SETTERM(1)                                                         User Commands                                                        SETTERM(1)

NAME

       setterm - set terminal attributes

SYNOPSIS

       setterm [options]

DESCRIPTION

       setterm writes to standard output a character string that will invoke the specified terminal capabilities.  Where possible terminfo is con-
       sulted to find the string to use.  Some options however (marked "virtual consoles only" below) do not correspond to a terminfo(5)  capabil-
       ity.   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.

OPTIONS

       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  exam-
       ple, --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|default
              Sets 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  con-
              tents; the default is screen.dump.  Without an argument, it dumps the current virtual console.  This overrides --append.

       --file filename
              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.  A path name that  exceeds  the  system  maximum  will  be  truncated,  see  PATH_MAX  from
              linux/limits.h for the value.

       --foreground 8-color|default
              Sets 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 off
              Turns off monitor VESA powersaving features.

       --powersave on|vsync
              Puts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.

       --powersave powerdown
              Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.

       --powersave hsync
              Puts 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.

       --resize
              Reset terminal size by assessing maximum row and column.  This is useful when actual geometry and kernel terminal driver are not  in
              sync.  Most notable use case is with serial consoles, that do not use ioctl(3) but just byte streams and breaks.

       --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  set-
              tings.

       --term terminal_name
              Overrides 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.

COMPATIBILITY

       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.

SEE ALSO

       stty(1), tput(1), tty(4), terminfo(5)

BUGS

       Differences between the Minix and Linux versions are not documented.

AVAILABILITY

       The  setterm  command  is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils
       /util-linux/>.

util-linux                                                           May 2014                                                           SETTERM(1)