path: root/misc-utils/setterm.1

.\" Copyright 1990 Gordon Irlam (gordoni@cs.ua.oz.au)
.\" Copyright 1992 Rickard E. Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
.\" Most of this was copied from the source code.
.\" Do not restrict distribution.
.\" May be distributed under the GNU General Public License
.\"
.\" Most options documented by Colin Watson (cjw44@cam.ac.uk)
.\" Undocumented: -snow, -softscroll, -standout; these are
.\" commented out in the source
.\"
.TH SETTERM 1 "7 January 2000" "Util-Linux 2.10" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
setterm \- set terminal attributes
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B setterm
.RI [ options ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B setterm
writes to standard output a character string that will invoke the
specified terminal capabilities.  Where possible
.I terminfo
is consulted to find the string to use.  Some options however (marked
"virtual consoles only" below) do not correspond to a
.BR terminfo (5)
capability.  In this case, if the terminal type is "con" or "linux" the
string that invokes the specified capabilities on the PC Minix virtual
console driver is output.  Options that are not implemented by the terminal
are ignored.
.SH OPTIONS
For boolean options (\fBon\fP or \fBoff\fP), the default is \fBon\fP.
.P
For conciseness, an \fI8-color\fP below is \fBblack\fP, \fBred\fP,
\fBgreen\fP, \fByellow\fP, \fBblue\fP, \fBmagenta\fP, \fBcyan\fP, or
\fBwhite\fP.
.P
A \fI16-color\fP is an \fI8-color\fP, \fBgrey\fP, or \fBbright\fP followed
by \fBred\fP, \fBgreen\fP, \fByellow\fP, \fBblue\fP, \fBmagenta\fP,
\fBcyan\fP, or \fBwhite\fP.
.P
The various color options may be set independently, at least at virtual
consoles, though the results of setting multiple modes (for example,
.BR \-underline " and " \-half-bright )
are hardware-dependent.
.TP
.BR \-term " terminal_name"
Overrides the TERM environment variable.
.TP
.B \-reset
Displays the terminal reset string, which typically resets the terminal to
its power on state.
.TP
.B \-initialize
Displays the terminal initialization string, which typically sets the
terminal's rendering options, and other attributes to the default values.
.TP
.BR \-cursor " [" on | off ]
Turns the terminal's cursor on or off.
.TP
.BR \-repeat " [" on | off "] (virtual consoles only)"
Turns keyboard repeat on or off.
.TP
.BR \-appcursorkeys " [" on | off "] (virtual consoles only)"
Sets Cursor Key Application Mode on or off. When on, ESC O A, ESC O B, etc.
will be sent for the cursor keys instead of ESC [ A, ESC [ B, etc.  See the
"vi and Cursor-Keys" section of the Text-Terminal-HOWTO for how this can
cause problems for vi users.
.TP
.BR \-linewrap " [" on | off "] (virtual consoles only)"
Turns automatic line-wrapping on or off.
.TP
.B \-default
Sets the terminal's rendering options to the default values.
.TP
\fB\-foreground\fP \fI8-color\fP|\fBdefault\fP (virtual consoles only)
Sets the foreground text color.
.TP
\fB\-background\fP \fI8-color\fP|\fBdefault\fP (virtual consoles only)
Sets the background text color.
.TP
\fB\-ulcolor\fP \fI16-color\fP (virtual consoles only)
Sets the color for underlined characters.
.TP
\fB\-hbcolor\fP \fI16-color\fP (virtual consoles only)
Sets the color for half-bright characters.
.TP
.BR \-inversescreen " [" on | off "] (virtual consoles only)"
Inverts the screen colors.  Foreground and background are swapped, as are
underline and half-brightness.
.TP
.BR \-bold " [" on | off ]
Turns bold (extra bright) mode on or off.  Except at a virtual console,
\fB\-bold off\fP turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink,
reverse).
.TP
.BR \-half-bright " [" on | off ]
Turns dim (half-brightness) mode on or off (see \fB\-hbcolor\fP). Except at
a virtual console, \fB\-half-bright off\fP turns off all attributes (bold,
half-brightness, blink, reverse).
.TP
.BR \-blink " [" on | off ]
Turns blink mode on or off.  Except at a virtual console, \fB\-blink off\fP
turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
.TP
.BR \-reverse " [" on | off ]
Turns reverse video mode on or off.  Except at a virtual console,
\fB\-reverse off\fP turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink,
reverse).
.TP
.BR \-underline " [" on | off ]
Turns underline mode on or off (see \fB\-ulcolor\fP).
.TP
.BR \-store " (virtual consoles only)"
Stores the terminal's current rendering options (foreground and
background colors) as the values to be used at reset-to-default.
.TP
.BR \-clear " [" all ]
Clears the screen and "homes" the cursor, as
.BR clear (1).
.TP
.B \-clear rest
Clears from the current cursor position to the end of the screen.
.TP
.BR \-tabs " [\fItab1 tab2 tab3\fP ...] (virtual consoles only)"
Sets tab stops at the given horizontal cursor positions, in the range 1-160.
Without arguments, shows the current tab stop settings.
.TP
.BR \-clrtabs " [\fItab1 tab2 tab3\fP ...] (virtual consoles only)"
Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor positions, in the range
1-160.  Without arguments, clears all tab stops.
.TP
.BR \-regtabs " [\fI1-160\fP] (virtual consoles only)"
Clears all tab stops, then sets a regular tab stop pattern, with one tab
every specified number of positions.  Without an argument, defaults to 8.
.TP
.BR \-blank " [\fI0-60\fP|\fBforce\fP|\fBpoke\fP] (virtual consoles only)"
Sets the interval of inactivity, in minutes, after which the screen will be
automatically blanked (using APM if available).  Without an argument, gets the
blank status (returns which vt was blanked or zero for unblanked vt).

The
.B force
option keeps screen blank even if a key is pressed.

The
.B poke
option unblank the screen.
.TP
.BR \-dump " [\fI1-NR_CONS\fP]"
Writes a snapshot of the given virtual console (with attributes) to the file
specified in the \fB\-file\fP option, overwriting its contents; the default
is screen.dump.  Without an argument, dumps the current virtual console.
Overrides \fB\-append\fP.
.TP
.BR \-append " [\fI1-NR_CONS\fP]"
Like \fB\-dump\fP, but appends to the snapshot file instead of overwriting
it.  Only works if no \fB\-dump\fP options are given.
.TP
.BI \-file " dumpfilename"
Sets the snapshot file name for any \fB\-dump\fP or \fB\-append\fP options
on the same command line.  If this option is not present, the default is
screen.dump in the current directory.
.TP
.BR \-msg " [" on | off "] (virtual consoles only)"
Enables or disables the sending of kernel \fBprintk()\fP messages to the
console.
.TP
.BR \-msglevel " \fI1-8\fP (virtual consoles only)"
Sets the console logging level for kernel \fBprintk()\fP messages.  All
messages strictly more important than this will be printed, so a logging
level of 0 has the same effect as \fB\-msg on\fP and a logging level of 8
will print all kernel messages.
.BR klogd (8)
may be a more convenient interface to the logging of kernel messages.
.TP
.BR "\-powersave on" | vsync
Puts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.
.TP
.B \-powersave hsync
Puts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.
.TP
.B \-powersave powerdown
Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.
.TP
.BR \-powersave " [" off "]"
Turns off monitor VESA powersaving features.
.TP
.BR \-powerdown " [\fI0-60\fP]"
Sets the VESA powerdown interval in minutes.  Without an argument, defaults
to 0 (disable powerdown).  If the console is blanked or the monitor is in
suspend mode, then the monitor will go into vsync suspend mode or powerdown
mode respectively after this period of time has elapsed.
.TP
.BR \-blength " [\fI0-2000\fP]"
Sets the bell duration in milliseconds.  Without an argument, defaults to 0.
.TP
.BR \-bfreq " [\fIfreqnumber\fP]"
Sets the bell frequency in Hz.  Without an argument, defaults to 0.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR tput (1),
.BR stty (1),
.BR terminfo (5),
.BR tty (4)
.SH BUGS
Differences between the Minix and Linux versions are not documented.
.SH AVAILABILITY
The setterm command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is available from
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/.