User Commands tput(1)
NAME
tput, reset - initialize a terminal or query terminfo data-
baseSYNOPSIS
tput [-Ttype] capname [parms ... ]
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 terminal-dependent capabilities and information
available to the shell (see sh(1)), to initialize or resetthe terminal, or return the long name of the requested ter-
minal type. The result depends upon the capability's type: stringtput writes the string to the standard output. No
trailing newline is supplied. integertput writes the decimal value to the standard out-
put, with a trailing newline. booleantput simply sets the exit code (0 for TRUE if the
terminal has the capability, 1 for FALSE if itdoes not), and writes nothing to the standard out-
put.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 DIAGNOSTICSsections.) For a complete list of capabilities and the cap-
name associated with each, see terminfo(5).-Ttype
indicates the type of terminal. Normally this option is unnecessary, because the default is taken from theenvironment variable TERM. If -T is specified, then
the shell variables LINES and COLUMNS will be ignored,and the operating system will not be queried for the actual screen size. capname indicates the capability from the terminfo database. When termcap support is compiled in, the termcap name for the capability is also accepted. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 1User Commands tput(1)
parms If the capability is a string that takes parameters, the arguments parms will be instantiated into the string.Most parameters are numbers. Only a few terminfo capa-
bilities 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 parame-
ters are given for the capability, tput writes the
string without performing the substitution.-S allows more than one capability per invocation of tput.
The capabilities must be passed to tput from the stan-
dard input instead of from the command line (see exam-
ple). 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).Again, 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.-V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this
program, and exits. init If the terminfo database is present and an entry forthe user's terminal exists (see -Ttype, above), the
following will occur: (1) if present, the terminal's initialization stringswill be output as detailed in the terminfo(5) sec-
tion on Tabs and Initialization, (2) any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry will be set in the tty driver, (3) tabs expansion will be turned on or off according to the specification in the entry, and (4) if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs will be set (every 8 spaces). If an entry does not contain the information needed for any of the four above activities, that activity will silently be skipped. reset Instead of putting out initialization strings, theterminal's reset strings will be output if present
(rs1, rs2, rs3, rf). If the reset strings are not present, but initialization strings are, the SunOS 5.10 Last change: 2User Commands tput(1)
initialization strings will be output. Otherwise,
reset acts identically to init. longname If the terminfo database is present and an entry forthe 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 database [see term(5)].If tput is invoked by a link named reset, this has the same
effect as tput reset. See tset for comparison, which has
similar behavior.EXAMPLES
tput init
Initialize the terminal according to the type of termi-
nal 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 position).tput clear
Echo the clear-screen sequence for the current termi-
nal.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 terminal. This might be followed by aprompt: 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. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 3User Commands tput(1)
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 thetype of terminal specified in the environmental vari-
able TERM.tput -S < > clear > cup 10 10 > bold > !
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 terminated by an exclamation mark (!) on a line by itself. FILES /usr/gnu/share/terminfo compiled terminal description database /usr/gnu/share/tabset/*tab settings for some terminals, in a format appropri-
ate 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 CODESIf 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
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 isreturned on standard output); a value of 1 is set
SunOS 5.10 Last change: 4User Commands tput(1)
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, theuser must test the value written to standard out-
put. 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. DIAGNOSTICStput 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
____________________________________________________________________
PORTABILITYThe longname and -S options, and the parameter-substitution
features used in the cup example, are not supported in BSDcurses or in AT&T/USL curses before SVr4.
X/Open documents only the operands for clear, init and reset. In this implementation, clear is part of the capname
support. Other implementations of tput on SVr4-based sys-
tems such as Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUX as well as others such as AIX and Tru64 provide support for capname operands. A few platforms such as FreeBSD and NetBSD recognize termcapnames rather than terminfo capability names in their respec-
tive tput commands.
SEE ALSO
clear(1), stty(1), tabs(1), terminfo(5). SunOS 5.10 Last change: 5User Commands tput(1)
This describes ncurses version 5.7 (patch 20081102). SunOS 5.10 Last change: 6