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43 <H1 class="no-header">tput 1 2023-10-14 ncurses 6.4 User commands</H1>
45 <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG> User commands <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 <EM>terminfo</EM> 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 <EM>/usr/share/tabset</EM>
330 tab stop initialization database
332 <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>
333 compiled terminal description database
336 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXIT-CODES">EXIT CODES</a></H2><PRE>
337 If the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is used, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> checks for errors from each line, and if
338 any errors are found, will set the exit code to 4 plus the number of
339 lines with errors. If no errors are found, the exit code is <STRONG>0</STRONG>. No
340 indication of which line failed can be given so exit code <STRONG>1</STRONG> will never
341 appear. Exit codes <STRONG>2</STRONG>, <STRONG>3</STRONG>, and <STRONG>4</STRONG> retain their usual interpretation. If
342 the <STRONG>-S</STRONG> option is not used, the exit code depends on the type of
346 a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is set for TRUE and <STRONG>1</STRONG> for FALSE.
348 <EM>string</EM> a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is set if the <EM>capname</EM> is defined for this
349 terminal <EM>type</EM> (the value of <EM>capname</EM> is returned on standard
350 output); a value of <STRONG>1</STRONG> is set if <EM>capname</EM> is not defined for
351 this terminal <EM>type</EM> (nothing is written to standard output).
354 a value of <STRONG>0</STRONG> is always set, whether or not <EM>capname</EM> is defined
355 for this terminal <EM>type</EM>. To determine if <EM>capname</EM> is defined
356 for this terminal <EM>type</EM>, the user must test the value written
357 to standard output. A value of <STRONG>-1</STRONG> means that <EM>capname</EM> is not
358 defined for this terminal <EM>type</EM>.
360 <EM>other</EM> <STRONG>reset</STRONG> or <STRONG>init</STRONG> may fail to find their respective files. In
361 that case, the exit code is set to 4 + <STRONG>errno</STRONG>.
363 Any other exit code indicates an error; see the DIAGNOSTICS section.
366 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></H2><PRE>
367 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
370 exit code error message
371 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
372 <STRONG>0</STRONG> (<EM>capname</EM> is a numeric variable that is not specified in
373 the <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> database for this terminal type, e.g.
374 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-T450</STRONG> <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <STRONG>-Thp2621</STRONG> <STRONG>xmc</STRONG>)
375 <STRONG>1</STRONG> no error message is printed, see the <STRONG>EXIT</STRONG> <STRONG>CODES</STRONG> section.
376 <STRONG>2</STRONG> usage error
377 <STRONG>3</STRONG> unknown terminal <EM>type</EM> or no <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database
378 <STRONG>4</STRONG> unknown <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> capability <EM>capname</EM>
379 <STRONG>>4</STRONG> error occurred in -S
380 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
383 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
384 The <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command was begun by Bill Joy in 1980. The initial version
385 only cleared the screen.
387 AT&T System V provided a different <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command:
389 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr2 provided a rudimentary <STRONG>tput</STRONG> which checked the parameter
390 against each predefined capability and returned the corresponding
391 value. This version of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> for the
392 capabilities which are parameterized.
394 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr3 replaced that, a year later, by a more extensive program whose
395 <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> subcommands (more than half the program) were
396 incorporated from the <STRONG>reset</STRONG> feature of BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG> written by Eric
399 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr4 added color initialization using the <STRONG>orig_colors</STRONG> and <STRONG>orig_pair</STRONG>
400 capabilities in the <STRONG>init</STRONG> subcommand.
402 Keith Bostic replaced the BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> command in 1989 with a new
403 implementation based on the AT&T System V program <STRONG>tput</STRONG>. Like the AT&T
404 program, Bostic's version accepted some parameters named for <EM>terminfo</EM>
405 capabilities (<STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG>, <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>). However (because he
406 had only <EM>termcap</EM> available), it accepted <EM>termcap</EM> names for other
407 capabilities. Also, Bostic's BSD <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify the terminal I/O
408 modes as the earlier BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG> had done.
410 At the same time, Bostic added a shell script named "clear", which used
411 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> to clear the screen.
413 Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the "modern" BSD
414 implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG>.
416 This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> began from a different source than AT&T or
417 BSD: Ross Ridge's <EM>mytinfo</EM> package, published on <EM>comp.sources.unix</EM> in
418 December 1992. Ridge's program made more sophisticated use of the
419 terminal capabilities than the BSD program. Eric Raymond used that
420 <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program (and other parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM>) in ncurses in June 1995.
421 Using the portions dealing with terminal capabilities almost without
422 change, Raymond made improvements to the way the command-line
423 parameters were handled.
426 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
427 This implementation of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differs from AT&T <STRONG>tput</STRONG> in two important
430 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tput</STRONG> <EM>capname</EM> writes to the standard output. That need not be a
431 regular terminal. However, the subcommands which manipulate
432 terminal modes may not use the standard output.
434 The AT&T implementation's <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG> commands use the BSD
435 (4.1c) <STRONG>tset</STRONG> source, which manipulates terminal modes. It
436 successively tries standard output, standard error, standard input
437 before falling back to "/dev/tty" and finally just assumes a 1200Bd
438 terminal. When updating terminal modes, it ignores errors.
440 Until changes made after ncurses 6.0, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> did not modify terminal
441 modes. <STRONG>tput</STRONG> now uses a similar scheme, using functions shared with
442 <STRONG>tset</STRONG> (and ultimately based on the 4.4BSD <STRONG>tset</STRONG>). If it is not able
443 to open a terminal, e.g., when running in <STRONG>cron(1)</STRONG>, <STRONG>tput</STRONG> will return
446 <STRONG>o</STRONG> AT&T <STRONG>tput</STRONG> guesses the type of its <EM>capname</EM> operands by seeing if all
447 of the characters are numeric, or not.
449 Most implementations which provide support for <EM>capname</EM> operands use
450 the <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> function to expand parameters in it. That function
451 expects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring <STRONG>tput</STRONG>
452 to know which type to use.
454 This implementation uses a table to determine the parameter types
455 for the standard <EM>capname</EM> operands, and an internal library function
456 to analyze nonstandard <EM>capname</EM> operands.
458 Besides providing more reliable operation than AT&T's utility, a
459 portability problem is introduced by this analysis: An OpenBSD
460 developer adapted the internal library function from ncurses to
461 port NetBSD's termcap-based <STRONG>tput</STRONG> to terminfo. That had been
462 modified to interpret multiple commands on a line. Portable
463 applications should not rely upon this feature; ncurses provides it
464 to support applications written specifically for OpenBSD.
466 This implementation (unlike others) can accept both <EM>termcap</EM> and
467 <EM>terminfo</EM> names for the <EM>capname</EM> feature, if <EM>termcap</EM> support is compiled
468 in. However, the predefined <EM>termcap</EM> and <EM>terminfo</EM> names have two
469 ambiguities in this case (and the <EM>terminfo</EM> name is assumed):
471 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl1</STRONG> (delete
473 The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>dl</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>DL</STRONG> (delete a
474 given number of lines).
476 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>rmdc</STRONG> (end
478 The <EM>terminfo</EM> name <STRONG>ed</STRONG> corresponds to the <EM>termcap</EM> name <STRONG>cd</STRONG> (clear to
481 The <STRONG>longname</STRONG> and <STRONG>-S</STRONG> options, and the parameter-substitution features
482 used in the <STRONG>cup</STRONG> example, were not supported in BSD curses before
483 4.3reno (1989) or in AT&T/USL curses before SVr4 (1988).
485 IEEE Std 1003.1/The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7
486 (POSIX.1-2008) documents only the operands for <STRONG>clear</STRONG>, <STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>reset</STRONG>.
487 There are a few interesting observations to make regarding that:
489 <STRONG>o</STRONG> In this implementation, <STRONG>clear</STRONG> is part of the <EM>capname</EM> support. The
490 others (<STRONG>init</STRONG> and <STRONG>longname</STRONG>) do not correspond to terminal
493 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Other implementations of <STRONG>tput</STRONG> on SVr4-based systems such as
494 Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUX as well as others such as AIX and Tru64
495 provide support for <EM>capname</EM> operands.
497 <STRONG>o</STRONG> A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize termcap names rather than
498 terminfo capability names in their respective <STRONG>tput</STRONG> commands. Since
499 2010, NetBSD's <STRONG>tput</STRONG> uses terminfo names. Before that, it (like
500 FreeBSD) recognized termcap names.
502 Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses the ncurses <STRONG>tput</STRONG>, configured for
503 both terminfo (tested first) and termcap (as a fallback).
505 Because (apparently) <EM>all</EM> of the certified Unix systems support the full
506 set of capability names, the reasoning for documenting only a few may
509 <STRONG>o</STRONG> X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents <STRONG>tput</STRONG> differently, with <EM>capname</EM> and
510 the other features used in this implementation.
512 <STRONG>o</STRONG> That is, there are two standards for <STRONG>tput</STRONG>: POSIX (a subset) and
513 X/Open Curses (the full implementation). POSIX documents a subset
514 to avoid the complication of including X/Open Curses and the
515 terminal capabilities database.
517 <STRONG>o</STRONG> While it is certainly possible to write a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program without
518 using curses, none of the systems which have a curses
519 implementation provide a <STRONG>tput</STRONG> utility which does not provide the
520 <EM>capname</EM> feature.
522 X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) is the first version to document
523 utilities. However that part of X/Open Curses does not follow existing
524 practice (i.e., Unix features documented in SVID 3):
526 <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit code 4 to "invalid operand", which may be the same
527 as <EM>unknown</EM> <EM>capability</EM>. For instance, the source code for Solaris'
528 xcurses uses the term "invalid" in this case.
530 <STRONG>o</STRONG> It assigns exit code 255 to a numeric variable that is not
531 specified in the terminfo database. That likely is a documentation
532 error, confusing the <STRONG>-1</STRONG> written to the standard output for an
533 absent or cancelled numeric value versus an (unsigned) exit code.
535 The various Unix systems (AIX, HPUX, Solaris) use the same exit-codes
538 NetBSD curses documents different exit codes which do not correspond to
539 either ncurses or X/Open.
542 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
543 <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>
547 ncurses 6.4 2023-10-14 <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG>
551 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
552 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
553 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
555 <li><a href="#h3-Options">Options</a></li>
556 <li><a href="#h3-Commands">Commands</a></li>
557 <li><a href="#h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></li>
558 <li><a href="#h3-Terminal-Size">Terminal Size</a></li>
561 <li><a href="#h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></li>
562 <li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
563 <li><a href="#h2-EXIT-CODES">EXIT CODES</a></li>
564 <li><a href="#h2-DIAGNOSTICS">DIAGNOSTICS</a></li>
565 <li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
566 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
567 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>