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Manual: setterm

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 consulted to find the string to use. Some options (marked
"virtual consoles only" below) do not correspond to a terminfo(5) capability. In these cases, if the
terminal type is "con" or "linux", the string that invokes the specified capability on the PC Minix
virtual console 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 example, --underline and --half-bright) are hardware-dependent.

The optional arguments are recommended with '=' (equals sign) and not space between the option and
the argument. For example --option=argument. setterm can interpret the next non-option argument as an
optional argument too.

--appcursorkeys 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 vi and Cursor-Keys section of the
Text-Terminal-HOWTO for how this can cause problems for vi users. Virtual consoles only.

--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]
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.

The force argument keeps the screen blank even if a key is pressed.

The poke argument unblanks the screen.

--bfreq[=number]
Sets the bell frequency in Hertz. Without an argument, it defaults to 0. Virtual consoles only.

--blength[=0-2000]
Sets the bell duration in milliseconds. Without an argument, it defaults to 0. Virtual consoles
only.

--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 ...]
Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor positions, in the range 1-160. Without
arguments, it clears all tab stops. Virtual consoles only.

--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 contents; 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 half-bright 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
Enables or disables the sending of kernel printk() messages to the console. Virtual consoles
only.

--msglevel 0-8
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.

Virtual consoles only.

--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 mode
Valid values for mode are:

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

hsync
Puts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.

powerdown
Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.

off
Turns the monitor’s powersaving features off.

--regtabs[=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 8. Virtual consoles only.

--repeat on|off
Turns keyboard repeat on or off. Virtual consoles only.

--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(2) 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
Stores the terminal’s current rendering options (foreground and background colors) as the values
to be used at reset-to-default. Virtual consoles only.

--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 settings.

--term terminal_name
Overrides the TERM environment variable.

--ulcolor 16-color
Sets the color for underlined characters. Virtual consoles only.

--underline on|off
Turns underline mode on or off.

-h, --help
Display help text and exit.

-V, --version
Display version and exit.

WARNING
Use of setterm in combination with stdout redirection can have unexpected results, as some options
operate on stdin. To prevent problems, always redirect both stdin and stdout to the same device.

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.

BUGS
Differences between the Minix and Linux versions are not documented.

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

REPORTING BUGS
For bug reports, use the issue tracker .

AVAILABILITY
The setterm command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel
Archive .

util-linux 2.41.3 2025-12-15 SETTERM(1)

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Manual: setterm

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