.\" Copyright 1990 Gordon Irlam (gordoni@cs.ua.oz.au)
.\" Copyright 1992 Rickard E. Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
.\" Copyright 2000 Colin Watson (cjw44@cam.ac.uk)
.\" Do not restrict distribution.
.\" May be distributed under the GNU General Public License
.\"
.TH SETTERM 1 "May 2014" "util-linux" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
setterm \- set terminal attributes
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B setterm
[options]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B setterm
writes to standard output a character string that will invoke the specified
terminal capabilities.  Where possible
.I terminfo
is consulted to find the string to use.  Some options however (marked "virtual
consoles only" below) do not correspond to a
.BR 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.
.SH OPTIONS
For boolean options
.RB ( on " or " off ),
the default is
.BR on .
.P
Below, an
.I 8-color
can be
.BR black ,
.BR red ,
.BR green ,
.BR yellow ,
.BR blue ,
.BR magenta ,
.BR cyan ,
or
.BR white .
.P
A
.I 16-color
can be an
.IR 8-color ,
or
.BR grey ,
or
.B bright
followed
by
.BR red ,
.BR green ,
.BR yellow ,
.BR blue ,
.BR magenta ,
.BR cyan ,
or
.BR white .
.P
The various color options may be set independently, at least on virtual
consoles, though the results of setting multiple modes (for example,
.B \-\-underline
and
.BR \-\-half\-bright )
are hardware-dependent.
.PP
The optional arguments require '=' (equals sign) and not space between the
option and the argument. For example --option=argument.
.TP
\fB\-\-appcursorkeys\fP on|off
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
.I vi and Cursor-Keys
section of the
.I Text-Terminal-HOWTO
for how this can cause problems for \fBvi\fR users.
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-append\fP \fIconsole_number\fP
Like
.BR \-\-dump ,
but appends to the snapshot file instead of overwriting it.  Only works if no
.B \-\-dump
options are given.
.TP
\fB\-\-background\fP \fI8-color\fP|default
Sets the background text color.
.TP
\fB\-\-blank\fP[=0-60|force|poke]
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).
Virtual consoles only.
.IP
The
.B force
argument keeps the screen blank even if a key is pressed.
.IP
The
.B poke
argument unblanks the screen.
.TP
\fB\-\-bfreq\fP[=\fInumber\fP]
Sets the bell frequency in Hertz.  Without an argument, it defaults to
.BR 0 .
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-blength\fP[=0-2000]
Sets the bell duration in milliseconds.  Without an argument, it defaults to
.BR 0 .
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-blink\fP on|off
Turns blink mode on or off.  Except on a virtual console,
.B \-\-blink off
turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
.TP
\fB\-\-bold\fP on|off
urns bold (extra bright) mode on or off.  Except on a virtual console,
.B \-\-bold off
turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
.TP
\fB\-\-clear\fP[=all|rest]
Without an argument or with the argument
.BR all ,
the entire screen is cleared and the cursor is set to the home position,
just like
.BR clear (1)
does.  With the argument
.BR rest ,
the screen is cleared from the current cursor position to the end.
.TP
\fB\-\-clrtabs\fP[=\fItab1 tab2 tab3\fP ...]
Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor positions, in the range
.BR 1-160 .
Without arguments, it clears all tab stops.
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-cursor\fP on|off
Turns the terminal's cursor on or off.
.TP
\fB\-\-default\fP
Sets the terminal's rendering options to the default values.
.TP
\fB\-\-dump\fP[=\fIconsole_number\fP]
Writes a snapshot of the virtual console with the given number
to the file specified with the
.B \-\-file
option, overwriting its contents; the default is
.IR screen.dump .
Without an argument, it dumps the current virtual console.  This overrides
.BR \-\-append .
.TP
\fB\-\-file\fP \fIfilename\fP
Sets the snapshot file name for any
.B \-\-dump
or
.B \-\-append
options on the same command line.  If this option is not present, the default
is
.I 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.
.TP
\fB\-\-foreground\fP \fI8-color\fP|default
Sets the foreground text color.
.TP
\fB\-\-half\-bright\fP on|off
Turns dim (half-brightness) mode on or off.  Except on a virtual console,
.B \-\-half\-bright off
turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
.TP
\fB\-\-hbcolor\fP [bright] \fI16-color\fP
Sets the color for half-bright characters.
.TP
\fB\-\-initialize\fP
Displays the terminal initialization string, which typically sets the
terminal's rendering options, and other attributes to the default values.
.TP
\fB\-\-inversescreen\fP on|off
Swaps foreground and background colors for the whole screen.
.TP
\fB\-\-linewrap\fP on|off
Makes the terminal continue on a new line when a line is full.
.TP
\fB\-\-msg\fP on|off
Enables or disables the sending of kernel
.BR printk ()
messages to the console.
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-msglevel\fP 0-8
Sets the console logging level for kernel
.B printk()
messages.  All messages strictly more important than this will be printed, so a
logging level of
.B 0
has the same effect as
.B \-\-msg on
and a logging level of
.B 8
will print all kernel messages.
.BR klogd (8)
may be a more convenient interface to the logging of kernel messages.
.sp
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-powerdown\fP[=0-60]
Sets the VESA powerdown interval in minutes.  Without an argument, it defaults
to
.B 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.
.TP
\fB\-\-powersave\fP \fImode\fP
Valid values for \fImode\fP are:
.RS
.TP
.B vsync|on
Puts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.
.TP
.B hsync
Puts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.
.TP
.B powerdown
Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.
.TP
.B off
Turns monitor VESA powersaving features.
.RE
.TP
\fB\-\-regtabs\fP[=1-160]
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
.BR 8 .
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-repeat\fP on|off
Turns keyboard repeat on or off.
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-reset\fP
Displays the terminal reset string, which typically resets the terminal to
its power-on state.
.TP
\fB\-\-resize\fP
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
.BR ioctl (3p)
but just byte streams and breaks.
.TP
\fB\-\-reverse\fP on|off
Turns reverse video mode on or off.  Except on a virtual console,
.B \-\-reverse off
turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink, reverse).
.TP
\fB\-\-store\fP
Stores the terminal's current rendering options (foreground and background
colors) as the values to be used at reset-to-default.
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-tabs\fP[=\fItab1 tab2 tab3\fP ...]
Sets tab stops at the given horizontal cursor positions, in the range
.BR 1-160 .
Without arguments, it shows the current tab stop settings.
.TP
\fB\-\-term\fP \fIterminal_name\fP
Overrides the TERM environment variable.
.TP
\fB\-\-ulcolor\fP [bright] \fI16-color\fP
Sets the color for underlined characters.
Virtual consoles only.
.TP
\fB\-\-underline\fP on|off
Turns underline mode on or off.
.TP
\fB\-\-version\fP
Displays version information and exits.
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fP
Displays a help text and exits.
.SH COMPATIBILITY
Since version 2.25
.B setterm
has support for long options with two hyphens, for example
.BR \-\-help ,
beside the historical long options with a single hyphen, for example
.BR \-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.
.SH BUGS
Differences between the Minix and Linux versions are not documented.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR stty (1),
.BR tput (1),
.BR tty (4),
.BR terminfo (5)
.SH AVAILABILITY
The setterm command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
.UR https://\:www.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/utils\:/util-linux/
Linux Kernel Archive
.UE .