1TPUT(1P)                   POSIX Programmer's Manual                  TPUT(1P)
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PROLOG

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.
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11

NAME

13       tput — change terminal characteristics
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SYNOPSIS

16       tput [−T type] operand...
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DESCRIPTION

19       The tput utility shall display terminal-dependent information. The man‐
20       ner in which this information is retrieved is unspecified. The informa‐
21       tion displayed shall clear the terminal screen, initialize  the  user's
22       terminal, or reset the user's terminal, depending on the operand given.
23       The exact consequences of displaying this information are unspecified.
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OPTIONS

26       The tput utility shall  conform  to  the  Base  Definitions  volume  of
27       POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
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29       The following option shall be supported:
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31       −T type   Indicate the type of terminal. If this option is not supplied
32                 and the TERM  variable  is  unset  or  null,  an  unspecified
33                 default  terminal  type  shall  be  used. The setting of type
34                 shall take precedence over the value in TERM.
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OPERANDS

37       The following strings shall be supported as operands by the implementa‐
38       tion in the POSIX locale:
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40       clear     Display the clear-screen sequence.
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42       init      Display  the sequence that initializes the user's terminal in
43                 an implementation-defined manner.
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45       reset     Display the sequence that resets the user's  terminal  in  an
46                 implementation-defined manner.
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48       If a terminal does not support any of the operations described by these
49       operands, this shall not be considered an error condition.
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STDIN

52       Not used.
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INPUT FILES

55       None.
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ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

58       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of tput:
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60       LANG      Provide a default value for  the  internationalization  vari‐
61                 ables  that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
62                 ume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization  Vari‐
63                 ables  for  the  precedence of internationalization variables
64                 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
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66       LC_ALL    If set to a non-empty string value, override  the  values  of
67                 all the other internationalization variables.
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69       LC_CTYPE  Determine  the  locale for the interpretation of sequences of
70                 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
71                 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).
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73       LC_MESSAGES
74                 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
75                 and contents  of  diagnostic  messages  written  to  standard
76                 error.
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78       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
79                 of LC_MESSAGES.
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81       TERM      Determine the terminal type. If this  variable  is  unset  or
82                 null,  and  if the −T option is not specified, an unspecified
83                 default terminal type shall be used.
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ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

86       Default.
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STDOUT

89       If standard output is a terminal device, it may be used for writing the
90       appropriate  sequence  to  clear  the screen or reset or initialize the
91       terminal. If standard  output  is  not  a  terminal  device,  undefined
92       results occur.
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STDERR

95       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
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OUTPUT FILES

98       None.
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EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

101       None.
102

EXIT STATUS

104       The following exit values shall be returned:
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106        0    The requested string was written successfully.
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108        1    Unspecified.
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110        2    Usage error.
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112        3    No information is available about the specified terminal type.
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114        4    The specified operand is invalid.
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116       >4    An error occurred.
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CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

119       If  one of the operands is not available for the terminal, tput contin‐
120       ues processing the remaining operands.
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122       The following sections are informative.
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APPLICATION USAGE

125       The difference between resetting and initializing a  terminal  is  left
126       unspecified,  as they vary greatly based on hardware types. In general,
127       resetting is a more severe action.
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129       Some terminals use control characters to perform the stated  functions,
130       and on such terminals it might make sense to use tput to store the ini‐
131       tialization strings in a file or environment variable  for  later  use.
132       However,  because other terminals might rely on system calls to do this
133       work, the standard output cannot be used in a portable manner, such  as
134       the following non-portable constructs:
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136           ClearVar=`tput clear`
137           tput reset | mailx −s "Wake Up" ddg
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EXAMPLES

140        1. Initialize  the  terminal  according to the type of terminal in the
141           environmental variable TERM.  This command can  be  included  in  a
142           .profile file.
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144               tput init
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146        2. Reset a 450 terminal.
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148               tput −T 450 reset
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RATIONALE

151       The  list  of  operands was reduced to a minimum for the following rea‐
152       sons:
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154        *  The only features chosen were those that were likely to be used  by
155           human users interacting with a terminal.
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157        *  Specifying  the full terminfo set was not considered desirable, but
158           the standard developers did not want to select among operands.
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160        *  This volume of POSIX.1‐2008 does not attempt  to  provide  applica‐
161           tions  with  sophisticated  terminal handling capabilities, as that
162           falls outside of its assigned scope and intersects with the respon‐
163           sibilities of other standards bodies.
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165       The  difference  between  resetting and initializing a terminal is left
166       unspecified as this varies greatly based on hardware types. In general,
167       resetting is a more severe action.
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169       The  exit  status  of  1  is historically reserved for finding out if a
170       Boolean operand is not set. Although the operands  were  reduced  to  a
171       minimum,  the exit status of 1 should still be reserved for the Boolean
172       operands, for those sites that wish to support them.
173

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

175       None.
176

SEE ALSO

178       stty, tabs
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180       The Base Definitions volume of  POSIX.1‐2008,  Chapter  8,  Environment
181       Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
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184       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
185       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
186       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
187       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
188       cal  and  Electronics  Engineers,  Inc  and  The  Open Group.  (This is
189       POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the
190       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
191       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
192       is  the  referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
193       at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
194
195       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear  in  this  page  are
196       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
197       files to man page format. To report such errors,  see  https://www.ker
198       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
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202IEEE/The Open Group                  2013                             TPUT(1P)
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