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tput

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated:
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NAME

tput, reset - initialize a terminal or query terminfo database

SYNOPSIS

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 thevalues of terminal-dependent capabilities and information available tothe shell (see sh(1)), to initialize or reset the terminal, orreturn 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 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 capabilitiesand the capname associated with each, see terminfo(5).

-Ttype

indicates the type of terminal. Normally this option isunnecessary, because the default is taken from the environmentvariable TERM. If -T is specified, then the shellvariables LINES and COLUMNS will be ignored,and theoperating system will not be queried for the actual screen size.

capname

indicates the capability from the terminfo database. Whentermcap support is compiled in, the termcap name forthe capability is also accepted.

parms

If the capability is a string that takes parameters, the argumentsparms will be instantiated into the string.

Most parameters are numbers.Only a few terminfo 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.

-S

allows more than one capability per invocation of tput. Thecapabilities must be passed to tput from the standard inputinstead of from the command line (see example).Only one capname is allowed per line.The -S option changes themeaning of the 0 and 1 boolean and string exit codes (see theEXIT CODES section).

Again, tput uses a table and the presence of parameters in its inputto 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 for the user'sterminal exists (see -Ttype, above), the following willoccur:

(1): if present, the terminal's initialization strings will beoutput as detailed in the terminfo(5) section onTabs and Initialization,
(2): any delays (e.g., newline) specified in the entry willbe set in the tty driver,
(3): tabs expansion will be turned on or off according tothe specification in the entry, and
(4): if tabs are not expanded,standard tabs will be set (every 8 spaces).

If an entry does notcontain the information needed for any of the four above activities,that activity will silently be skipped.

reset

Instead of putting out initialization strings, the terminal'sreset strings will be output if present (rs1, rs2, rs3, rf).If the reset strings are not present, but initializationstrings are, the initialization strings will be output.Otherwise, reset acts identically to init.

longname

If the terminfo database is present and an entry for theuser's terminal exists (see -Ttype above), then the long nameof the terminal will be put out. The long name is the lastname in the first line of the terminal's description in theterminfo database [see term(5)].

If tput is invoked by a link named reset, this has thesame effect as tput reset.See tset for comparison, which has similar behavior.

EXAMPLES

tput init: Initialize the terminal according to the type ofterminal in the environmental variable TERM. Thiscommand should be included in everyone's .profile afterthe environmental variable TERM has been exported, asillustrated on the profile(5) manual page.
tput -T5620 reset: Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the type ofterminal 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 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 modesequence, 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.
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 environmentalvariable 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, 10and turns on bold (extra bright) mode.The list is terminated by an exclamation mark (!) on a line by itself.

FILES

/usr/share/terminfo: compiled terminal description database
/usr/share/tabset/*: tab settings for some terminals, in a formatappropriate to be output to the terminal (escapesequences that set margins and tabs); for moreinformation, 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 thenumber of lines with errors.If no errors are found, the exit code is 0.No indication of which line failed can be given soexit code 1 will never appear. Exit codes 2, 3, and4 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 thecapname is defined for this terminal type (the value ofcapname is returned on standard output);a value of 1 is set if capnameis 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 -1means 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 exitcodes.

exit code error message
0 (capname is a numeric variable that is not specified in theterminfo(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

PORTABILITY

The longname and -S options, and the parameter-substitutionfeatures used in the cup example, are not supported in BSD curses or inAT&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 onSVr4-based systems such as Solaris, IRIX64 and HPUXas well as others such as AIX and Tru64provide support for capname operands.A few platforms such as FreeBSD and NetBSD recognize termcap names ratherthan terminfo capability names in their respective tput commands.

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