- The tput utility uses the terminfo database to make the values of ter-
- minal-dependent capabilities and information available to the shell
- (see sh(1)), 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:
+ The tput utility uses the terminfo database to make the values of
+ terminal-dependent capabilities and information available to the shell
+ (see sh(1)), 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
- tput writes the string to the standard output. No trailing
+ tput writes the string to the standard output. No trailing
newline is supplied.
integer
- tput writes the decimal value to the standard output, with a
+ tput writes the decimal value to the standard output, with a
trailing newline.
boolean
- tput simply sets the exit code (0 for TRUE if the terminal has
- the capability, 1 for FALSE if it does not), and writes nothing
+ tput simply sets the exit code (0 for TRUE if the terminal has
+ the capability, 1 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., $?, see sh(1)) to be sure it is 0.
- (See the EXITCODES and DIAGNOSTICS sections.) For a complete list of
- capabilities and the capname associated with each, see terminfo(5).
+ should test the exit code (e.g., $?, see sh(1)) to be sure it is 0.
+ (See the EXITCODES and DIAGNOSTICS sections.) For a complete list of
+ capabilities and the capname associated with each, see terminfo(5).
- -S allows more than one capability per invocation of tput. The
- capabilities must be passed to tput from the standard input
- instead of from the command line (see example). Only one cap-
- name is allowed per line. The -S option changes the meaning of
- the 0 and 1 boolean and string exit codes (see the EXIT CODES
+ -S allows more than one capability per invocation of tput. The
+ capabilities must be passed to tput from the standard input
+ instead of from the command line (see example). Only one
+ capname is allowed per line. The -S option changes the meaning
+ of the 0 and 1 boolean and string exit codes (see the EXIT CODES
section).
- Because some capabilities may use string parameters rather than
- numbers, tput uses a table and the presence of parameters in its
- input to decide whether to use tparm(3x), and how to interpret
+ Because some capabilities may use string parameters rather than
+ numbers, tput uses a table and the presence of parameters in its
+ input to decide whether to use tparm(3X), and how to interpret
the parameters.
- -Ttype indicates the type of terminal. Normally this option is unnec-
- essary, because the default is taken from the environment vari-
- able TERM. If -T is specified, then the shell variables LINES
- and COLUMNS will also be ignored.
+ -Ttype indicates the type of terminal. Normally this option is
+ unnecessary, because the default is taken from the environment
+ variable TERM. If -T is specified, then the shell variables
+ LINES and COLUMNS will also be ignored.
- -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program,
+ -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program,
and exits.
- -x do not attempt to clear the terminal's scrollback buffer using
+ -x do not attempt to clear the terminal's scrollback buffer using
the extended "E3" capability.
- A few commands (init, reset and longname) are special; they are defined
- by the tput program. The others are the names of capabilities from the
- terminal database (see terminfo(5) for a list). Although init and
- reset resemble capability names, tput uses several capabilities to per-
- form these special functions.
+ A few commands (init, reset and longname) are special; they are defined
+ by the tput program. The others are the names of capabilities from the
+ terminal database (see terminfo(5) for a list). Although init and
+ reset resemble capability names, tput uses several capabilities to
+ perform these special functions.
- capname
+ capname
indicates the capability from the terminal database.
- If the capability is a string that takes parameters, the argu-
- ments following the capability will be used as parameters for
- the string.
+ If the capability is a string that takes parameters, the
+ arguments following the capability will be used as parameters
+ for the string.
Most parameters are numbers. Only a few terminal capabilities
- require string parameters; tput uses a table to decide which to
- pass as strings. Normally tput uses tparm(3x) to perform the
+ require string parameters; tput uses a table to decide which to
+ pass as strings. Normally tput uses tparm(3X) to perform the
substitution. If no parameters are given for the capability,
- tput writes the string without performing the substitution.
+ tput writes the string without performing the substitution.
- init If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
- terminal exists (see -Ttype, above), the following will occur:
+ init If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
+ terminal exists (see -Ttype, above), the following will occur:
- (1) first, tput retrieves the current terminal mode settings
+ (1) first, tput retrieves the current terminal mode settings
for your terminal. It does this by successively testing
- o the standard error,
+ o the standard error,
- o standard output,
+ o standard output,
- o standard input and
+ o standard input and
- o ultimately "/dev/tty"
+ o ultimately "/dev/tty"
- to obtain terminal settings. Having retrieved these set-
- tings, tput remembers which file descriptor to use when
+ to obtain terminal settings. Having retrieved these
+ settings, tput 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.,
- LINES and COLUMNS variables specify this), update the oper-
- ating system's notion of the window size.
+ LINES and COLUMNS variables specify this), update the
+ operating system's notion of the window size.
(3) the terminal modes will be updated:
- o any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry will
+ o any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry will
be set in the tty driver,
- o tabs expansion will be turned on or off according to
+ o tabs expansion will be turned on or off according to
the specification in the entry, and
- o if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs will be set
+ o 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 terminfo(5) section on Tabsand
- Initialization,
+ output as detailed in the terminfo(5) section on Tabsand
+ Initialization,
(5) output is flushed.
If an entry does not contain the information needed for any of
these activities, that activity will silently be skipped.
- reset This is similar to init, with two differences:
+ reset This is similar to init, with two differences:
(1) before any other initialization, the terminal modes will be
reset to a "sane" state:
- o set cooked and echo modes,
+ o set cooked and echo modes,
- o turn off cbreak and raw modes,
+ o turn off cbreak and raw modes,
- o turn on newline translation and
+ o turn on newline translation and
- o reset any unset special characters to their default
+ o reset any unset special characters to their default
values
- (2) Instead of putting out initialization strings, the termi-
- nal's reset strings will be output if present (rs1, rs2,
- rs3, rf). If the reset strings are not present, but ini-
- tialization strings are, the initialization strings will be
- output.
+ (2) Instead of putting out initialization strings, the
+ terminal's reset strings will be output if present (rs1,
+ rs2, rs3, rf). If the reset strings are not present, but
+ initialization strings are, the initialization strings will
+ be output.
- Otherwise, reset acts identically to init.
+ Otherwise, reset acts identically to init.
- longname
+ longname
If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's
- terminal exists (see -Ttype above), then the long name of the
+ terminal exists (see -Ttype 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 terminfo data-
- base [see term(5)].
+ first line of the terminal's description in the terminfo
+ database [see term(5)].
- tput handles the clear, init and reset commands specially: it allows
+ tput handles the clear, init and reset commands specially: it allows
for the possibility that it is invoked by a link with those names.
- If tput is invoked by a link named reset, this has the same effect as
- tputreset. The tset(1) utility also treats a link named reset spe-
- cially.
+ If tput is invoked by a link named reset, this has the same effect as
+ tputreset. The tset(1) utility also treats a link named reset
+ specially.
Before ncurses 6.1, the two utilities were different from each other:
- otset utility reset the terminal modes and special characters (not
- done with tput).
+ otset utility reset the terminal modes and special characters (not
+ done with tput).
- o On the other hand, tset's repertoire of terminal capabilities for
- resetting the terminal was more limited, i.e., only reset_1string,
- reset_2string and reset_file in contrast to the tab-stops and mar-
- gins which are set by this utility.
+ o On the other hand, tset's repertoire of terminal capabilities for
+ resetting the terminal was more limited, i.e., only reset_1string,
+ reset_2string and reset_file in contrast to the tab-stops and
+ margins which are set by this utility.
- o The reset program is usually an alias for tset, because of this
+ o The reset program is usually an alias for tset, because of this
difference with resetting terminal modes and special characters.
- With the changes made for ncurses 6.1, the reset feature of the two
+ With the changes made for ncurses 6.1, the reset feature of the two
programs is (mostly) the same. A few differences remain:
- o The tset program waits one second when resetting, in case it hap-
- pens to be a hardware terminal.
+ o The tset program waits one second when resetting, in case it
+ happens to be a hardware terminal.
- o The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to dif-
- ferent streams (i.e., the standard error for tset and the standard
- output for tput).
+ o The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to
+ different streams (i.e., the standard error for tset and the
+ standard output for tput).
- Note: 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.
+ Note: although these programs write to different streams,
+ redirecting 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 tput is invoked by a link named init, this has the same effect as
- tputinit. Again, you are less likely to use that link because another
- program named init has a more well-established use.
+ If tput is invoked by a link named init, this has the same effect as
+ tputinit. Again, you are less likely to use that link because another
+ program named init has a more well-established use.
- Besides the special commands (e.g., clear), tput treats certain ter-
- minfo capabilities specially: lines and cols. tput calls setupterm(3x)
- to obtain the terminal size:
+ Besides the special commands (e.g., clear), tput treats certain
+ terminfo capabilities specially: lines and cols. tput calls
+ setupterm(3X) to obtain the terminal size:
- o first, it gets the size from the terminal database (which generally
+ o 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)
- o then it asks the operating system for the terminal's size (which
+ o then it asks the operating system for the terminal's size (which
generally works, unless connecting via a serial line which does not
- support NAWS: negotiations about window size).
+ support NAWS: negotiations about window size).
- o finally, it inspects the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS
+ o finally, it inspects the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS
which may override the terminal size.
- If the -T option is given tput ignores the environment variables by
- calling use_tioctl(TRUE), relying upon the operating system (or
+ If the -T option is given tput ignores the environment variables by
+ calling use_tioctl(TRUE), relying upon the operating system (or
finally, the terminal database).
- tputinit
+ tputinit
Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the
- environmental variable TERM. This command should be included in
- everyone's .profile after the environmental variable TERM has been
- exported, as illustrated on the profile(5) manual page.
+ environmental variable TERM. This command should be included in
+ everyone's .profile after the environmental variable TERM has been
+ exported, as illustrated on the profile(5) manual page.
- tput-T5620reset
+ tput-T5620reset
Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in
- the environmental variable TERM.
+ the environmental variable TERM.
- tputcup00
- Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 0, column 0 (the upper
+ tputcup00
+ Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 0, column 0 (the upper
left corner of the screen, usually known as the "home" cursor
position).
- tputclear
+ tputclear
Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.
- tputcols
+ tputcols
Print the number of columns for the current terminal.
- tput-T450cols
+ tput-T450cols
Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.
- bold=`tputsmso`offbold=`tputrmso`
- Set the shell variables bold, to begin stand-out mode sequence,
- and offbold, to end standout mode sequence, for the current termi-
- nal. This might be followed by a prompt: echo"${bold}Pleasetype
- inyourname:${offbold}\c"
+ bold=`tputsmso`offbold=`tputrmso`
+ Set the shell variables bold, to begin stand-out mode sequence,
+ and offbold, to end standout mode sequence, for the current
+ terminal. This might be followed by a prompt: echo"${bold}Please
+ typeinyourname:${offbold}\c"
- tputhc
+ tputhc
Set exit code to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy
terminal.
- tputcup234
+ tputcup234
Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.
- tputcup
+ tputcup
Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with no parameters
substituted.
- tputlongname
- Print the long name from the terminfo database for the type of
- terminal specified in the environmental variable TERM.
+ tputlongname
+ Print the long name from the terminfo database for the type of
+ terminal specified in the environmental variable TERM.
- tput-S<<!
- >clear
- >cup1010
- >bold
- >!
+ tput-S<<!
+ >clear
+ >cup1010
+ >bold
+ >!
- This example shows tput processing several capabilities in one
+ This example shows tput 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 (!) on a line by itself.
+ 10, 10 and turns on bold (extra bright) mode. The list is
+ terminated by an exclamation mark (!) on a line by itself.
- /usr/share/terminfo
+ /usr/share/terminfo
compiled terminal description database
- /usr/share/tabset/*
+ /usr/share/tabset/*
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 TabsandInitialization,
- section of terminfo(5)
+ tabs); for more information, see the TabsandInitialization,
+ section of terminfo(5)
- If the -S option is used, tput checks for errors from each line, and if
+ If the -S option is used, tput 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 0. No
- indication of which line failed can be given so exit code 1 will never
- appear. Exit codes 2, 3, and 4 retain their usual interpretation. If
- the -S option is not used, the exit code depends on the type of cap-
- name:
-
- boolean
- a value of 0 is set for TRUE and 1 for FALSE.
-
- string a value of 0 is set if the capname is defined for this termi-
- nal type (the value of capname is returned on standard out-
- put); a value of 1 is set if capname is not defined for this
- terminal type (nothing is written to standard output).
-
- integer
- a value of 0 is always set, whether or not capname is defined
- for this terminal type. To determine if capname is defined
- for this terminal type, the user must test the value written
- to standard output. A value of -1 means that capname is not
- defined for this terminal type.
-
- otherreset or init may fail to find their respective files. In
- that case, the exit code is set to 4 + errno.
+ lines with errors. If no errors are found, the exit code is 0. No
+ indication of which line failed can be given so exit code 1 will never
+ appear. Exit codes 2, 3, and 4 retain their usual interpretation. If
+ the -S option is not used, the exit code depends on the type of
+ capname:
+
+ boolean
+ a value of 0 is set for TRUE and 1 for FALSE.
+
+ string a value of 0 is set if the capname is defined for this
+ terminal type (the value of capname is returned on standard
+ output); a value of 1 is set if capname is not defined for
+ this terminal type (nothing is written to standard output).
+
+ integer
+ a value of 0 is always set, whether or not capname is defined
+ for this terminal type. To determine if capname is defined
+ for this terminal type, the user must test the value written
+ to standard output. A value of -1 means that capname is not
+ defined for this terminal type.
+
+ otherreset or init may fail to find their respective files. In
+ that case, the exit code is set to 4 + errno.
Any other exit code indicates an error; see the DIAGNOSTICS section.
- tput prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
+ tput prints the following error messages and sets the corresponding
exit codes.
exit code error message
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- 0 (capname is a numeric variable that is not specified in
- the terminfo(5) database for this terminal type, e.g.
- tput-T450lines and tput-T2621xmc)
- 1 no error message is printed, see the EXITCODES section.
- 2 usage error
- 3 unknown terminal type or no terminfo database
- 4 unknown terminfo capability capname
- >4 error occurred in -S
+ 0 (capname is a numeric variable that is not specified in
+ the terminfo(5) database for this terminal type, e.g.
+ tput-T450lines and tput-T2621xmc)
+ 1 no error message is printed, see the EXITCODES section.
+ 2 usage error
+ 3 unknown terminal type or no terminfo database
+ 4 unknown terminfo capability capname
+ >4 error occurred in -S
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- The tput command was begun by Bill Joy in 1980. The initial version
+ The tput command was begun by Bill Joy in 1980. The initial version
only cleared the screen.
- AT&T System V provided a different tput command, whose init and reset
+ AT&T System V provided a different tput command, whose init and reset
subcommands (more than half the program) were incorporated from the
- reset feature of BSD tset written by Eric Allman.
+ reset feature of BSD tset written by Eric Allman.
- Keith Bostic replaced the BSD tput command in 1989 with a new implemen-
- tation based on the AT&T System V program tput. Like the AT&T program,
- Bostic's version accepted some parameters named for terminfocapabili-
- ties (clear, init, longname and reset). However (because he had only
- termcap available), it accepted termcapnames for other capabilities.
- Also, Bostic's BSD tput did not modify the terminal I/O modes as the
- earlier BSD tset had done.
+ Keith Bostic replaced the BSD tput command in 1989 with a new
+ implementation based on the AT&T System V program tput. Like the AT&T
+ program, Bostic's version accepted some parameters named for terminfo
+ capabilities (clear, init, longname and reset). However (because he
+ had only termcap available), it accepted termcapnames for other
+ capabilities. Also, Bostic's BSD tput did not modify the terminal I/O
+ modes as the earlier BSD tset had done.
At the same time, Bostic added a shell script named "clear", which used
- tput to clear the screen.
+ tput to clear the screen.
- Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the "modern" BSD implementa-
- tion of tput.
+ Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the "modern" BSD
+ implementation of tput.
- This implementation of tput began from a different source than AT&T or
- BSD: Ross Ridge's mytinfo package, published on comp.sources.unix in
- December 1992. Ridge's program made more sophisticated use of the ter-
- minal capabilities than the BSD program. Eric Raymond used that tput
- program (and other parts of mytinfo) 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.
+ This implementation of tput began from a different source than AT&T or
+ BSD: Ross Ridge's mytinfo package, published on comp.sources.unix in
+ December 1992. Ridge's program made more sophisticated use of the
+ terminal capabilities than the BSD program. Eric Raymond used that
+ tput program (and other parts of mytinfo) 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.
- This implementation of tput differs from AT&T tput in two important
+ This implementation of tput differs from AT&T tput in two important
areas:
- otputcapname 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.
+ otputcapname 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 init and reset commands use the BSD
- (4.1c) tset 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.
+ The AT&T implementation's init and reset commands use the BSD
+ (4.1c) tset 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, tput did not modify terminal
- modes. tput now uses a similar scheme, using functions shared with
- tset (and ultimately based on the 4.4BSD tset). If it is not able
- to open a terminal, e.g., when running in cron, tput will return an
+ Until changes made after ncurses 6.0, tput did not modify terminal
+ modes. tput now uses a similar scheme, using functions shared with
+ tset (and ultimately based on the 4.4BSD tset). If it is not able
+ to open a terminal, e.g., when running in cron, tput will return an
error.
- o AT&T tput guesses the type of its capname operands by seeing if all
+ o AT&T tput guesses the type of its capname operands by seeing if all
of the characters are numeric, or not.
- Most implementations which provide support for capname operands use
- the tparm function to expand parameters in it. That function
- expects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring tput
+ Most implementations which provide support for capname operands use
+ the tparm function to expand parameters in it. That function
+ expects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring tput
to know which type to use.
This implementation uses a table to determine the parameter types
- for the standard capname operands, and an internal library function
- to analyze nonstandard capname operands.
+ for the standard capname operands, and an internal library function
+ to analyze nonstandard capname operands.
- This implementation (unlike others) can accept both termcap and ter-
- minfo names for the capname feature, if termcap support is compiled in.
- However, the predefined termcap and terminfo names have two ambiguities
- in this case (and the terminfo name is assumed):
+ This implementation (unlike others) can accept both termcap and
+ terminfo names for the capname feature, if termcap support is compiled
+ in. However, the predefined termcap and terminfo names have two
+ ambiguities in this case (and the terminfo name is assumed):
- o The termcap name dl corresponds to the terminfo name dl1 (delete
+ o The termcap name dl corresponds to the terminfo name dl1 (delete
one line).
- The terminfo name dl corresponds to the termcap name DL (delete a
+ The terminfo name dl corresponds to the termcap name DL (delete a
given number of lines).
- o The termcap name ed corresponds to the terminfo name rmdc (end
+ o The termcap name ed corresponds to the terminfo name rmdc (end
delete mode).
- The terminfo name ed corresponds to the termcap name cd (clear to
+ The terminfo name ed corresponds to the termcap name cd (clear to
end of screen).
- The longname and -S options, and the parameter-substitution features
- used in the cup example, were not supported in BSD curses before
+ The longname and -S options, and the parameter-substitution features
+ used in the cup 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 clear, init and reset.
+ (POSIX.1-2008) documents only the operands for clear, init and reset.
There are a few interesting observations to make regarding that:
- o In this implementation, clear is part of the capname support. The
- others (init and longname) do not correspond to terminal capabili-
- ties.
+ o In this implementation, clear is part of the capname support. The
+ others (init and longname) do not correspond to terminal
+ capabilities.
- o Other implementations of tput on SVr4-based systems such as
+ o Other implementations of tput on SVr4-based systems such as
Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUX as well as others such as AIX and Tru64
- provide support for capname operands.
+ provide support for capname operands.
- o A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize termcap names rather than
- terminfo capability names in their respective tput commands. Since
- 2010, NetBSD's tput uses terminfo names. Before that, it (like
+ o A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize termcap names rather than
+ terminfo capability names in their respective tput commands. Since
+ 2010, NetBSD's tput uses terminfo names. Before that, it (like
FreeBSD) recognized termcap names.
- Because (apparently) all of the certified Unix systems support the full
- set of capability names, the reasoning for documenting only a few may
+ Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses the ncurses tput, configured for
+ both terminfo (tested first) and termcap (as a fallback).
+
+ Because (apparently) all of the certified Unix systems support the full
+ set of capability names, the reasoning for documenting only a few may
not be apparent.
- o X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents tput differently, with capname and
+ o X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents tput differently, with capname and
the other features used in this implementation.
- o That is, there are two standards for tput: 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.
+ o That is, there are two standards for tput: 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.
- o While it is certainly possible to write a tput program without
- using curses, none of the systems which have a curses implementa-
- tion provide a tput utility which does not provide the capname fea-
- ture.
+ o While it is certainly possible to write a tput program without
+ using curses, none of the systems which have a curses
+ implementation provide a tput utility which does not provide the
+ capname feature.
- 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
+ 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):
- o It assigns exit code 4 to "invalid operand", which may be the same
- as unknowncapability. For instance, the source code for Solaris'
+ o It assigns exit code 4 to "invalid operand", which may be the same
+ as unknowncapability. For instance, the source code for Solaris'
xcurses uses the term "invalid" in this case.
- o 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 -1 written to the standard output for an
+ o 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 -1 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
@@ -521,13 +524,13 @@