3 ****************************************************************************
4 * Copyright 2018-2022,2023 Thomas E. Dickey *
5 * Copyright 1998-2016,2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
7 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
8 * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
9 * "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including *
10 * without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, *
11 * distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell *
12 * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is *
13 * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: *
15 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included *
16 * in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. *
18 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS *
19 * OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF *
20 * MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. *
21 * IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, *
22 * DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR *
23 * OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR *
24 * THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. *
26 * Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright *
27 * holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the *
28 * sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
30 ****************************************************************************
31 * @Id: tput.1,v 1.97 2023/12/31 00:16:41 tom Exp @
32 * longname was added in October 1989.
34 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
37 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
38 <meta name="generator" content="Manpage converted by man2html - see https://invisible-island.net/scripts/readme.html#others_scripts">
39 <TITLE>tput 1 2023-12-30 ncurses 6.4 User commands</TITLE>
40 <link rel="author" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
44 <H1 class="no-header">tput 1 2023-12-30 ncurses 6.4 User commands</H1>
46 <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG> User commands <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
51 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
52 <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> - initialize a terminal or query <EM>terminfo</EM> database
55 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
56 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] {<EM>cap-code</EM> [<EM>parameter</EM> ...]} ...
58 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] [<STRONG>-x</STRONG>] <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
60 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] <STRONG>init</STRONG>
62 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] <STRONG>reset</STRONG>
64 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type</EM>] <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
66 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG>
68 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-V</STRONG>
71 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
72 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses the <EM>terminfo</EM> library and database to make the values of
73 terminal-specific capabilities and information available to the shell,
74 to initialize or reset the terminal, or report the long name of the
75 current (or specified) terminal type. When retrieving capability
76 values, the result depends upon the capability's type.
78 Boolean <STRONG>tput</STRONG> sets its exit status to <STRONG>0</STRONG> if the terminal possesses <EM>cap-</EM>
79 <EM>code,</EM> and <STRONG>1</STRONG> if it does not.
81 integer <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes <EM>cap-code</EM>'s decimal value to the standard output
82 stream if defined (<STRONG>-1</STRONG> if it is not) followed by a newline.
84 string <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes <EM>cap-code</EM>'s value to the standard output stream if
85 defined, without a trailing newline.
87 Before using a value returned on the standard output, the application
88 should test <STRONG>tput</STRONG>'s exit status (for example, using <STRONG>$?</STRONG> in <STRONG>sh(1)</STRONG>) to be
89 sure it is <STRONG>0</STRONG>; see sections "EXIT STATUS" and "DIAGNOSTICS" below. For
90 a complete list of <EM>cap-codes,</EM> see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
93 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Options">Options</a></H3><PRE>
94 <STRONG>-S</STRONG> allows more than one capability per invocation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG>. The
95 capabilities must be passed to <STRONG>tput</STRONG> from the standard input
96 instead of from the command line (see example). Only one <EM>cap-</EM>
97 <EM>code</EM> is allowed per line. The <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option changes the meaning of
98 the <STRONG>0</STRONG> and <STRONG>1</STRONG> Boolean and string exit statuses (see section "EXIT
101 Because some capabilities may use <EM>string</EM> parameters rather than
102 <EM>numbers</EM>, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a table and the presence of parameters in its
103 input to decide whether to use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG>, and how to interpret
106 <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM> indicates the <EM>type</EM> of terminal. Normally this option is
107 unnecessary, because the default is taken from the environment
108 variable <EM>TERM</EM>. If <STRONG>-T</STRONG> is specified, then the shell variables
109 <EM>LINES</EM> and <EM>COLUMNS</EM> will also be ignored.
111 <STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of <EM>ncurses</EM> which was used in this program,
114 <STRONG>-x</STRONG> prevents <STRONG>tput</STRONG> from attempting to clear the scrollback buffer.
117 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Commands">Commands</a></H3><PRE>
118 A few commands (<STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>) are special; they are defined
119 by the <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program. The others are the names of <EM>capabilities</EM> from the
120 terminal database (see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for a list). Although <STRONG>init</STRONG> and
121 <STRONG>reset</STRONG> resemble capability names, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses several capabilities to
122 perform these special functions.
125 indicates the capability from the terminal database.
127 If the capability is a string that takes parameters, the
128 arguments following the capability will be used as parameters
131 Most parameters are numbers. Only a few terminal capabilities
132 require string parameters; <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a table to decide which to
133 pass as strings. Normally <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> to perform the
134 substitution. If no parameters are given for the capability,
135 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the string without performing the substitution.
137 <STRONG>init</STRONG> If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
138 terminal exists (see <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>, above), the following will occur:
140 (1) first, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> retrieves the current terminal mode settings
141 for your terminal. It does this by successively testing
143 <STRONG>o</STRONG> the standard error,
145 <STRONG>o</STRONG> standard output,
147 <STRONG>o</STRONG> standard input and
149 <STRONG>o</STRONG> ultimately "/dev/tty"
151 to obtain terminal settings. Having retrieved these
152 settings, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> remembers which file descriptor to use when
155 (2) if the window size cannot be obtained from the operating
156 system, but the terminal description (or environment, e.g.,
157 <EM>LINES</EM> and <EM>COLUMNS</EM> variables specify this), update the
158 operating system's notion of the window size.
160 (3) the terminal modes will be updated:
162 <STRONG>o</STRONG> any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry will
163 be set in the tty driver,
165 <STRONG>o</STRONG> tabs expansion will be turned on or off according to
166 the specification in the entry, and
168 <STRONG>o</STRONG> if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs will be set
171 (4) if present, the terminal's initialization strings will be
172 output as detailed in the <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> section on <EM>Tabs</EM> <EM>and</EM>
173 <EM>Initialization</EM>,
175 (5) output is flushed.
177 If an entry does not contain the information needed for any of
178 these activities, that activity will silently be skipped.
180 <STRONG>reset</STRONG> This is similar to <STRONG>init</STRONG>, with two differences:
182 (1) before any other initialization, the terminal modes will be
183 reset to a "sane" state:
185 <STRONG>o</STRONG> set cooked and echo modes,
187 <STRONG>o</STRONG> turn off cbreak and raw modes,
189 <STRONG>o</STRONG> turn on newline translation and
191 <STRONG>o</STRONG> reset any unset special characters to their default
194 (2) Instead of putting out <EM>initialization</EM> strings, the
195 terminal's <EM>reset</EM> strings will be output if present (<STRONG>rs1</STRONG>,
196 <STRONG>rs2</STRONG>, <STRONG>rs3</STRONG>, <STRONG>rf</STRONG>). If the <EM>reset</EM> strings are not present, but
197 <EM>initialization</EM> strings are, the <EM>initialization</EM> strings will
200 Otherwise, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> acts identically to <STRONG>init</STRONG>.
202 <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
203 A terminfo entry begins with one or more names by which an
204 application can refer to the entry, before the list of terminal
205 capabilities. The names are separated by "|" characters.
206 X/Open states that the last name is the "long name" and also
207 that it may include blanks.
209 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> warns if the last name does not include blanks, to
210 accommodate old terminfo entries which treated the long name as
211 an optional feature. The long name is often referred to as the
214 If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
215 terminal exists (see <STRONG>-T</STRONG> <EM>type</EM> above), <STRONG>tput</STRONG> reports the terminal's
216 description (or "long name") to the standard output, without a
217 trailing newline. See <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
220 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></H3><PRE>
221 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> handles the <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> commands specially: it allows
222 for the possibility that it is invoked by a link with those names.
224 If <STRONG>tput</STRONG> is invoked by a link named <STRONG>reset</STRONG>, this has the same effect as
225 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>reset</STRONG>. The <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG> utility also treats a link named <STRONG>reset</STRONG>
228 Before <EM>ncurses</EM> 6.1, the two utilities were different from each other:
230 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tset</STRONG> utility reset the terminal modes and special characters (not
231 done with <STRONG>tput</STRONG>).
233 <STRONG>o</STRONG> On the other hand, <STRONG>tset</STRONG>'s repertoire of terminal capabilities for
234 resetting the terminal was more limited, i.e., only <STRONG>reset_1string</STRONG>,
235 <STRONG>reset_2string</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset_file</STRONG> in contrast to the tab-stops and
236 margins which are set by this utility.
238 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <STRONG>reset</STRONG> program is usually an alias for <STRONG>tset</STRONG>, because of this
239 difference with resetting terminal modes and special characters.
241 With the changes made for <EM>ncurses</EM> 6.1, the <EM>reset</EM> feature of the two
242 programs is (mostly) the same. A few differences remain:
244 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <STRONG>tset</STRONG> program waits one second when resetting, in case it
245 happens to be a hardware terminal.
247 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to
248 different streams (i.e., the standard error for <STRONG>tset</STRONG> and the
249 standard output for <STRONG>tput</STRONG>).
251 <STRONG>Note:</STRONG> although these programs write to different streams,
252 redirecting their output to a file will capture only part of their
253 actions. The changes to the terminal modes are not affected by
254 redirecting the output.
256 If <STRONG>tput</STRONG> is invoked by a link named <STRONG>init</STRONG>, this has the same effect as
257 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>init</STRONG>. Again, you are less likely to use that link because another
258 program named <STRONG>init</STRONG> has a more well-established use.
261 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Terminal-Size">Terminal Size</a></H3><PRE>
262 Besides the special commands (e.g., <STRONG>clear</STRONG>), tput treats certain
263 terminfo capabilities specially: <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>cols</STRONG>. tput calls
264 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG> to obtain the terminal size:
266 <STRONG>o</STRONG> first, it gets the size from the terminal database (which generally
267 is not provided for terminal emulators which do not have a fixed
270 <STRONG>o</STRONG> then it asks the operating system for the terminal's size (which
271 generally works, unless connecting via a serial line which does not
272 support <EM>NAWS</EM>: negotiations about window size).
274 <STRONG>o</STRONG> finally, it inspects the environment variables <EM>LINES</EM> and <EM>COLUMNS</EM>
275 which may override the terminal size.
277 If the <STRONG>-T</STRONG> option is given tput ignores the environment variables by
278 calling <STRONG>use_tioctl(TRUE)</STRONG>, relying upon the operating system (or
279 finally, the terminal database).
282 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXIT-STATUS">EXIT STATUS</a></H2><PRE>
283 If the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is used, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> checks for errors from each line, and if
284 any errors are found, will set the exit status to 4 plus the number of
285 lines with errors. If no errors are found, the exit status is <STRONG>0</STRONG>. No
286 indication of which line failed can be given so exit status <STRONG>1</STRONG> will
287 never appear. Exit statuses <STRONG>2</STRONG>, <STRONG>3</STRONG>, and <STRONG>4</STRONG> retain their usual
288 interpretation. If the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is not used, the exit status depends
289 on the type of <EM>cap-code</EM>:
292 a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is set for TRUE and <STRONG>1</STRONG> for FALSE.
294 <EM>string</EM> a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is set if the <EM>cap-code</EM> is defined for this
295 terminal <EM>type</EM> (the value of <EM>cap-code</EM> is returned on standard
296 output); a value of <STRONG>1</STRONG> is set if <EM>cap-code</EM> is not defined for
297 this terminal <EM>type</EM> (nothing is written to standard output).
300 a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is always set, whether or not <EM>cap-code</EM> is
301 defined for this terminal <EM>type</EM>. To determine if <EM>cap-code</EM> is
302 defined for this terminal <EM>type</EM>, the user must test the value
303 written to standard output. A value of <STRONG>-1</STRONG> means that <EM>cap-</EM>
304 <EM>code</EM> is not defined for this terminal <EM>type</EM>.
306 <EM>other</EM> <STRONG>reset</STRONG> or <STRONG>init</STRONG> may fail to find their respective files. In
307 that case, the exit status is set to 4 + <STRONG>errno</STRONG>.
309 Any other exit status indicates an error; see section "DIAGNOSTICS"
313 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></H2><PRE>
314 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
317 exit status error message
318 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
319 <STRONG>0</STRONG> (<EM>cap-code</EM> is a numeric variable that is not specified in
320 the <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> database for this terminal type, e.g.
321 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T450</STRONG> <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-Thp2621</STRONG> <STRONG>xmc</STRONG>)
322 <STRONG>1</STRONG> no error message is printed, see the <STRONG>EXIT</STRONG> <STRONG>STATUS</STRONG> section.
323 <STRONG>2</STRONG> usage error
324 <STRONG>3</STRONG> unknown terminal <EM>type</EM> or no <EM>terminfo</EM> database
325 <STRONG>4</STRONG> unknown <EM>terminfo</EM> capability <EM>cap-code</EM>
326 <STRONG>>4</STRONG> error occurred in -S
327 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
330 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
331 <EM>/usr/share/tabset</EM>
332 tab stop initialization database
334 <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>
335 compiled terminal description database
338 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
339 This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differs from AT&T <STRONG>tput</STRONG> in two important
342 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <EM>cap-code</EM> writes to the standard output. That need not be a
343 regular terminal. However, the subcommands which manipulate
344 terminal modes may not use the standard output.
346 The AT&T implementation's <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> commands use the BSD
347 (4.1c) <STRONG>tset</STRONG> source, which manipulates terminal modes. It
348 successively tries standard output, standard error, standard input
349 before falling back to "/dev/tty" and finally just assumes a 1200Bd
350 terminal. When updating terminal modes, it ignores errors.
352 Until changes made after <EM>ncurses</EM> 6.0, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify terminal
353 modes. <STRONG>tput</STRONG> now uses a similar scheme, using functions shared with
354 <STRONG>tset</STRONG> (and ultimately based on the 4.4BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG>). If it is not able
355 to open a terminal, e.g., when running in <STRONG>cron(1)</STRONG>, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> will return
358 <STRONG>o</STRONG> AT&T <STRONG>tput</STRONG> guesses the type of its <EM>cap-code</EM> operands by seeing if
359 all of the characters are numeric, or not.
361 Most implementations which provide support for <EM>cap-code</EM> operands
362 use the <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> function to expand parameters in it. That function
363 expects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring <STRONG>tput</STRONG>
364 to know which type to use.
366 This implementation uses a table to determine the parameter types
367 for the standard <EM>cap-code</EM> operands, and an internal library
368 function to analyze nonstandard <EM>cap-code</EM> operands.
370 Besides providing more reliable operation than AT&T's utility, a
371 portability problem is introduced by this analysis: An OpenBSD
372 developer adapted the internal library function from <EM>ncurses</EM> to
373 port NetBSD's termcap-based <STRONG>tput</STRONG> to terminfo. That had been
374 modified to interpret multiple commands on a line. Portable
375 applications should not rely upon this feature; <EM>ncurses</EM> provides it
376 to support applications written specifically for OpenBSD.
378 This implementation (unlike others) can accept both <EM>termcap</EM> and
379 <EM>terminfo</EM> names for the <EM>cap-code</EM> feature, if <EM>termcap</EM> support is compiled
380 in. However, the predefined <EM>termcap</EM> and <EM>terminfo</EM> names have two
381 ambiguities in this case (and the <EM>terminfo</EM> name is assumed):
383 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl1</STRONG> (delete
385 The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>DL</STRONG> (delete a
386 given number of lines).
388 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>rmdc</STRONG> (end
390 The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>cd</STRONG> (clear to
393 The <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>-S</STRONG> options, and the parameter-substitution features
394 used in the <STRONG>cup</STRONG> example, were not supported in AT&T/USL <EM>curses</EM> before
395 SVr4 (1989). Later, 4.3BSD-Reno (1990) added support for <STRONG>longname</STRONG>, and
396 NetBSD (1994) added support for the parameter-substitution features.
398 IEEE Std 1003.1/The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7
399 (POSIX.1-2008) documents only the operands for <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>.
400 There are a few interesting observations to make regarding that:
402 <STRONG>o</STRONG> In this implementation, <STRONG>clear</STRONG> is part of the <EM>cap-code</EM> support. The
403 others (<STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>) do not correspond to terminal
406 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Other implementations of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> on SVr4-based systems such as
407 Solaris, IRIX64 and HP-UX as well as others such as AIX and Tru64
408 provide support for <EM>cap-code</EM> operands.
410 <STRONG>o</STRONG> A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize termcap names rather than
411 terminfo capability names in their respective <STRONG>tput</STRONG> commands. Since
412 2010, NetBSD's <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses terminfo names. Before that, it (like
413 FreeBSD) recognized termcap names.
415 Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses the <EM>ncurses</EM> <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, configured for
416 both terminfo (tested first) and termcap (as a fallback).
418 Because (apparently) <EM>all</EM> of the certified Unix systems support the full
419 set of capability names, the reasoning for documenting only a few may
422 <STRONG>o</STRONG> X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differently, with <EM>cap-code</EM> and
423 the other features used in this implementation.
425 <STRONG>o</STRONG> That is, there are two standards for <STRONG>tput</STRONG>: POSIX (a subset) and
426 X/Open Curses (the full implementation). POSIX documents a subset
427 to avoid the complication of including X/Open Curses and the
428 terminal capabilities database.
430 <STRONG>o</STRONG> While it is certainly possible to write a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program without
431 using <EM>curses,</EM> no system with a <EM>curses</EM> implementation provides a
432 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utility that does not also supply the <EM>cap-code</EM> feature.
434 X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) is the first version to document
435 utilities. However that part of X/Open Curses does not follow existing
436 practice (that is, System V <EM>curses</EM> behavior).
438 <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit status 4 to "invalid operand", which may be the
439 same as <EM>unknown</EM> <EM>capability</EM>. For instance, the source code for
440 Solaris' xcurses uses the term "invalid" in this case.
442 <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit status 255 to a numeric variable that is not
443 specified in the terminfo database. That likely is a documentation
444 error, confusing the <STRONG>-1</STRONG> written to the standard output for an
445 absent or cancelled numeric value versus an (unsigned) exit status.
447 The various Unix systems (AIX, HP-UX, Solaris) use the same exit
448 statuses as <EM>ncurses</EM>.
450 NetBSD curses documents different exit statuses which do not correspond
451 to either <EM>ncurses</EM> or X/Open.
454 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
455 The <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command was begun by Bill Joy in 1980. The initial version
456 only cleared the screen.
458 AT&T System V provided a different <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command:
460 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr2 provided a rudimentary <STRONG>tput</STRONG> which checked the parameter
461 against each predefined capability and returned the corresponding
462 value. This version of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> for the
463 capabilities which are parameterized.
465 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr3 replaced that, a year later, by a more extensive program whose
466 <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> subcommands (more than half the program) were
467 incorporated from the <STRONG>reset</STRONG> feature of BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG> written by Eric
470 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr4 added color initialization using the <STRONG>orig_colors</STRONG> and <STRONG>orig_pair</STRONG>
471 capabilities in the <STRONG>init</STRONG> subcommand.
473 Keith Bostic replaced the BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command in 1989 with a new
474 implementation based on the AT&T System V program <STRONG>tput</STRONG>. Like the AT&T
475 program, Bostic's version accepted some parameters named for <EM>terminfo</EM>
476 capabilities (<STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>). However (because he
477 had only <EM>termcap</EM> available), it accepted <EM>termcap</EM> names for other
478 capabilities. Also, Bostic's BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify the terminal I/O
479 modes as the earlier BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG> had done.
481 At the same time, Bostic added a shell script named "clear", which used
482 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> to clear the screen.
484 Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the "modern" BSD
485 implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG>.
487 This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> began from a different source than AT&T or
488 BSD: Ross Ridge's <EM>mytinfo</EM> package, published on <EM>comp.sources.unix</EM> in
489 December 1992. Ridge's program made more sophisticated use of the
490 terminal capabilities than the BSD program. Eric Raymond used that
491 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program (and other parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM>) in <EM>ncurses</EM> in June 1995.
492 Using the portions dealing with terminal capabilities almost without
493 change, Raymond made improvements to the way the command-line
494 parameters were handled.
497 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></H2><PRE>
498 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>init</STRONG>
499 Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the
500 environment variable <EM>TERM</EM>. This command should be included in
501 everyone's .profile after the environment variable <EM>TERM</EM> has been
502 exported, as illustrated on the <STRONG>profile(5)</STRONG> manual page.
504 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T5620</STRONG> <STRONG>reset</STRONG>
505 Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in
506 the environment variable <EM>TERM</EM>.
508 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>0</STRONG> <STRONG>0</STRONG>
509 Send the sequence to move the cursor to row <STRONG>0</STRONG>, column <STRONG>0</STRONG> (the upper
510 left corner of the screen, usually known as the "home" cursor
513 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
514 Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.
516 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cols</STRONG>
517 Print the number of columns for the current terminal.
519 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T450</STRONG> <STRONG>cols</STRONG>
520 Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.
522 <STRONG>bold=`tput</STRONG> <STRONG>smso`</STRONG> <STRONG>offbold=`tput</STRONG> <STRONG>rmso`</STRONG>
523 Set the shell variables <STRONG>bold</STRONG>, to begin stand-out mode sequence,
524 and <STRONG>offbold</STRONG>, to end standout mode sequence, for the current
525 terminal. This might be followed by a prompt: <STRONG>echo</STRONG> <STRONG>"${bold}Please</STRONG>
526 <STRONG>type</STRONG> <STRONG>in</STRONG> <STRONG>your</STRONG> <STRONG>name:</STRONG> <STRONG>${offbold}\c"</STRONG>
528 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>hc</STRONG>
529 Set exit status to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy
532 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>23</STRONG> <STRONG>4</STRONG>
533 Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.
535 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG>
536 Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with no parameters
539 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
540 Print the long name from the <EM>terminfo</EM> database for the type of
541 terminal specified in the environment variable <EM>TERM</EM>.
543 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG>
544 The <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option can be profitably used with a shell "here document".
546 $ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG> <STRONG><<!</STRONG>
547 > <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
548 > <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG>
549 > <STRONG>bold</STRONG>
550 > <STRONG>!</STRONG>
552 We see <STRONG>tput</STRONG> processing several capabilities in one invocation. It
553 clears the screen, moves the cursor to position (10, 10) and turns
554 on bold (extra bright) mode.
556 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>clear</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG> <STRONG>bold</STRONG>
557 Perform the same actions as the foregoing "<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG>" example.
560 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
561 <STRONG><A HREF="clear.1.html">clear(1)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG>stty(1)</STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="tabs.1.html">tabs(1)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>
565 ncurses 6.4 2023-12-30 <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
569 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
570 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
571 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
573 <li><a href="#h3-Options">Options</a></li>
574 <li><a href="#h3-Commands">Commands</a></li>
575 <li><a href="#h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></li>
576 <li><a href="#h3-Terminal-Size">Terminal Size</a></li>
579 <li><a href="#h2-EXIT-STATUS">EXIT STATUS</a></li>
580 <li><a href="#h2-DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></li>
581 <li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
582 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
583 <li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
584 <li><a href="#h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></li>
585 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>