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 "vir-
       tual 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.

       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, yel-
       low, 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.

       -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 [1-NR_CONS]
	      Like -dump, but appends to the snapshot file  instead  of	 over-
	      writing it.  Only works if no -dump options are given.

       -background 8-color|default (virtual consoles only)
	      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, 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.

       -bfreq [freqnumber]
	      Sets the bell frequency in Hz.  Without an argument, defaults to
	      0.

       -blength [0-2000]
	      Sets  the	 bell  duration in milliseconds.  Without an argument,
	      defaults to 0.

       -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).

       -bold [on|off]
	      Turns bold (extra bright) mode on or off.	 Except at  a  virtual
	      console,	-bold off turns off all attributes (bold, half-bright-
	      ness, blink, reverse).

       -clear [all]
	      Clears the screen and "homes" the cursor, as clear(1).

       -clear rest
	      Clears from the current  cursor  position	 to  the  end  of  the
	      screen.

       -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.

       -cursor [on|off]
	      Turns the terminal's cursor on or off.

       -default
	      Sets the terminal's rendering options to the default values.

       -dump [1-NR_CONS]
	      Writes a snapshot of the given virtual console (with attributes)
	      to  the file specified in the -file option, overwriting its con-
	      tents; 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 over-
	      writing 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.	 A  path  name
	      that exceeds system maximum will be truncated, see PATH_MAX from
	      linux/limits.h for the value.

       -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 mes-
	      sages.

       -powerdown [0-60]
	      Sets the VESA powerdown interval in minutes.  Without  an	 argu-
	      ment,  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.

       -underline [on|off]
	      Turns underline mode on or off (see -ulcolor).

       -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 argu-
	      ment, 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.

       -reverse [on|off]
	      Turns  reverse  video  mode on or off.  Except at a virtual con-
	      sole, -reverse off turns off all attributes (bold,  half-bright-
	      ness, 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 ...] (virtual consoles only)
	      Sets tab stops at the given horizontal cursor positions, in  the
	      range 1-160.  Without arguments, 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.

       -version
	      Output version information and exit.

       -help  Output help screen and exit.

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

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 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.



util-linux			 January 2000			    SETTERM(1)