tput(1) User commands tput(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

**tput** - initialize a terminal, exercise its capabilities, or query *terminfo* database

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**tput** \[**-v**] \[**-T** *terminal-type*] {*cap-code* \[*parameter* ...]} ...

**tput** \[**-v**] \[**-T** *terminal-type*] \[**-x**] **clear**

**tput** \[**-v**] \[**-T** *terminal-type*] **init**

**tput** \[**-v**] \[**-T** *terminal-type*] **reset**

**tput** \[**-v**] \[**-T** *terminal-type*] **longname**

**tput** \[**-v**] **-S**

**tput** \[**-v**] **-V**

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

**tput** uses the *terminfo* 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)](/man/os/ncurses/terminfo.5) discusses terminal capabilities at length and presents a complete list of standardized *cap-codes*. [**user\_caps**(5)](/man/os/ncurses/user_caps.5) presents other widely used but non-standard capabilities.

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

[Boolean](#Boolean)

**tput** sets its exit status to **0** if the terminal possesses *cap-code*, and **1** if it does not.

[numeric](#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](#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.

## [Operands](#Operands)

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”.

[*cap-code*](#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)](/man/os/ncurses/tparm.3X) to perform the substitution. If no parameters are given for the capability, **tput** writes the string without performing the substitution.

[**init**](#init)

initializes the terminal. If the terminal database is present and an entry for the user's terminal type exists, the following occur.

(1)

**tput** retrieves the terminal's mode settings. It successively tests the file descriptors corresponding to

- the standard error stream,
- the standard output stream,
- the standard input stream, and
- */dev/tty*

to obtain terminal settings. Having retrieved them, **tput** remembers which descriptor to use for further updates.

(2)

If the terminal dimensions cannot be obtained from the operating system, but the environment or terminal type database entry describes them, **tput** updates the operating system's notion of them.

(3)

**tput** updates the terminal modes.

- Tab expansion is turned on or off per the specification in the entry, and
- if tabs are not expanded, standard tabs (every 8 spaces) are set.

(4)

If initialization capabilities, detailed in subsection “Tabs and Initialization” of [**terminfo**(5)](/man/os/ncurses/terminfo.5), are present, **tput** writes them to the standard output stream.

(5)

**tput** flushes the standard output stream.

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

[**reset**](#reset)

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

(1)

**tput** sets the terminal modes to a “sane” state,

- enabling canonical (“cooked”) and echo modes,
- disabling cbreak and raw modes,
- enabling newline translation, and
- setting any special input characters to their default values.

(2)

If any reset capabilities are defined for the terminal type, **tput** writes them to the output stream. Otherwise, **tput** uses any defined initialization capabilities. Reset capabilities are detailed in subsection “Tabs and Initialization” of [**terminfo**(5)](/man/os/ncurses/terminfo.5).

[**longname**](#longname)

A *terminfo* 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 *terminfo* 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)](/man/os/ncurses/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)](/man/os/ncurses/ioctl.2).

## [Aliases](#Aliases)

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**](#clear)

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

[**init**](#init~2)

has the same name as another program in widespread use.

[**reset**](#reset~2)

is provided by the [**tset**(1)](/man/os/ncurses/tset.1) utility (also via a link named **reset**).

## [Terminal Size](#Terminal_Size)

Besides the pseudo-capabilities (such as **init**), **tput** treats the **lines** and **cols** *cap-codes* specially: it may call [**setupterm**(3X)](/man/os/ncurses/setupterm.3X) to obtain the terminal size.

- 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.
- 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.
- 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).

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**-S**](#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)](/man/os/ncurses/tparm.3X).

[**-T type**](#T)

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**](#v)

causes **tput** to operate verbosely, reporting warnings.

[**-V**](#V)

reports the version of *ncurses* associated with **tput**, and exits with a successful status.

[**-x**](#x)

prevents “**tput clear**” from attempting to clear the scrollback buffer.

# [EXIT STATUS](#EXIT_STATUS)

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

# [ENVIRONMENT](#ENVIRONMENT)

**tput** reads up to three environment variables if the **-T** option is not specified.

[*COLUMNS*](#COLUMNS)

specifies the width of the screen in characters.

[*LINES*](#LINES)

specifies the height of the screen in characters.

[*TERM*](#TERM)

denotes the terminal type. Each terminal type is distinct, though many are similar.

# [FILES](#FILES)

*/usr/share/tabset*

tab stop initialization database

*/usr/share/terminfo*

compiled terminal description database

# [PORTABILITY](#PORTABILITY)

Over time *ncurses* **tput** has differed from that of System V in two important respects, one now mostly historical.

•

“**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)](/man/os/ncurses/cron.1)), **tput** exits with an error status.

•

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)](/man/os/ncurses/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 *terminfo*, 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.

*ncurses*'s implementation of *tput*, unlike others, accepts both *termcap* and *terminfo* *cap-codes* if *termcap* support is compiled in. In that case, however, *termcap* and *terminfo* codes have two ambiguities; *ncurses* assumes the *terminfo* code.

- The *cap-code* **dl** means **delete\_line** to *termcap* but **parm\_delete\_line** to *terminfo*. *termcap* uses the code **DL** for **parm\_delete\_line**. *terminfo* uses the code **dl1** for **delete\_line**.
- The *cap-code* **ed** means **exit\_delete\_mode** to *termcap* but **clr\_eos** to *terminfo*. *termcap* uses the code **cd** for **clr\_eos**. *terminfo* 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**, 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.

- *ncurses* supports **clear** as it does any other standard *cap-code*. The others (**init** and **longname**) do not correspond to terminal capabilities.
- 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.
- A few platforms such as FreeBSD recognize *termcap* codes rather than *terminfo* capability codes in their respective *tput* commands. Since 2010, NetBSD's *tput* uses *terminfo* codes. Before that, it (like FreeBSD) recognized *termcap* codes.

Beginning in 2021, FreeBSD uses *ncurses* **tput**, configured for both *terminfo* (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.

- X/Open Curses Issue 7 documents **tput** differently, with *cap-code* and the other features used in this implementation.
- 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.
- 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).

- 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.
- It assigns exit status 255 to a numeric variable that is not specified in the *terminfo* database. That likely is a documentation error, mistaking the “-1” written to the standard output to indicate an absent or canceled 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.

# [HISTORY](#HISTORY)

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.

System V developed a different *tput* command.

- SVr2 (1984) provided a rudimentary *tput* that checked the parameter against each capability name and returned the corresponding value. This version of *tput* did not use [**tparm**(3X)](/man/os/ncurses/tparm.3X) for parameterized capabilities.
- SVr3 (1987) replaced that 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.
- 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-Reno (1990), making it follow the interface of System V *tput* by accepting some parameters named for *terminfo* (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. These became 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.

- **tset** was more effective, resetting the terminal's modes and special input characters.
- 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 the terminal's modes and special input characters.

As of *ncurses* 6.1, the “reset” features of the two programs are (mostly) the same. Two minor differences remain.

- When issuing a reset, the **tset** program checks whether the device appears to be a pseudoterminal (as might be used by a terminal emulator program), and, if it does not, waits one second in case it is communicating with a hardware terminal.
- The two programs write the terminal initialization strings to different streams; that is, standard error for **tset** and standard output for **tput**.

# [EXAMPLES](#EXAMPLES)

[**tput init**](#tput)

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**](#tput~2)

Reset an AT&T 5620 terminal, overriding the terminal type in the *TERM* environment variable.

[**tput cnorm**](#tput~3)

Set cursor to normal visibility.

[**tput home**](#tput~4)

Move the cursor to line 0, column 0: the upper left corner of the screen, usually known as the “home” cursor position.

[**tput clear**](#tput~5)

Clear the screen: write the **clear\_screen** capability's value to the standard output stream.

[**tput cols**](#tput~6)

Report the number of columns used by the current terminal type.

[**tput -Tadm3a cols**](#tput~7)

Report the number of columns used by an ADM-3A terminal.

[**strong=\`tput smso\` normal=\`tput rmso\`**](#strong=)

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.

```
printf "${strong}Username:${normal} "
```

```

```

[**tput hc**](#tput~8)

Indicate via exit status whether the terminal is a hard copy device.

[**tput cup 23 4**](#tput~9)

Move the cursor to line 23, column 4.

[**tput cup**](#tput~10)

Report the value of the **cursor\_address** (**cup**) capability (used for cursor movement), with no parameters substituted.

[**tput longname**](#tput~11)

Report the *terminfo* database's description of the terminal type specified in the *TERM* environment variable.

[**tput -S**](#tput~12)

Process multiple capabilities. The **-S** option can be profitably used with a shell “here document”.

```


$ 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**](#tput~13)

Perform the same actions as the foregoing “**tput -S**” example.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**clear**(1)](/man/os/ncurses/clear.1), [**stty**(1)](/man/os/ncurses/stty.1), [**tabs**(1)](/man/os/ncurses/tabs.1), [**tset**(1)](/man/os/ncurses/tset.1), [**curs\_termcap**(3X)](/man/os/ncurses/curs_termcap.3X), [**terminfo**(5)](/man/os/ncurses/terminfo.5), [**user\_caps**(5)](/man/os/ncurses/user_caps.5)

2025-11-11 ncurses 6.6

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Document: tput(1) from ncurses 6.6.20261031-r0 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/ThomasDickey/ncurses-snapshots