stty

stty [-ag] [options]

stty is the command that is normally used to either display the current terminal settings or change them. It only works on the terminal that is assigned as the current standard input. Entering stty with no arguments displays the more important settings. With the -a option, a complete list is provided. The -g option provides the data in a format that can be passed to another stty command. No sanity checking is performed and it is therefore quite possible to set up conflicting settings! A very important option is :sane,: which resets the terminal options to a reasonable setting, should things go very wrong. The problem facing most people with this command is the sheer number of options and their meanings. Before going into the options, it is worthwhile to look at what control stty gives over the terminal settings and which options are the most important.

The terminal interface can be divided into several areas. The first concerns the serial interface, which is used to transfer data between the terminal and computer. It is important to get these settings right, as they form the basis of all future communication. The second area is the definition of certain character sequences that are specially interpreted to perform some other function such as backspace, end of file, and so on. The third area controls the flow of information between the terminal and computer so that neither is swamped with data...