1TPUT(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual TPUT(1P)
2
6 This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
7 implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
8 Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9 not be implemented on Linux.
10
12 tput - change terminal characteristics
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15 tput [-T type] operand...
16
18 The tput utility shall display terminal-dependent information. The
19 manner in which this information is retrieved is unspecified. The
20 information displayed shall clear the terminal screen, initialize the
21 user's terminal, or reset the user's terminal, depending on the operand
22 given. The exact consequences of displaying this information are
23 unspecified.
24
26 The tput utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
27 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
28 The following option shall be supported:
30 -T type
32 Indicate the type of terminal. If this option is not supplied
33 and the TERM variable is unset or null, an unspecified default
34 terminal type shall be used. The setting of type shall take
35 precedence over the value in TERM.
36
39 The following strings shall be supported as operands by the implementa‐
40 tion in the POSIX locale:
41 clear Display the clear-screen sequence.
43 init Display the sequence that initializes the user's terminal in an
45 implementation-defined manner.
46 reset Display the sequence that resets the user's terminal in an
48 implementation-defined manner.
49 If a terminal does not support any of the operations described by these
52 operands, this shall not be considered an error condition.
53
55 Not used.
56
58 None.
59
61 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of tput:
62 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
64 that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
65 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
66 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
67 to determine the values of locale categories.)
68 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
70 the other internationalization variables.
71 LC_CTYPE
73 Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
74 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
75 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).
76 LC_MESSAGES
78 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
79 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
80 NLSPATH
82 Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
83 LC_MESSAGES .
84 TERM Determine the terminal type. If this variable is unset or null,
86 and if the -T option is not specified, an unspecified default
87 terminal type shall be used.
88
91 Default.
92
94 If standard output is a terminal device, it may be used for writing the
95 appropriate sequence to clear the screen or reset or initialize the
96 terminal. If standard output is not a terminal device, undefined
97 results occur.
98
100 The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
101
103 None.
104
106 None.
107
109 The following exit values shall be returned:
110 0 The requested string was written successfully.
112 1 Unspecified.
114 2 Usage error.
116 3 No information is available about the specified terminal type.
118 4 The specified operand is invalid.
120 >4 An error occurred.
122
125 If one of the operands is not available for the terminal, tput contin‐
126 ues processing the remaining operands.
127 The following sections are informative.
129
131 The difference between resetting and initializing a terminal is left
132 unspecified, as they vary greatly based on hardware types. In general,
133 resetting is a more severe action.
134 Some terminals use control characters to perform the stated functions,
136 and on such terminals it might make sense to use tput to store the ini‐
137 tialization strings in a file or environment variable for later use.
138 However, because other terminals might rely on system calls to do this
139 work, the standard output cannot be used in a portable manner, such as
140 the following non-portable constructs:
141 ClearVar=`tput clear`
144 tput reset | mailx -s "Wake Up" ddg
145
147 1. Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the
148 environmental variable TERM. This command can be included in a
149 .profile file.
150 tput init
153 2. Reset a 450 terminal.
155 tput -T 450 reset
158
160 The list of operands was reduced to a minimum for the following rea‐
161 sons:
162 * The only features chosen were those that were likely to be used by
164 human users interacting with a terminal.
165 * Specifying the full terminfo set was not considered desirable, but
167 the standard developers did not want to select among operands.
168 * This volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does not attempt to provide
170 applications with sophisticated terminal handling capabilities, as
171 that falls outside of its assigned scope and intersects with the
172 responsibilities of other standards bodies.
173 The difference between resetting and initializing a terminal is left
175 unspecified as this varies greatly based on hardware types. In gen‐
176 eral, resetting is a more severe action.
177 The exit status of 1 is historically reserved for finding out if a
179 Boolean operand is not set. Although the operands were reduced to a
180 minimum, the exit status of 1 should still be reserved for the Boolean
181 operands, for those sites that wish to support them.
182
184 None.
185
187 stty, tabs
188
190 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
191 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
192 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
193 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
194 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
195 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
196 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
197 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
198 at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
199IEEE/The Open Group 2003 TPUT(1P)