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<H1 class="no-header">tput 1</H1>
<PRE>
-<STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
+<STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG> General Commands Manual <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
-</PRE>
-<H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> - initialize a terminal or query terminfo
- database
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> - initialize a terminal or query terminfo database
-</PRE>
-<H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] <EM>capname</EM> [<EM>parms</EM> ... ]
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] <EM>capname</EM> [<EM>parameters</EM>]
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] [<STRONG>-x</STRONG>] <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] <STRONG>init</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] <STRONG>reset</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-V</STRONG>
-</PRE>
-<H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
- The <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utility uses the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database to make the
- values of terminal-dependent capabilities and information
- available to the shell (see <STRONG>sh(1)</STRONG>), to initialize or reset
- the terminal, or return the long name of the requested
- terminal type. The result depends upon the capability's
- type:
-
- string
- <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the string to the standard output.
- No trailing newline is supplied.
-
- integer
- <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the decimal value to the standard
- output, with a trailing newline.
-
- boolean
- <STRONG>tput</STRONG> simply sets the exit code (<STRONG>0</STRONG> for TRUE if
- the terminal has the capability, <STRONG>1</STRONG> for FALSE
- if it does not), and writes nothing to the
- standard output.
-
- Before using a value returned on the standard output, the
- application should test the exit code (e.g., <STRONG>$?</STRONG>, see
- <STRONG>sh(1)</STRONG>) to be sure it is <STRONG>0</STRONG>. (See the <STRONG>EXIT</STRONG> <STRONG>CODES</STRONG> and <STRONG>DIAG-</STRONG>
- <STRONG>NOSTICS</STRONG> sections.) For a complete list of capabilities
- and the <EM>capname</EM> associated with each, see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
-
- <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM> indicates the <EM>type</EM> of terminal. Normally this
- option is unnecessary, because the default is taken
- from the environment variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>. If <STRONG>-T</STRONG> is spec-
- ified, then the shell variables <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> and <STRONG>COLUMNS</STRONG>
- will also be ignored.
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
+ The <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utility uses the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database to make the values of ter-
+ minal-dependent capabilities and information available to the shell
+ (see <STRONG>sh(1)</STRONG>), to initialize or reset the terminal, or return the long
+ name of the requested terminal type. The result depends upon the capa-
+ bility's type:
+
+ string
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the string to the standard output. No trailing
+ newline is supplied.
+
+ integer
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the decimal value to the standard output, with a
+ trailing newline.
+
+ boolean
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> simply sets the exit code (<STRONG>0</STRONG> for TRUE if the terminal has
+ the capability, <STRONG>1</STRONG> for FALSE if it does not), and writes nothing
+ to the standard output.
+
+ Before using a value returned on the standard output, the application
+ should test the exit code (e.g., <STRONG>$?</STRONG>, see <STRONG>sh(1)</STRONG>) to be sure it is <STRONG>0</STRONG>.
+ (See the <STRONG>EXIT</STRONG> <STRONG>CODES</STRONG> and <STRONG>DIAGNOSTICS</STRONG> sections.) For a complete list of
+ capabilities and the <EM>capname</EM> associated with each, see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
+
+
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Options">Options</a></H3><PRE>
+ <STRONG>-S</STRONG> allows more than one capability per invocation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG>. The
+ capabilities must be passed to <STRONG>tput</STRONG> from the standard input
+ instead of from the command line (see example). Only one <EM>cap-</EM>
+ <EM>name</EM> is allowed per line. The <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option changes the meaning of
+ the <STRONG>0</STRONG> and <STRONG>1</STRONG> boolean and string exit codes (see the EXIT CODES
+ section).
+
+ Because some capabilities may use <EM>string</EM> parameters rather than
+ <EM>numbers</EM>, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a table and the presence of parameters in its
+ input to decide whether to use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG>, and how to interpret
+ the parameters.
+
+ <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM> indicates the <EM>type</EM> of terminal. Normally this option is unnec-
+ essary, because the default is taken from the environment vari-
+ able <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>. If <STRONG>-T</STRONG> is specified, then the shell variables <STRONG>LINES</STRONG>
+ and <STRONG>COLUMNS</STRONG> will also be ignored.
+
+ <STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program,
+ and exits.
+
+ <STRONG>-x</STRONG> do not attempt to clear the terminal's scrollback buffer using
+ the extended "E3" capability.
+
+
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Commands">Commands</a></H3><PRE>
+ A few commands (<STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>) are special; they are defined
+ by the <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program. The others are the names of <EM>capabilities</EM> from the
+ terminal database (see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for a list). Although <STRONG>init</STRONG> and
+ <STRONG>reset</STRONG> resemble capability names, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses several capabilities to per-
+ form these special functions.
<EM>capname</EM>
- indicates the capability from the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> data-
- base. When <STRONG>termcap</STRONG> support is compiled in, the
- <STRONG>termcap</STRONG> name for the capability is also accepted.
+ indicates the capability from the terminal database.
- <EM>parms</EM> If the capability is a string that takes parame-
- ters, the arguments <EM>parms</EM> will be instantiated into
+ If the capability is a string that takes parameters, the argu-
+ ments following the capability will be used as parameters for
the string.
- Most parameters are numbers. Only a few terminfo
- capabilities require string parameters; <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a
- table to decide which to pass as strings. Normally
- <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> (3x) to perform the substitution.
- If no parameters are given for the capability, <STRONG>tput</STRONG>
- writes the string without performing the substitu-
- tion.
-
- <STRONG>-S</STRONG> allows more than one capability per invocation of
- <STRONG>tput</STRONG>. The capabilities must be passed to <STRONG>tput</STRONG> from
- the standard input instead of from the command line
- (see example). Only one <EM>capname</EM> is allowed per
- line. The <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option changes the meaning of the <STRONG>0</STRONG>
- and <STRONG>1</STRONG> boolean and string exit codes (see the EXIT
- CODES section).
-
- Again, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a table and the presence of param-
- eters in its input to decide whether to use <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>
- (3x), and how to interpret the parameters.
-
- <STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of ncurses which was used in
- this program, and exits.
-
- <STRONG>init</STRONG> If the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database is present and an entry
- for the user's terminal exists (see <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>, above),
- the following will occur:
-
- (1) if present, the terminal's initialization
- strings will be output as detailed in the
- <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> section on <EM>Tabs</EM> <EM>and</EM> <EM>Initializa-</EM>
- <EM>tion</EM>,
-
- (2) any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the
- entry will be set in the tty driver,
-
- (3) tabs expansion will be turned on or off
- according to the specification in the entry,
- and
-
- (4) if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs will
- be set (every 8 spaces).
-
- If an entry does not contain the information needed
- for any of the four above activities, that activity
- will silently be skipped.
-
- <STRONG>reset</STRONG> Instead of putting out initialization strings, the
- terminal's reset strings will be output if present
- (<STRONG>rs1</STRONG>, <STRONG>rs2</STRONG>, <STRONG>rs3</STRONG>, <STRONG>rf</STRONG>). If the reset strings are not
- present, but initialization strings are, the ini-
- tialization strings will be output. Otherwise,
- <STRONG>reset</STRONG> acts identically to <STRONG>init</STRONG>.
+ Most parameters are numbers. Only a few terminal capabilities
+ require string parameters; <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a table to decide which to
+ pass as strings. Normally <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> to perform the
+ substitution. If no parameters are given for the capability,
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the string without performing the substitution.
+
+ <STRONG>init</STRONG> If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
+ terminal exists (see <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>, above), the following will occur:
+
+ (1) first, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> retrieves the current terminal mode settings
+ for your terminal. It does this by successively testing
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> the standard error,
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> standard output,
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> standard input and
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> ultimately "/dev/tty"
+
+ to obtain terminal settings. Having retrieved these set-
+ tings, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> remembers which file descriptor to use when
+ updating settings.
+
+ (2) if the window size cannot be obtained from the operating
+ system, but the terminal description (or environment, e.g.,
+ <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> and <STRONG>COLUMNS</STRONG> variables specify this), update the oper-
+ ating system's notion of the window size.
+
+ (3) the terminal modes will be updated:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry will
+ be set in the tty driver,
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> tabs expansion will be turned on or off according to
+ the specification in the entry, and
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs will be set
+ (every 8 spaces).
+
+ (4) if present, the terminal's initialization strings will be
+ output as detailed in the <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> section on <EM>Tabs</EM> <EM>and</EM>
+ <EM>Initialization</EM>,
+
+ (5) output is flushed.
+
+ If an entry does not contain the information needed for any of
+ these activities, that activity will silently be skipped.
+
+ <STRONG>reset</STRONG> This is similar to <STRONG>init</STRONG>, with two differences:
+
+ (1) before any other initialization, the terminal modes will be
+ reset to a "sane" state:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> set cooked and echo modes,
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> turn off cbreak and raw modes,
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> turn on newline translation and
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> reset any unset special characters to their default
+ values
+
+ (2) Instead of putting out <EM>initialization</EM> strings, the termi-
+ nal's <EM>reset</EM> strings will be output if present (<STRONG>rs1</STRONG>, <STRONG>rs2</STRONG>,
+ <STRONG>rs3</STRONG>, <STRONG>rf</STRONG>). If the <EM>reset</EM> strings are not present, but <EM>ini-</EM>
+ <EM>tialization</EM> strings are, the <EM>initialization</EM> strings will be
+ output.
+
+ Otherwise, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> acts identically to <STRONG>init</STRONG>.
<STRONG>longname</STRONG>
- If the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database is present and an entry
- for the user's terminal exists (see <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM> above),
- then the long name of the terminal will be put out.
- The long name is the last name in the first line of
- the terminal's description in the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database
- [see <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>].
+ If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
+ terminal exists (see <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM> above), then the long name of the
+ terminal will be put out. The long name is the last name in the
+ first line of the terminal's description in the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> data-
+ base [see <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>].
- If <STRONG>tput</STRONG> is invoked by a link named <STRONG>reset</STRONG>, this has the
- same effect as <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>reset</STRONG>. See <STRONG>tset</STRONG> for comparison, which
- has similar behavior.
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></H3><PRE>
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> handles the <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> commands specially: it allows
+ for the possibility that it is invoked by a link with those names.
-</PRE>
-<H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></H2><PRE>
+ If <STRONG>tput</STRONG> is invoked by a link named <STRONG>reset</STRONG>, this has the same effect as
+ <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> spe-
+ cially.
+
+ Before ncurses 6.1, the two utilities were different from each other:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tset</STRONG> utility reset the terminal modes and special characters (not
+ done with <STRONG>tput</STRONG>).
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> On the other hand, <STRONG>tset</STRONG>'s repertoire of terminal capabilities for
+ resetting the terminal was more limited, i.e., only <STRONG>reset_1string</STRONG>,
+ <STRONG>reset_2string</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset_file</STRONG> in contrast to the tab-stops and mar-
+ gins which are set by this utility.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <STRONG>reset</STRONG> program is usually an alias for <STRONG>tset</STRONG>, because of this
+ difference with resetting terminal modes and special characters.
+
+ With the changes made for ncurses 6.1, the <EM>reset</EM> feature of the two
+ programs is (mostly) the same. A few differences remain:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <STRONG>tset</STRONG> program waits one second when resetting, in case it hap-
+ pens to be a hardware terminal.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to dif-
+ ferent streams (i.e., the standard error for <STRONG>tset</STRONG> and the standard
+ output for <STRONG>tput</STRONG>).
+
+ <STRONG>Note:</STRONG> although these programs write to different streams, redirect-
+ ing their output to a file will capture only part of their actions.
+ The changes to the terminal modes are not affected by redirecting
+ the output.
+
+ If <STRONG>tput</STRONG> is invoked by a link named <STRONG>init</STRONG>, this has the same effect as
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>init</STRONG>. Again, you are less likely to use that link because another
+ program named <STRONG>init</STRONG> has a more well-established use.
+
+
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Terminal-Size">Terminal Size</a></H3><PRE>
+ Besides the special commands (e.g., <STRONG>clear</STRONG>), tput treats certain ter-
+ minfo capabilities specially: <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>columns</STRONG>. tput calls
+ <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG> to obtain the terminal size:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> first, it gets the size from the terminal database (which generally
+ is not provided for terminal emulators which do not have a fixed
+ window size)
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> then it asks the operating system for the terminal's size (which
+ generally works, unless connecting via a serial line which does not
+ support <EM>NAWS</EM>: negotiations about window size).
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> finally, it inspects the environment variables <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> and <STRONG>COLUMNS</STRONG>
+ which may override the terminal size.
+
+ If the <STRONG>-T</STRONG> option is given tput ignores the environment variables by
+ calling <STRONG>use_tioctl(TRUE)</STRONG>, relying upon the operating system (or
+ finally, the terminal database).
+
+
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>init</STRONG>
- Initialize the terminal according to the type of ter-
- minal in the environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>. This com-
- mand should be included in everyone's .profile after
- the environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> has been exported, as
- illustrated on the <STRONG>profile(5)</STRONG> manual page.
+ Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the
+ environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>. This command should be included in
+ everyone's .profile after the environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> has been
+ exported, as illustrated on the <STRONG>profile(5)</STRONG> manual page.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T5620</STRONG> <STRONG>reset</STRONG>
- Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type of
- terminal in the environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>.
+ Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in
+ the environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>0</STRONG> <STRONG>0</STRONG>
- Send the sequence to move the cursor to row <STRONG>0</STRONG>, column
- <STRONG>0</STRONG> (the upper left corner of the screen, usually known
- as the "home" cursor position).
+ Send the sequence to move the cursor to row <STRONG>0</STRONG>, column <STRONG>0</STRONG> (the upper
+ left corner of the screen, usually known as the "home" cursor
+ position).
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
- Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current termi-
- nal.
+ Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cols</STRONG>
Print the number of columns for the current terminal.
Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.
<STRONG>bold=`tput</STRONG> <STRONG>smso`</STRONG> <STRONG>offbold=`tput</STRONG> <STRONG>rmso`</STRONG>
- Set the shell variables <STRONG>bold</STRONG>, to begin stand-out mode
- sequence, and <STRONG>offbold</STRONG>, to end standout mode sequence,
- for the current terminal. This might be followed by
- a prompt: <STRONG>echo</STRONG> <STRONG>"${bold}Please</STRONG> <STRONG>type</STRONG> <STRONG>in</STRONG> <STRONG>your</STRONG> <STRONG>name:</STRONG>
- <STRONG>${offbold}\c"</STRONG>
+ Set the shell variables <STRONG>bold</STRONG>, to begin stand-out mode sequence,
+ and <STRONG>offbold</STRONG>, to end standout mode sequence, for the current termi-
+ nal. This might be followed by a prompt: <STRONG>echo</STRONG> <STRONG>"${bold}Please</STRONG> <STRONG>type</STRONG>
+ <STRONG>in</STRONG> <STRONG>your</STRONG> <STRONG>name:</STRONG> <STRONG>${offbold}\c"</STRONG>
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>hc</STRONG>
- Set exit code to indicate if the current terminal is
- a hard copy terminal.
+ Set exit code to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy
+ terminal.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>23</STRONG> <STRONG>4</STRONG>
- Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, col-
- umn 4.
+ Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG>
- Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with no
- parameters substituted.
+ Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with no parameters
+ substituted.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
- Print the long name from the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database for
- the type of terminal specified in the environmental
- variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>.
+ Print the long name from the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database for the type of
+ terminal specified in the environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>.
<STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG> <STRONG><<!</STRONG>
<STRONG>></STRONG> <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
<STRONG>></STRONG> <STRONG>bold</STRONG>
<STRONG>></STRONG> <STRONG>!</STRONG>
- This example shows <STRONG>tput</STRONG> processing several capabili-
- ties in one invocation. It clears the screen, moves
- the cursor to position 10, 10 and turns on bold
- (extra bright) mode. The list is terminated by an
- exclamation mark (<STRONG>!</STRONG>) on a line by itself.
+ This example shows <STRONG>tput</STRONG> processing several capabilities in one
+ invocation. It clears the screen, moves the cursor to position
+ 10, 10 and turns on bold (extra bright) mode. The list is termi-
+ nated by an exclamation mark (<STRONG>!</STRONG>) on a line by itself.
-</PRE>
-<H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>
compiled terminal description database
<STRONG>/usr/share/tabset/*</STRONG>
- tab settings for some terminals, in a format appro-
- priate to be output to the terminal (escape
- sequences that set margins and tabs); for more
- information, see the "Tabs and Initialization" sec-
- tion of <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></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>
-</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 <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 this ter-
- minal <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 ter-
- minal <EM>type</EM>, the user must test the value writ-
- ten 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 respec-
- tive files. In that case, the exit code is
- set to 4 + <STRONG>errno</STRONG>.
-
- Any other exit code indicates an error; see the DIAGNOS-
- TICS section.
+</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 <EM>cap-</EM>
+ <EM>name</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 termi-
+ nal <EM>type</EM> (the value of <EM>capname</EM> is returned on standard out-
+ put); 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
+ 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
+ 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 cor-
- responding exit codes.
+
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></H2><PRE>
+ <STRONG>tput</STRONG> prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
+ exit codes.
exit code error message
---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-</PRE>
-<H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
- The <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>-S</STRONG> options, and the parameter-substitu-
- tion features used in the <STRONG>cup</STRONG> example, are not supported
- in BSD curses or in AT&T/USL curses before SVr4.
-
- X/Open documents only the operands for <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG> and
- <STRONG>reset</STRONG>. In this implementation, <STRONG>clear</STRONG> is part of the <EM>cap-</EM>
- <EM>name</EM> support. 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 provide support for <EM>capname</EM> oper-
- ands.
-
- A few platforms such as FreeBSD and NetBSD recognize term-
- cap names rather than terminfo capability names in their
- respective <STRONG>tput</STRONG> commands.
-
- Most implementations which provide support for <EM>capname</EM> op-
- erands use the <EM>tparm</EM> 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 that for the
- standard <EM>capname</EM> operands, and an internal library func-
- tion to analyze nonstandard <EM>capname</EM> operands. Other
- implementations may simply guess that an operand contain-
- ing only digits is intended to be a number.
+</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
+ only cleared the screen.
+
+ AT&T System V provided a different <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command, 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 Allman.
+
+ Keith Bostic replaced the BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command in 1989 with a new implemen-
+ tation 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> <EM>capabili-</EM>
+ <EM>ties</EM> (<STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>). However (because he had only
+ termcap available), it accepted <EM>termcap</EM> <EM>names</EM> 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 implementa-
+ tion 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 ter-
+ minal 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
+ 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 termi-
+ nal 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 succes-
+ sively tries standard output, standard error, standard input before
+ falling back to "/dev/tty" and finally just assumes a 1200Bd termi-
+ nal. When updating terminal modes, it ignores errors.
-</PRE>
-<H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
- <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="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>.
+ 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
+ to open a terminal, e.g., when running in <STRONG>cron</STRONG>, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> will return an
+ error.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> AT&T <STRONG>tput</STRONG> guesses the type of its <EM>capname</EM> operands by seeing if all
+ of the characters are numeric, or not.
+
+ Most implementations which provide support for <EM>capname</EM> operands use
+ the <EM>tparm</EM> 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 describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.0 (patch 20150919).
+ 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.
+ This implementation (unlike others) can accept both <EM>termcap</EM> and <EM>ter-</EM>
+ <EM>minfo</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
+ one line).
+ 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><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
+ <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
+ 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
+ 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>.
+ 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 capabili-
+ ties.
+
+ <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
+ 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
+ FreeBSD) recognized termcap names.
+
+ 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
+ not be apparent.
+
+ <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 termi-
+ nal 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 implementa-
+ tion provide a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utility which does not provide the <EM>capname</EM> fea-
+ ture.
+
+ X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) is the first version to document utili-
+ ties. 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'
+ xcurses uses the term "invalid" in this case.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit code 255 to a numeric variable that is not speci-
+ fied in the terminfo database. That likely is a documentation
+ 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
+ as ncurses.
+
+ NetBSD curses documents different exit codes which do not correspond to
+ either ncurses or X/Open.
+
+
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
+ <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="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>.
+
+ This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.2 (patch 20200212).
+
+
+
+ <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
<div class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
-<li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#h3-Options">Options</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h3-Commands">Commands</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h3-Terminal-Size">Terminal Size</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
<li><a href="#h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-EXIT-CODES">EXIT CODES</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
</ul>