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”.
For conciseness, an 8-color
below is black
, red
, green
,
yellow
, blue
, magenta
,
cyan
, or white
.
A 16-color
is an 8-color
, grey
,
or bright
followed by
red
, green
, yellow
,
blue
, magenta
, cyan
,
or white
.
The various color options may be set independently, at
least at virtual consoles, though the results of setting
multiple modes (for example, −underline
and −half−bright
) are
hardware-dependent.
−term
terminal_name
Overrides the TERM environment variable.
−reset
Displays the terminal reset string, which typically resets the terminal to its power on state.
−initialize
Displays the terminal initialization string, which typically sets the terminal's rendering options, and other attributes to the default values.
−cursor
[on|off]
Turns the terminal's cursor on or off.
−repeat
[on|off] (virtual consoles only)
Turns keyboard repeat on or off.
−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.
−linewrap [on|off] (virtual consoles
only)
Turns automatic line-wrapping on or off.
−default
Sets the terminal's rendering options to the default values.
−foreground
8-color
|default (virtual
consoles only)Sets the foreground text color.
−background
8-color
|default (virtual
consoles only)Sets the background text color.
−ulcolor
16-color
(virtual consoles
only)Sets the color for underlined characters.
−hbcolor
16-color
(virtual consoles
only)Sets the color for half-bright characters.
−inversescreen [on|off] (virtual consoles
only)
Inverts the screen colors. Foreground and background are swapped, as are underline and half-brightness.
−bold
[on|off]
Turns bold (extra bright) mode on or off. Except at
a virtual console, −bold
off
turns off all attributes (bold,
half-brightness, blink, reverse).
−half−bright
[on|off]
Turns dim (half-brightness) mode on or off (see
−hbcolor
). Except at
a virtual console, −half−bright off
turns off
all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink,
reverse).
−blink
[on|off]
Turns blink mode on or off. Except at a virtual
console, −blink off
turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink,
reverse).
−reverse [on|off]
Turns reverse video mode on or off. Except at a
virtual console, −reverse
off
turns off all attributes (bold,
half-brightness, blink, reverse).
−underline [on|off]
Turns underline mode on or off (see −ulcolor
).
−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.
−clear
[all]
Clears the screen and "homes" the cursor, as clear(1).
−clearrest
Clears from the current cursor position to the end of the screen.
−tabs
[tab1 tab2 tab3
...] (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.
−clrtabs [tab1
tab2 tab3 ...] (virtual consoles
only)
Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor positions, in the range 1-160. Without arguments, clears all tab stops.
−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, defaults to 8.
−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, gets the blank status (returns which vt was blanked or zero for unblanked vt).
The force option keeps screen blank even if a key is pressed.
The poke option unblank the screen.
−dump
[1−NR_CONS
]
Writes a snapshot of the given virtual console (with
attributes) to the file specified in the −file
option, overwriting its
contents; the default is screen.dump. Without an
argument, dumps the current virtual console. Overrides
−append
.
−append
[1−NR_CONS
]
Like −dump
, but
appends to the snapshot file instead of overwriting it.
Only works if no −dump
options are given.
−file
dumpfilename
Sets 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.
−msg
[on|off] (virtual consoles only)
Enables or disables the sending of kernel
printk
() messages to the
console.
−msglevel 1−8
(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.
−powersave on|vsync
Puts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.
−powersavehsync
Puts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.
−powersavepowerdown
Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.
−powersave [off]
Turns off monitor VESA powersaving features.
−powerdown [0−60
]
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.
−blength [0−2000
]
Sets the bell duration in milliseconds. Without an argument, defaults to 0.
−bfreq
[freqnumber
]
Sets the bell frequency in Hz. Without an argument, defaults to 0.
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/.
Copyright 1990 Gordon Irlam (gordonics.ua.oz.au) Copyright 1992 Rickard E. Faith (faithcs.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 (cjw44cam.ac.uk) Undocumented: -snow, -softscroll, -standout; these are commented out in the source |