setterm — set terminal attributes
setterm
[options]
setterm writes to standard output a character string that will invoke the specified terminal capabilities. Where possible terminfo is consulted to find the string to use. Some options however (marked "virtual consoles only" below) do not correspond to a 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.
For boolean options (on or off), the default is on.
Below, an 8-color
can be
black
, red
, green
,
yellow
, blue
, magenta
,
cyan
, or white
.
A 16-color
can be an
8-color
, or grey
, or bright
followed by red
, green
, yellow
,
blue
, magenta
, cyan
,
or white
.
The various color options may be set independently, at
least on virtual consoles, though the results of setting
multiple modes (for example, −−underline
and −−half−bright
) are
hardware-dependent.
−−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.
−−append
[console_number]Like −−dump
,
but appends to the snapshot file instead of overwriting
it. Only works if no −−dump
options are
given.
−−background
8-color
|defaultSets the background text color.
−−blank
[0-60
|force|poke] (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, it gets the blank status (returns which vt was blanked, or zero for an unblanked vt).
The force option keeps the screen blank even if a key is pressed.
The poke option unblanks the screen.
−−bfreq
[number] (virtual
consoles only)Sets the bell frequency in Hertz. Without an
argument, it defaults to 0
.
−−blength
[0-2000
] (virtual consoles
only)Sets the bell duration in milliseconds. Without an
argument, it defaults to 0
.
−−blink [on|off]
Turns blink mode on or off. Except on a virtual
console, −−blink
off
turns off all attributes (bold,
half-brightness, blink, reverse).
−−bold [on|off]
Turns bold (extra bright) mode on or off. Except on
a virtual console, −−bold off
turns off all
attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
−−clear
[all|rest]Without an argument or with the argument all, the entire screen is cleared and the cursor is set to the home position, just like clear(1) does. With the argument rest, the screen is cleared from the current cursor position to the end.
−−clrtabs
[tab1 tab2 tab3 ...] (virtual
consoles only)Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor
positions, in the range 1-160
. Without
arguments, it clears all tab stops.
−−cursor [on|off]
Turns the terminal's cursor on or off.
−−default
Sets the terminal's rendering options to the default values.
−−dump
[console_number]Writes a snapshot of the virtual console with the
given number to the file specified with the
−−file
option,
overwriting its contents; the default is screen.dump
. Without an
argument, it dumps the current virtual console. This
overrides −−append
.
−−file
filenameSets the snapshot file name for any −−dump
or −−append
options on the
same command line. If this option is not present, the
default is screen.dump
in the
current directory. A path name that exceeds the system
maximum will be truncated, see PATH_MAX from
linux/limits.h for the value.
−−foreground
8-color
|defaultSets the foreground text color.
−−half−bright
[on|off]
Turns dim (half-brightness) mode on or off. Except
on a virtual console, −−half−bright off
turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink,
reverse).
−−hbcolor
16-color
Sets the color for bold characters.
−−initialize
Displays the terminal initialization string, which typically sets the terminal's rendering options, and other attributes to the default values.
−−inversescreen
[on|off]
Swaps foreground and background colors for the whole screen.
−−linewrap
[on|off]
Makes the terminal continue on a new line when a line is full.
−−msg [on|off] (virtual consoles
only)
Enables or disables the sending of kernel
printk
() messages to the
console.
−−msglevel
0-8
(virtual consoles
only)Sets the console logging level for kernel
printk
() messages. All
messages strictly more important than this will be
printed, so a logging level of 0
has the same effect as −−msg on
and a logging
level of 8
will print all
kernel messages. klogd(8)
may be a more convenient interface to the logging of
kernel messages.
−−powerdown
[0-60
]Sets the VESA powerdown interval in minutes. Without
an argument, it 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.
−−powersave
offTurns off monitor VESA powersaving features.
−−powersave
on|vsyncPuts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.
−−powersave
powerdownPuts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.
−−powersave
hsyncPuts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.
−−regtabs
[1-160
] (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, it defaults to
8
.
−−repeat [on|off] (virtual consoles
only)
Turns keyboard repeat on or off.
−−reset
Displays the terminal reset string, which typically resets the terminal to its power-on state.
−−reverse
[on|off]Turns reverse video mode on or off. Except on a
virtual console, −−reverse off
turns off all
attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
−−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.
−−tabs
[tab1 tab2 tab3
...]Sets tab stops at the given horizontal cursor
positions, in the range 1-160
. Without
arguments, it shows the current tab stop settings.
−−term
terminal_nameOverrides the TERM environment variable.
−−ulcolor
16-color
(virtual consoles
only)Sets the color for underlined characters.
−−underline
[on|off]
Turns underline mode on or off.
−−version
Displays version information and exits.
−−help
Displays a help text and exits.
Since version 2.25 setterm has support for
long options with two hyphens, for example −−help
, beside the historical
long options with a single hyphen, for example −help
. In scripts it is better to use
the backward-compatible single hyphen rather than the double
hyphen. Currently there are no plans nor good reasons to
discontinue single-hyphen compatibility.
The setterm command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive
Copyright 1990 Gordon Irlam (gordonics.ua.oz.au) Copyright 1992 Rickard E. Faith (faithcs.unc.edu) Copyright 2000 Colin Watson (cjw44cam.ac.uk) Do not restrict distribution. May be distributed under the GNU General Public License |