tset

Initialize the terminal using $TERM

$ tset

$ reset

$ tset [xterm-256color]

$ tset -s

$ tset -e ^H

$ tset -i ^C

$ tset -I

$ tset -q

tset [-IQVcqrsw] [-e ch] [-i ch] [-k ch] [-m mapping] [terminal]

tset initializes the terminal according to the terminal type specified in the $TERM environment variable or on the command line. It sets terminal modes, sends initialization strings, and can configure special characters like erase and kill.
When invoked as reset, the command sets terminal modes to "sane" values: enables cooked and echo modes, disables raw mode, enables newline translation, and resets special characters to defaults. This is useful for recovering from programs that leave the terminal in an abnormal state.
The command determines terminal type by checking: command-line argument, $TERM variable, /etc/ttys entry (on BSD), or finally prompting the user. It then sends appropriate initialization sequences from the terminfo database.
The -s option outputs shell commands to set TERM, useful in login scripts when the terminal type may change.

-e ch

Set the erase character to ch

Set the interrupt character to ch

Set the kill character to ch

Do not send terminal initialization strings

Do not display erase, interrupt, and kill characters

Quiet mode; suppress terminal type display

Print terminal type to stderr

Print shell commands to set TERM environment variable

Print version and exit

Resize window to match terminal size in terminfo

Map port type to terminal type

When the terminal is garbled, you may need to type \<LF\>reset\<LF\> (Ctrl+J instead of Enter) since carriage return may not work. The tset command is less commonly needed on modern systems where terminal emulators handle initialization automatically.

tset was written by Eric Allman and first appeared in 1BSD in 1977, using the termcap database. The ncurses version uses terminfo. The reset functionality was historically a separate command but is now typically a link to tset. The command predates POSIX and is not standardized.

reset(1), stty(1), clear(1), terminfo(5)