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
14 consulted to find the string to use. Some options however (marked
15 "virtual consoles only" below) do not correspond to a terminfo(5)
16 capability. In this case, if the terminal type is "con" or "linux" the
17 string that invokes the specified capabilities on the PC Minix virtual
18 console driver is output. Options that are not implemented by the
19 terminal are 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 are recommended with '=' (equals sign) and not
35 space between the option and the argument. For example
36 --option=argument. setterm can interpret the next non-option argument
37 as an optional argument too.
38 --appcursorkeys on|off
40 Sets Cursor Key Application Mode on or off. When on, ESC O A, ESC O
41 B, etc. will be sent for the cursor keys instead of ESC [ A, ESC [
42 B, etc. See the vi and Cursor-Keys section of the
43 Text-Terminal-HOWTO for how this can cause problems for vi users.
44 Virtual consoles only.
45 --append console_number
47 Like --dump, but appends to the snapshot file instead of
48 overwriting it. Only works if no --dump options are given.
49 --background 8-color|default
51 Sets the background text color.
52 --blank[=0-60|force|poke]
54 Sets the interval of inactivity, in minutes, after which the screen
55 will be automatically blanked (using APM if available). Without an
56 argument, it gets the blank status (returns which vt was blanked,
57 or zero for an unblanked vt). Virtual consoles only.
58 The force argument keeps the screen blank even if a key is pressed.
60 The poke argument unblanks the screen.
62 --bfreq[=number]
64 Sets the bell frequency in Hertz. Without an argument, it defaults
65 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, --blink
73 off turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink,
74 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,
79 half-brightness, blink, reverse).
80 --clear[=all|rest]
82 Without an argument or with the argument all, the entire screen is
83 cleared and the cursor is set to the home position, just like
84 clear(1) does. With the argument rest, the screen is cleared from
85 the current cursor position to the end.
86 --clrtabs[=tab1 tab2 tab3 ...]
88 Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor positions, in the
89 range 1-160. Without arguments, it clears all tab stops. Virtual
90 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 to
100 the file specified with the --file option, overwriting its
101 contents; the default is screen.dump. Without an argument, it dumps
102 the current virtual console. This overrides --append.
103 --file filename
105 Sets the snapshot file name for any --dump or --append options on
106 the same command line. If this option is not present, the default
107 is screen.dump in the current directory. A path name that exceeds
108 the system maximum will be truncated, see PATH_MAX from
109 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,
117 half-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 sets
124 the terminal’s rendering options, and other attributes to the
125 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 the
135 console. Virtual consoles only.
136 --msglevel 0-8
138 Sets the console logging level for kernel printk() messages. All
139 messages strictly more important than this will be printed, so a
140 logging level of 0 has the same effect as --msg on and a logging
141 level of 8 will print all kernel messages. klogd(8) may be a more
142 convenient interface to the logging of kernel messages.
143 Virtual consoles only.
145 --powerdown[=0-60]
147 Sets the VESA powerdown interval in minutes. Without an argument,
148 it defaults to 0 (disable powerdown). If the console is blanked or
149 the monitor is in suspend mode, then the monitor will go into vsync
150 suspend mode or powerdown mode respectively after this period of
151 time has elapsed.
152 --powersave mode
154 Valid values for mode are:
155 vsync|on
157 Puts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.
158 hsync
160 Puts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.
161 powerdown
163 Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.
164 off
166 Turns monitor VESA powersaving features.
167 --regtabs[=1-160]
169 Clears all tab stops, then sets a regular tab stop pattern, with
170 one tab every specified number of positions. Without an argument,
171 it defaults to 8. Virtual consoles only.
172 --repeat on|off
174 Turns keyboard repeat on or off. Virtual consoles only.
175 --reset
177 Displays the terminal reset string, which typically resets the
178 terminal to its power-on state.
179 --resize
181 Reset terminal size by assessing maximum row and column. This is
182 useful when actual geometry and kernel terminal driver are not in
183 sync. Most notable use case is with serial consoles, that do not
184 use ioctl(3p) but just byte streams and breaks.
185 --reverse on|off
187 Turns reverse video mode on or off. Except on a virtual console,
188 --reverse off turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness,
189 blink, reverse).
190 --store
192 Stores the terminal’s current rendering options (foreground and
193 background colors) as the values to be used at reset-to-default.
194 Virtual consoles only.
195 --tabs[=tab1 tab2 tab3 ...]
197 Sets tab stops at the given horizontal cursor positions, in the
198 range 1-160. Without arguments, it shows the current tab stop
199 settings.
200 --term terminal_name
202 Overrides the TERM environment variable.
203 --ulcolor [bright] 16-color
205 Sets the color for underlined characters. Virtual consoles only.
206 --underline on|off
208 Turns underline mode on or off.
209 -h, --help
211 Display help text and exit.
212 -V, --version
214 Print version and exit.
215
217 Since version 2.25 setterm has support for long options with two
218 hyphens, for example --help, beside the historical long options with a
219 single hyphen, for example -help. In scripts it is better to use the
220 backward-compatible single hyphen rather than the double hyphen.
221 Currently there are no plans nor good reasons to discontinue
222 single-hyphen compatibility.
223
225 Differences between the Minix and Linux versions are not documented.
226
228 stty(1), tput(1), tty(4), terminfo(5)
229
231 For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
232 https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.
233
235 The setterm command is part of the util-linux package which can be
236 downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
237 <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
238util-linux 2.38.1 2022-05-11 SETTERM(1)