stty(1) General Commands Manual stty(1)
Name
stty - set terminal options
Syntax
stty [option...]
Description
The command sets or reports certain input/output characteristics of the current output terminal. Output from the program is sent to the
diagnostic output (standard error). The command is used in two terminal environments. The terminal environment is determined by the set-
ting of the terminal's line discipline. If the terminal's line discipline is set to anything other than TERMIODISC (termio line disci-
pline), refer to the sections entitled "Non-Termio Operation" and "Non-Termio Options." If your terminal line is set to the termio line
discipline, refer to the sections entitled "Termio Operation" and "Termio Options."
Note that you can use the command to find out the current line discipline of your terminal.
Non-termio Operation
With no argument, the command reports the speed of the terminal and the settings of the options that are different from their defaults.
The following arguments report the current settings of the terminal:
all Reports all normally used non-termio option settings.
everything Reports all non-termio option settings.
Non-Termio Options
The option strings for terminals that are not using the termio line discipline are selected from the following set:
even Allows even parity input.
-even Disallows even parity input.
odd Allows odd parity input.
-odd Disallows odd parity input.
raw Specifies raw mode input with no input processing (for example, erase, kill, interrupt); parity bit passed back.
-raw Negates raw mode.
cooked Negates raw mode.
cbreak Makes each character available to as it is received; all processing other than erase and kill processing is performed.
-cbreak Makes characters available to read only when new line is received.
-nl Allows carriage return for new-line, and outputs CR-LF for carriage return or new-line.
nl Accepts only new-line to end lines.
echo Echoes back every character typed.
-echo Does not echo characters.
lcase Maps upper case to lower case.
-lcase Does not map case.
tandem Enables flow control. The system sends out the stop character when its internal queue is in danger of overflowing on input;
it sends the start character when it is ready to accept further input.
-tandem Disables flow control.
-tabs Replaces tabs with spaces when printing.
tabs Preserves tabs. This option may cause unpredictable behavior if unprintable characters, such as escape sequences, are sent
to the terminal.
ek Sets erase and kill characters to the pound sign (#) and at sign (@) respectively.
termiod Sets line discipline to termio line discipline. Note that once the line discipline has been changed to TERMIODISC, the
termio options to should be used.
disc Reports the current line discipline.
old Sets line discipline to the old line discipline (OTTDISC).
The following commands take a character argument c. You may specify u or undef instead of c to leave the value undefined. The two charac-
ter sequence of is also interpreted as a control character, with representing delete.
erase c Sets the erase character to c. The default is the pound sign (#), but it is often reset to <CTRL/H>.
kill c Sets the kill character to c. The default is the at sign (@), but it is often reset to <CTRL/U>.
intr c Sets the interrupt character to c. The default is DEL or but it is often reset to <CTRL/C>.
quit c Sets the quit character to c. The default is <CTRL/>.
start c Sets the start character to c. The default is <CTRL/Q>.
stop c Sets the stop character to c. The default is <CTRL/S>.
eof c Sets the end of file character to c. The default is <CTRL/S>.
brk c Sets the break character to c. The default is undefined. This character causes a wakeup.
cr0 cr1 cr2 cr3
Selects style of delay for carriage return; see for more information.
nl0 nl1 nl2 nl3
Selects style of delay for linefeed.
tab0 tab1 tab2 Selects style of delay for tab.
ff0 ff1 Selects style of delay for form feed.
bs0 bs1 Selects style of delay for backspace.
dec Sets all modes suitable for Digital Equipment Corporation operating systems users. This command sets erase to <CTRL/?>,
kill to <CTRL/U>, and interrupt to <CTRL/C>. It also sets the decctlq and newcrt options.
size Prints the display size. The format is (rows) (columns).
rows i Sets the number of rows in the display to i.
cols i Sets the number of columns in the display to i.
excl Sets line to exclusive use.
-excl Clears exclusive use status.
0 Hangs up phone line immediately.
50 75 110 134 150 200 300 600 1200 1800 2400 4800 9600 exta extb
Sets terminal baud rate to the number given, if possible.
The following are unsupported terminal devices:
tty33 Sets all modes suitable for the Teletype Corporation Model 33 terminal.
tty37 Sets all modes suitable for the Teletype Corporation Model 37 terminal.
vt05 Sets all modes suitable for Digital Equipment Corporation VT05 terminal.
tn300 Sets all modes suitable for a General Electric TermiNet 300.
ti700 Sets all modes suitable for Texas Instruments 700 series terminal.
tek Sets all modes suitable for Tektronix 4014 terminal.
A teletype driver that supports the job control processing of and has more functionality than the basic driver is fully described in The
following options apply only to it:
new Uses new driver (switching flushes typeahead). Sets line discipline to NTTYDISC.
crt Sets options for a CRT (crtbs, ctlecho and, if greater than or equal to 1200 baud, it sets crterase and crtkill.)
crtbs Echoes backspaces on erase characters.
prterase Echoes characters that have been erased.
crterase Wipes out erased characters with the following combination of keystrokes: backspace-space-backspace.
-crterase Leaves characters visible that have been erased. Invoke this option by using the backstroke key alone.
crtkill Wipes out input. Similar to crterase in how it works.
-crtkill Echoes the line kill character and a new line on line kill.
ctlecho Echoes control characters as a circumflex followed by the character. For example, echoes as ^X. Type two backspaces fol-
lowing the EOT character (<CTRL/D>).
-ctlecho Echoes control characters as themselves; in cooked mode EOT (<CTRL/D>) is not echoed.
decctlq Enables a start character (normally <CTRL/Q>) to restart output when it has been suspended.
-decctlq Enables any character that you type to restart output when it has been suspended. The start character restarts output with-
out providing any input. This is the default.
noflsh Suppresses flushing of input and output queues upon receipt of an interrupt signal.
-noflsh Flushes input and output queues upon receipt of interrupt signal.
tostop Stops background jobs if they attempt terminal output.
-tostop Allows output from background jobs to the terminal.
tilde Converts the tilde ( ) to a backslash () on output.
-tilde Suppresses conversion of the tilde ( ) to a backslash ().
flusho Discards output usually because the user hit a (internal state bit).
-flusho Output is not discarded.
pendin Resubmits input that is pending after a switch from cbreak to cooked. Activated when a read becomes pending or more input
arrives (internal state bit).
-pendin Specifies that input is not pending.
litout Sends output characters without any processing.
-litout Does normal output processing, such as inserting delays.
autoflow Causes the terminal multiplexer to automatically respond to start and stop characters. This functionality is only provided
if the stop character is and the start character is <CTRL/Q>.
-autoflow Uses software controlled flow control.
nohang Does not send a hangup signal if the carrier drops. Note that the nohang option should be used carefully. For example,
suppose that you have the option in your .login file and are logged in over a modem. If the carrier drops, the next call in
on this line gets your active shell.
-nohang Sends a hangup signal to control process group when carrier drops.
pass8 Allows full eight bit ascii characters in input and output.
-pass8 Strips characters to seven bits, thus disallowing the use of eight bit ascii characters.
The following special characters are applicable only when the line discipline is set to NTTYDISC. They are not normally changed. The new
option sets the line discipline to NTTYDISC.
susp c Sets the suspend process character to c. The default is <CTRL/Z>.
dsusp c Sets the delayed suspend process character to c. The default is <CTRL/Y>.
rprnt c Sets the reprint line character to c. The default is <CTRL/R>.
flush c Sets the flush output character to c. The default is <CTRL/O>.
werase c Sets the word erase character to c. The default is <CTRL/W>.
lnext c Sets the literal next character to c. The default is <CTRL/V>.
quote c Sets the quote character (for erase and kill) to c. The default is <CTRL/>.
Termio Operation
This section describes the arguments and options that are used when the terminal line is set to the termio line discipline (TERMIODISC).
The termio line discipline is intended for programs that use either IEEE P1003 termios, or System Five style termio. Unless noted other-
wise, all options in this section are applicable to both IEEE P1003 termios or System Five termio.
With no arguments, stty reports the speed of the terminal and the settings of certain options.
-a Reports option settings relevant to System Five termios.
-p Reports option settings relevant to IEEE POSIX termios.
For more information about the modes listed in the first five groups below refer to and
Termio Options
For terminals that are using the termio line discipline, select option strings from the following set:
Control Modes
parenb (-parenb) Enables (disables) parity generation and detection.
parodd (-parodd) Selects odd (even) parity.
cs5 cs6 cs7 cs8 Select character size.
0 Hangs up phone line immediately.
50 75 110 134 150 200 300 600 1200 1800 2400 4800 9600 exta extb
Sets terminal baud rate to the number given, if possible. (All speeds are not supported by all hardware interfaces.)
hupcl (-hupcl) Sends (does not send) hangup signal on last close of terminal line.
cstopb (-cstopb) Uses two (one) stop bits per character.
cread (-cread) Enables (disables) the receiver.
clocal (-clocal) Assumes a line without (with) modem control.
loblk (-loblk) Blocks (does not block) output from a non-current layer. (System Five termio only)
autoflow (-autoflow)
Line operates with (without) hardware monitored flow control. (POSIX only)
Input Modes
ignbrk (-ignbrk) Ignores (does not ignore) break on input.
brkint (-brkint) Signals (does not signal) INTR on break.
ignpar (-ignpar) Ignores (does not ignore) parity errors.
parmrk (-parmrk) Marks (does not mark) parity errors.
inpck (-inpck) Enables (disables) input parity checking.
istrip (-istrip) Strips (does not strip) input characters to seven bits.
inlcr (-inlcr) Maps (does not map) NL to CR on input.
igncr (-igncr) Ignores (does not ignore) CR on input.
icrnl (-icrnl) Maps (does not map) CR to NL on input.
iuclc (-iuclc) Maps (does not map) upper-case alphabetics to lower case on input.
ixon (-ixon) Enables (disables) START/STOP output control. Output is stopped by sending an ASCII DC3 and started by sending an ASCII
DC1.
ixany (-ixany) Allows any character (only DC1) to restart output.
ixoff (-ixoff) Requests that the system send (not send) START/STOP characters when the input queue is nearly empty/full.
Output Modes
opost (-opost)
Post-processes output (does not post-process output; ignores all other output modes).
olcuc (-olcuc)
Maps (does not map) lower-case alphabetics to upper case on output.
onlcr (-onlcr)
Maps (does not map) NL to CR-NL on output.
ocrnl (-ocrnl)
Maps (does not map) CR to NL on output.
onocr (-onocr)
Does not output (outputs) CRs at column zero.
onlret (-onlret)
Performs (does not perform) the CR function on the terminal NL.
ofill (-ofill)
Uses fill characters (uses timing) for delays.
ofdel (-ofdel)
Specifies fill characters as DELs (NULs).
cr0 cr1 cr2 cr3
Selects style of delay for carriage returns.
nl0 nl1
Selects style of delay for line-feeds.
tab0 tab1 tab2 tab3
Selects style of delay for horizontal tabs.
bs0 bs1
Selects style of delay for backspaces.
ff0 ff1
Selects style of delay for form-feeds.
vt0 vt1
Selects style of delay for vertical tabs.
Local Modes
isig (-isig) Enables (disables) the checking of characters against the special control characters INTR and QUIT.
icanon (-icanon) Enables (disables) canonical input (ERASE and KILL processing).
xcase (-xcase) Presents canonical (unprocessed) upper/lower-case.
echo (-echo) Echoes (does not echo) every character typed.
echoe (-echoe) Echoes (does not echo) ERASE character as a backspace-space-backspace string. Note that this mode erases the ERASEed
character on many CRT terminals; however, it does not keep track of column position and, as a result, may be confusing on
escaped characters, tabs, and backspaces.
echok (-echok) Echoes (does not echo) NL after KILL character.
echonl (-echonl) Echoes (does not echo) NL.
noflsh (-noflsh) Disables (enables) flush after INTR or QUIT.
ctlech (-ctlech) Echoes (echo control characters unchanged) control characters as ^x and delete as ^?. (POSIX only)
prtera (-prtera) Echoes (does not echo) erased characters enclosed within back and forward slashes ( /) for printing terminals. (POSIX
only)
crtera (-crtera) Wipes out (simply backspace) erased characters with backspace-space-backspace. (POSIX only)
crtkil (-crtkil) Wipes out line (kill character and newline) with backspace-space-backspace. (POSIX ONLY)
Control Assignments
control-character c
Sets control-character to c, where control-character is erase, kill, intr, quit, eof, eol, min, or time (min and time are
used with -icanon.
The following control characters are applicable to POSIX mode only: susp, dsusp, rprnt, flush, werase, lnext, quote.
If c is preceded by a circumflex (^), then the value used is the corresponding CTRL character (for example, ^d is a CTRL-d ); ^? is inter-
preted as DEL and ^- is interpreted as undefined.
The new option sets the line discipline to NTTYDISC. Note that this changes the line discipline to be a non-termio line discipline. Once
this has been done the options described in the non-termio section should be used.
Combination Modes
evenp or parity Enables parenb and cs7.
oddp Enables parenb, cs7, and parodd.
-parity, -evenp, or -oddp
Disables parenb, and set cs8.
nl (-nl) Unsets (sets) icrnl, onlcr. In addition -nl unsets inlcr, igncr, ocrnl, and onlret.
lcase (-lcase) Sets (unsets) xcase, iuclc, and olcuc.
LCASE (-LCASE) Sets (unsets) xcase, iuclc, and olcuc.
tabs (-tabs or tab3)
Preserves (expands to spaces) tabs when printing.
ek Resets ERASE and KILL characters back to normal # and @.
sane Resets all modes to some reasonable values.
See Also
ioctl(2), tabs(1), tset(1), tty(4), termio(4), termios(4)
stty(1)