1tput(1) General Commands Manual tput(1)
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6 tput, reset - initialize a terminal or query terminfo database
7
9 tput [-Ttype] capname [parms ... ]
10 tput [-Ttype] init
11 tput [-Ttype] reset
12 tput [-Ttype] longname
13 tput -S <<
14 tput -V
15
17 The tput utility uses the terminfo database to make the values of ter‐
18 minal-dependent capabilities and information available to the shell
19 (see sh(1)), to initialize or reset the terminal, or return the long
20 name of the requested terminal type. The result depends upon the capa‐
21 bility's type:
22 string
24 tput writes the string to the standard output. No trailing
25 newline is supplied.
26 integer
28 tput writes the decimal value to the standard output, with
29 a trailing newline.
30 boolean
32 tput simply sets the exit code (0 for TRUE if the terminal
33 has the capability, 1 for FALSE if it does not), and writes
34 nothing to the standard output.
35 Before using a value returned on the standard output, the application
37 should test the exit code (e.g., $?, see sh(1)) to be sure it is 0.
38 (See the EXIT CODES and DIAGNOSTICS sections.) For a complete list of
39 capabilities and the capname associated with each, see terminfo(5).
40 -Ttype indicates the type of terminal. Normally this option is unnec‐
42 essary, because the default is taken from the environment vari‐
43 able TERM. If -T is specified, then the shell variables LINES
44 and COLUMNS will also be ignored.
45 capname
47 indicates the capability from the terminfo database. When term‐
48 cap support is compiled in, the termcap name for the capability
49 is also accepted.
50 parms If the capability is a string that takes parameters, the argu‐
52 ments parms will be instantiated into the string.
53 Most parameters are numbers. Only a few terminfo capabilities
55 require string parameters; tput uses a table to decide which to
56 pass as strings. Normally tput uses tparm (3X) to perform the
57 substitution. If no parameters are given for the capability,
58 tput writes the string without performing the substitution.
59 -S allows more than one capability per invocation of tput. The
61 capabilities must be passed to tput from the standard input
62 instead of from the command line (see example). Only one cap‐
63 name is allowed per line. The -S option changes the meaning of
64 the 0 and 1 boolean and string exit codes (see the EXIT CODES
65 section).
66 Again, tput uses a table and the presence of parameters in its
68 input to decide whether to use tparm (3X), and how to interpret
69 the parameters.
70 -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program,
72 and exits.
73 init If the terminfo database is present and an entry for the user's
75 terminal exists (see -Ttype, above), the following will occur:
76 (1) if present, the terminal's initialization strings will be
78 output as detailed in the terminfo(5) section on Tabs and
79 Initialization,
80 (2) any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry will be
82 set in the tty driver,
83 (3) tabs expansion will be turned on or off according to the
85 specification in the entry, and
86 (4) if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs will be set
88 (every 8 spaces).
89 If an entry does not contain the information needed for any of
91 the four above activities, that activity will silently be
92 skipped.
93 reset Instead of putting out initialization strings, the terminal's
95 reset strings will be output if present (rs1, rs2, rs3, rf). If
96 the reset strings are not present, but initialization strings
97 are, the initialization strings will be output. Otherwise,
98 reset acts identically to init.
99 longname
101 If the terminfo database is present and an entry for the user's
102 terminal exists (see -Ttype above), then the long name of the
103 terminal will be put out. The long name is the last name in the
104 first line of the terminal's description in the terminfo data‐
105 base [see term(5)].
106 If tput is invoked by a link named reset, this has the same effect as
108 tput reset. See tset for comparison, which has similar behavior.
109
111 tput init
112 Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the
113 environmental variable TERM. This command should be included in
114 everyone's .profile after the environmental variable TERM has been
115 exported, as illustrated on the profile(5) manual page.
116 tput -T5620 reset
118 Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in
119 the environmental variable TERM.
120 tput cup 0 0
122 Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 0, column 0 (the upper
123 left corner of the screen, usually known as the "home" cursor
124 position).
125 tput clear
127 Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.
128 tput cols
130 Print the number of columns for the current terminal.
131 tput -T450 cols
133 Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.
134 bold=`tput smso` offbold=`tput rmso`
136 Set the shell variables bold, to begin stand-out mode sequence,
137 and offbold, to end standout mode sequence, for the current termi‐
138 nal. This might be followed by a prompt: echo "${bold}Please type
139 in your name: ${offbold}\c"
140 tput hc
142 Set exit code to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy
143 terminal.
144 tput cup 23 4
146 Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.
147 tput cup
149 Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with no parameters
150 substituted.
151 tput longname
153 Print the long name from the terminfo database for the type of
154 terminal specified in the environmental variable TERM.
155 tput -S <<!
157 > clear
158 > cup 10 10
159 > bold
160 > !
161 This example shows tput processing several capabilities in one
163 invocation. It clears the screen, moves the cursor to position
164 10, 10 and turns on bold (extra bright) mode. The list is termi‐
165 nated by an exclamation mark (!) on a line by itself.
166
168 /usr/share/terminfo
169 compiled terminal description database
170 /usr/share/tabset/*
172 tab settings for some terminals, in a format appropriate to be
173 output to the terminal (escape sequences that set margins and
174 tabs); for more information, see the "Tabs and Initialization"
175 section of terminfo(5)
176
178 If the -S option is used, tput checks for errors from each line, and if
179 any errors are found, will set the exit code to 4 plus the number of
180 lines with errors. If no errors are found, the exit code is 0. No
181 indication of which line failed can be given so exit code 1 will never
182 appear. Exit codes 2, 3, and 4 retain their usual interpretation. If
183 the -S option is not used, the exit code depends on the type of cap‐
184 name:
185 boolean
187 a value of 0 is set for TRUE and 1 for FALSE.
188 string a value of 0 is set if the capname is defined for this ter‐
190 minal type (the value of capname is returned on standard
191 output); a value of 1 is set if capname is not defined for
192 this terminal type (nothing is written to standard output).
193 integer
195 a value of 0 is always set, whether or not capname is
196 defined for this terminal type. To determine if capname is
197 defined for this terminal type, the user must test the
198 value written to standard output. A value of -1 means that
199 capname is not defined for this terminal type.
200 other reset or init may fail to find their respective files. In
202 that case, the exit code is set to 4 + errno.
203 Any other exit code indicates an error; see the DIAGNOSTICS section.
205
207 tput prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
208 exit codes.
209 exit code error message
211 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
212 0 (capname is a numeric variable that is not specified in
213 the terminfo(5) database for this terminal type, e.g.
214 tput -T450 lines and tput -T2621 xmc)
215 1 no error message is printed, see the EXIT CODES section.
216 2 usage error
217 3 unknown terminal type or no terminfo database
218 4 unknown terminfo capability capname
219 >4 error occurred in -S
220 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
221
223 The longname and -S options, and the parameter-substitution features
224 used in the cup example, are not supported in BSD curses or in AT&T/USL
225 curses before SVr4.
226 X/Open documents only the operands for clear, init and reset. In this
228 implementation, clear is part of the capname support. Other implemen‐
229 tations of tput on SVr4-based systems such as Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUX
230 as well as others such as AIX and Tru64 provide support for capname op‐
231 erands.
232 A few platforms such as FreeBSD and NetBSD recognize termcap names
234 rather than terminfo capability names in their respective tput com‐
235 mands.
236 Most implementations which provide support for capname operands use the
238 tparm function to expand parameters in it. That function expects a
239 mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring tput to know which
240 type to use. This implementation uses a table to determine that for
241 the standard capname operands, and an internal library function to ana‐
242 lyze nonstandard capname operands. Other implementations may simply
243 guess that an operand containing only digits is intended to be a num‐
244 ber.
245
247 clear(1), stty(1), tabs(1), terminfo(5), curs_termcap(3X).
248 This describes ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20130511).
250 tput(1)