1SETTERM(1) User Commands SETTERM(1)
2
6 setterm - set terminal attributes
7
9 setterm [options]
10
12 setterm writes to standard output a character string that will invoke
13 the specified terminal capabilities. Where possible terminfo is con‐
14 sulted to find the string to use. Some options however (marked "vir‐
15 tual consoles only" below) do not correspond to a terminfo(5) capabil‐
16 ity. In this case, if the terminal type is "con" or "linux" the string
17 that invokes the specified capabilities on the PC Minix virtual console
18 driver is output. Options that are not implemented by the terminal are
19 ignored.
20
22 For boolean options (on or off), the default is on.
23 Below, an 8-color can be black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta,
25 cyan, or white.
26 A 16-color can be an 8-color, or grey, or bright followed by red,
28 green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, or white.
29 The various color options may be set independently, at least on virtual
31 consoles, though the results of setting multiple modes (for example,
32 --underline and --half-bright) are hardware-dependent.
33 --appcursorkeys [on|off] (virtual consoles only)
35 Sets Cursor Key Application Mode on or off. When on, ESC O A,
36 ESC O B, etc. will be sent for the cursor keys instead of ESC [
37 A, ESC [ B, etc. See the vi and Cursor-Keys section of the
38 Text-Terminal-HOWTO for how this can cause problems for vi
39 users.
40 --append [console_number]
42 Like --dump, but appends to the snapshot file instead of over‐
43 writing it. Only works if no --dump options are given.
44 --background 8-color|default
46 Sets the background text color.
47 --blank [0-60|force|poke] (virtual consoles only)
49 Sets the interval of inactivity, in minutes, after which the
50 screen will be automatically blanked (using APM if available).
51 Without an argument, it gets the blank status (returns which vt
52 was blanked, or zero for an unblanked vt).
53 The force option keeps the screen blank even if a key is
55 pressed.
56 The poke option unblanks the screen.
58 --bfreq [number] (virtual consoles only)
60 Sets the bell frequency in Hertz. Without an argument, it
61 defaults to 0.
62 --blength [0-2000] (virtual consoles only)
64 Sets the bell duration in milliseconds. Without an argument, it
65 defaults to 0.
66 --blink [on|off]
68 Turns blink mode on or off. Except on a virtual console,
69 --blink off turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness,
70 blink, reverse).
71 --bold [on|off]
73 Turns bold (extra bright) mode on or off. Except on a virtual
74 console, --bold off turns off all attributes (bold, half-bright‐
75 ness, blink, reverse).
76 --clear [all|rest]
78 Without an argument or with the argument all, the entire screen
79 is cleared and the cursor is set to the home position, just like
80 clear(1) does. With the argument rest, the screen is cleared
81 from the current cursor position to the end.
82 --clrtabs [tab1 tab2 tab3 ...] (virtual consoles only)
84 Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor positions, in
85 the range 1-160. Without arguments, it clears all tab stops.
86 --cursor [on|off]
88 Turns the terminal's cursor on or off.
89 --default
91 Sets the terminal's rendering options to the default values.
92 --dump [console_number]
94 Writes a snapshot of the virtual console with the given number
95 to the file specified with the --file option, overwriting its
96 contents; the default is screen.dump. Without an argument, it
97 dumps the current virtual console. This overrides --append.
98 --file filename
100 Sets the snapshot file name for any --dump or --append options
101 on the same command line. If this option is not present, the
102 default is screen.dump in the current directory. A path name
103 that exceeds the system maximum will be truncated, see PATH_MAX
104 from linux/limits.h for the value.
105 --foreground 8-color|default
107 Sets the foreground text color.
108 --half-bright [on|off]
110 Turns dim (half-brightness) mode on or off. Except on a virtual
111 console, --half-bright off turns off all attributes (bold, half-
112 brightness, blink, reverse).
113 --hbcolor 16-color
115 Sets the color for bold characters.
116 --initialize
118 Displays the terminal initialization string, which typically
119 sets the terminal's rendering options, and other attributes to
120 the default values.
121 --inversescreen [on|off]
123 Swaps foreground and background colors for the whole screen.
124 --linewrap [on|off]
126 Makes the terminal continue on a new line when a line is full.
127 --msg [on|off] (virtual consoles only)
129 Enables or disables the sending of kernel printk() messages to
130 the console.
131 --msglevel 0-8 (virtual consoles only)
133 Sets the console logging level for kernel printk() messages.
134 All messages strictly more important than this will be printed,
135 so a logging level of 0 has the same effect as --msg on and a
136 logging level of 8 will print all kernel messages. klogd(8) may
137 be a more convenient interface to the logging of kernel mes‐
138 sages.
139 --powerdown [0-60]
141 Sets the VESA powerdown interval in minutes. Without an argu‐
142 ment, it defaults to 0 (disable powerdown). If the console is
143 blanked or the monitor is in suspend mode, then the monitor will
144 go into vsync suspend mode or powerdown mode respectively after
145 this period of time has elapsed.
146 --powersave off
148 Turns off monitor VESA powersaving features.
149 --powersave on|vsync
151 Puts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.
152 --powersave powerdown
154 Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.
155 --powersave hsync
157 Puts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.
158 --regtabs [1-160] (virtual consoles only)
160 Clears all tab stops, then sets a regular tab stop pattern, with
161 one tab every specified number of positions. Without an argu‐
162 ment, it defaults to 8.
163 --repeat [on|off] (virtual consoles only)
165 Turns keyboard repeat on or off.
166 --reset
168 Displays the terminal reset string, which typically resets the
169 terminal to its power-on state.
170 --resize
172 Reset terminal size by assessing maximum row and column. This
173 is useful when actual geometry and kernel terminal driver are
174 not in sync. Most notable use case is with serial consoles,
175 that do not use ioctl(3) but just byte streams and breaks.
176 --reverse [on|off]
178 Turns reverse video mode on or off. Except on a virtual con‐
179 sole, --reverse off turns off all attributes (bold, half-bright‐
180 ness, blink, reverse).
181 --store (virtual consoles only)
183 Stores the terminal's current rendering options (foreground and
184 background colors) as the values to be used at reset-to-default.
185 --tabs [tab1 tab2 tab3 ...]
187 Sets tab stops at the given horizontal cursor positions, in the
188 range 1-160. Without arguments, it shows the current tab stop
189 settings.
190 --term terminal_name
192 Overrides the TERM environment variable.
193 --ulcolor 16-color (virtual consoles only)
195 Sets the color for underlined characters.
196 --underline [on|off]
198 Turns underline mode on or off.
199 --version
201 Displays version information and exits.
202 --help Displays a help text and exits.
204
206 Since version 2.25 setterm has support for long options with two
207 hyphens, for example --help, beside the historical long options with a
208 single hyphen, for example -help. In scripts it is better to use the
209 backward-compatible single hyphen rather than the double hyphen. Cur‐
210 rently there are no plans nor good reasons to discontinue single-hyphen
211 compatibility.
212
214 stty(1), tput(1), tty(4), terminfo(5)
215
217 Differences between the Minix and Linux versions are not documented.
218
220 The setterm command is part of the util-linux package and is available
221 from Linux Kernel Archive ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
222 linux/⟩.
223util-linux May 2014 SETTERM(1)