tput

tput(1)                     General Commands Manual                    tput(1)

NAME
       tput, reset - initialize a terminal or query terminfo database

SYNOPSIS
       tput [-Ttype] capname [parameters]
       tput [-Ttype] [-x] clear
       tput [-Ttype] init
       tput [-Ttype] reset
       tput [-Ttype] longname
       tput -S  <<
       tput -V

DESCRIPTION
       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:

          string
               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
               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
               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 EXIT CODES and DIAGNOSTICS sections.)  For a complete list of
       capabilities and the capname associated with each, see terminfo(5).

   Options
       -S     allows more than one capability per invocation of tput.  The ca-
              pabilities  must  be  passed to tput from the standard input in-
              stead 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  sec-
              tion).

              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.

       -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
              the extended "E3" capability.

   Commands
       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 re-
       set resemble capability names, tput uses several capabilities  to  per-
       form these special functions.

       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.

              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
              substitution.  If no parameters are given  for  the  capability,
              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:

              (1)  first, tput retrieves the current  terminal  mode  settings
                   for your terminal.  It does this by successively testing

                   o   the standard error,

                   o   standard output,

                   o   standard input and

                   o   ultimately "/dev/tty"

                   to  obtain  terminal settings.  Having retrieved these set-
                   tings, tput remembers which file descriptor to use when up-
                   dating 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.

              (3)  the terminal modes will be updated:

                   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
                       the specification in the entry, and

                   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  Tabs  and
                   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:

              (1)  before any other initialization, the terminal modes will be
                   reset to a "sane" state:

                   o   set cooked and echo modes,

                   o   turn off cbreak and raw modes,

                   o   turn on newline translation and

                   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.

              Otherwise, reset acts identically to init.

       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 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)].

   Aliases
       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
       tput reset.  The tset(1) utility also treats a link  named  reset  spe-
       cially.

       Before ncurses 6.1, the two utilities were different from each other:

       o   tset  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   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
       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 two programs write the terminal initialization strings to  dif-
           ferent  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.

       If  tput  is  invoked by a link named init, this has the same effect as
       tput init.  Again, you are less likely to use that link because another
       program named init has a more well-established use.

   Terminal Size
       Besides  the  special  commands (e.g., clear), tput treats certain ter-
       minfo capabilities  specially:  lines  and  columns.   tput  calls  se-
       tupterm(3X) to obtain the terminal size:

       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
           generally works, unless connecting via a serial line which does not
           support NAWS: negotiations about window size).

       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 fi-
       nally, the terminal database).

EXAMPLES
       tput init
            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.

       tput -T5620 reset
            Reset  an  AT&T  5620 terminal, overriding the type of terminal in
            the environmental variable TERM.

       tput cup 0 0
            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 po-
            sition).

       tput clear
            Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current terminal.

       tput cols
            Print the number of columns for the current terminal.

       tput -T450 cols
            Print the number of columns for the 450 terminal.

       bold=`tput smso` offbold=`tput rmso`
            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}Please type
            in your name: ${offbold}\c"

       tput hc
            Set  exit  code to indicate if the current terminal is a hard copy
            terminal.

       tput cup 23 4
            Send the sequence to move the cursor to row 23, column 4.

       tput cup
            Send the terminfo string for cursor-movement, with  no  parameters
            substituted.

       tput longname
            Print  the  long  name  from the terminfo database for the type of
            terminal specified in the environmental variable TERM.

            tput -S <<!
            > clear
            > cup 10 10
            > bold
            > !

            This example shows tput processing several capabilities in one in-
            vocation.   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 (!) on a line by itself.

FILES
       /etc/terminfo
              compiled terminal description database

       /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 Tabs and Initialization,
              section of terminfo(5)

EXIT CODES
       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 in-
       dication  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.

          other  reset  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.

DIAGNOSTICS
       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 -T450 lines and tput -T2621 xmc)
       1           no error message is printed, see the EXIT CODES section.
       2           usage error
       3           unknown terminal type or no terminfo database
       4           unknown terminfo capability capname
       >4          error occurred in -S
       ---------------------------------------------------------------------

HISTORY
       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
       subcommands (more than half the program) were incorporated from the re-
       set 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 terminfo  capabili-
       ties  (clear,  init, longname and reset).  However (because he had only
       termcap available), it accepted termcap names 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.

       Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the "modern" BSD implementa-
       tion 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.

PORTABILITY
       This implementation of tput differs from AT&T tput in two important ar-
       eas:

       o   tput capname 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 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.

           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
           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  ex-
           pects 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.

       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):

       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
           given number of lines).

       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
           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
       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.
       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   Other  implementations  of  tput  on SVr4-based systems such as So-
           laris, IRIX64 and HPUX as well as others such as AIX and Tru64 pro-
           vide 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
           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
       not be apparent.

       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   While it is certainly possible to write a tput program without  us-
           ing  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
       practice (i.e., Unix features documented in SVID 3):

       o   It assigns exit code 4 to "invalid operand", which may be the  same
           as  unknown capability.  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 er-
           ror, 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
       as ncurses.

       NetBSD curses documents different exit codes which do not correspond to
       either ncurses or X/Open.

SEE ALSO
       clear(1), stty(1), tabs(1), tset(1), terminfo(5), termcap(3NCURSES).

       This describes ncurses version 6.2 (patch 20200212).

                                                                       tput(1)
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