tset(1B)
NAME
tset, reset - establish or restore terminal characteristics
SYNOPSIS
tset [-InQrs] [-ec] [-kc] [ -m [ port-ID [baudrate] :
type...]] [type]
reset [-] [-ec] [-I] [-kc] [-n] [-Q] [-r] [-s] [ -m [indent]
[ test baudrate] : type...] [type]
DESCRIPTION
The tset utility sets up your terminal, typically when you
first log in. It does terminal dependent processing such as
setting erase and kill characters, setting or resetting
delays, sending any sequences needed to properly initialized
the terminal, and the like. tset first determines the type
of terminal involved, and then does necessary initializa-
tions and mode settings. If a port is not wired permanently
to a specific terminal (not hardwired) it is given an
appropriate generic identifier such as dialup.
reset clears the terminal settings by turning off CBREAK
and RAW modes, output delays and parity checking, turns on
NEWLINE translation, echo and TAB expansion, and restores
undefined special characters to their default state. It
then sets the modes as usual, based on the terminal type
(which will probably override some of the above). See
stty(1) for more information. All arguments to tset may be
used with reset. reset also uses rs= and rf= to reset the
initialization string and file. This is useful after a pro-
gram dies and leaves the terminal in a funny state. Often in
this situation, characters will not echo as you type them.
You may have to type LINEFEED reset LINEFEED since RETURN
may not work.
When no arguments are specified, tset reads the terminal
type from the TERM environment variable and re-initializes
the terminal, and performs initialization of mode, environ-
ment and other options at login time to determine the termi-
nal type and set up terminal modes.
When used in a startup script (.profile for sh(1) users or
.login for csh(1) users) it is desirable to give information
about the type of terminal you will usually use on ports
that are not hardwired. Any of the alternate generic names
given in the file /etc/termcap are possible identifiers.
Refer to the -m option below for more information. If no
mapping applies and a final type option, not preceded by a
-m, is given on the command line then that type is used.
It is usually desirable to return the terminal type, as
finally determined by tset, and information about the
terminal's capabilities, to a shell's environment. This can
be done using the -, -s, or -S options.
For the Bourne shell, put this command in your .profile
file:
eval `tset -s options...`
or using the C shell, put these commands in your .login
file:
set noglob
eval `tset -s options...`
unset noglob
With the C shell, it is also convenient to make an alias in
your .cshrc file:
alias ts 'eval `tset -s \!*`'
This also allows the command:
ts 2621
to be invoked at any time to set the terminal and environ-
ment. It is not possible to get this aliasing effect with a
Bourne shell script, because shell scripts cannot set the
environment of their parent. If a process could set its
parent's environment, none of this nonsense would be neces-
sary in the first place.
Once the terminal type is known, tset sets the terminal
driver mode. This normally involves sending an initializa-
tion sequence to the terminal, setting the single character
erase (and optionally the line-kill (full line erase)) char-
acters, and setting special character delays. TAB and NEW-
LINE expansion are turned off during transmission of the
terminal initialization sequence.
On terminals that can backspace but not overstrike (such as
a CRT), and when the erase character is `#', the erase char-
acter is changed as if -e had been used.
OPTIONS
- The name of the terminal finally decided upon is out-
put on the standard output. This is intended to be
captured by the shell and placed in the TERM environ-
ment variable.
-ec Set the erase character to be the named character c on
all terminals. Default is the BACKSPACE key on the
keyboard, usually ^H (CTRL-H). The character c can
either be typed directly, or entered using the
circumflex-character notation used here.
-ic Set the interrupt character to be the named character
c on all terminals. Default is ^C (CTRL-C). The char-
acter c can either be typed directly, or entered using
the circumflex-character notation used here.
-I Suppress transmitting terminal-initialization strings.
-kc Set the line kill character to be the named character
c on all terminals. Default is ^U (CTRL-U). The kill
character is left alone if -k is not specified. Con-
trol characters can be specified by prefixing the
alphabetical character with a circumflex (as in CTRL-
U) instead of entering the actual control key itself.
This allows you to specify control keys that are
currently assigned.
-n Specify that the new tty driver modes should be ini-
tialized for this terminal. Probably useless since
stty new is the default.
-Q Suppress printing the `Erase set to' and `Kill set to'
messages.
-r In addition to other actions, reports the terminal
type.
-s Output commands to set and export TERM. This can be
used with
set noglob
eval `tset -s ...`
unset noglob
to bring the terminal information into the environ-
ment. Doing so makes programs such as vi(1) start up
faster. If the SHELL environment variable ends with
csh, C shell commands are output, otherwise Bourne
shell commands are output.
-m [ port-ID [ baudrate ] : type ] ...
Specify (map) a terminal type when connected to a gen-
eric port (such as dialup or plugboard) identified by
port-ID. The baudrate argument can be used to check
the baudrate of the port and set the terminal type
accordingly. The target rate is prefixed by any com-
bination of the following operators to specify the
conditions under which the mapping is made:
> Greater than
@ Equals or ``at''
< Less than
! It is not the case that (negates the above operators)
? Prompt for the terminal type. If no response is
given, then type is selected by default.
In the following example, the terminal type is set to adm3a
if the port is a dialup with a speed of greater than 300 or
to dw2 if the port is a dialup at 300 baud or less. In the
third case, the question mark preceding the terminal type
indicates that the user is to verify the type desired. A
NULL response indicates that the named type is correct. Oth-
erwise, the user's response is taken to be the type desired.
tset -m 'dialup>300:adm3a' -m 'dialup:dw2' -m 'plugboard:?adm3a'
To prevent interpretation as metacharacters, the entire
argument to -m should be enclosed in single quotes. When
using the C shell, exclamation points should be preceded by
a backslash (\).
EXAMPLES
These examples all use the `-' option. A typical use of
tset in a .profile or .login will also use the -e and -k
options, and often the -n or -Q options as well. These
options have been omitted here to keep the examples short.
Example 1: Selecting a terminal
To select a 2621, you might put the following sequence of
commands in your .login file (or .profile for Bourne shell
users).
set noglob
eval `tset -s 2621`
unset noglob
If you want to make the selection based only on the baud
rate, you might use the following:
set noglob
eval `tset -s -m '>1200:wy' 2621`
unset noglob
Example 2: Selecting terminals according to speed or baud
rate
If you have a switch which connects to various ports (making
it impractical to identify which port you may be connected
to), and use various terminals from time to time, you can
select from among those terminals according to the speed or
baud rate. In the example below, tset will prompt you for a
terminal type if the baud rate is greater than 1200 (say,
9600 for a terminal connected by an RS-232 line), and use a
WyseO 50 by default. If the baud rate is less than or equal
to 1200, it will select a 2621. Note the placement of the
question mark, and the quotes to protect the > and ? from
interpretation by the shell.
set noglob
eval `tset -s -m 'switch>1200:?wy' -m 'switch<=1200:2621'`
unset noglob
Example 3: Selecting the terminal used most often
The following entry is appropriate if you always dial up,
always at the same baud rate, on many different kinds of
terminals, and the terminal you use most often is an adm3a.
set noglob
eval `tset -s ?adm3a`
unset noglob
Example 4: Selecting a terminal with specific settings
The following example quietly sets the erase character to
BACKSPACE, and kill to CTRL-U. If the port is switched, it
selects a Concept 100 for speeds less than or equal to 1200,
and asks for the terminal type otherwise (the default in
this case is a Wyse 50). If the port is a direct dialup, it
selects Concept 100 as the terminal type. If logging in
over the ARPANET, the terminal type selected is a DatamediaO
2500 terminal or emulator. Note the backslash escaping the
NEWLINE at the end of the first line in the example.
set noglob
eval `tset -e -k^U -Q -s -m 'switch<=1200:concept100' -m\
'switch:?wy' -m dialup:concept100 -m arpanet:dm2500`
unset noglob
FILES
.login
.profile
/etc/termcap
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWscpu |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
csh(1), sh(1), stty(1), vi(1), attributes(5), environ(5)
NOTES
The tset command is one of the first commands a user must
master when getting started on a UNIX system. Unfortunately,
it is one of the most complex, largely because of the extra
effort the user must go through to get the environment of
the login shell set. Something needs to be done to make all
this simpler, either the login program should do this stuff,
or a default shell alias should be made, or a way to set the
environment of the parent should exist.
This program cannot intuit personal choices for erase,
interrupt and line kill characters, so it leaves these set
to the local system standards.
It could well be argued that the shell should be responsible
for ensuring that the terminal remains in a sane state; this
would eliminate the need for the reset program.
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