TPUT(1) BSD General Commands Manual TPUT(1)NAME
tput, clear — terminal capability interface
SYNOPSIS
tput [-T term] attribute
clearDESCRIPTION
The tput command makes terminal-dependent information available to users
or shell applications. When invoked as the clear utility, the screen
will be cleared as if
tput clear
had been executed. The options to tput are as follows:
-T The terminal name as specified in the termcap(5) database, for
example, “vt100” or “xterm”. If not specified, tput retrieves
the “TERM” variable from the environment.
The tput command outputs a string if the attribute is of type string; a
number if it is of type integer. Otherwise, tput exits 0 if the terminal
has the capability and 1 if it does not, without further action.
If the attribute is of type string, and takes arguments (e.g. cursor
movement, the termcap “cm” sequence) the arguments are taken from the
command line immediately following the attribute.
The following special attributes are available:
clear Clear the screen (the termcap(5) “cl” sequence).
init Initialize the terminal (the termcap(5) “is” sequence).
longname Print the descriptive name of the user's terminal type.
reset Reset the terminal (the termcap(5) “rs” sequence).
DIAGNOSTICS
The exit value of tput is based on the last attribute specified. If the
attribute is of type string or of type integer, tput exits 0 if the
attribute is defined for this terminal type and 1 if it is not. If the
attribute is of type boolean, tput exits 0 if the terminal has this
attribute, and 1 if it does not. The tput command exits 2 if any error
occurred.
SEE ALSOtermcap(5), terminfo(5)HISTORY
The tput command appeared in 4.4BSD.
BUGS
The tput command can't really distinguish between different types of
attributes.
Some termcap entries depend upon having a ‘%’ in them that is just a ‘%’
and nothing more. Right now we just warn about them if they don't have a
valid type declaration. These warnings are sent to stderr.
BSD March 19, 1994 BSD
