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 be ignored,and the operating system will not be
45 queried for the actual screen size.
46 capname
48 indicates the capability from the terminfo database. When term‐
49 cap support is compiled in, the termcap name for the capability
50 is also accepted.
51 parms If the capability is a string that takes parameters, the argu‐
53 ments parms will be instantiated into the string.
54 Most parameters are numbers. Only a few terminfo capabilities
56 require string parameters; tput uses a table to decide which to
57 pass as strings. Normally tput uses tparm (3X) to perform the
58 substitution. If no parameters are given for the capability,
59 tput writes the string without performing the substitution.
60 -S allows more than one capability per invocation of tput. The
62 capabilities must be passed to tput from the standard input
63 instead of from the command line (see example). Only one cap‐
64 name is allowed per line. The -S option changes the meaning of
65 the 0 and 1 boolean and string exit codes (see the EXIT CODES
66 section).
67 Again, tput uses a table and the presence of parameters in its
69 input to decide whether to use tparm (3X), and how to interpret
70 the parameters.
71 -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program,
73 and exits.
74 init If the terminfo database is present and an entry for the user's
76 terminal exists (see -Ttype, above), the following will occur:
77 (1) if present, the terminal's initialization strings will be
79 output as detailed in the terminfo(5) section on Tabs and
80 Initialization,
81 (2) any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry will be
83 set in the tty driver,
84 (3) tabs expansion will be turned on or off according to the
86 specification in the entry, and
87 (4) if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs will be set
89 (every 8 spaces).
90 If an entry does not contain the information needed for any of
92 the four above activities, that activity will silently be
93 skipped.
94 reset Instead of putting out initialization strings, the terminal's
96 reset strings will be output if present (rs1, rs2, rs3, rf). If
97 the reset strings are not present, but initialization strings
98 are, the initialization strings will be output. Otherwise,
99 reset acts identically to init.
100 longname
102 If the terminfo database is present and an entry for the user's
103 terminal exists (see -Ttype above), then the long name of the
104 terminal will be put out. The long name is the last name in the
105 first line of the terminal's description in the terminfo data‐
106 base [see term(5)].
107 If tput is invoked by a link named reset, this has the same effect as
109 tput reset. See tset for comparison, which has similar behavior.
110
112 tput init
113 Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the
114 environmental variable TERM. This command should be included in
115 everyone's .profile after the environmental variable TERM has been
116 exported, as illustrated on the profile(5) manual page.
117 tput -T5620 reset
119 Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in
120 the environmental variable TERM.
121 tput cup 0 0
123 Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 0, column 0 (the upper
124 left corner of the screen, usually known as the "home" cursor
125 position).
126 tput clear
128 Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.
129 tput cols
131 Print the number of columns for the current terminal.
132 tput -T450 cols
134 Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.
135 bold=`tput smso` offbold=`tput rmso`
137 Set the shell variables bold, to begin stand-out mode sequence,
138 and offbold, to end standout mode sequence, for the current termi‐
139 nal. This might be followed by a prompt: echo "${bold}Please type
140 in your name: ${offbold}\c"
141 tput hc
143 Set exit code to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy
144 terminal.
145 tput cup 23 4
147 Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.
148 tput cup
150 Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with no parameters
151 substituted.
152 tput longname
154 Print the long name from the terminfo database for the type of
155 terminal specified in the environmental variable TERM.
156 tput -S <<!
158 > clear
159 > cup 10 10
160 > bold
161 > !
162 This example shows tput processing several capabilities in one
164 invocation. It clears the screen, moves the cursor to position
165 10, 10 and turns on bold (extra bright) mode. The list is termi‐
166 nated by an exclamation mark (!) on a line by itself.
167
169 /usr/share/terminfo
170 compiled terminal description database
171 /usr/share/tabset/*
173 tab settings for some terminals, in a format appropriate to be
174 output to the terminal (escape sequences that set margins and
175 tabs); for more information, see the "Tabs and Initialization"
176 section of terminfo(5)
177
179 If the -S option is used, tput checks for errors from each line, and if
180 any errors are found, will set the exit code to 4 plus the number of
181 lines with errors. If no errors are found, the exit code is 0. No
182 indication of which line failed can be given so exit code 1 will never
183 appear. Exit codes 2, 3, and 4 retain their usual interpretation. If
184 the -S option is not used, the exit code depends on the type of cap‐
185 name:
186 boolean
188 a value of 0 is set for TRUE and 1 for FALSE.
189 string a value of 0 is set if the capname is defined for this ter‐
191 minal type (the value of capname is returned on standard
192 output); a value of 1 is set if capname is not defined for
193 this terminal type (nothing is written to standard output).
194 integer
196 a value of 0 is always set, whether or not capname is
197 defined for this terminal type. To determine if capname is
198 defined for this terminal type, the user must test the
199 value written to standard output. A value of -1 means that
200 capname is not defined for this terminal type.
201 other reset or init may fail to find their respective files. In
203 that case, the exit code is set to 4 + errno.
204 Any other exit code indicates an error; see the DIAGNOSTICS section.
206
208 tput prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
209 exit codes.
210 exit code error message
212 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
213 0 (capname is a numeric variable that is not specified in
214 the terminfo(5) database for this terminal type, e.g.
215 tput -T450 lines and tput -T2621 xmc)
216 1 no error message is printed, see the EXIT CODES section.
217 2 usage error
218 3 unknown terminal type or no terminfo database
219 4 unknown terminfo capability capname
220 >4 error occurred in -S
221 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
222
224 The longname and -S options, and the parameter-substitution features
225 used in the cup example, are not supported in BSD curses or in AT&T/USL
226 curses before SVr4.
227 X/Open documents only the operands for clear, init and reset. In this
229 implementation, clear is part of the capname support. Other implemen‐
230 tations of tput on SVr4-based systems such as Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUX
231 as well as others such as AIX and Tru64 provide support for capname op‐
232 erands. A few platforms such as FreeBSD and NetBSD recognize termcap
233 names rather than terminfo capability names in their respective tput
234 commands.
235
237 clear(1), stty(1), tabs(1), terminfo(5).
238 This describes ncurses version 5.7 (patch 20100703).
240 tput(1)