", "lines": 1, "subsections": [ { "name": "tput init", "lines": 4 }, { "name": "tput -T5620 reset", "lines": 3 }, { "name": "tput cup 0 0", "lines": 3 }, { "name": "tput clear", "lines": 2 }, { "name": "tput cols", "lines": 2 }, { "name": "tput -T450 cols", "lines": 2 }, { "name": "bold=`tput smso` offbold=`tput rmso`", "lines": 4 }, { "name": "tput hc", "lines": 2 }, { "name": "tput cup 23 4", "lines": 2 }, { "name": "tput cup", "lines": 2 }, { "name": "tput longname", "lines": 13 } ] }, { "name": "FILES", "lines": 1, "subsections": [ { "name": "/etc/terminfo", "lines": 7 } ] }, { "name": "EXIT CODES", "lines": 24, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "DIAGNOSTICS", "lines": 14, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "HISTORY", "lines": 33, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "PORTABILITY", "lines": 92, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SEE ALSO", "lines": 7, "subsections": [] } ], "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "tput, reset - initialize a terminal or query terminfo database\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "tput [-Ttype] capname [parameters]\ntput [-Ttype] [-x] clear\ntput [-Ttype] init\ntput [-Ttype] reset\ntput [-Ttype] longname", "subsections": [ { "name": "tput -S <<", "content": "" }, { "name": "tput -V", "content": "" } ] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "The tput utility uses the terminfo database to make the values of terminal-dependent capabil‐\nities and information available to the shell (see sh(1)), to initialize or reset the termi‐\nnal, or return the long name of the requested terminal type. The result depends upon the ca‐\npability's type:\n\nstring\ntput writes the string to the standard output. No trailing newline is supplied.\n\ninteger\ntput writes the decimal value to the standard output, with a trailing newline.\n\nboolean\ntput simply sets the exit code (0 for TRUE if the terminal has the capability, 1 for\nFALSE if it does not), and writes nothing to the standard output.\n\nBefore using a value returned on the standard output, the application should test the exit\ncode (e.g., $?, see sh(1)) to be sure it is 0. (See the EXIT CODES and DIAGNOSTICS sec‐\ntions.) For a complete list of capabilities and the capname associated with each, see ter‐‐\nminfo(5).\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "Options", "content": "" }, { "name": "-S", "content": "passed to tput from the standard input instead of from the command line (see example).\nOnly one capname is allowed per line. The -S option changes the meaning of the 0 and\n1 boolean and string exit codes (see the EXIT CODES section).\n\nBecause some capabilities may use string parameters rather than numbers, tput uses a\ntable and the presence of parameters in its input to decide whether to use tparm(3X),\nand how to interpret the parameters.\n", "flag": "-S" }, { "name": "-T", "content": "fault is taken from the environment variable TERM. If -T is specified, then the shell\nvariables LINES and COLUMNS will also be ignored.\n", "flag": "-T" }, { "name": "-V", "content": "", "flag": "-V" }, { "name": "-x", "content": "bility.\n", "flag": "-x" }, { "name": "Commands", "content": "A few commands (init, reset and longname) are special; they are defined by the tput program.\nThe others are the names of capabilities from the terminal database (see terminfo(5) for a\nlist). Although init and reset resemble capability names, tput uses several capabilities to\nperform these special functions.\n\ncapname\nindicates the capability from the terminal database.\n\nIf the capability is a string that takes parameters, the arguments following the capa‐\nbility will be used as parameters for the string.\n\nMost parameters are numbers. Only a few terminal capabilities require string parame‐\nters; tput uses a table to decide which to pass as strings. Normally tput uses\ntparm(3X) to perform the substitution. If no parameters are given for the capability,\ntput writes the string without performing the substitution.\n\ninit If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's terminal exists (see\n-Ttype, above), the following will occur:\n\n(1) first, tput retrieves the current terminal mode settings for your terminal. It\ndoes this by successively testing\n\n• the standard error,\n\n• standard output,\n\n• standard input and\n\n• ultimately “/dev/tty”\n\nto obtain terminal settings. Having retrieved these settings, tput remembers\nwhich file descriptor to use when updating settings.\n\n(2) if the window size cannot be obtained from the operating system, but the terminal\ndescription (or environment, e.g., LINES and COLUMNS variables specify this), up‐\ndate the operating system's notion of the window size.\n\n(3) the terminal modes will be updated:\n\n• any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry will be set in the tty\ndriver,\n\n• tabs expansion will be turned on or off according to the specification in the\nentry, and\n\n• if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs will be set (every 8 spaces).\n\n(4) if present, the terminal's initialization strings will be output as detailed in\nthe terminfo(5) section on Tabs and Initialization,\n\n(5) output is flushed.\n\nIf an entry does not contain the information needed for any of these activities, that\nactivity will silently be skipped.\n\nreset This is similar to init, with two differences:\n\n(1) before any other initialization, the terminal modes will be reset to a “sane”\nstate:\n\n• set cooked and echo modes,\n\n• turn off cbreak and raw modes,\n\n• turn on newline translation and\n\n• reset any unset special characters to their default values\n\n(2) Instead of putting out initialization strings, the terminal's reset strings will\nbe output if present (rs1, rs2, rs3, rf). If the reset strings are not present,\nbut initialization strings are, the initialization strings will be output.\n\nOtherwise, reset acts identically to init.\n" }, { "name": "longname", "content": "If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's terminal exists (see\n-Ttype above), then the long name of the terminal will be put out. The long name is\nthe last name in the first line of the terminal's description in the terminfo database\n[see term(5)].\n" }, { "name": "Aliases", "content": "tput handles the clear, init and reset commands specially: it allows for the possibility that\nit is invoked by a link with those names.\n\nIf tput is invoked by a link named reset, this has the same effect as tput reset. The\ntset(1) utility also treats a link named reset specially.\n\nBefore ncurses 6.1, the two utilities were different from each other:\n\n• tset utility reset the terminal modes and special characters (not done with tput).\n\n• On the other hand, tset's repertoire of terminal capabilities for resetting the terminal\nwas more limited, i.e., only reset1string, reset2string and resetfile in contrast to\nthe tab-stops and margins which are set by this utility.\n\n• The reset program is usually an alias for tset, because of this difference with resetting\nterminal modes and special characters.\n\nWith the changes made for ncurses 6.1, the reset feature of the two programs is (mostly) the\nsame. A few differences remain:\n\n• The tset program waits one second when resetting, in case it happens to be a hardware\nterminal.\n\n• The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to different streams (i.e.,\nthe standard error for tset and the standard output for tput).\n\nNote: although these programs write to different streams, redirecting their output to a\nfile will capture only part of their actions. The changes to the terminal modes are not\naffected by redirecting the output.\n\nIf tput is invoked by a link named init, this has the same effect as tput init. Again, you\nare less likely to use that link because another program named init has a more well-estab‐\nlished use.\n" }, { "name": "Terminal Size", "content": "Besides the special commands (e.g., clear), tput treats certain terminfo capabilities spe‐\ncially: lines and cols. tput calls setupterm(3X) to obtain the terminal size:\n\n• first, it gets the size from the terminal database (which generally is not provided for\nterminal emulators which do not have a fixed window size)\n\n• then it asks the operating system for the terminal's size (which generally works, unless\nconnecting via a serial line which does not support NAWS: negotiations about window\nsize).\n\n• finally, it inspects the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS which may override the\nterminal size.\n\nIf the -T option is given tput ignores the environment variables by calling usetioctl(TRUE),\nrelying upon the operating system (or finally, the terminal database).\n" } ] }, "EXAMPLES": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "tput init", "content": "Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the environmental variable\nTERM. This command should be included in everyone's .profile after the environmental\nvariable TERM has been exported, as illustrated on the profile(5) manual page.\n" }, { "name": "tput -T5620 reset", "content": "Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in the environmental vari‐\nable TERM.\n" }, { "name": "tput cup 0 0", "content": "Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 0, column 0 (the upper left corner of the\nscreen, usually known as the “home” cursor position).\n" }, { "name": "tput clear", "content": "Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.\n" }, { "name": "tput cols", "content": "Print the number of columns for the current terminal.\n" }, { "name": "tput -T450 cols", "content": "Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.\n" }, { "name": "bold=`tput smso` offbold=`tput rmso`", "content": "Set the shell variables bold, to begin stand-out mode sequence, and offbold, to end\nstandout mode sequence, for the current terminal. This might be followed by a prompt:\necho \"${bold}Please type in your name: ${offbold}\\c\"\n" }, { "name": "tput hc", "content": "Set exit code to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy terminal.\n" }, { "name": "tput cup 23 4", "content": "Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.\n" }, { "name": "tput cup", "content": "Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with no parameters substituted.\n" }, { "name": "tput longname", "content": "Print the long name from the terminfo database for the type of terminal specified in the\nenvironmental variable TERM.\n\ntput -S < clear\n> cup 10 10\n> bold\n> !\n\nThis example shows tput processing several capabilities in one invocation. It clears\nthe screen, moves the cursor to position 10, 10 and turns on bold (extra bright) mode.\nThe list is terminated by an exclamation mark (!) on a line by itself.\n" } ] }, "FILES": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "/etc/terminfo", "content": "compiled terminal description database\n\n/usr/share/tabset/*\ntab settings for some terminals, in a format appropriate to be output to the terminal\n(escape sequences that set margins and tabs); for more information, see the Tabs and\nInitialization, section of terminfo(5)\n" } ] }, "EXIT CODES": { "content": "If the -S option is used, tput checks for errors from each line, and if any errors are found,\nwill set the exit code to 4 plus the number of lines with errors. If no errors are found,\nthe exit code is 0. No indication of which line failed can be given so exit code 1 will\nnever appear. Exit codes 2, 3, and 4 retain their usual interpretation. If the -S option is\nnot used, the exit code depends on the type of capname:\n\nboolean\na value of 0 is set for TRUE and 1 for FALSE.\n\nstring a value of 0 is set if the capname is defined for this terminal type (the value of\ncapname is returned on standard output); a value of 1 is set if capname is not de‐\nfined for this terminal type (nothing is written to standard output).\n\ninteger\na value of 0 is always set, whether or not capname is defined for this terminal\ntype. To determine if capname is defined for this terminal type, the user must\ntest the value written to standard output. A value of -1 means that capname is not\ndefined for this terminal type.\n\nother reset or init may fail to find their respective files. In that case, the exit code\nis set to 4 + errno.\n\nAny other exit code indicates an error; see the DIAGNOSTICS section.\n", "subsections": [] }, "DIAGNOSTICS": { "content": "tput prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding exit codes.\n\nexit code error message\n─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────\n0 (capname is a numeric variable that is not specified in\nthe terminfo(5) database for this terminal type, e.g.\ntput -T450 lines and tput -Thp2621 xmc)\n1 no error message is printed, see the EXIT CODES section.\n2 usage error\n3 unknown terminal type or no terminfo database\n4 unknown terminfo capability capname\n>4 error occurred in -S\n─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────\n", "subsections": [] }, "HISTORY": { "content": "The tput command was begun by Bill Joy in 1980. The initial version only cleared the screen.\n\nAT&T System V provided a different tput command:\n\n• SVr2 provided a rudimentary tput which checked the parameter against each predefined ca‐\npability and returned the corresponding value. This version of tput did not use\ntparm(3X) for the capabilities which are parameterized.\n\n• SVr3 replaced that, a year later, by a more extensive program whose init and reset sub‐\ncommands (more than half the program) were incorporated from the reset feature of BSD\ntset written by Eric Allman.\n\n• SVr4 added color initialization using the origcolors and origpairs capabilities in the\ninit subcommand.\n\nKeith Bostic replaced the BSD tput command in 1989 with a new implementation based on the\nAT&T System V program tput. Like the AT&T program, Bostic's version accepted some parameters\nnamed for terminfo capabilities (clear, init, longname and reset). However (because he had\nonly termcap available), it accepted termcap names for other capabilities. Also, Bostic's\nBSD tput did not modify the terminal I/O modes as the earlier BSD tset had done.\n\nAt the same time, Bostic added a shell script named “clear”, which used tput to clear the\nscreen.\n\nBoth of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the “modern” BSD implementation of tput.\n\nThis implementation of tput began from a different source than AT&T or BSD: Ross Ridge's myt‐\ninfo package, published on comp.sources.unix in December 1992. Ridge's program made more so‐\nphisticated use of the terminal capabilities than the BSD program. Eric Raymond used that\ntput program (and other parts of mytinfo) in ncurses in June 1995. Using the portions deal‐\ning with terminal capabilities almost without change, Raymond made improvements to the way\nthe command-line parameters were handled.\n", "subsections": [] }, "PORTABILITY": { "content": "This implementation of tput differs from AT&T tput in two important areas:\n\n• tput capname writes to the standard output. That need not be a regular terminal. How‐\never, the subcommands which manipulate terminal modes may not use the standard output.\n\nThe AT&T implementation's init and reset commands use the BSD (4.1c) tset source, which\nmanipulates terminal modes. It successively tries standard output, standard error, stan‐\ndard input before falling back to “/dev/tty” and finally just assumes a 1200Bd terminal.\nWhen updating terminal modes, it ignores errors.\n\nUntil changes made after ncurses 6.0, tput did not modify terminal modes. tput now uses\na similar scheme, using functions shared with tset (and ultimately based on the 4.4BSD\ntset). If it is not able to open a terminal, e.g., when running in cron, tput will re‐\nturn an error.\n\n• AT&T tput guesses the type of its capname operands by seeing if all of the characters are\nnumeric, or not.\n\nMost implementations which provide support for capname operands use the tparm function to\nexpand parameters in it. That function expects a mixture of numeric and string parame‐\nters, requiring tput to know which type to use.\n\nThis implementation uses a table to determine the parameter types for the standard cap‐\nname operands, and an internal library function to analyze nonstandard capname operands.\n\nBesides providing more reliable operation than AT&T's utility, a portability problem is\nintroduced by this analysis: An OpenBSD developer adapted the internal library function\nfrom ncurses to port NetBSD's termcap-based tput to terminfo. That had been modified to\ninterpret multiple commands on a line. Portable applications should not rely upon this\nfeature; ncurses provides it to support applications written specifically for OpenBSD.\n\nThis implementation (unlike others) can accept both termcap and terminfo names for the cap‐\nname feature, if termcap support is compiled in. However, the predefined termcap and ter‐\nminfo names have two ambiguities in this case (and the terminfo name is assumed):\n\n• The termcap name dl corresponds to the terminfo name dl1 (delete one line).\nThe terminfo name dl corresponds to the termcap name DL (delete a given number of lines).\n\n• The termcap name ed corresponds to the terminfo name rmdc (end delete mode).\nThe terminfo name ed corresponds to the termcap name cd (clear to end of screen).\n\nThe longname and -S options, and the parameter-substitution features used in the cup example,\nwere not supported in BSD curses before 4.3reno (1989) or in AT&T/USL curses before SVr4\n(1988).\n\nIEEE Std 1003.1/The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7 (POSIX.1-2008) documents only the\noperands for clear, init and reset. There are a few interesting observations to make regard‐\ning that:\n\n• In this implementation, clear is part of the capname support. The others (init and long‐‐\nname) do not correspond to terminal capabilities.\n\n• Other implementations of tput on SVr4-based systems such as Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUX as\nwell as others such as AIX and Tru64 provide support for capname operands.\n\n• A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize termcap names rather than terminfo capability\nnames in their respective tput commands. Since 2010, NetBSD's tput uses terminfo names.\nBefore that, it (like FreeBSD) recognized termcap names.\n\nBeginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses the ncurses tput, configured for both terminfo (tested\nfirst) and termcap (as a fallback).\n\nBecause (apparently) all of the certified Unix systems support the full set of capability\nnames, the reasoning for documenting only a few may not be apparent.\n\n• X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents tput differently, with capname and the other features\nused in this implementation.\n\n• That is, there are two standards for tput: POSIX (a subset) and X/Open Curses (the full\nimplementation). POSIX documents a subset to avoid the complication of including X/Open\nCurses and the terminal capabilities database.\n\n• While it is certainly possible to write a tput program without using curses, none of the\nsystems which have a curses implementation provide a tput utility which does not provide\nthe capname feature.\n\nX/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) is the first version to document utilities. However that part\nof X/Open Curses does not follow existing practice (i.e., Unix features documented in SVID\n3):\n\n• It assigns exit code 4 to “invalid operand”, which may be the same as unknown capability.\nFor instance, the source code for Solaris' xcurses uses the term “invalid” in this case.\n\n• It assigns exit code 255 to a numeric variable that is not specified in the terminfo\ndatabase. That likely is a documentation error, confusing the -1 written to the standard\noutput for an absent or cancelled numeric value versus an (unsigned) exit code.\n\nThe various Unix systems (AIX, HPUX, Solaris) use the same exit-codes as ncurses.\n\nNetBSD curses documents different exit codes which do not correspond to either ncurses or\nX/Open.\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "clear(1), stty(1), tabs(1), tset(1), termcap(3NCURSES), terminfo(5).\n\nThis describes ncurses version 6.3 (patch 20211021).\n\n\n\ntput(1)", "subsections": [] } } } }