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43 <H1 class="no-header">tput 1</H1>
45 <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG> General Commands Manual <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
50 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
51 <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> - initialize a terminal or query terminfo database
54 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
55 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] <EM>capname</EM> [<EM>parameters</EM>]
56 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] [<STRONG>-x</STRONG>] <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
57 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] <STRONG>init</STRONG>
58 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] <STRONG>reset</STRONG>
59 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> [<STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>] <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
60 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG> <STRONG><<</STRONG>
61 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-V</STRONG>
64 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
65 The <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utility uses the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database to make the values of
66 terminal-dependent capabilities and information available to the shell
67 (see <STRONG>sh(1)</STRONG>), to initialize or reset the terminal, or return the long
68 name of the requested terminal type. The result depends upon the
72 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the string to the standard output. No trailing
76 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the decimal value to the standard output, with a
80 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> simply sets the exit code (<STRONG>0</STRONG> for TRUE if the terminal has
81 the capability, <STRONG>1</STRONG> for FALSE if it does not), and writes nothing
82 to the standard output.
84 Before using a value returned on the standard output, the application
85 should test the exit code (e.g., <STRONG>$?</STRONG>, see <STRONG>sh(1)</STRONG>) to be sure it is <STRONG>0</STRONG>.
86 (See the <STRONG>EXIT</STRONG> <STRONG>CODES</STRONG> and <STRONG>DIAGNOSTICS</STRONG> sections.) For a complete list of
87 capabilities and the <EM>capname</EM> associated with each, see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
90 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Options">Options</a></H3><PRE>
91 <STRONG>-S</STRONG> allows more than one capability per invocation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG>. The
92 capabilities must be passed to <STRONG>tput</STRONG> from the standard input
93 instead of from the command line (see example). Only one
94 <EM>capname</EM> is allowed per line. The <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option changes the meaning
95 of the <STRONG>0</STRONG> and <STRONG>1</STRONG> boolean and string exit codes (see the EXIT CODES
98 Because some capabilities may use <EM>string</EM> parameters rather than
99 <EM>numbers</EM>, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a table and the presence of parameters in its
100 input to decide whether to use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG>, and how to interpret
103 <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM> indicates the <EM>type</EM> of terminal. Normally this option is
104 unnecessary, because the default is taken from the environment
105 variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>. If <STRONG>-T</STRONG> is specified, then the shell variables
106 <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> and <STRONG>COLUMNS</STRONG> will also be ignored.
108 <STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program,
111 <STRONG>-x</STRONG> do not attempt to clear the terminal's scrollback buffer using
112 the extended "E3" capability.
115 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Commands">Commands</a></H3><PRE>
116 A few commands (<STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>) are special; they are defined
117 by the <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program. The others are the names of <EM>capabilities</EM> from the
118 terminal database (see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for a list). Although <STRONG>init</STRONG> and
119 <STRONG>reset</STRONG> resemble capability names, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses several capabilities to
120 perform these special functions.
123 indicates the capability from the terminal database.
125 If the capability is a string that takes parameters, the
126 arguments following the capability will be used as parameters
129 Most parameters are numbers. Only a few terminal capabilities
130 require string parameters; <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses a table to decide which to
131 pass as strings. Normally <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> to perform the
132 substitution. If no parameters are given for the capability,
133 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> writes the string without performing the substitution.
135 <STRONG>init</STRONG> If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
136 terminal exists (see <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM>, above), the following will occur:
138 (1) first, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> retrieves the current terminal mode settings
139 for your terminal. It does this by successively testing
141 <STRONG>o</STRONG> the standard error,
143 <STRONG>o</STRONG> standard output,
145 <STRONG>o</STRONG> standard input and
147 <STRONG>o</STRONG> ultimately "/dev/tty"
149 to obtain terminal settings. Having retrieved these
150 settings, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> remembers which file descriptor to use when
153 (2) if the window size cannot be obtained from the operating
154 system, but the terminal description (or environment, e.g.,
155 <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> and <STRONG>COLUMNS</STRONG> variables specify this), update the
156 operating system's notion of the window size.
158 (3) the terminal modes will be updated:
160 <STRONG>o</STRONG> any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry will
161 be set in the tty driver,
163 <STRONG>o</STRONG> tabs expansion will be turned on or off according to
164 the specification in the entry, and
166 <STRONG>o</STRONG> if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs will be set
169 (4) if present, the terminal's initialization strings will be
170 output as detailed in the <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> section on <EM>Tabs</EM> <EM>and</EM>
171 <EM>Initialization</EM>,
173 (5) output is flushed.
175 If an entry does not contain the information needed for any of
176 these activities, that activity will silently be skipped.
178 <STRONG>reset</STRONG> This is similar to <STRONG>init</STRONG>, with two differences:
180 (1) before any other initialization, the terminal modes will be
181 reset to a "sane" state:
183 <STRONG>o</STRONG> set cooked and echo modes,
185 <STRONG>o</STRONG> turn off cbreak and raw modes,
187 <STRONG>o</STRONG> turn on newline translation and
189 <STRONG>o</STRONG> reset any unset special characters to their default
192 (2) Instead of putting out <EM>initialization</EM> strings, the
193 terminal's <EM>reset</EM> strings will be output if present (<STRONG>rs1</STRONG>,
194 <STRONG>rs2</STRONG>, <STRONG>rs3</STRONG>, <STRONG>rf</STRONG>). If the <EM>reset</EM> strings are not present, but
195 <EM>initialization</EM> strings are, the <EM>initialization</EM> strings will
198 Otherwise, <STRONG>reset</STRONG> acts identically to <STRONG>init</STRONG>.
200 <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
201 If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
202 terminal exists (see <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>type</EM> above), then the long name of the
203 terminal will be put out. The long name is the last name in the
204 first line of the terminal's description in the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG>
205 database [see <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>].
208 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></H3><PRE>
209 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> handles the <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> commands specially: it allows
210 for the possibility that it is invoked by a link with those names.
212 If <STRONG>tput</STRONG> is invoked by a link named <STRONG>reset</STRONG>, this has the same effect as
213 <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>
216 Before ncurses 6.1, the two utilities were different from each other:
218 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tset</STRONG> utility reset the terminal modes and special characters (not
219 done with <STRONG>tput</STRONG>).
221 <STRONG>o</STRONG> On the other hand, <STRONG>tset</STRONG>'s repertoire of terminal capabilities for
222 resetting the terminal was more limited, i.e., only <STRONG>reset_1string</STRONG>,
223 <STRONG>reset_2string</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset_file</STRONG> in contrast to the tab-stops and
224 margins which are set by this utility.
226 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <STRONG>reset</STRONG> program is usually an alias for <STRONG>tset</STRONG>, because of this
227 difference with resetting terminal modes and special characters.
229 With the changes made for ncurses 6.1, the <EM>reset</EM> feature of the two
230 programs is (mostly) the same. A few differences remain:
232 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <STRONG>tset</STRONG> program waits one second when resetting, in case it
233 happens to be a hardware terminal.
235 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to
236 different streams (i.e., the standard error for <STRONG>tset</STRONG> and the
237 standard output for <STRONG>tput</STRONG>).
239 <STRONG>Note:</STRONG> although these programs write to different streams,
240 redirecting their output to a file will capture only part of their
241 actions. The changes to the terminal modes are not affected by
242 redirecting the output.
244 If <STRONG>tput</STRONG> is invoked by a link named <STRONG>init</STRONG>, this has the same effect as
245 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>init</STRONG>. Again, you are less likely to use that link because another
246 program named <STRONG>init</STRONG> has a more well-established use.
249 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Terminal-Size">Terminal Size</a></H3><PRE>
250 Besides the special commands (e.g., <STRONG>clear</STRONG>), tput treats certain
251 terminfo capabilities specially: <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>cols</STRONG>. tput calls
252 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG> to obtain the terminal size:
254 <STRONG>o</STRONG> first, it gets the size from the terminal database (which generally
255 is not provided for terminal emulators which do not have a fixed
258 <STRONG>o</STRONG> then it asks the operating system for the terminal's size (which
259 generally works, unless connecting via a serial line which does not
260 support <EM>NAWS</EM>: negotiations about window size).
262 <STRONG>o</STRONG> finally, it inspects the environment variables <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> and <STRONG>COLUMNS</STRONG>
263 which may override the terminal size.
265 If the <STRONG>-T</STRONG> option is given tput ignores the environment variables by
266 calling <STRONG>use_tioctl(TRUE)</STRONG>, relying upon the operating system (or
267 finally, the terminal database).
270 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></H2><PRE>
271 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>init</STRONG>
272 Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the
273 environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>. This command should be included in
274 everyone's .profile after the environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> has been
275 exported, as illustrated on the <STRONG>profile(5)</STRONG> manual page.
277 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T5620</STRONG> <STRONG>reset</STRONG>
278 Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in
279 the environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>.
281 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>0</STRONG> <STRONG>0</STRONG>
282 Send the sequence to move the cursor to row <STRONG>0</STRONG>, column <STRONG>0</STRONG> (the upper
283 left corner of the screen, usually known as the "home" cursor
286 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
287 Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.
289 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cols</STRONG>
290 Print the number of columns for the current terminal.
292 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T450</STRONG> <STRONG>cols</STRONG>
293 Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.
295 <STRONG>bold=`tput</STRONG> <STRONG>smso`</STRONG> <STRONG>offbold=`tput</STRONG> <STRONG>rmso`</STRONG>
296 Set the shell variables <STRONG>bold</STRONG>, to begin stand-out mode sequence,
297 and <STRONG>offbold</STRONG>, to end standout mode sequence, for the current
298 terminal. This might be followed by a prompt: <STRONG>echo</STRONG> <STRONG>"${bold}Please</STRONG>
299 <STRONG>type</STRONG> <STRONG>in</STRONG> <STRONG>your</STRONG> <STRONG>name:</STRONG> <STRONG>${offbold}\c"</STRONG>
301 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>hc</STRONG>
302 Set exit code to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy
305 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>23</STRONG> <STRONG>4</STRONG>
306 Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.
308 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG>
309 Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with no parameters
312 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>longname</STRONG>
313 Print the long name from the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database for the type of
314 terminal specified in the environmental variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>.
316 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-S</STRONG> <STRONG><<!</STRONG>
317 <STRONG>></STRONG> <STRONG>clear</STRONG>
318 <STRONG>></STRONG> <STRONG>cup</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG> <STRONG>10</STRONG>
319 <STRONG>></STRONG> <STRONG>bold</STRONG>
320 <STRONG>></STRONG> <STRONG>!</STRONG>
322 This example shows <STRONG>tput</STRONG> processing several capabilities in one
323 invocation. It clears the screen, moves the cursor to position
324 10, 10 and turns on bold (extra bright) mode. The list is
325 terminated by an exclamation mark (<STRONG>!</STRONG>) on a line by itself.
328 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
329 <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>
330 compiled terminal description database
332 <STRONG>/usr/share/tabset/*</STRONG>
333 tab settings for some terminals, in a format appropriate to be
334 output to the terminal (escape sequences that set margins and
335 tabs); for more information, see the <EM>Tabs</EM> <EM>and</EM> <EM>Initialization</EM>,
336 section of <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>
339 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXIT-CODES">EXIT CODES</a></H2><PRE>
340 If the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is used, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> checks for errors from each line, and if
341 any errors are found, will set the exit code to 4 plus the number of
342 lines with errors. If no errors are found, the exit code is <STRONG>0</STRONG>. No
343 indication of which line failed can be given so exit code <STRONG>1</STRONG> will never
344 appear. Exit codes <STRONG>2</STRONG>, <STRONG>3</STRONG>, and <STRONG>4</STRONG> retain their usual interpretation. If
345 the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is not used, the exit code depends on the type of
349 a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is set for TRUE and <STRONG>1</STRONG> for FALSE.
351 <EM>string</EM> a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is set if the <EM>capname</EM> is defined for this
352 terminal <EM>type</EM> (the value of <EM>capname</EM> is returned on standard
353 output); a value of <STRONG>1</STRONG> is set if <EM>capname</EM> is not defined for
354 this terminal <EM>type</EM> (nothing is written to standard output).
357 a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is always set, whether or not <EM>capname</EM> is defined
358 for this terminal <EM>type</EM>. To determine if <EM>capname</EM> is defined
359 for this terminal <EM>type</EM>, the user must test the value written
360 to standard output. A value of <STRONG>-1</STRONG> means that <EM>capname</EM> is not
361 defined for this terminal <EM>type</EM>.
363 <EM>other</EM> <STRONG>reset</STRONG> or <STRONG>init</STRONG> may fail to find their respective files. In
364 that case, the exit code is set to 4 + <STRONG>errno</STRONG>.
366 Any other exit code indicates an error; see the DIAGNOSTICS section.
369 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></H2><PRE>
370 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
373 exit code error message
374 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
375 <STRONG>0</STRONG> (<EM>capname</EM> is a numeric variable that is not specified in
376 the <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> database for this terminal type, e.g.
377 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T450</STRONG> <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-Thp2621</STRONG> <STRONG>xmc</STRONG>)
378 <STRONG>1</STRONG> no error message is printed, see the <STRONG>EXIT</STRONG> <STRONG>CODES</STRONG> section.
379 <STRONG>2</STRONG> usage error
380 <STRONG>3</STRONG> unknown terminal <EM>type</EM> or no <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database
381 <STRONG>4</STRONG> unknown <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> capability <EM>capname</EM>
382 <STRONG>>4</STRONG> error occurred in -S
383 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
386 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
387 The <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command was begun by Bill Joy in 1980. The initial version
388 only cleared the screen.
390 AT&T System V provided a different <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command:
392 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr2 provided a rudimentary <STRONG>tput</STRONG> which checked the parameter
393 against each predefined capability and returned the corresponding
394 value. This version of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> for the
395 capabilities which are parameterized.
397 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr3 replaced that, a year later, by a more extensive program whose
398 <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> subcommands (more than half the program) were
399 incorporated from the <STRONG>reset</STRONG> feature of BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG> written by Eric
402 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr4 added color initialization using the <STRONG>orig_colors</STRONG> and <STRONG>orig_pair</STRONG>
403 capabilities in the <STRONG>init</STRONG> subcommand.
405 Keith Bostic replaced the BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command in 1989 with a new
406 implementation based on the AT&T System V program <STRONG>tput</STRONG>. Like the AT&T
407 program, Bostic's version accepted some parameters named for <EM>terminfo</EM>
408 capabilities (<STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>). However (because he
409 had only <EM>termcap</EM> available), it accepted <EM>termcap</EM> names for other
410 capabilities. Also, Bostic's BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify the terminal I/O
411 modes as the earlier BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG> had done.
413 At the same time, Bostic added a shell script named "clear", which used
414 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> to clear the screen.
416 Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the "modern" BSD
417 implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG>.
419 This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> began from a different source than AT&T or
420 BSD: Ross Ridge's <EM>mytinfo</EM> package, published on <EM>comp.sources.unix</EM> in
421 December 1992. Ridge's program made more sophisticated use of the
422 terminal capabilities than the BSD program. Eric Raymond used that
423 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program (and other parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM>) in ncurses in June 1995.
424 Using the portions dealing with terminal capabilities almost without
425 change, Raymond made improvements to the way the command-line
426 parameters were handled.
429 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
430 This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differs from AT&T <STRONG>tput</STRONG> in two important
433 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <EM>capname</EM> writes to the standard output. That need not be a
434 regular terminal. However, the subcommands which manipulate
435 terminal modes may not use the standard output.
437 The AT&T implementation's <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> commands use the BSD
438 (4.1c) <STRONG>tset</STRONG> source, which manipulates terminal modes. It
439 successively tries standard output, standard error, standard input
440 before falling back to "/dev/tty" and finally just assumes a 1200Bd
441 terminal. When updating terminal modes, it ignores errors.
443 Until changes made after ncurses 6.0, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify terminal
444 modes. <STRONG>tput</STRONG> now uses a similar scheme, using functions shared with
445 <STRONG>tset</STRONG> (and ultimately based on the 4.4BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG>). If it is not able
446 to open a terminal, e.g., when running in <STRONG>cron(1)</STRONG>, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> will return
449 <STRONG>o</STRONG> AT&T <STRONG>tput</STRONG> guesses the type of its <EM>capname</EM> operands by seeing if all
450 of the characters are numeric, or not.
452 Most implementations which provide support for <EM>capname</EM> operands use
453 the <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> function to expand parameters in it. That function
454 expects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring <STRONG>tput</STRONG>
455 to know which type to use.
457 This implementation uses a table to determine the parameter types
458 for the standard <EM>capname</EM> operands, and an internal library function
459 to analyze nonstandard <EM>capname</EM> operands.
461 Besides providing more reliable operation than AT&T's utility, a
462 portability problem is introduced by this analysis: An OpenBSD
463 developer adapted the internal library function from ncurses to
464 port NetBSD's termcap-based <STRONG>tput</STRONG> to terminfo. That had been
465 modified to interpret multiple commands on a line. Portable
466 applications should not rely upon this feature; ncurses provides it
467 to support applications written specifically for OpenBSD.
469 This implementation (unlike others) can accept both <EM>termcap</EM> and
470 <EM>terminfo</EM> names for the <EM>capname</EM> feature, if <EM>termcap</EM> support is compiled
471 in. However, the predefined <EM>termcap</EM> and <EM>terminfo</EM> names have two
472 ambiguities in this case (and the <EM>terminfo</EM> name is assumed):
474 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl1</STRONG> (delete
476 The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>DL</STRONG> (delete a
477 given number of lines).
479 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>rmdc</STRONG> (end
481 The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>cd</STRONG> (clear to
484 The <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>-S</STRONG> options, and the parameter-substitution features
485 used in the <STRONG>cup</STRONG> example, were not supported in BSD curses before
486 4.3reno (1989) or in AT&T/USL curses before SVr4 (1988).
488 IEEE Std 1003.1/The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7
489 (POSIX.1-2008) documents only the operands for <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>.
490 There are a few interesting observations to make regarding that:
492 <STRONG>o</STRONG> In this implementation, <STRONG>clear</STRONG> is part of the <EM>capname</EM> support. The
493 others (<STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>) do not correspond to terminal
496 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Other implementations of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> on SVr4-based systems such as
497 Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUX as well as others such as AIX and Tru64
498 provide support for <EM>capname</EM> operands.
500 <STRONG>o</STRONG> A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize termcap names rather than
501 terminfo capability names in their respective <STRONG>tput</STRONG> commands. Since
502 2010, NetBSD's <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses terminfo names. Before that, it (like
503 FreeBSD) recognized termcap names.
505 Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses the ncurses <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, configured for
506 both terminfo (tested first) and termcap (as a fallback).
508 Because (apparently) <EM>all</EM> of the certified Unix systems support the full
509 set of capability names, the reasoning for documenting only a few may
512 <STRONG>o</STRONG> X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differently, with <EM>capname</EM> and
513 the other features used in this implementation.
515 <STRONG>o</STRONG> That is, there are two standards for <STRONG>tput</STRONG>: POSIX (a subset) and
516 X/Open Curses (the full implementation). POSIX documents a subset
517 to avoid the complication of including X/Open Curses and the
518 terminal capabilities database.
520 <STRONG>o</STRONG> While it is certainly possible to write a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program without
521 using curses, none of the systems which have a curses
522 implementation provide a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utility which does not provide the
523 <EM>capname</EM> feature.
525 X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) is the first version to document
526 utilities. However that part of X/Open Curses does not follow existing
527 practice (i.e., Unix features documented in SVID 3):
529 <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit code 4 to "invalid operand", which may be the same
530 as <EM>unknown</EM> <EM>capability</EM>. For instance, the source code for Solaris'
531 xcurses uses the term "invalid" in this case.
533 <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit code 255 to a numeric variable that is not
534 specified in the terminfo database. That likely is a documentation
535 error, confusing the <STRONG>-1</STRONG> written to the standard output for an
536 absent or cancelled numeric value versus an (unsigned) exit code.
538 The various Unix systems (AIX, HPUX, Solaris) use the same exit-codes
541 NetBSD curses documents different exit codes which do not correspond to
542 either ncurses or X/Open.
545 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
546 <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>.
548 This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.3 (patch 20220212).
552 <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
556 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
557 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
558 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
560 <li><a href="#h3-Options">Options</a></li>
561 <li><a href="#h3-Commands">Commands</a></li>
562 <li><a href="#h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></li>
563 <li><a href="#h3-Terminal-Size">Terminal Size</a></li>
566 <li><a href="#h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></li>
567 <li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
568 <li><a href="#h2-EXIT-CODES">EXIT CODES</a></li>
569 <li><a href="#h2-DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></li>
570 <li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
571 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
572 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>