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$Id: tput.1,v 1.113 2024/04/20 19:58:50 tom Exp $
.\} .\} . .. \%@TPUT@ - initialize a terminal, exercise its capabilities, or query \%term\%info database @TPUT@ [-T terminal-type] {cap-code [parameter .\|.\|.]} .\|.\|.

@TPUT@ [-T terminal-type] [-x] clear

@TPUT@ [-T terminal-type] init

@TPUT@ [-T terminal-type] \%reset

@TPUT@ [-T terminal-type] \%longname

@TPUT@ -S

@TPUT@ -V

\%@TPUT@ uses the \%term\%info library and database to make terminal-specific capabilities and information available to the shell, to initialize or reset the terminal, or to report a description of the current (or specified) terminal type. Terminal capabilities are accessed by cap-code .

\%terminfo(5) discusses terminal capabilities at length and presents a complete list of cap-codes .

When retrieving capability values, the result depends upon the capability's type.

9 \" "Boolean" + 2n Boolean \%@TPUT@ sets its exit status to 0 if the terminal possesses cap-code , and 1 if it does not.

numeric \%@TPUT@ writes cap-code 's decimal value to the standard output stream if defined ( -1 if it is not) followed by a newline.

string \%@TPUT@ writes cap-code 's value to the standard output stream if defined, without a trailing newline.

Before using a value returned on the standard output, the application should test \%@TPUT@'s exit status to be sure it is 0; see section \*(``EXIT STATUS\*('' below.

Generally, an operand is a cap-code , a capability code from the terminal database, or a parameter thereto. Three others are specially recognized by \%@TPUT@: init , \%reset , and \%longname . Although these resemble capability codes, they in fact receive special handling; we term them \*(``pseudo-capabilities\*(''.

11n \" "longname" + 2n + adjustment for PDF cap-code indicates a capability from the terminal database.

If cap-code is of string type and takes parameters, \%@TPUT@ interprets arguments following cap-code as the parameters, up to the (fixed) quantity the capability requires. Most parameters are numeric. 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 initializes the terminal. If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's terminal type exists, the following occur.

If an entry lacks the information needed for an activity above, that activity is silently skipped.

reset re-initializes the terminal. A reset differs from initialization in two ways.

longname A \%term\%info entry begins with one or more names by which an application can refer to the entry, before the list of terminal capabilities. The names are separated by \*(``|\*('' characters. X/Open Curses terms the last name the \*(``long name\*('', and indicates that it may include blanks.

\%@TIC@ warns if the last name does not include blanks, to accommodate old \%term\%info entries that treated the long name as an optional feature. The long name is often referred to as the description field. If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's terminal type exists, \%@TPUT@ reports its description to the standard output stream, without a trailing newline. See \%terminfo(5).

Note: Redirecting the output of \%\*(`` "@TPUT@ init" \*('' or \%\*(`` "@TPUT@ reset" \*('' to a file will capture only part of their actions. Changes to the terminal modes are not affected by file descriptor redirection, since the terminal modes are altered via \%ioctl(2).

If \%@TPUT@ is invoked via link with any of the names clear , init , or \%reset , it operates as if run with the corresponding (pseudo-)capability operand. For example, executing a link named \%reset that points to \%@TPUT@ has the same effect as \%\*(`` "@TPUT@ \%reset" \*(''.

This feature was introduced by \%ncurses 5.2 in 2000. It is rarely used:

\%clear is a separate program, which is both smaller and more frequently executed.

init has the same name as another program in widespread use.

\%reset is provided by the \%@TSET@(1) utility (also via a link named \%reset ")."

Besides the pseudo-capabilities (such as init ), \%@TPUT@ treats the lines and cols cap-codes specially: it may call \%setupterm(3X) to obtain the terminal size. .bP First, \%@TPUT@ attempts to obtain these capabilities from the terminal database. This generally fails for terminal emulators, which lack a fixed window size and thus omit the capabilities. .bP It then asks the operating system for the terminal's size, which generally works, unless the connection is via a serial line that does not support \*(``NAWS\*('': negotiations about window size. .bP 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, ultimately, the terminal database).

9n \" "-T type" + 2n -S retrieves more than one capability per invocation of \%@TPUT@. The capabilities must be passed to \%@TPUT@ from the standard input stream instead of from the command line (see section \*(``EXAMPLES\*('' below). Only one cap-code is allowed per line. The -S option changes the meanings of the 0 and 1 exit statuses (see section \*(``EXIT STATUS\*('' below).

Some capabilities use string parameters rather than numeric ones. \%@TPUT@ employs a built-in table and the presence of parameters in its input to decide how to interpret them, and whether to use \%tparm(3X).

-T type indicates the terminal's type . Normally this option is unnecessary, because a default is taken from the TERM environment variable. If specified, the environment variables LINES and \%COLUMNS are also ignored.

-V reports the version of \%ncurses associated with \%@TPUT@, and exits with a successful status.

-x prevents \%\*(`` "@TPUT@ clear" \*('' from attempting to clear the scrollback buffer.

Normally, one should interpret \%@TPUT@'s exit statuses as follows.

Status Meaning When -S Not Specified

0 Boolean or string capability present

1 Boolean or numeric capability absent

2 usage error or no terminal type specified

3 unrecognized terminal type

4 unrecognized capability code

>4 system error (4 + errno)

When the -S option is used, some statuses change meanings.

Status Meaning When -S Specified

0 all operands interpreted

1 unused

4 some operands not interpreted

@TPUT@ reads one environment variable.

8n \" "TERM" + 2n + adjustment for PDF TERM denotes the terminal type. Each terminal type is distinct, though many are similar. The -T option overrides its value.

@DATADIR@/tabset tab stop initialization database

\*d compiled terminal description database

Over time \%ncurses \%@TPUT@ has differed from that of System V in two important respects, one now mostly historical. .bP \%\*(``@TPUT@ cap-code \*('' writes to the standard output, which need not be a terminal device. However, the operands that manipulate terminal modes might not use the standard output. System V tput 's init and \%reset operands use logic from 4.1cBSD tset , manipulating terminal modes. It checks the same file descriptors (and \%/dev/tty ) for association with a terminal device as \%ncurses now does, and if none are, finally assumes a 1200 baud terminal. When updating terminal modes, it ignores errors. Until \%ncurses 6.1 (see section \*(``HISTORY\*('' below), \%@TPUT@ did not modify terminal modes. It now employs a scheme similar to System V, using functions shared with \%@TSET@ (and ultimately based on 4.4BSD tset ). If it is not able to open a terminal (for instance, when run by cron(1)), \%@TPUT@ exits with an error status. .bP System V tput assumes that the type of a cap-code operand is numeric if all the characters of its value are decimal numbers; if they are not, it treats cap-code as a string capability. Most implementations that provide support for cap-code operands use the \%tparm(3X) function to expand its parameters. That function expects a mixture of numeric and string parameters, requiring \%@TPUT@ to know which type to use. \%ncurses \%@TPUT@ uses a table to determine the parameter types for the standard cap-code operands, and an internal function to analyze nonstandard cap-code operands. While more reliable than System V's utility, a portability problem is introduced by this analysis. An OpenBSD developer adapted the internal library function from \%ncurses to port NetBSD's termcap -based tput to \%term\%info , and modified it to interpret multiple cap-codes (and parameters) on the command line. Portable applications should not rely upon this feature; \%ncurses offers it to support applications written specifically for OpenBSD.

This implementation, unlike others, accepts both termcap and \%term\%info cap-codes if termcap support is compiled in. In that case, however, the predefined termcap and \%term\%info codes have two ambiguities; \%ncurses assumes the \%term\%info code. .bP The cap-code dl means \%delete_line to termcap but \%parm_delete_line to \%term\%info . termcap uses the code DL for \%parm_delete_line . \%term\%info uses the code dl1 for \%delete_line . .bP The cap-code ed means \%exit_delete_mode to termcap but \%clr_eos to \%term\%info . termcap uses the code cd for \%clr_eos . \%term\%info uses the code rmdc for \%exit_delete_mode .

The \%longname operand, -S option, and the parameter-substitution features used in the cup example below, were not supported in AT&T/USL curses before SVr4 (1989). Later, 4.3BSD-Reno (1990) added support for \%longname , longname was added in October 1989.
and in 1994, NetBSD added support for the parameter-substitution features.

IEEE Std 1003.1/The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7 (POSIX.1-2008) documents only the clear , init , and \%reset operands. A few observations of interest arise from that selection. .bP \%ncurses supports clear as it does any other standard cap-code . The others ( init and \%longname ) do not correspond to terminal capabilities. .bP The tput on SVr4-based systems such as Solaris, IRIX64, and HP-UX, as well as others such as AIX and Tru64, also support standard cap-code operands. .bP A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize termcap codes rather than \%term\%info capability codes in their respective tput commands. Since 2010, NetBSD's tput uses \%term\%info codes. Before that, it (like FreeBSD) recognized termcap codes.

Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses \%ncurses tput , configured for both \%term\%info (tested first) and termcap (as a fallback).

Because (apparently) all certified Unix systems support the full set of capability codes, the reason for documenting only a few may not be apparent. .bP X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents tput differently, with cap-code and the other features used in this implementation. .bP 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 capability database. .bP While it is certainly possible to write a tput program without using curses , no system with a curses implementation provides a tput utility that does not also support standard cap-codes .

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 (that is, System V curses behavior). .bP It assigns exit status 4 to \*(``invalid operand\*('', which may have the same meaning as \*(``unknown capability\*(''. For instance, the source code for Solaris xcurses uses the term \*(``invalid\*('' in this case. .bP It assigns exit status 255 to a numeric variable that is not specified in the \%term\%info database. That likely is a documentation error, mistaking the \*(``-1\*('' written to the standard output to indicate an absent or cancelled numeric capability for an (unsigned) exit status.

The various System V implementations (AIX, HP-UX, Solaris) use the same exit statuses as \%ncurses .

NetBSD curses documents exit statuses that correspond to neither \%ncurses nor X/Open Curses.

Bill Joy wrote a tput command during development of 4BSD in October 1980. This initial version only cleared the screen, and did not ship with official distributions. It also exited with backwards exit status (1 on success, 0 on
failure), and was characterized by Bostic in 1988 as "pretty
unreasonable".
See Spinellis's "unix-history-repo" on GitHub.

System V developed a different tput command. .bP SVr2 (1984) provided a rudimentary tput that checked the parameter against each predefined capability and returned the corresponding value. This version of tput did not use \%tparm(3X) for parameterized capabilities. .bP SVr3 (1987) replaced that SVr3 released in 1987, not 1985.
https://unix.org/what_is_unix/history_timeline.html
with a more extensive program whose support for init and \%reset operands (more than half the program) incorporated the \%reset feature of BSD tset written by Eric Allman. .bP SVr4 (1989) added color initialization by using the \%orig_colors ( oc ) and \%orig_pair ( op ) capabilities in its init logic.

Keith Bostic refactored BSD tput for shipment in 4.3BSD-Tahoe (1988), then replaced it the next year with a new implementation based on System V tput . Bostic's version similarly accepted some parameters named for \%term\%info (pseudo-)capabilities: clear , init , \%longname , and \%reset . However, because he had only termcap available, it accepted termcap codes for other capabilities. Also, Bostic's BSD tput did not modify the terminal modes as the earlier BSD tset had done.

At the same time, Bostic added a shell script named \*(``clear\*('' that used tput to clear the screen. Both of these appeared in 4.4BSD, becoming the \*(``modern\*('' BSD implementation of tput .

The origin of \%ncurses \%@TPUT@ lies outside both System V and BSD, in 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. Incorporating the portions dealing with terminal capabilities almost without change, Raymond made improvements to the way command-line parameters were handled.

Before \%ncurses 6.1 (2018), its \%@TSET@ and \%@TPUT@ utilities differed. .bP \%@TSET@ was more effective, resetting the terminal modes and special characters. .bP On the other hand, \%@TSET@'s repertoire of terminal capabilities for resetting the terminal was more limited; it had only equivalents of \%reset_1string ( rs1 ), \%reset_2string ( rs2 ), and \%reset_file ( rf ), and not the tab stop and margin update features of \%@TPUT@.

The \%reset program is traditionally an alias for \%@TSET@ due to its ability to reset terminal modes and special characters.

As of \%ncurses 6.1, the \*(``reset\*('' features of the two programs are (mostly) the same. Two minor differences remain. .bP The \%@TSET@ program waits one second when resetting, in case the terminal happens to be a hardware device. .bP The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to different streams; that is, standard error for \%@TSET@ and standard output for \%@TPUT@.

"@TPUT@ init" Initialize the terminal according to the type of terminal in the TERM environment variable. If the system does not reliably initialize the terminal upon login, this command can be included in \%$HOME/.profile after exporting the TERM environment variable.

"@TPUT@ -T5620 reset" Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the terminal type in the TERM environment variable.

"@TPUT@ cnorm" Set cursor to normal visibility.

"@TPUT@ home" Move the cursor to row 0, column 0: the upper left corner of the screen, usually known as the \*(``home\*('' cursor position.

"@TPUT@ clear" Clear the screen: write the \%clear_screen capability's value to the standard output stream.

"@TPUT@ cols" Report the number of columns used by the current terminal type.

"@TPUT@ -Tadm3a cols" Report the number of columns used by an ADM-3A terminal.

"strong=\(ga@TPUT@ smso\(ga normal=\(ga@TPUT@ rmso\(ga" Set shell variables to capability values: strong and normal , to begin and end, respectively, stand-out mode for the terminal. One might use these to present a prompt.

.EX

"@TPUT@ hc" Indicate via exit status whether the terminal is a hard copy device.

"@TPUT@ cup 23 4" Move the cursor to row 23, column 4.

"@TPUT@ cup" Report the value of the \%cursor_address ( cup ) capability (used for cursor movement), with no parameters substituted.

"@TPUT@ longname" Report the \%term\%info database's description of the terminal type specified in the TERM environment variable.

"@TPUT@ -S" Process multiple capabilities. The -S option can be profitably used with a shell \*(``here document\*(''.

.EX $ "@TPUT@ -S <<!" > clear > "cup 10 10" > bold > ! The foregoing clears the screen, moves the cursor to position (10, 10) and turns on bold (extra bright) mode.

"@TPUT@ clear cup 10 10 bold" Perform the same actions as the foregoing \%\*(`` "@TPUT@ -S" \*('' example.

\%@CLEAR@(1), \%stty(1), \%@TABS@(1), \%@TSET@(1), \%curs_termcap(3X), \%terminfo(5)