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 The optional arguments require '=' (equals sign) and not space between
35 the option and the argument. For example --option=argument.
36 --appcursorkeys on|off
38 Sets Cursor Key Application Mode on or off. When on, ESC O A,
39 ESC O B, etc. will be sent for the cursor keys instead of ESC [
40 A, ESC [ B, etc. See the vi and Cursor-Keys section of the
41 Text-Terminal-HOWTO for how this can cause problems for vi
42 users. Virtual consoles only.
43 --append console_number
45 Like --dump, but appends to the snapshot file instead of over‐
46 writing it. Only works if no --dump options are given.
47 --background 8-color|default
49 Sets the background text color.
50 --blank[=0-60|force|poke]
52 Sets the interval of inactivity, in minutes, after which the
53 screen will be automatically blanked (using APM if available).
54 Without an argument, it gets the blank status (returns which vt
55 was blanked, or zero for an unblanked vt). Virtual consoles
56 only.
57 The force argument keeps the screen blank even if a key is
59 pressed.
60 The poke argument unblanks the screen.
62 --bfreq[=number]
64 Sets the bell frequency in Hertz. Without an argument, it
65 defaults to 0. Virtual consoles only.
66 --blength[=0-2000]
68 Sets the bell duration in milliseconds. Without an argument, it
69 defaults to 0. Virtual consoles only.
70 --blink on|off
72 Turns blink mode on or off. Except on a virtual console,
73 --blink off turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness,
74 blink, reverse).
75 --bold on|off
77 urns bold (extra bright) mode on or off. Except on a virtual
78 console, --bold off turns off all attributes (bold, half-bright‐
79 ness, blink, reverse).
80 --clear[=all|rest]
82 Without an argument or with the argument all, the entire screen
83 is cleared and the cursor is set to the home position, just like
84 clear(1) does. With the argument rest, the screen is cleared
85 from the current cursor position to the end.
86 --clrtabs[=tab1 tab2 tab3 ...]
88 Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor positions, in
89 the range 1-160. Without arguments, it clears all tab stops.
90 Virtual consoles only.
91 --cursor on|off
93 Turns the terminal's cursor on or off.
94 --default
96 Sets the terminal's rendering options to the default values.
97 --dump[=console_number]
99 Writes a snapshot of the virtual console with the given number
100 to the file specified with the --file option, overwriting its
101 contents; the default is screen.dump. Without an argument, it
102 dumps the current virtual console. This overrides --append.
103 --file filename
105 Sets the snapshot file name for any --dump or --append options
106 on the same command line. If this option is not present, the
107 default is screen.dump in the current directory. A path name
108 that exceeds the system maximum will be truncated, see PATH_MAX
109 from linux/limits.h for the value.
110 --foreground 8-color|default
112 Sets the foreground text color.
113 --half-bright on|off
115 Turns dim (half-brightness) mode on or off. Except on a virtual
116 console, --half-bright off turns off all attributes (bold, half-
117 brightness, blink, reverse).
118 --hbcolor [bright] 16-color
120 Sets the color for half-bright characters.
121 --initialize
123 Displays the terminal initialization string, which typically
124 sets the terminal's rendering options, and other attributes to
125 the default values.
126 --inversescreen on|off
128 Swaps foreground and background colors for the whole screen.
129 --linewrap on|off
131 Makes the terminal continue on a new line when a line is full.
132 --msg on|off
134 Enables or disables the sending of kernel printk() messages to
135 the console. Virtual consoles only.
136 --msglevel 0-8
138 Sets the console logging level for kernel printk() messages.
139 All messages strictly more important than this will be printed,
140 so a logging level of 0 has the same effect as --msg on and a
141 logging level of 8 will print all kernel messages. klogd(8) may
142 be a more convenient interface to the logging of kernel mes‐
143 sages.
144 Virtual consoles only.
146 --powerdown[=0-60]
148 Sets the VESA powerdown interval in minutes. Without an argu‐
149 ment, it defaults to 0 (disable powerdown). If the console is
150 blanked or the monitor is in suspend mode, then the monitor will
151 go into vsync suspend mode or powerdown mode respectively after
152 this period of time has elapsed.
153 --powersave mode
155 Valid values for mode are:
156 vsync|on
158 Puts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.
159 hsync Puts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.
161 powerdown
163 Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.
164 off Turns monitor VESA powersaving features.
166 --regtabs[=1-160]
168 Clears all tab stops, then sets a regular tab stop pattern, with
169 one tab every specified number of positions. Without an argu‐
170 ment, it defaults to 8. Virtual consoles only.
171 --repeat on|off
173 Turns keyboard repeat on or off. Virtual consoles only.
174 --reset
176 Displays the terminal reset string, which typically resets the
177 terminal to its power-on state.
178 --resize
180 Reset terminal size by assessing maximum row and column. This
181 is useful when actual geometry and kernel terminal driver are
182 not in sync. Most notable use case is with serial consoles,
183 that do not use ioctl(3p) but just byte streams and breaks.
184 --reverse on|off
186 Turns reverse video mode on or off. Except on a virtual con‐
187 sole, --reverse off turns off all attributes (bold, half-bright‐
188 ness, blink, reverse).
189 --store
191 Stores the terminal's current rendering options (foreground and
192 background colors) as the values to be used at reset-to-default.
193 Virtual consoles only.
194 --tabs[=tab1 tab2 tab3 ...]
196 Sets tab stops at the given horizontal cursor positions, in the
197 range 1-160. Without arguments, it shows the current tab stop
198 settings.
199 --term terminal_name
201 Overrides the TERM environment variable.
202 --ulcolor [bright] 16-color
204 Sets the color for underlined characters. Virtual consoles
205 only.
206 --underline on|off
208 Turns underline mode on or off.
209 --version
211 Displays version information and exits.
212 --help Displays a help text and exits.
214
216 Since version 2.25 setterm has support for long options with two
217 hyphens, for example --help, beside the historical long options with a
218 single hyphen, for example -help. In scripts it is better to use the
219 backward-compatible single hyphen rather than the double hyphen. Cur‐
220 rently there are no plans nor good reasons to discontinue single-hyphen
221 compatibility.
222
224 Differences between the Minix and Linux versions are not documented.
225
227 stty(1), tput(1), tty(4), terminfo(5)
228
230 The setterm command is part of the util-linux package and is available
231 from Linux Kernel Archive ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
232 linux/⟩.
233util-linux May 2014 SETTERM(1)