1tput(1)                     General Commands Manual                    tput(1)
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NAME

6       tput, reset - initialize a terminal or query terminfo database
7

SYNOPSIS

9       tput [-Ttype] capname [parameters]
10       tput [-Ttype] [-x] clear
11       tput [-Ttype] init
12       tput [-Ttype] reset
13       tput [-Ttype] longname
14       tput -S  <<
15       tput -V
16

DESCRIPTION

18       The  tput utility uses the terminfo database to make the values of ter‐
19       minal-dependent capabilities and information  available  to  the  shell
20       (see  sh(1)),  to  initialize or reset the terminal, or return the long
21       name of the requested terminal type.  The result depends upon the capa‐
22       bility's type:
23
24          string
25               tput  writes  the  string  to the standard output.  No trailing
26               newline is supplied.
27
28          integer
29               tput writes the decimal value to the standard  output,  with  a
30               trailing newline.
31
32          boolean
33               tput  simply sets the exit code (0 for TRUE if the terminal has
34               the capability, 1 for FALSE if it does not), and writes nothing
35               to the standard output.
36
37       Before  using  a value returned on the standard output, the application
38       should test the exit code (e.g., $?, see sh(1)) to be  sure  it  is  0.
39       (See  the EXIT CODES and DIAGNOSTICS sections.)  For a complete list of
40       capabilities and the capname associated with each, see terminfo(5).
41
42   Options
43       -S     allows more than one capability per invocation of tput.  The ca‐
44              pabilities  must  be  passed to tput from the standard input in‐
45              stead of from the command line (see example).  Only one  capname
46              is allowed per line.  The -S option changes the meaning of the 0
47              and 1 boolean and string exit codes (see  the  EXIT  CODES  sec‐
48              tion).
49
50              Because  some capabilities may use string parameters rather than
51              numbers, tput uses a table and the presence of parameters in its
52              input  to  decide whether to use tparm(3X), and how to interpret
53              the parameters.
54
55       -Ttype indicates the type of terminal.  Normally this option is  unnec‐
56              essary,  because the default is taken from the environment vari‐
57              able TERM.  If -T is specified, then the shell  variables  LINES
58              and COLUMNS will also be ignored.
59
60       -V     reports  the  version of ncurses which was used in this program,
61              and exits.
62
63       -x     do not attempt to clear the terminal's scrollback  buffer  using
64              the extended “E3” capability.
65
66   Commands
67       A few commands (init, reset and longname) are special; they are defined
68       by the tput program.  The others are the names of capabilities from the
69       terminal  database (see terminfo(5) for a list).  Although init and re‐
70       set resemble capability names, tput uses several capabilities  to  per‐
71       form these special functions.
72
73       capname
74              indicates the capability from the terminal database.
75
76              If  the  capability is a string that takes parameters, the argu‐
77              ments following the capability will be used  as  parameters  for
78              the string.
79
80              Most  parameters  are numbers.  Only a few terminal capabilities
81              require string parameters; tput uses a table to decide which  to
82              pass  as  strings.   Normally tput uses tparm(3X) to perform the
83              substitution.  If no parameters are given  for  the  capability,
84              tput writes the string without performing the substitution.
85
86       init   If  the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
87              terminal exists (see -Ttype, above), the following will occur:
88
89              (1)  first, tput retrieves the current  terminal  mode  settings
90                   for your terminal.  It does this by successively testing
91
92                   •   the standard error,
93
94                   •   standard output,
95
96                   •   standard input and
97
98                   •   ultimately “/dev/tty”
99
100                   to  obtain  terminal settings.  Having retrieved these set‐
101                   tings, tput remembers which file descriptor to use when up‐
102                   dating settings.
103
104              (2)  if  the  window  size cannot be obtained from the operating
105                   system, but the terminal description (or environment, e.g.,
106                   LINES and COLUMNS variables specify this), update the oper‐
107                   ating system's notion of the window size.
108
109              (3)  the terminal modes will be updated:
110
111                   •   any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry  will
112                       be set in the tty driver,
113
114                   •   tabs  expansion  will  be turned on or off according to
115                       the specification in the entry, and
116
117                   •   if tabs are not expanded, standard  tabs  will  be  set
118                       (every 8 spaces).
119
120              (4)  if  present,  the terminal's initialization strings will be
121                   output as detailed in the terminfo(5) section on  Tabs  and
122                   Initialization,
123
124              (5)  output is flushed.
125
126              If  an  entry does not contain the information needed for any of
127              these activities, that activity will silently be skipped.
128
129       reset  This is similar to init, with two differences:
130
131              (1)  before any other initialization, the terminal modes will be
132                   reset to a “sane” state:
133
134                   •   set cooked and echo modes,
135
136                   •   turn off cbreak and raw modes,
137
138                   •   turn on newline translation and
139
140                   •   reset  any  unset  special  characters to their default
141                       values
142
143              (2)  Instead of putting out initialization strings,  the  termi‐
144                   nal's  reset  strings  will be output if present (rs1, rs2,
145                   rs3, rf).  If the reset strings are not present,  but  ini‐
146                   tialization strings are, the initialization strings will be
147                   output.
148
149              Otherwise, reset acts identically to init.
150
151       longname
152              If the terminal database is present and an entry for the  user's
153              terminal  exists  (see  -Ttype above), then the long name of the
154              terminal will be put out.  The long name is the last name in the
155              first  line  of the terminal's description in the terminfo data‐
156              base [see term(5)].
157
158   Aliases
159       tput handles the clear, init and reset commands  specially:  it  allows
160       for the possibility that it is invoked by a link with those names.
161
162       If  tput  is invoked by a link named reset, this has the same effect as
163       tput reset.  The tset(1) utility also treats a link  named  reset  spe‐
164       cially.
165
166       Before ncurses 6.1, the two utilities were different from each other:
167
168tset  utility  reset the terminal modes and special characters (not
169           done with tput).
170
171       •   On the other hand, tset's repertoire of terminal  capabilities  for
172           resetting  the terminal was more limited, i.e., only reset_1string,
173           reset_2string and reset_file in contrast to the tab-stops and  mar‐
174           gins which are set by this utility.
175
176       •   The  reset  program  is  usually an alias for tset, because of this
177           difference with resetting terminal modes and special characters.
178
179       With the changes made for ncurses 6.1, the reset  feature  of  the  two
180       programs is (mostly) the same.  A few differences remain:
181
182       •   The  tset  program waits one second when resetting, in case it hap‐
183           pens to be a hardware terminal.
184
185       •   The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to  dif‐
186           ferent  streams (i.e., the standard error for tset and the standard
187           output for tput).
188
189           Note: although these programs write to different streams, redirect‐
190           ing their output to a file will capture only part of their actions.
191           The changes to the terminal modes are not affected  by  redirecting
192           the output.
193
194       If  tput  is  invoked by a link named init, this has the same effect as
195       tput init.  Again, you are less likely to use that link because another
196       program named init has a more well-established use.
197
198   Terminal Size
199       Besides  the  special  commands (e.g., clear), tput treats certain ter‐
200       minfo capabilities specially: lines and cols.  tput calls setupterm(3X)
201       to obtain the terminal size:
202
203       •   first, it gets the size from the terminal database (which generally
204           is not provided for terminal emulators which do not  have  a  fixed
205           window size)
206
207       •   then  it  asks  the operating system for the terminal's size (which
208           generally works, unless connecting via a serial line which does not
209           support NAWS: negotiations about window size).
210
211       •   finally,  it  inspects  the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS
212           which may override the terminal size.
213
214       If the -T option is given tput ignores  the  environment  variables  by
215       calling  use_tioctl(TRUE),  relying  upon  the operating system (or fi‐
216       nally, the terminal database).
217

EXAMPLES

219       tput init
220            Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal  in  the
221            environmental  variable  TERM.  This command should be included in
222            everyone's .profile after the environmental variable TERM has been
223            exported, as illustrated on the profile(5) manual page.
224
225       tput -T5620 reset
226            Reset  an  AT&T  5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in
227            the environmental variable TERM.
228
229       tput cup 0 0
230            Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 0, column 0 (the upper
231            left  corner of the screen, usually known as the “home” cursor po‐
232            sition).
233
234       tput clear
235            Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.
236
237       tput cols
238            Print the number of columns for the current terminal.
239
240       tput -T450 cols
241            Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.
242
243       bold=`tput smso` offbold=`tput rmso`
244            Set the shell variables bold, to begin  stand-out  mode  sequence,
245            and offbold, to end standout mode sequence, for the current termi‐
246            nal.  This might be followed by a prompt: echo "${bold}Please type
247            in your name: ${offbold}\c"
248
249       tput hc
250            Set  exit  code to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy
251            terminal.
252
253       tput cup 23 4
254            Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.
255
256       tput cup
257            Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with  no  parameters
258            substituted.
259
260       tput longname
261            Print  the  long  name  from the terminfo database for the type of
262            terminal specified in the environmental variable TERM.
263
264            tput -S <<!
265            > clear
266            > cup 10 10
267            > bold
268            > !
269
270            This example shows tput processing several capabilities in one in‐
271            vocation.   It clears the screen, moves the cursor to position 10,
272            10 and turns on bold (extra bright) mode.  The list is  terminated
273            by an exclamation mark (!) on a line by itself.
274

FILES

276       /usr/share/terminfo
277              compiled terminal description database
278
279       /usr/share/tabset/*
280              tab  settings  for some terminals, in a format appropriate to be
281              output to the terminal (escape sequences that  set  margins  and
282              tabs);  for  more  information, see the Tabs and Initialization,
283              section of terminfo(5)
284

EXIT CODES

286       If the -S option is used, tput checks for errors from each line, and if
287       any  errors  are  found, will set the exit code to 4 plus the number of
288       lines with errors.  If no errors are found, the exit code is 0.  No in‐
289       dication  of  which  line failed can be given so exit code 1 will never
290       appear.  Exit codes 2, 3, and 4 retain their usual interpretation.   If
291       the  -S  option  is not used, the exit code depends on the type of cap‐
292       name:
293
294          boolean
295                 a value of 0 is set for TRUE and 1 for FALSE.
296
297          string a value of 0 is set if the capname is defined for this termi‐
298                 nal  type  (the value of capname is returned on standard out‐
299                 put); a value of 1 is set if capname is not defined for  this
300                 terminal type (nothing is written to standard output).
301
302          integer
303                 a value of 0 is always set, whether or not capname is defined
304                 for this terminal type.  To determine if capname  is  defined
305                 for  this terminal type, the user must test the value written
306                 to standard output.  A value of -1 means that capname is  not
307                 defined for this terminal type.
308
309          other  reset  or  init  may fail to find their respective files.  In
310                 that case, the exit code is set to 4 + errno.
311
312       Any other exit code indicates an error; see the DIAGNOSTICS section.
313

DIAGNOSTICS

315       tput prints the following error messages  and  sets  the  corresponding
316       exit codes.
317
318       exit code   error message
319       ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
320       0           (capname  is a numeric variable that is not specified in
321                   the terminfo(5) database for this  terminal  type,  e.g.
322                   tput -T450 lines and tput -Thp2621 xmc)
323       1           no error message is printed, see the EXIT CODES section.
324       2           usage error
325       3           unknown terminal type or no terminfo database
326       4           unknown terminfo capability capname
327       >4          error occurred in -S
328       ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
329

HISTORY

331       The  tput  command  was begun by Bill Joy in 1980.  The initial version
332       only cleared the screen.
333
334       AT&T System V provided a different tput command:
335
336       •   SVr2 provided  a  rudimentary  tput  which  checked  the  parameter
337           against  each  predefined capability and returned the corresponding
338           value.  This version of tput did not use tparm(3X) for the capabil‐
339           ities which are parameterized.
340
341       •   SVr3 replaced that, a year later, by a more extensive program whose
342           init and reset subcommands (more than half the program) were incor‐
343           porated from the reset feature of BSD tset written by Eric Allman.
344
345       •   SVr4 added color initialization using the orig_colors and orig_pair
346           capabilities in the init subcommand.
347
348       Keith Bostic replaced the BSD tput command in 1989 with a new implemen‐
349       tation based on the AT&T System V program tput.  Like the AT&T program,
350       Bostic's version accepted some parameters named for terminfo  capabili‐
351       ties  (clear,  init, longname and reset).  However (because he had only
352       termcap available), it accepted termcap names for  other  capabilities.
353       Also,  Bostic's  BSD  tput did not modify the terminal I/O modes as the
354       earlier BSD tset had done.
355
356       At the same time, Bostic added a shell script named “clear”, which used
357       tput to clear the screen.
358
359       Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the “modern” BSD implementa‐
360       tion of tput.
361
362       This implementation of tput began from a different source than AT&T  or
363       BSD:  Ross  Ridge's  mytinfo package, published on comp.sources.unix in
364       December 1992.  Ridge's program made more sophisticated use of the ter‐
365       minal  capabilities  than the BSD program.  Eric Raymond used that tput
366       program (and other parts of mytinfo) in ncurses in  June  1995.   Using
367       the  portions dealing with terminal capabilities almost without change,
368       Raymond made improvements to the way the command-line  parameters  were
369       handled.
370

PORTABILITY

372       This implementation of tput differs from AT&T tput in two important ar‐
373       eas:
374
375tput capname writes to the standard output.  That  need  not  be  a
376           regular terminal.  However, the subcommands which manipulate termi‐
377           nal modes may not use the standard output.
378
379           The AT&T implementation's init  and  reset  commands  use  the  BSD
380           (4.1c)  tset  source, which manipulates terminal modes.  It succes‐
381           sively tries standard output, standard error, standard input before
382           falling back to “/dev/tty” and finally just assumes a 1200Bd termi‐
383           nal.  When updating terminal modes, it ignores errors.
384
385           Until changes made after ncurses 6.0, tput did not modify  terminal
386           modes.  tput now uses a similar scheme, using functions shared with
387           tset (and ultimately based on the 4.4BSD tset).  If it is not  able
388           to open a terminal, e.g., when running in cron(1), tput will return
389           an error.
390
391       •   AT&T tput guesses the type of its capname operands by seeing if all
392           of the characters are numeric, or not.
393
394           Most implementations which provide support for capname operands use
395           the tparm function to expand parameters in it.  That  function  ex‐
396           pects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring tput to
397           know which type to use.
398
399           This implementation uses a table to determine the  parameter  types
400           for the standard capname operands, and an internal library function
401           to analyze nonstandard capname operands.
402
403           Besides providing more reliable operation than  AT&T's  utility,  a
404           portability  problem is introduced by this analysis: An OpenBSD de‐
405           veloper adapted the internal library function from ncurses to  port
406           NetBSD's termcap-based tput to terminfo.  That had been modified to
407           interpret multiple  commands  on  a  line.   Portable  applications
408           should  not  rely upon this feature; ncurses provides it to support
409           applications written specifically for OpenBSD.
410
411       This implementation (unlike others) can accept both  termcap  and  ter‐
412       minfo names for the capname feature, if termcap support is compiled in.
413       However, the predefined termcap and terminfo names have two ambiguities
414       in this case (and the terminfo name is assumed):
415
416       •   The  termcap  name  dl corresponds to the terminfo name dl1 (delete
417           one line).
418           The terminfo name dl corresponds to the termcap name DL  (delete  a
419           given number of lines).
420
421       •   The  termcap  name  ed  corresponds  to the terminfo name rmdc (end
422           delete mode).
423           The terminfo name ed corresponds to the termcap name cd  (clear  to
424           end of screen).
425
426       The  longname  and  -S options, and the parameter-substitution features
427       used in the cup example,  were  not  supported  in  BSD  curses  before
428       4.3reno (1989) or in AT&T/USL curses before SVr4 (1988).
429
430       IEEE   Std   1003.1/The   Open   Group   Base  Specifications  Issue  7
431       (POSIX.1-2008) documents only the operands for clear, init  and  reset.
432       There are a few interesting observations to make regarding that:
433
434       •   In  this implementation, clear is part of the capname support.  The
435           others (init and longname) do not correspond to terminal  capabili‐
436           ties.
437
438       •   Other  implementations  of  tput  on SVr4-based systems such as So‐
439           laris, IRIX64 and HPUX as well as others such as AIX and Tru64 pro‐
440           vide support for capname operands.
441
442       •   A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize termcap names rather than
443           terminfo capability names in their respective tput commands.  Since
444           2010,  NetBSD's  tput  uses  terminfo names.  Before that, it (like
445           FreeBSD) recognized termcap names.
446
447           Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses the ncurses  tput,  configured  for
448           both terminfo (tested first) and termcap (as a fallback).
449
450       Because (apparently) all of the certified Unix systems support the full
451       set of capability names, the reasoning for documenting only a  few  may
452       not be apparent.
453
454       •   X/Open  Curses Issue 7 documents tput differently, with capname and
455           the other features used in this implementation.
456
457       •   That is, there are two standards for tput:  POSIX  (a  subset)  and
458           X/Open  Curses (the full implementation).  POSIX documents a subset
459           to avoid the complication of including X/Open Curses and the termi‐
460           nal capabilities database.
461
462       •   While  it is certainly possible to write a tput program without us‐
463           ing curses, none of the systems which have a curses  implementation
464           provide a tput utility which does not provide the capname feature.
465
466       X/Open  Curses  Issue  7 (2009) is the first version to document utili‐
467       ties.  However that part of X/Open  Curses  does  not  follow  existing
468       practice (i.e., Unix features documented in SVID 3):
469
470       •   It  assigns exit code 4 to “invalid operand”, which may be the same
471           as unknown capability.  For instance, the source code for  Solaris'
472           xcurses uses the term “invalid” in this case.
473
474       •   It  assigns  exit code 255 to a numeric variable that is not speci‐
475           fied in the terminfo database.  That likely is a documentation  er‐
476           ror,  confusing the -1 written to the standard output for an absent
477           or cancelled numeric value versus an (unsigned) exit code.
478
479       The various Unix systems (AIX, HPUX, Solaris) use the  same  exit-codes
480       as ncurses.
481
482       NetBSD curses documents different exit codes which do not correspond to
483       either ncurses or X/Open.
484

SEE ALSO

486       clear(1), stty(1), tabs(1), tset(1), curs_termcap(3X), terminfo(5).
487
488       This describes ncurses version 6.4 (patch 20230520).
489
490
491
492                                                                       tput(1)
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