term-utils/setterm.1

   1 .\" Copyright 1990 Gordon Irlam (gordoni@cs.ua.oz.au)
   2 .\" Copyright 1992 Rickard E. Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
   3 .\" Copyright 2000 Colin Watson (cjw44@cam.ac.uk)
   4 .\" Do not restrict distribution.
   5 .\" May be distributed under the GNU General Public License
   6 .\"
   7 .TH SETTERM 1 "May 2014" "util-linux" "User Commands"
   8 .SH NAME
   9 setterm \- set terminal attributes
  10 .SH SYNOPSIS
  11 .B setterm
  12 [options]
  13 .SH DESCRIPTION
  14 .B setterm
  15 writes to standard output a character string that will invoke the specified
  16 terminal capabilities.  Where possible
  17 .I terminfo
  18 is consulted to find the string to use.  Some options however (marked "virtual
  19 consoles only" below) do not correspond to a
  20 .BR terminfo (5)
  21 capability.  In this case, if the terminal type is "con" or "linux" the string
  22 that invokes the specified capabilities on the PC Minix virtual console driver
  23 is output.  Options that are not implemented by the terminal are ignored.
  24 .SH OPTIONS
  25 For boolean options
  26 .RB ( on " or " off ),
  27 the default is
  28 .BR on .
  29 .P
  30 Below, an
  31 .I 8-color
  32 can be
  33 .BR black ,
  34 .BR red ,
  35 .BR green ,
  36 .BR yellow ,
  37 .BR blue ,
  38 .BR magenta ,
  39 .BR cyan ,
  40 or
  41 .BR white .
  42 .P
  43 A
  44 .I 16-color
  45 can be an
  46 .IR 8-color ,
  47 or
  48 .BR grey ,
  49 or
  50 .B bright
  51 followed
  52 by
  53 .BR red ,
  54 .BR green ,
  55 .BR yellow ,
  56 .BR blue ,
  57 .BR magenta ,
  58 .BR cyan ,
  59 or
  60 .BR white .
  61 .P
  62 The various color options may be set independently, at least on virtual
  63 consoles, though the results of setting multiple modes (for example,
  64 .B \-\-underline
  65 and
  66 .BR \-\-half\-bright )
  67 are hardware-dependent.
  68 .TP
  69 \fB\-\-appcursorkeys\fP [\fBon\fP|\fBoff\fP]  (virtual consoles only)
  70 Sets Cursor Key Application Mode on or off.  When on, ESC O A, ESC O B, etc.
  71 will be sent for the cursor keys instead of ESC [ A, ESC [ B, etc.  See the
  72 .I vi and Cursor-Keys
  73 section of the
  74 .I Text-Terminal-HOWTO
  75 for how this can cause problems for \fBvi\fR users.
  76 .TP
  77 \fB\-\-append\fP [\fIconsole_number\fP]
  78 Like
  79 .BR \-\-dump ,
  80 but appends to the snapshot file instead of overwriting it.  Only works if no
  81 .B \-\-dump
  82 options are given.
  83 .TP
  84 \fB\-\-background\fP \fI8-color\fP|\fBdefault\fP
  85 Sets the background text color.
  86 .TP
  87 \fB\-\-blank\fP [\fB0-60\fP|\fBforce\fP|\fBpoke\fP]  (virtual consoles only)
  88 Sets the interval of inactivity, in minutes, after which the screen will be
  89 automatically blanked (using APM if available).  Without an argument, it gets
  90 the blank status (returns which vt was blanked, or zero for an unblanked vt).
  91 .IP
  92 The
  93 .B force
  94 option keeps the screen blank even if a key is pressed.
  95 .IP
  96 The
  97 .B poke
  98 option unblanks the screen.
  99 .TP
 100 \fB\-\-bfreq\fP [\fInumber\fP]  (virtual consoles only)
 101 Sets the bell frequency in Hertz.  Without an argument, it defaults to
 102 .BR 0 .
 103 .TP
 104 \fB\-\-blength\fP [\fB0-2000\fP]  (virtual consoles only)
 105 Sets the bell duration in milliseconds.  Without an argument, it defaults to
 106 .BR 0 .
 107 .TP
 108 .BR \-\-blink " [" on | off ]
 109 Turns blink mode on or off.  Except on a virtual console,
 110 .B \-\-blink off
 111 turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
 112 .TP
 113 .BR \-\-bold " [" on | off ]
 114 Turns bold (extra bright) mode on or off.  Except on a virtual console,
 115 .B \-\-bold off
 116 turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
 117 .TP
 118 \fB\-\-clear\fP [\fBall\fP|\fBrest\fP]
 119 Without an argument or with the argument
 120 .BR all ,
 121 the entire screen is cleared and the cursor is set to the home position,
 122 just like
 123 .BR clear (1)
 124 does.  With the argument
 125 .BR rest ,
 126 the screen is cleared from the current cursor position to the end.
 127 .TP
 128 \fB\-\-clrtabs\fP [\fItab1 tab2 tab3\fP ...]  (virtual consoles only)
 129 Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor positions, in the range
 130 .BR 1-160 .
 131 Without arguments, it clears all tab stops.
 132 .TP
 133 .BR \-\-cursor " [" on | off ]
 134 Turns the terminal's cursor on or off.
 135 .TP
 136 \fB\-\-default\fP
 137 Sets the terminal's rendering options to the default values.
 138 .TP
 139 \fB\-\-dump\fP [\fIconsole_number\fP]
 140 Writes a snapshot of the virtual console with the given number
 141 to the file specified with the
 142 .B \-\-file
 143 option, overwriting its contents; the default is
 144 .IR screen.dump .
 145 Without an argument, it dumps the current virtual console.  This overrides
 146 .BR \-\-append .
 147 .TP
 148 \fB\-\-file\fP \fIfilename\fP
 149 Sets the snapshot file name for any
 150 .B \-\-dump
 151 or
 152 .B \-\-append
 153 options on the same command line.  If this option is not present, the default
 154 is
 155 .I screen.dump
 156 in the current directory.  A path name that exceeds the system maximum will be
 157 truncated, see PATH_MAX from linux/limits.h for the value.
 158 .TP
 159 \fB\-\-foreground\fP \fI8-color\fP|\fBdefault\fP
 160 Sets the foreground text color.
 161 .TP
 162 .BR \-\-half\-bright " [" on | off ]
 163 Turns dim (half-brightness) mode on or off.  Except on a virtual console,
 164 .B \-\-half\-bright off
 165 turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
 166 .TP
 167 \fB\-\-hbcolor\fP \fI16-color\fP
 168 Sets the color for half-bright characters.
 169 .TP
 170 \fB\-\-initialize\fP
 171 Displays the terminal initialization string, which typically sets the
 172 terminal's rendering options, and other attributes to the default values.
 173 .TP
 174 .BR \-\-inversescreen " [" on | off ]
 175 Swaps foreground and background colors for the whole screen.
 176 .TP
 177 .BR \-\-linewrap " [" on | off ]
 178 Makes the terminal continue on a new line when a line is full.
 179 .TP
 180 .BR \-\-msg " [" on | off "]  (virtual consoles only)"
 181 Enables or disables the sending of kernel
 182 .BR printk ()
 183 messages to the console.
 184 .TP
 185 \fB\-\-msglevel\fP \fB0-8\fP  (virtual consoles only)
 186 Sets the console logging level for kernel
 187 .B printk()
 188 messages.  All messages strictly more important than this will be printed, so a
 189 logging level of
 190 .B 0
 191 has the same effect as
 192 .B \-\-msg on
 193 and a logging level of
 194 .B 8
 195 will print all kernel messages.
 196 .BR klogd (8)
 197 may be a more convenient interface to the logging of kernel messages.
 198 .TP
 199 \fB\-\-powerdown\fP [\fB0-60\fP]
 200 Sets the VESA powerdown interval in minutes.  Without an argument, it defaults
 201 to
 202 .B 0
 203 (disable powerdown).  If the console is blanked or the monitor is in suspend
 204 mode, then the monitor will go into vsync suspend mode or powerdown mode
 205 respectively after this period of time has elapsed.
 206 .TP
 207 \fB\-\-powersave\fP \fBoff\fP
 208 Turns off monitor VESA powersaving features.
 209 .TP
 210 \fB\-\-powersave\fP \fBon\fP|\fBvsync\fP
 211 Puts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.
 212 .TP
 213 \fB\-\-powersave\fP \fBpowerdown\fP
 214 Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.
 215 .TP
 216 \fB\-\-powersave\fP \fBhsync\fP
 217 Puts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.
 218 .TP
 219 \fB\-\-regtabs\fP [\fB1-160\fP]  (virtual consoles only)
 220 Clears all tab stops, then sets a regular tab stop pattern, with one tab every
 221 specified number of positions.  Without an argument, it defaults to
 222 .BR 8 .
 223 .TP
 224 .BR \-\-repeat " [" on | off "]  (virtual consoles only)"
 225 Turns keyboard repeat on or off.
 226 .TP
 227 \fB\-\-reset\fP
 228 Displays the terminal reset string, which typically resets the terminal to
 229 its power-on state.
 230 .TP
 231 \fB\-\-resize\fP
 232 Reset terminal size by assessing maximum row and column.  This is useful
 233 when actual geometry and kernel terminal driver are not in sync.  Most
 234 notable use case is with serial consoles, that do not use
 235 .BR ioctl (3)
 236 but just byte streams and breaks.
 237 .TP
 238 \fB\-\-reverse\fP [\fBon\fP|\fBoff\fP]
 239 Turns reverse video mode on or off.  Except on a virtual console,
 240 .B \-\-reverse off
 241 turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
 242 .TP
 243 \fB\-\-store\fP  (virtual consoles only)
 244 Stores the terminal's current rendering options (foreground and background
 245 colors) as the values to be used at reset-to-default.
 246 .TP
 247 \fB\-\-tabs\fP [\fItab1 tab2 tab3\fP ...]
 248 Sets tab stops at the given horizontal cursor positions, in the range
 249 .BR 1-160 .
 250 Without arguments, it shows the current tab stop settings.
 251 .TP
 252 \fB\-\-term\fP \fIterminal_name\fP
 253 Overrides the TERM environment variable.
 254 .TP
 255 \fB\-\-ulcolor\fP \fI16-color\fP  (virtual consoles only)
 256 Sets the color for underlined characters.
 257 .TP
 258 .BR \-\-underline " [" on | off ]
 259 Turns underline mode on or off.
 260 .TP
 261 \fB\-\-version\fP
 262 Displays version information and exits.
 263 .TP
 264 \fB\-\-help\fP
 265 Displays a help text and exits.
 266 .SH COMPATIBILITY
 267 Since version 2.25
 268 .B setterm
 269 has support for long options with two hyphens, for example
 270 .BR \-\-help ,
 271 beside the historical long options with a single hyphen, for example
 272 .BR \-help .
 273 In scripts it is better to use the backward-compatible single hyphen
 274 rather than the double hyphen.  Currently there are no plans nor good
 275 reasons to discontinue single-hyphen compatibility.
 276 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 277 .BR stty (1),
 278 .BR tput (1),
 279 .BR tty (4),
 280 .BR terminfo (5)
 281 .SH BUGS
 282 Differences between the Minix and Linux versions are not documented.
 283 .SH AVAILABILITY
 284 The setterm command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 285 .UR https://\:www.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/utils\:/util-linux/
 286 Linux Kernel Archive
 287 .UE .