STTY(1)

📦
version 9.10 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

stty — change and print terminal line settings. (yes bestie, it lives in the User Commands manual, and it is the girl for taming your tty 💅)

📟 SYNOPSIS 📟

stty [-F DEVICE | --file=DEVICE] [SETTING]...
stty [-F DEVICE | --file=DEVICE] [-a|--all]
stty [-F DEVICE | --file=DEVICE] [-g|--save]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Print or change terminal characteristics. That's the whole vibe: peek at what your terminal is doing, or ✨manifest✨ new settings onto it.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. (yes, the rules apply to everyone, no exceptions, periodt.)

  • -a, --all — spill every single current setting, in a form humans can actually read 👀
  • -g, --save — spill all the current settings in stty-readable form (so you can pipe it right back into stty, iykyk)
  • -F, --file=DEVICE — crack open and use DEVICE instead of standard input 🚪
  • --help — show this help and dip out
  • --version — print version info and dip out
Heads up bestie: an optional - before SETTING means negation. And an * marks non-POSIX settings. Which settings even exist is up to your underlying system — not my call, not yours 🫶

🌸 Special characters 🌸

  • * discard CHAR — CHAR will toggle discarding of output 🗑️
  • eof CHAR — CHAR will send an end of file (terminate the input)
  • eol CHAR — CHAR will end the line
  • * eol2 CHAR — an alternate CHAR for ending the line
  • erase CHAR — CHAR will erase the last character typed ⌫
  • intr CHAR — CHAR will send an interrupt signal ⚡
  • kill CHAR — CHAR will erase the current line
  • * lnext CHAR — CHAR will enter the next character quoted
  • quit CHAR — CHAR will send a quit signal
  • * rprnt CHAR — CHAR will redraw the current line 🖍️
  • start CHAR — CHAR will restart the output after stopping it ▶️
  • stop CHAR — CHAR will stop the output ⏸️
  • susp CHAR — CHAR will send a terminal stop signal
  • * swtch CHAR — CHAR will switch to a different shell layer 🌀
  • * werase CHAR — CHAR will erase the last word typed

✨ Special settings ✨

  • N — set the input and output speeds to N bauds
  • cols N — tell the kernel that the terminal has N columns
  • * columns N — same as cols N
  • * [-]drain — wait for transmission before applying settings (on by default, she's the responsible one 🫡)
  • ispeed N — set the input speed to N
  • * line N — use line discipline N
  • min N — with -icanon, set N characters minimum for a completed read
  • ospeed N — set the output speed to N
  • rows N — tell the kernel that the terminal has N rows
  • size — print the number of rows and columns according to the kernel 📐
  • speed — print the terminal speed 🏎️
  • time N — with -icanon, set read timeout of N tenths of a second ⏱️

💜 Control settings 💜

  • [-]clocal — disable modem control signals
  • [-]cread — allow input to be received
  • * [-]crtscts — enable RTS/CTS handshaking 🤝
  • csN — set character size to N bits, N in [5..8]
  • [-]cstopb — use two stop bits per character (one with -) 🛑
  • [-]hup — send a hangup signal when the last process closes the tty
  • [-]hupcl — same as [-]hup
  • [-]parenb — generate parity bit in output and expect parity bit in input
  • [-]parodd — set odd parity (or even parity with -)
  • * [-]cmspar — use "stick" (mark/space) parity

🦋 Input settings 🦋

  • [-]brkint — breaks cause an interrupt signal
  • [-]icrnl — translate carriage return to newline
  • [-]ignbrk — ignore break characters
  • [-]igncr — ignore carriage return
  • [-]ignpar — ignore characters with parity errors
  • * [-]imaxbel — beep and do not flush a full input buffer on a character 🐝
  • [-]inlcr — translate newline to carriage return
  • [-]inpck — enable input parity checking
  • [-]istrip — clear high (8th) bit of input characters
  • * [-]iutf8 — assume input characters are UTF-8 encoded 🌈
  • * [-]iuclc — translate uppercase characters to lowercase
  • * [-]ixany — let any character restart output, not only the start character
  • [-]ixoff — enable sending of start/stop characters
  • [-]ixon — enable XON/XOFF flow control
  • [-]parmrk — mark parity errors (with a 255-0-character sequence)
  • [-]tandem — same as [-]ixoff

🔥 Output settings 🔥

  • * bsN — backspace delay style, N in [0..1]
  • * crN — carriage return delay style, N in [0..3]
  • * ffN — form feed delay style, N in [0..1]
  • * nlN — newline delay style, N in [0..1]
  • * [-]ocrnl — translate carriage return to newline
  • * [-]ofdel — use delete characters for fill instead of NUL characters
  • * [-]ofill — use fill (padding) characters instead of timing for delays
  • * [-]olcuc — translate lowercase characters to uppercase
  • * [-]onlcr — translate newline to carriage return-newline
  • * [-]onlret — newline performs a carriage return
  • * [-]onocr — do not print carriage returns in the first column
  • [-]opost — postprocess output
  • * tabN — horizontal tab delay style, N in [0..3]
  • * tabs — same as tab0
  • * -tabs — same as tab3
  • * vtN — vertical tab delay style, N in [0..1]

🌟 Local settings 🌟

  • [-]crterase — echo erase characters as backspace-space-backspace
  • * crtkill — kill all line by obeying the echoprt and echoe settings
  • * -crtkill — kill all line by obeying the echoctl and echok settings
  • * [-]ctlecho — echo control characters in hat notation ('^c') 🎩
  • [-]echo — echo input characters
  • * [-]echoctl — same as [-]ctlecho
  • [-]echoe — same as [-]crterase
  • [-]echok — echo a newline after a kill character
  • * [-]echoke — same as [-]crtkill
  • [-]echonl — echo newline even if not echoing other characters
  • * [-]echoprt — echo erased characters backward, between '\' and '/'
  • * [-]extproc — enable "LINEMODE"; useful with high latency links 🛰️
  • * [-]flusho — discard output
  • [-]icanon — enable special characters: erase, kill, werase, rprnt
  • [-]iexten — enable non-POSIX special characters
  • [-]isig — enable interrupt, quit, and suspend special characters
  • [-]noflsh — disable flushing after interrupt and quit special characters
  • * [-]prterase — same as [-]echoprt
  • * [-]tostop — stop background jobs that try to write to the terminal ✋
  • * [-]xcase — with icanon, escape with '\' for uppercase characters

🍓 Combination settings 🍓

These are the little bundles, the preset fits, the outfits of tty config 👗

  • * [-]LCASE — same as [-]lcase
  • cbreak — same as -icanon
  • -cbreak — same as icanon
  • cooked — same as brkint ignpar istrip icrnl ixon opost isig icanon, with eof and eol characters set to their default values 🍳
  • -cooked — same as raw
  • crt — same as echoe echoctl echoke
  • dec — same as echoe echoctl echoke -ixany intr ^c erase 0177 kill ^u
  • * [-]decctlq — same as [-]ixany
  • ek — erase and kill characters to their default values
  • evenp — same as parenb -parodd cs7
  • -evenp — same as -parenb cs8
  • * [-]lcase — same as xcase iuclc olcuc
  • litout — same as -parenb -istrip -opost cs8
  • -litout — same as parenb istrip opost cs7
  • nl — same as -icrnl -onlcr
  • -nl — same as icrnl -inlcr -igncr onlcr -ocrnl -onlret
  • oddp — same as parenb parodd cs7
  • -oddp — same as -parenb cs8
  • [-]parity — same as [-]evenp
  • pass8 — same as -parenb -istrip cs8
  • -pass8 — same as parenb istrip cs7
  • raw — same as -ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr -icrnl -ixon -ixoff -icanon -opost -isig -iuclc -ixany -imaxbel -xcase min 1 time 0
  • -raw — same as cooked
  • sane — same as cread -ignbrk brkint -inlcr -igncr icrnl icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -ixoff -iutf8 -iuclc -ixany imaxbel -xcase -olcuc -ocrnl opost -ofill onlcr -onocr -onlret nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0 isig -tostop -ofdel -echoprt echoctl echoke -extproc -flusho, with all special characters set to their default values ✨

💫 The actual behaviour 💫

Handle the tty line connected to standard input. With no arguments at all, stty prints the baud rate, the line discipline, and any deviations from stty sane 🩺

In settings, CHAR is taken literally, or coded as in ^c, 0x37, 0177 or 127; the special values ^- or undef are used to disable special characters. 🚫

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by David MacKenzie. (thank you king 🫶)

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

Packaged by Ubuntu (9.10-1ubuntu2), Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc., License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

This was GNU coreutils 9.10, dated August 2026 — go forth and slay your tty, bestie, and remember: <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+C is always rooting for you 💖 ✨ 🎀

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