TPUT(1)                 FreeBSD General Commands Manual                TPUT(1)

NAME
     tput, clear - terminal capability interface

SYNOPSIS
     tput [-T term] [attribute ...]
     clear

DESCRIPTION
     The tput utility makes terminal-dependent information available to users
     or shell applications.

     The clear utility executes the
           tput clear
     command, ignoring any arguments.

     The only option to tput is:

     -T  The terminal name as specified in the termcap(5) database, for
         example, "vt100" or "xterm".  If not specified, tput retrieves the
         "TERM" variable from the environment unless that too is not
         specified, in which case an error message will be sent to standard
         error and the error status will be 2.

     The tput utility outputs a string for each attribute that is of type
     string; a number for each of type integer.  Otherwise, tput exits 0 if
     the terminal has the capability and 1 if it does not, without further
     action.

     If an attribute is of type string, and takes arguments (e.g. cursor
     movement, the termcap "cm" capability) the arguments are taken from the
     command line immediately following the attribute.

     The following special attributes are available.  The first three use the
     capabilities of the specified terminal, and only work if compatible with
     the utility's terminal.

     clear         Clear the screen (the termcap(5) "cl" capability).

     init          Initialize the terminal (the termcap(5) "is" capability).

     reset         Reset the terminal (the termcap(5) "rs" capability).

     longname      Print the descriptive name of the user's terminal type.

ENVIRONMENT
     TERM      The terminal name, if set and -T is not used.

EXIT STATUS
     The exit status of tput is as follows:

     0       If the last attribute is of type string or integer, its value was
             successfully written to standard output.  If the attribute is of
             type boolean, the terminal does have the attribute.  Otherwise,
             no attribute was specified.

     1       If the last attribute is of type boolean, this terminal does not
             have the attribute.

     2       Usage error.  For example, see -T description.

     3       No information is available about the specified terminal type.

SEE ALSO
     termcap(5), terminfo(5)

STANDARDS
     The tput utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 ("POSIX.1").

HISTORY
     The tput utility appeared in 4.4BSD.

BUGS
     The tput utility cannot really distinguish between different types of
     attributes.

     Some termcap entries depend upon having a `%' in them that is just a `%'
     and nothing more.  Right now we just warn about them if they do not have
     a valid type declaration.  These warnings are sent to stderr.

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6          June 15, 2002         FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6