* sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
* authorization. *
****************************************************************************
- * @Id: tput.1,v 1.86 2023/10/07 21:19:07 tom Exp @
+ * @Id: tput.1,v 1.87 2023/10/14 19:29:06 tom Exp @
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-<H1 class="no-header">tput 1 2023-10-07 ncurses 6.4 User commands</H1>
+<H1 class="no-header">tput 1 2023-10-14 ncurses 6.4 User commands</H1>
<PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG> User commands <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>
- compiled terminal description database
+ <EM>/usr/share/tabset</EM>
+ tab stop initialization database
- <STRONG>/usr/share/tabset/*</STRONG>
- tab settings for some terminals, in a format appropriate to be
- output to the terminal (escape sequences that set margins and
- tabs); for more information, see the <EM>Tabs</EM> <EM>and</EM> <EM>Initialization</EM>,
- section of <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>
+ <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>
+ compiled terminal description database
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXIT-CODES">EXIT CODES</a></H2><PRE>
If the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is used, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> checks for errors from each line, and if
- any errors are found, will set the exit code to 4 plus the number of
- lines with errors. If no errors are found, the exit code is <STRONG>0</STRONG>. No
- indication of which line failed can be given so exit code <STRONG>1</STRONG> will never
- appear. Exit codes <STRONG>2</STRONG>, <STRONG>3</STRONG>, and <STRONG>4</STRONG> retain their usual interpretation. If
- the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is not used, the exit code depends on the type of
+ any errors are found, will set the exit code to 4 plus the number of
+ lines with errors. If no errors are found, the exit code is <STRONG>0</STRONG>. No
+ indication of which line failed can be given so exit code <STRONG>1</STRONG> will never
+ appear. Exit codes <STRONG>2</STRONG>, <STRONG>3</STRONG>, and <STRONG>4</STRONG> retain their usual interpretation. If
+ the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is not used, the exit code depends on the type of
<EM>capname</EM>:
<EM>boolean</EM>
a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is set for TRUE and <STRONG>1</STRONG> for FALSE.
- <EM>string</EM> a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is set if the <EM>capname</EM> is defined for this
- terminal <EM>type</EM> (the value of <EM>capname</EM> is returned on standard
- output); a value of <STRONG>1</STRONG> is set if <EM>capname</EM> is not defined for
+ <EM>string</EM> a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is set if the <EM>capname</EM> is defined for this
+ terminal <EM>type</EM> (the value of <EM>capname</EM> is returned on standard
+ output); a value of <STRONG>1</STRONG> is set if <EM>capname</EM> is not defined for
this terminal <EM>type</EM> (nothing is written to standard output).
<EM>integer</EM>
a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is always set, whether or not <EM>capname</EM> is defined
- for this terminal <EM>type</EM>. To determine if <EM>capname</EM> is defined
- for this terminal <EM>type</EM>, the user must test the value written
- to standard output. A value of <STRONG>-1</STRONG> means that <EM>capname</EM> is not
+ for this terminal <EM>type</EM>. To determine if <EM>capname</EM> is defined
+ for this terminal <EM>type</EM>, the user must test the value written
+ to standard output. A value of <STRONG>-1</STRONG> means that <EM>capname</EM> is not
defined for this terminal <EM>type</EM>.
- <EM>other</EM> <STRONG>reset</STRONG> or <STRONG>init</STRONG> may fail to find their respective files. In
+ <EM>other</EM> <STRONG>reset</STRONG> or <STRONG>init</STRONG> may fail to find their respective files. In
that case, the exit code is set to 4 + <STRONG>errno</STRONG>.
Any other exit code indicates an error; see the DIAGNOSTICS section.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG>tput</STRONG> prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
exit codes.
exit code error message
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- <STRONG>0</STRONG> (<EM>capname</EM> is a numeric variable that is not specified in
- the <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> database for this terminal type, e.g.
+ <STRONG>0</STRONG> (<EM>capname</EM> is a numeric variable that is not specified in
+ the <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> database for this terminal type, e.g.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T450</STRONG> <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-Thp2621</STRONG> <STRONG>xmc</STRONG>)
<STRONG>1</STRONG> no error message is printed, see the <STRONG>EXIT</STRONG> <STRONG>CODES</STRONG> section.
<STRONG>2</STRONG> usage error
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
- The <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command was begun by Bill Joy in 1980. The initial version
+ The <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command was begun by Bill Joy in 1980. The initial version
only cleared the screen.
AT&T System V provided a different <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr2 provided a rudimentary <STRONG>tput</STRONG> which checked the parameter
- against each predefined capability and returned the corresponding
- value. This version of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> for the
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr2 provided a rudimentary <STRONG>tput</STRONG> which checked the parameter
+ against each predefined capability and returned the corresponding
+ value. This version of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> for the
capabilities which are parameterized.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr3 replaced that, a year later, by a more extensive program whose
- <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> subcommands (more than half the program) were
- incorporated from the <STRONG>reset</STRONG> feature of BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG> written by Eric
+ <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> subcommands (more than half the program) were
+ incorporated from the <STRONG>reset</STRONG> feature of BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG> written by Eric
Allman.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr4 added color initialization using the <STRONG>orig_colors</STRONG> and <STRONG>orig_pair</STRONG>
capabilities in the <STRONG>init</STRONG> subcommand.
- Keith Bostic replaced the BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command in 1989 with a new
- implementation based on the AT&T System V program <STRONG>tput</STRONG>. Like the AT&T
- program, Bostic's version accepted some parameters named for <EM>terminfo</EM>
- capabilities (<STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>). However (because he
- had only <EM>termcap</EM> available), it accepted <EM>termcap</EM> names for other
- capabilities. Also, Bostic's BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify the terminal I/O
+ Keith Bostic replaced the BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command in 1989 with a new
+ implementation based on the AT&T System V program <STRONG>tput</STRONG>. Like the AT&T
+ program, Bostic's version accepted some parameters named for <EM>terminfo</EM>
+ capabilities (<STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>). However (because he
+ had only <EM>termcap</EM> available), it accepted <EM>termcap</EM> names for other
+ capabilities. Also, Bostic's BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify the terminal I/O
modes as the earlier BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG> had done.
At the same time, Bostic added a shell script named "clear", which used
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> to clear the screen.
- Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the "modern" BSD
+ Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the "modern" BSD
implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG>.
- This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> began from a different source than AT&T or
- BSD: Ross Ridge's <EM>mytinfo</EM> package, published on <EM>comp.sources.unix</EM> in
- December 1992. Ridge's program made more sophisticated use of the
- terminal capabilities than the BSD program. Eric Raymond used that
- <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program (and other parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM>) in ncurses in June 1995.
- Using the portions dealing with terminal capabilities almost without
- change, Raymond made improvements to the way the command-line
+ This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> began from a different source than AT&T or
+ BSD: Ross Ridge's <EM>mytinfo</EM> package, published on <EM>comp.sources.unix</EM> in
+ December 1992. Ridge's program made more sophisticated use of the
+ terminal capabilities than the BSD program. Eric Raymond used that
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program (and other parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM>) in ncurses in June 1995.
+ Using the portions dealing with terminal capabilities almost without
+ change, Raymond made improvements to the way the command-line
parameters were handled.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
- This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differs from AT&T <STRONG>tput</STRONG> in two important
+ This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differs from AT&T <STRONG>tput</STRONG> in two important
areas:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <EM>capname</EM> writes to the standard output. That need not be a
- regular terminal. However, the subcommands which manipulate
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <EM>capname</EM> writes to the standard output. That need not be a
+ regular terminal. However, the subcommands which manipulate
terminal modes may not use the standard output.
- The AT&T implementation's <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> commands use the BSD
- (4.1c) <STRONG>tset</STRONG> source, which manipulates terminal modes. It
- successively tries standard output, standard error, standard input
+ The AT&T implementation's <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> commands use the BSD
+ (4.1c) <STRONG>tset</STRONG> source, which manipulates terminal modes. It
+ successively tries standard output, standard error, standard input
before falling back to "/dev/tty" and finally just assumes a 1200Bd
terminal. When updating terminal modes, it ignores errors.
- Until changes made after ncurses 6.0, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify terminal
+ Until changes made after ncurses 6.0, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify terminal
modes. <STRONG>tput</STRONG> now uses a similar scheme, using functions shared with
- <STRONG>tset</STRONG> (and ultimately based on the 4.4BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG>). If it is not able
+ <STRONG>tset</STRONG> (and ultimately based on the 4.4BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG>). If it is not able
to open a terminal, e.g., when running in <STRONG>cron(1)</STRONG>, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> will return
an error.
of the characters are numeric, or not.
Most implementations which provide support for <EM>capname</EM> operands use
- the <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> function to expand parameters in it. That function
- expects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring <STRONG>tput</STRONG>
+ the <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> function to expand parameters in it. That function
+ expects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring <STRONG>tput</STRONG>
to know which type to use.
- This implementation uses a table to determine the parameter types
+ This implementation uses a table to determine the parameter types
for the standard <EM>capname</EM> operands, and an internal library function
to analyze nonstandard <EM>capname</EM> operands.
- Besides providing more reliable operation than AT&T's utility, a
- portability problem is introduced by this analysis: An OpenBSD
- developer adapted the internal library function from ncurses to
- port NetBSD's termcap-based <STRONG>tput</STRONG> to terminfo. That had been
- modified to interpret multiple commands on a line. Portable
+ Besides providing more reliable operation than AT&T's utility, a
+ portability problem is introduced by this analysis: An OpenBSD
+ developer adapted the internal library function from ncurses to
+ port NetBSD's termcap-based <STRONG>tput</STRONG> to terminfo. That had been
+ modified to interpret multiple commands on a line. Portable
applications should not rely upon this feature; ncurses provides it
to support applications written specifically for OpenBSD.
This implementation (unlike others) can accept both <EM>termcap</EM> and
- <EM>terminfo</EM> names for the <EM>capname</EM> feature, if <EM>termcap</EM> support is compiled
- in. However, the predefined <EM>termcap</EM> and <EM>terminfo</EM> names have two
+ <EM>terminfo</EM> names for the <EM>capname</EM> feature, if <EM>termcap</EM> support is compiled
+ in. However, the predefined <EM>termcap</EM> and <EM>terminfo</EM> names have two
ambiguities in this case (and the <EM>terminfo</EM> name is assumed):
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl1</STRONG> (delete
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl1</STRONG> (delete
one line).
- The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>DL</STRONG> (delete a
+ The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>DL</STRONG> (delete a
given number of lines).
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>rmdc</STRONG> (end
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>rmdc</STRONG> (end
delete mode).
- The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>cd</STRONG> (clear to
+ The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>cd</STRONG> (clear to
end of screen).
- The <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>-S</STRONG> options, and the parameter-substitution features
- used in the <STRONG>cup</STRONG> example, were not supported in BSD curses before
+ The <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>-S</STRONG> options, and the parameter-substitution features
+ used in the <STRONG>cup</STRONG> example, were not supported in BSD curses before
4.3reno (1989) or in AT&T/USL curses before SVr4 (1988).
- IEEE Std 1003.1/The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7
- (POSIX.1-2008) documents only the operands for <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>.
+ IEEE Std 1003.1/The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7
+ (POSIX.1-2008) documents only the operands for <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>.
There are a few interesting observations to make regarding that:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> In this implementation, <STRONG>clear</STRONG> is part of the <EM>capname</EM> support. The
- others (<STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>) do not correspond to terminal
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> In this implementation, <STRONG>clear</STRONG> is part of the <EM>capname</EM> support. The
+ others (<STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>) do not correspond to terminal
capabilities.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> Other implementations of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> on SVr4-based systems such as
- Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUX as well as others such as AIX and Tru64
+ Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUX as well as others such as AIX and Tru64
provide support for <EM>capname</EM> operands.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize termcap names rather than
terminfo capability names in their respective <STRONG>tput</STRONG> commands. Since
- 2010, NetBSD's <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses terminfo names. Before that, it (like
+ 2010, NetBSD's <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses terminfo names. Before that, it (like
FreeBSD) recognized termcap names.
- Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses the ncurses <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, configured for
+ Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses the ncurses <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, configured for
both terminfo (tested first) and termcap (as a fallback).
Because (apparently) <EM>all</EM> of the certified Unix systems support the full
- set of capability names, the reasoning for documenting only a few may
+ set of capability names, the reasoning for documenting only a few may
not be apparent.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differently, with <EM>capname</EM> and
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differently, with <EM>capname</EM> and
the other features used in this implementation.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> That is, there are two standards for <STRONG>tput</STRONG>: POSIX (a subset) and
- X/Open Curses (the full implementation). POSIX documents a subset
- to avoid the complication of including X/Open Curses and the
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> That is, there are two standards for <STRONG>tput</STRONG>: POSIX (a subset) and
+ X/Open Curses (the full implementation). POSIX documents a subset
+ to avoid the complication of including X/Open Curses and the
terminal capabilities database.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> While it is certainly possible to write a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program without
- using curses, none of the systems which have a curses
- implementation provide a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utility which does not provide the
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> While it is certainly possible to write a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program without
+ using curses, none of the systems which have a curses
+ implementation provide a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utility which does not provide the
<EM>capname</EM> feature.
X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) is the first version to document
utilities. However that part of X/Open Curses does not follow existing
practice (i.e., Unix features documented in SVID 3):
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit code 4 to "invalid operand", which may be the same
- as <EM>unknown</EM> <EM>capability</EM>. For instance, the source code for Solaris'
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit code 4 to "invalid operand", which may be the same
+ as <EM>unknown</EM> <EM>capability</EM>. For instance, the source code for Solaris'
xcurses uses the term "invalid" in this case.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit code 255 to a numeric variable that is not
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit code 255 to a numeric variable that is not
specified in the terminfo database. That likely is a documentation
- error, confusing the <STRONG>-1</STRONG> written to the standard output for an
+ error, confusing the <STRONG>-1</STRONG> written to the standard output for an
absent or cancelled numeric value versus an (unsigned) exit code.
- The various Unix systems (AIX, HPUX, Solaris) use the same exit-codes
+ The various Unix systems (AIX, HPUX, Solaris) use the same exit-codes
as ncurses.
NetBSD curses documents different exit codes which do not correspond to
-ncurses 6.4 2023-10-
07 <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
+ncurses 6.4 2023-10-
14 <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
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