WARNING! This is for advanced users of the shell, this is NOT a howto or tutorial. The thing is, I googled how to uninstall cpanel and for once in my life I came up empty.. And certainly the cpanel official sites themselves don't provide any instructions other than to say "Dont uninstall it, reinstall your entire operating system without it.".. they sure don't seem confident that they know exactly what their code is doing. Cpanel is great for most people, perfect for many situations, so don't get me wrong.. this is just for fun.

Why Uninstall?

Why? Because I have always built my servers, php installations, perl installs, ruby, iptables, everything from source. I read the INSTALL/README docs, I read the man pages, and I read the info pages as well. I google for configuration advice, I google for tips, and I don't need a web-based perl script messing my stuff up!

The main problems I had with cpanel, which really is a great bit of software for millions of website developers, is that it was incredibly sneaky! I used it for about 6 months and spent that entire time trying to figure out what the heck it was doing. A couple issues that I really disliked, it takes over your bind install, it takes over your apache install, it takes over your php install. And although it does let you configure some things (very few) for custom configurations and the like, I just don't need any of that. By removing the darn thing I am saving GIGS of space on my server, tons of bandwidth, and most importantly to me I am saving CPU and processing time along with RAM and IO speed.

Anything Else

Please.. I could go on for DAYS! Another reason I have wanted to be rid of cpanel is that I like my servers to be as lean and mean as possible. This means I like as few files and processes as possible. There are many benefits to this, like it's much easier for my integrity checking software and rootkit/antivirus software to run and drastically reduces the false positives. And there is that glaring security issue of constantly having cpanel run it's own software to create the WHM/Cpanel web interface, which is accessible online. I haven't researched cpanel security at all, it's possible that it never has security problems that are published, but for me, why take the chance?

Warning - Caution!

The following is just a quick reference of some of the commands I used to uninstall cpanel. This is for advanced users of the shell. If you aren't that advanced and you run a single one of these commands without fully understanding it, you will probably kill your server, probably lose everything on it permanently, probably not have a website or email for weeks.. So backup all your data FIRST. Also, if you aren't 100% sure you won't run into problems, you should contact your hosts technical support - but be prepared for some MAJOR negativity.. cpanel makes things very easy for hosts, and the last thing tech support wants is to fix a server broken by someone who doesn't know what they are doing.

Last Warning!

Unless you understand what theses commands do and the purpose they serve, do not try any of this. These are not the exact commands I used verbatim, they are also not in order. I only put them up here because I was so amazed that google didn't have any uninstall cpanel intructions. Hopefully it's not a conspiracy that will get my site taken down.. ;)

That said and out of the way, it really only took me about 10 minutes to uninstall cpanel completely. But keep in mind I have been closely monitoring and debugging cpanel for 6 months, so I knew what I was doing. And finally, I do apologize for not having better instructions.. but hey, if you don't get this then you have no business trying to figure out how to uninstall cpanel! It's great software and shouldn't be removed unless you are fully capable of managing email/dns/www/ftp and any/all other servers and services on your machine by hand.

Do This First

I have a few drafts I'm working on at the moment with specifics, but for now you will have to figure it out with google. Basically you want to make sure you don't totally knock your machine offline without being able to reconnect. What I do is compile a static version of openssh and a few other security-type shell tools, and configure this binary sshd to run by using inittab, which is the file run by init (pid 1) and makes sure if it dies it is restarted. Here is my /etc/inittab to run the static sshd binary:

hh:12345:respawn:/failover/os/sbin/aassh -D -q -u0 -f /failover/os/etc/aassh

Another trick is to keep a detached screen logged in to root. That way if you mess up your sudoers or securetty or pam or whatever, you can just reattach and fix it.

Finally, you may want to setup your syslog to start earlier than usual, and set up more than normal verbosity. ( I take it to the max ). Then you should setup a 2nd server or machine somewhere to act as a syslog server. Lastly, configure your web server syslog to copy all messages to the remote syslog you set up. I use a reverse ssh tunnel to encrypt the syslog packets, but when I do something serious like reboot after uninstalling cpanel, I prepare for it by adding additional networking routes on my machine to make sure I will get some logs even if sshd cant start or even if my network addresses aren't brought up correctly.

If that sounds easy to you, please continue. If you are saying: Wha??? Continue in read-only mode.

Also, you can't just uninstall cpanel, I have replaced a lot of cpanel already, like building my own bind, apache, php, syslog and making sure they work and aren't being tampered with by cpanel. Basically cpanel runs everything on your server in most cases, so you should prepare by creating your own static software to replace cpanel, and make sure it works.

Find files Accessing /var/cpanel

More than likely these will need to be killed.

lsof +w -Rg -nP +c15 -x f +D /var/cpanel
lsof +w -Rg -nP +c15 -x f +D /usr/local/cpanel

Killing cpanel

Just an example, your machine may have a lot more than these, I have been slowly taking control of my machine back from cpanel for 6 months, so it was easier for me.

for P in tailwatchd queueprocd cpanellogd exim; do pkill -9 $P; done

Commands and Shortcuts

alias NF='nice find $PWD -mount -depth ! -type d'
alias NFF='nice find $PWD -mount -depth ! -type d | xargs -IF87 file F87'
alias NA='nice find $PWD -mount -depth'
alias NAF='nice find $PWD -mount -depth | xargs -IF87 file F87'

Watch out for crontab

An example of the sneakiness (from my POV, from most it's called builtin robustness) that cpanel does is automagically adding crontab entries that make it behave similarly to a self-propagating virus. If you don't disable the cronjobs and kill the right processes within a short period of time, be prepared for a magic resurrection.

Here's my awesome crontab information function, you will need to check every file, it lists the default crons on my box, and every users crontab, but it can't account for other cron software like at and other crons.

function askapache_crontab()
{
  local GG i;
  for i in `getent passwd|cut -d ":" -f1`;
  do
    GG=$(sudo crontab -u $i -l 2>$N6 | tr -s '\n\000' | sed '/^#/d');
    [[ ${#GG} -gt 3 ]] && sleep 1 && echo -e "$i \n\n${GG}"
  done;
   sleep 4;
   ls -aLls1ch --color=always /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly,d} | sed '/^total/d; /\ drwxr-xr-x/d';
}

grep -ir /var/spool cpan

#6 3 * * * /scripts/upcp
#0 1 * * * /scripts/cpbackup
#0 2 * * * /scripts/mailman_chown_archives
#35 * * * * /usr/bin/test -x /usr/local/cpanel/bin/tail-check && /usr/local/cpanel/bin/tail-check
#11,26,41,56 * * * * /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/bin/dnsqueue > /dev/null 2>&1
#30 */4 * * * /usr/bin/test -x /scripts/update_db_cache && /scripts/update_db_cache
#45 */8 * * * /usr/bin/test -x /usr/local/cpanel/bin/optimizefs && /usr/local/cpanel/bin/optimizefs
#*/5 * * * * /usr/local/cpanel/bin/dcpumon >/dev/null 2>&1
#25 1 * * * /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot/cgi/cpaddons_report.pl --notify

Delete Crontabs

sudo crontab -u mailman -r

Find INIT scripts with cpanel

This is the main startup script: /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startup

I had no idea ruby-on-rails was being controlled by cpanel.. sneaky bugger. You can tell by all of these advanced unix commands just how difficult it would be to uninstall cpanel, its totally like the Alien!

(1:3744)# find . ! -type d -print0|xargs -0 -I'F87' grep -Hi "cpan\|tailwat\|chkser" F87
./fastmail:# Author:       cPanel, Inc. <nick@cpanel.net>
./httpd:        HTTPD=/usr/local/cpanel/bin/chroothttpd
./cpanel:# cpanel8       Start Cpanel Services
./cpanel:# Author:       cPanel, Inc. <nick@cpanel.net>
./cpanel:# description: This is the cpanel webserver and chat.
./cpanel:# processname: cpaneld
./cpanel:# pidfile: /var/run/cpanel.pid
./cpanel:[ -f /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startup ] || exit 0
./cpanel:       if [ -f "/var/cpanel/smtpgidonlytweak" ]; then
./cpanel:       echo -n "Starting cPanel services: "
./cpanel:       daemon /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startcpsrvd
./cpanel:       echo -n "Starting cPanel brute force detector services: "
./cpanel:       daemon /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startcphulkd
./cpanel:    echo -n "Starting cPanel dav services: "
./cpanel:       daemon /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startcpdavd
./cpanel:               daemon /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startcppop
./cpanel:       echo -n "Starting cPanel Chat services: "
./cpanel:               daemon /usr/local/cpanel/entropychat/entropychat
./cpanel:               daemon /usr/local/cpanel/bin/startmelange
./cpanel:                       /usr/local/cpanel/bin/startinterchange
./cpanel:       echo -n "Starting cPanel ssl services: "
./cpanel:       daemon /usr/local/cpanel/startstunnel
./cpanel:    echo -n "Starting cPanel Queue services: "
./cpanel:       daemon /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startqueueprocd
./cpanel:    echo -n "Starting tailwatchd: "
./cpanel:    daemon /usr/local/cpanel/libexec/tailwatchd --start
./cpanel:       echo -n "Starting cPanel Log services: "
./cpanel:       daemon /usr/local/cpanel/cpanellogd
./cpanel:    action "Starting mailman services: " /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startmailman
./cpanel:    action "Stopping tailwatchd: " /usr/local/cpanel/libexec/tailwatchd --stop
./cpanel:    action "Stopping cPanel services: " /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/stopcpsrvd
./cpanel:       action "Stopping cPanel dav services: " /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/stopcpdavd
./cpanel:       action "Stopping cPanel queue services: " /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/stopqueueprocd
./cpanel:       action "Stopping cPanel brute force detector services: " /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/stopcphulkd
./cpanel:               action "Stopping pop3 services: " /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/stopcppop
./cpanel:       echo -n "Stopping cPanel log services: "
./cpanel:       killproc cpanellogd
./cpanel:       echo -n "Stopping cPanel Chat services: "
./cpanel:       action "Stopping cPanel ssl services: " /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/stopstunnel
./cpanel:       action "Stopping mailman services: " /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/stopmailman
./cpanel:       if [ -e "/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/mailman/bin/mailmanctl" ]; then
./exim:if [ -e "/etc/chkserv.d" ]; then
./exim:        for file in `ls /etc/chkserv.d`
./exim:            if [ ! -e "/usr/local/cpanel/libexec/tailwatchd" ]; then
./exim:    if [ -x "/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startspamd" ]; then
./exim:        /usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/startspamd
./exim:        if [ ! -e "/usr/local/cpanel/libexec/tailwatchd" ]; then
./ror:  /usr/local/cpanel/bin/rormgr --startboot
./ror:  /usr/local/cpanel/bin/rormgr --stopall
./ror:  /usr/local/cpanel/bin/rormgr --stopall
./ror:  /usr/local/cpanel/bin/rormgr --startboot
./ror:  /usr/local/cpanel/bin/rormgr --statusall
./securetmp:# Author:       cPanel, Inc. <copyright@cpanel.net>

Turn off cpanel services

You should remove the below delete command and start by just disabling the inits by turning them off. Then reboot. Then delete. If your machine won't reboot, I told you so, Cpanel told you so, and likely your host told you so.

for S in cpanel ror securetmp fastmail exim; do R=$(command chkconfig --level 123456 $S off ||echo); R=$(command chkconfig --del $S ||echo); done

HTTPD

If you are running chrooted httpd then you'll need to make sure you don't delete your entire webserver on accident. Here's a relevant part from the /etc/init.d/httpd script.

# the path to your httpd binary, including options if necessary
if [ -e "/etc/chroothttpd" ]; then
        HTTPD=/usr/local/cpanel/bin/chroothttpd
else
        HTTPD=/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd
fi

Finding files owned by cpanel

Some super cool bash commands in this post.. let's start with one to find all the files and folders on your machine owned by cpanel. Check your /etc/passwd file for your machines specific usernames and groups. This command saves all the filenames to ~/cpanel-files-backup.txt, which is used by tar next to create a backup of all of them.

{ find / -mount -depth -maxdepth 150 \( -group cpanel -o   -group cpanel-phpmyadmin -o -group cpanel-phppgadmin   -o -group cpanelphpmyadmin   -o -group cpanelphppgadmin   -o -group cpanelhorde   -o -group cpanelroundcube \) -print; find / -mount -depth -maxdepth 150 \( -user cpanel -o   -user cpanel-phpmyadmin -o -user cpanel-phppgadmin   -o -user cpanelphpmyadmin   -o -user cpanelphppgadmin   -o -user cpanelhorde   -o -user cpanelroundcube \) -print; } > ~/cpanel-files-backup.txt

Here's another way to search directories.

 grep --color=always -Hir cpanel /var

Create the Backup

Note that you must have the latest version of tar for this exact command, also you should backup /var/cpanel and /usr/local/cpanel and /etc and heck the whole machine why dontcha!

tar -T ~/cpanel-files-backup.txt -cvz --checkpoint=1000 --checkpoint-action="ttyout=\rHit %s checkpoint #%u" -f /cpanel-files-backup.tgz --totals

Remove Files

Once you do this your upstream without a paddle, you better make sure you know what you're doing with this. This removes all those files.

cat ~/cpanel-files-backup.txt | xargs -I'F87' rm -vfr F87

Additionally you will want to remove /usr/local/cpanel and /var/cpanel - What I always do when running as root is alias my rm command to instead simply move the files to a .trash folder. That way if something goes bork you have a better chance at fixing it.

Find Group-Owned Files

find / -mount -depth -maxdepth 150 \
\(  -group cpanel -o \
  -group cpanel-phpmyadmin \
  -o -group cpanel-phppgadmin \
  -o -group cpanelphpmyadmin \
  -o -group cpanelphppgadmin \
  -o -group mailman \
  -o -group cpanelhorde \
  -o -group cpanelroundcube \
\) -fprintf /root/cpanel-group-files.log '%#8k %#5m %11M %#10u:%-10g %-5U:%-5G %p %f %Y %F\n'

Find User-Owned Files

find / -mount -depth -maxdepth 150 \(
  -user cpanel \
  -o -user cpanel-phpmyadmin \
  -o -user cpanel-phppgadmin \
  -o -user cpanelphpmyadmin \
  -o -user cpanelphppgadmin \
  -o -user mailman \
  -o -user cpanelhorde \
  -o -user cpanelroundcube
\) -fprintf /root/cpanel-users-files.log '%#8k %#5m %11M %#10u:%-10g %-5U:%-5G %p %f %Y %F\n'

       4  0755  drwxr-xr-x     cpanel:cpanel     32002:32004 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanel cpanel d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanel-phpmyadmin:cpanel-phpmyadmin 32005:32007 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanel-phpmyadmin/tmp tmp d reiserfs
       4  0644  -rw-r--r-- cpanel-phpmyadmin:cpanel-phpmyadmin 32005:32007 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanel-phpmyadmin/.cpanel/caches/featurelists/default.cache default.cache f reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanel-phpmyadmin:cpanel-phpmyadmin 32005:32007 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanel-phpmyadmin/.cpanel/caches/featurelists featurelists d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanel-phpmyadmin:cpanel-phpmyadmin 32005:32007 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanel-phpmyadmin/.cpanel/caches caches d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanel-phpmyadmin:cpanel-phpmyadmin 32005:32007 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanel-phpmyadmin/.cpanel .cpanel d reiserfs
       4  0750  drwxr-x--- cpanel-phpmyadmin:cpanel-phpmyadmin 32005:32007 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanel-phpmyadmin/mail mail d reiserfs
       4  0711  drwx--x--x cpanel-phpmyadmin:cpanel-phpmyadmin 32005:32007 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanel-phpmyadmin cpanel-phpmyadmin d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanelphppgadmin:cpanelphppgadmin 32009:32011 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphppgadmin/sessions sessions d reiserfs
       4  0644  -rw-r--r-- cpanelphppgadmin:cpanelphppgadmin 32009:32011 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphppgadmin/.cpanel/caches/featurelists/default.cache default.cache f reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanelphppgadmin:cpanelphppgadmin 32009:32011 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphppgadmin/.cpanel/caches/featurelists featurelists d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanelphppgadmin:cpanelphppgadmin 32009:32011 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphppgadmin/.cpanel/caches caches d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanelphppgadmin:cpanelphppgadmin 32009:32011 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphppgadmin/.cpanel .cpanel d reiserfs
       4  0750  drwxr-x--- cpanelphppgadmin:cpanelphppgadmin 32009:32011 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphppgadmin/mail mail d reiserfs
       4  0711  drwx--x--x cpanelphppgadmin:cpanelphppgadmin 32009:32011 /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphppgadmin cpanelphppgadmin d reiserfs
       4  0750  drwxr-x--- cpanelroundcube:cpanelroundcube 514  :514   /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelroundcube/mail mail d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanelroundcube:cpanelroundcube 514  :514   /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelroundcube/sessions sessions d reiserfs
       4  0711  drwx--x--x cpanelroundcube:cpanelroundcube 514  :514   /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelroundcube cpanelroundcube d reiserfs
       4  0644  -rw-r--r--     cpanel:cpanel     32002:32004 /var/cpanel/.cpanel/caches/featurelists/default.cache default.cache f reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------     cpanel:cpanel     32002:32004 /var/cpanel/.cpanel/caches/featurelists featurelists d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------     cpanel:cpanel     32002:32004 /var/cpanel/.cpanel/caches caches d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------     cpanel:cpanel     32002:32004 /var/cpanel/.cpanel .cpanel d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanelroundcube:cpanelroundcube 514  :514   /var/cpanel/roundcube/tmp tmp d reiserfs
       4  0700  drwx------ cpanelroundcube:cpanelroundcube 514  :514   /var/cpanel/roundcube/log log d reiserfs

Find Permissions

cat ~/cpanel-group-files.log ~/cpanel-users-files.log |tr -s '\000 \t'|cut -d' ' -f3|sort -u

Find files tailwatchd

(1:3732)# $NICE find ${1:-`pwd`} -mount -name '*tailwatch*'
/usr/local/cpanel/libexec/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/libexec/tailwatch
/usr/local/cpanel/libexec/tailwatch/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/freebsd/tailwatchd.sh
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/trustix/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/centos/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/suse/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/caos/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/whitebox/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/mandrake/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/debian/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/redhat/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/scripts/fedora/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/stoptailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/etc/init/starttailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/bin/tailwatchd
/usr/local/cpanel/logs/tailwatchd_log
/var/log/cpanel/tailwatchd_log
/var/cpanel/log_rotation/cp_tailwatchd_log.cpanellogd
/var/cpanel/tailwatch.positions
/var/run/tailwatchd.pid
/etc/chkserv.d/tailwatchd
/scripts/restartsrv_tailwatchd

Delete cpanel Users/Groups

for U in cpanel-phpmyadmin cpanel-phppgadmin cpanelphpmyadmin cpanelphppgadmin cpanelhorde cpanelroundcube machbuild; do userdel -fr $U; groupdel $U; done

Check for broken symlinks

find / -mount -depth -type l -print0 |xargs -0 -P0 -I'F87' file -s 'F87' | sed -n '/: broken symbolic link to/p'

Especially check /etc

$ find /etc -mount -depth -type l -print0 |xargs -0 -P0 -I'F87' file -s 'F87' | sed -n '/: broken symbolic link to/p'
/etc/ftpd-rsa.pem                   broken symbolic link to `/var/cpanel/ssl/ftp/ftpd-rsa.pem'
/etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K10chkservd         broken symbolic link to `../init.d/chkservd'
/etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K30antirelayd       broken symbolic link to `../init.d/antirelayd'
/etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K80dcc              broken symbolic link to `../init.d/dcc'
/etc/rc.d/rc3.d/K80dcc              broken symbolic link to `../init.d/dcc'
/etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S80chkservd         broken symbolic link to `../init.d/chkservd'
/etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S80antirelayd       broken symbolic link to `../init.d/antirelayd'
/etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K10chkservd         broken symbolic link to `../init.d/chkservd'
/etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K30antirelayd       broken symbolic link to `../init.d/antirelayd'
/etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K80dcc              broken symbolic link to `../init.d/dcc'
/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/K80dcc              broken symbolic link to `../init.d/dcc'
/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S80chkservd         broken symbolic link to `../init.d/chkservd'
/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S80antirelayd       broken symbolic link to `../init.d/antirelayd'
/etc/rc.d/rc2.d/K80dcc              broken symbolic link to `../init.d/dcc'
/etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S80chkservd         broken symbolic link to `../init.d/chkservd'
/etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S80antirelayd       broken symbolic link to `../init.d/antirelayd'
/etc/rc.d/rc4.d/K80dcc              broken symbolic link to `../init.d/dcc'
/etc/rc.d/rc4.d/S80chkservd         broken symbolic link to `../init.d/chkservd'
/etc/rc.d/rc4.d/S80antirelayd       broken symbolic link to `../init.d/antirelayd'
/etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K10chkservd         broken symbolic link to `../init.d/chkservd'
/etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K30antirelayd       broken symbolic link to `../init.d/antirelayd'
/etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K80dcc              broken symbolic link to `../init.d/dcc'
/etc/authlib/authProg               broken symbolic link to `/usr/local/cpanel/bin/courier-auth'

And delete if you are sure

find /etc -mount -depth -type l -print0 |xargs -0 -P0 -I'F87' file -s 'F87' | sed -n '/: broken symbolic link to/p' |cut -d' ' -f1|xargs -I'F87' rm -rvf 'F87'

Reinstall CSF

The only thing I actually used that came with cpanel is the CSF/LFD Firewall package, which is a fantastic piece of software. I had to reinstall this, and to get it working without cpanel add the following line to the csf.conf

GENERIC = "1"

Thats It

Now once you've cleaned up everything, you should try everything conceivable to get an error before rebooting. Like you should start and stop every service in /etc/init.d/, you should use telinit to check various runlevels (which keeps your sshd connection still live). Go all out, should take at least a full hour.

Another thing I like to do is rebuild alot of my source-built software again in case anything got messed up. I upgrade perl from cpanels 5.8.8 to 5.10, which is pretty thorough, and you know, reinstall anything else I think I might need. One of the benefits of compiling your own software is all I have to do is cd to the source directory and type make -B && ( { make test || make check || make checks || make tests; } || echo ) && sudo make install and that's it. The tests/checks are optional of course.

If anyone actually ever reads this and does it, please share your advice here.. everybody knows we need it! Good Luck

HOWTO: Uninstall CPANEL over SSH originally appeared on AskApache.com

Lightning Strikes Twice!

LOL..

3rd Dimension Broken with Bash!

So 3D... it'll hurt you eyes! lol.. Man I am cracking up here. Ha but seriously those really do look 3D for terminal though.. I am actually really impressed. Sweet. Here is the little function I wrote to output that grey marble.

Just a word to the wise, start learning and going over some of these concepts, especially the code used in functions, I will be back in a followup that details actually using this stu.

This function is one of my favorites because it is so fast and useful. Like when designing a 256color prompt.

aa_256 ()
{
    local o x=`tput op` y=`printf %$((${COLUMNS}-6))s`;
    for i in {0..256};
    do
        o=00$i;
        echo -e ${o:${#o}-3:3} `tputm "setaf $i" "setab $i"`${y// /=}$x;
    done
}

Ya this is actually not very helpful or useful, but there you have it.

tputm ()
{
    local a;
    for a in "$@";
    do
        echo -en "${a}\n";
    done | tput -S
}

Some people call this function the grey bringer of death. Not really.

a256 ()
{
    ( x=`tput op` y=`printf %$((${COLUMNS}-6))slocal `;
    for i in {242..232} 232 232;
    do
        echo -en "`tput setaf $i;tput setab $i`${y}${x}`tput op`";
    done )
}

Helpful Ncurses Programs

ALWAYS check out my functions!

This function will print out the terminal, show it's colors, etc.. I have some really nice ones in this article that I use for tmux, screen, and that sort of thing.

c ()
{
    tput clear;
    pm "$TERM: [colors:`tput colors`/`tput pairs`]";
    RC=`tput op` L1=$(L '=' $(( ${COLUMNS} - 25 )));
    for i in `seq ${1:-0} ${2:-16}`;
    do
        o="  $i";
        echo -e " ${o:${#o}-3:3} `tput setaf $i;tput setab $i`${L1}${RC}";
    done
}

Standard Capabilities

X.364 and iBCS2

• \033c - RIS - full reset
• \0337 - SC - save cursor
• \0338 - RC - restore cursor
• \033[r - RSR - not an X.364 mnemonic
• \033[m - SGR0 - not an X.364 mnemonic
• \033[2J - ED2 - clear page

Specified by ISO 2022

• \033(0 - ISO DEC G0 - enable DEC graphics for G0
• \033(A - ISO UK G0 - enable UK chars for G0
• \033(B - ISO US G0 - enable US chars for G0
• \033)0 - ISO DEC G1 - enable DEC graphics for G1
• \033)A - ISO UK G1 - enable UK chars for G1
• \033)B - ISO US G1 - enable US chars for G1

ISO 2022 charset switching:

• ISO/IEC 2022:1994
• "Character code structure and extension techniques"
• ECMA-035
• code structure
  • =00..=1F C0 set of control characters
  • =20..=7F G0 set of 94 or 96 graphic characters
  • =80..=9F C1 set of control characters "C1 controls"
  • =A0..=FF G1 set of 94 or 96 graphic characters
  • ... G2 and G3
• registration authority
  • ISO/IEC 2375:1985 Procedure for registration of escape sequences
  • "ECMA registry"
  • ISO-IR registration number
  • ftp://dkuug.dk/i18n/iso2375reg.txt
  • Internaltional register of coded character sets to be used with escape sequences
  • ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG3
• ISO-2022 terminals from Siemens
• recode iso-2022..utf-8 not yet implemented
• CJK charsets
  • ISO-2022-JP
  • ISO-2022-JP-2
  • ISO-2022-KR
  • ISO-2022-CN
  • ISO-2022-CN-EXT

DEC private controls widely supported by emulators

• \033= - DECPAM - application keypad mode
• \033> - DECPNM - normal keypad mode
• \033< - DECANSI - enter ANSI mode
• \033[!p - DECSTR - soft reset
• \033 F - S7C1T - 7-bit controls

ECMA modes

ISO 2022

• 2 - AM - keyboard action mode
• 4 - IRM - insert/replace mode
• 12 - SRM - send/receive mode
• 20 - LNM - linefeed mode

DEC modes

• 1 - CKM - application cursor keys
• 2 - ANM - set VT52 mode
• 3 - COLM - 132-column mode
• 4 - SCLM - smooth scroll
• 5 - SCNM - reverse video mode
• 6 - OM - origin mode
• 7 - AWM - wraparound mode
• 8 - ARM - auto-repeat mode

ECMA attribute sequences

• 0 - NORMAL - normal
• 1 - +BOLD - bold on
• 2 - +DIM - dim on
• 3 - +ITALIC - italic on
• 4 - +UNDERLINE - underline on
• 5 - +BLINK - blink on
• 6 - +FASTBLINK - fastblink on
• 7 - +REVERSE - reverse on
• 8 - +INVISIBLE - invisible on
• 9 - +DELETED - deleted on
• 10 - MAIN-FONT - select primary font
• 11 - ALT-FONT-1 - select alternate font 1
• 12 - ALT-FONT-2 - select alternate font 2
• 13 - ALT-FONT-3 - select alternate font 3
• 14 - ALT-FONT-4 - select alternate font 4
• 15 - ALT-FONT-5 - select alternate font 5
• 16 - ALT-FONT-6 - select alternate font 6
• 17 - ALT-FONT-7 - select alternate font 7
• 18 - ALT-FONT-1 - select alternate font 1
• 19 - ALT-FONT-1 - select alternate font 1
• 20 - FRAKTUR - Fraktur font
• 21 - DOUBLEUNDER - double underline
• 22 - -DIM - dim off
• 23 - -ITALIC - italic off
• 24 - -UNDERLINE - underline off
• 25 - -BLINK - blink off
• 26 - -FASTBLINK - fastblink off
• 27 - -REVERSE - reverse off
• 28 - -INVISIBLE - invisible off
• 29 - -DELETED - deleted off

Init strings

Cap strings

Variable and Function Index

For stty

• BC: tgoto
• ospeed: Output Padding
• PC: Output Padding
• tgetent: Find
• tgetflag: Interrogate
• tgetnum: Interrogate
• tgetstr: Interrogate
• tgoto: tgoto
• tparam: tparam
• tputs: Output Padding
• UP: tgoto

Summary of Capability Names

Here are all the terminal capability names in alphabetical order with a brief description of each. For cross references to their definitions, see the index of capability names.

Variable and Function Index

• BC: tgoto
• ospeed: Output Padding
• PC: Output Padding
• tgetent: Find
• tgetflag: Interrogate
• tgetnum: Interrogate
• tgetstr: Interrogate
• tgoto: tgoto
• tparam: tparam
• tputs: Output Padding
• UP: tgoto

• ae: Standout
• AL: Insdel Line
• al: Insdel Line
• am: Wrapping
• as: Standout
• bc: Cursor Motion
• bl: Bell
• bs: Cursor Motion
• bt: Cursor Motion
• bw: Cursor Motion
• CC: Basic
• cd: Clearing
• ce: Clearing
• ch: Cursor Motion
• cl: Clearing
• CM: Cursor Motion
• cm: Cursor Motion
• co: Screen Size
• cr: Cursor Motion
• cS: Scrolling
• cs: Scrolling
• ct: Initialization
• cv: Cursor Motion
• da: Scrolling
• dB: Pad Specs
• db: Scrolling
• dC: Pad Specs
• DC: Insdel Char
• dc: Insdel Char
• dF: Pad Specs
• DL: Insdel Line
• dl: Insdel Line
• dm: Insdel Char
• dN: Pad Specs
• DO: Cursor Motion
• do: Cursor Motion
• ds: Status Line
• dT: Pad Specs
• ec: Clearing
• ed: Insdel Char
• ei: Insdel Char
• eo: Basic
• es: Status Line
• ff: Cursor Motion
• fs: Status Line
• gn: Basic
• hc: Basic
• hd: Half-Line
• ho: Cursor Motion
• hs: Status Line
• hu: Half-Line
• hz: Basic
• i1: Initialization
• i3: Initialization
• IC: Insdel Char
• ic: Insdel Char
• if: Initialization
• im: Insdel Char
• in: Insdel Char
• ip: Insdel Char
• is: Initialization
• it: Initialization
• K1...K5: Keypad
• k1...k9: Keypad
• kA...kT: Keypad
• ka...ku: Keypad
• km: Meta Key
• l0...l9: Keypad
• LE: Cursor Motion
• le: Cursor Motion
• li: Screen Size
• ll: Cursor Motion
• lm: Scrolling
• LP: Wrapping
• mb: Standout
• md: Standout
• me: Standout
• mh: Standout
• mi: Insdel Char
• mk: Standout
• mm: Meta Key
• mo: Meta Key
• mp: Standout
• mr: Standout
• ms: Underlining
• ms: Standout
• nc: Cursor Motion
• nd: Cursor Motion
• NF: Initialization
• nl: Cursor Motion
• ns: Scrolling
• nw: Cursor Motion
• os: Basic
• pb: Pad Specs
• pc: Pad Specs
• pf: Printer
• pO: Printer
• po: Printer
• ps: Printer
• rc: Cursor Motion
• RI: Cursor Motion
• rp: Basic
• rs: Initialization
• sa: Standout
• sc: Cursor Motion
• se: Standout
• SF: Scrolling
• sf: Scrolling
• sg: Standout
• so: Standout
• SR: Scrolling
• sr: Scrolling
• st: Initialization
• ta: Cursor Motion
• te: Initialization
• ti: Initialization
• ts: Status Line
• uc: Underlining
• ue: Underlining
• ug: Underlining
• ul: Underlining
• UP: Cursor Motion
• up: Cursor Motion
• us: Underlining
• vb: Bell
• ve: Cursor Visibility
• vi: Cursor Visibility
• vs: Cursor Visibility
• wi: Windows
• ws: Status Line
• xb: Basic
• xn: Wrapping
• xs: Standout
• xt: Standout
• xt: Cursor Motion

• Basic: Basic characteristics.
• Screen Size: Screen size, and what happens when it changes.
• Cursor Motion: Various ways to move the cursor.
• Wrapping: What happens if you write a character in the last column.
• Scrolling: Pushing text up and down on the screen.
• Windows: Limiting the part of the window that output affects.
• Clearing: Erasing one or many lines.
• Insdel Line: Making new blank lines in mid-screen; deleting lines.
• Insdel Char: Inserting and deleting characters within a line.
• Standout: Highlighting some of the text.
• Underlining: Underlining some of the text.
• Cursor Visibility: Making the cursor more or less easy to spot.
• Bell: Attracts user's attention; not localized on the screen.
• Keypad: Recognizing when function keys or arrows are typed.
• Meta Key: META acts like an extra shift key.
• Initialization: Commands used to initialize or reset the terminal.
• Pad Specs: Info for the kernel on how much padding is needed.
• Status Line: A status line displays background information.
• Half-Line: Moving by half-lines, for superscripts and subscripts.
• Printer: Controlling auxiliary printers of display terminals.

Translated Term Capabilities

This is helpful so you can understand what a term cap does, by looking at the long name.

List of All Terminals

You can view this list with the following command:

$ toe -a|sort -d

VT100 keypad Diagram

VT100 LINK

Here's a diagram of the VT100 keypad keys with their bindings. The top line is the name of the key (some DEC keyboards have the keys labelled somewhat differently, like GOLD instead of PF1, but this is the most "official" name). The second line is the escape sequence it generates in Application Keypad mode (where "$" means the ESC character). The third line contains two items, first the mapping of the key in terminfo, and then in termcap.

   _______________________________________
  |   PF1   |   PF2   |   PF3   |   PF4   |
  |   $OP   |   $OQ   |   $OR   |   $OS   |
  |_kf1__k1_|_kf2__k2_|_kf3__k3_|_kf4__k4_|
  |    7         8         9         -    |
  |   $Ow   |   $Ox   |   $Oy   |   $Om   |
  |_kf9__k9_|_kf10_k;_|_kf0__k0_|_________|
  |    4    |    5    |    6    |    ,    |
  |   $Ot   |   $Ou   |   $Ov   |   $Ol   |
  |_kf5__k5_|_kf6__k6_|_kf7__k7_|_kf8__k8_|
  |    1    |    2    |    3    |         |
  |   $Oq   |   $Or   |   $Os   |  enter  |
  |_ka1__K1_|_kb2__K2_|_ka3__K3_|  $OM    |
  |         0         |   .     |         |
  |        $Op        |  $On    |         |
  |___kc1_______K4____|_kc3__K5_|_kent_@8_|

A better adaptation to modern keyboards such as the PC's, which have a dozen function keys and the keypad 2,4,6,8 keys are labeled with arrows keys, is to use the 5-key arrangement to model the arrow keys as suggested in the terminfo guidelines:

   _______________________________________
  |   PF1   |   PF2   |   PF3   |   PF4   |
  |   $OP   |   $OQ   |   $OR   |   $OS   |
  |_kf1__k1_|_kf2__k2_|_kf3__k3_|_kf4__k4_|
  |    7         8         9         -    |
  |   $Ow   |   $Ox   |   $Oy   |   $Om   |
  |_ka1__K1_|_________|_ka3__K3_|_________|
  |    4    |    5    |    6    |    ,    |
  |   $Ot   |   $Ou   |   $Ov   |   $Ol   |
  |_________|_kb2__K2_|_________|_________|
  |    1    |    2    |    3    |         |
  |   $Oq   |   $Or   |   $Os   |  enter  |
  |_kc1__K4_|_________|_kc3__K5_|  $OM    |
  |         0         |   .     |         |
  |        $Op        |  $On    |         |
  |___________________|_________|_kent_@8_|

SGR parameter values

Sequence     Sequence                             Parameter   or
Mnemonic     Name              Sequence           Value      Mode   terminfo
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
APC  Applicatn Program Command \E _                -         Delim  -
BEL  Bell *                    ^G                  -         -      bel
BPH  Break Permitted Here *    \E B                -         *      -
BS   Backpace *                ^H                  -         EF     -
CAN  Cancel *                  ^X                  -         -      -   (A)
CBT  Cursor Backward Tab       \E [ Pn Z           1         eF     cbt
CCH  Cancel Previous Character \E T                -         -      -
CHA  Cursor Horizntal Absolute \E [ Pn G           1         eF     hpa (B)
CHT  Cursor Horizontal Tab     \E [ Pn I           1         eF     tab (C)
CMD  Coding Method Delimiter * \E
CNL  Cursor Next Line          \E [ Pn E           1         eF     nel (D)
CPL  Cursor Preceding Line     \E [ Pn F           1         eF     -
CPR  Cursor Position Report    \E [ Pn ; Pn R      1, 1      -      -   (E)
CSI  Control Sequence Intro    \E [                -         Intro  -
CTC  Cursor Tabulation Control \E [ Ps W           0         eF     -   (F)
CUB  Cursor Backward           \E [ Pn D           1         eF     cub
CUD  Cursor Down               \E [ Pn B           1         eF     cud
CUF  Cursor Forward            \E [ Pn C           1         eF     cuf
CUP  Cursor Position           \E [ Pn ; Pn H      1, 1      eF     cup (G)
CUU  Cursor Up                 \E [ Pn A           1         eF     cuu
CVT  Cursor Vertical Tab       \E [ Pn Y           -         eF     -   (H)
DA   Device Attributes         \E [ Pn c           0         -      -
DAQ  Define Area Qualification \E [ Ps o           0         -      -
DCH  Delete Character          \E [ Pn P           1         eF     dch
DCS  Device Control String     \E P                -         Delim  -
DL   Delete Line               \E [ Pn M           1         eF     dl
DLE  Data Link Escape *        ^P                  -         -      -
DMI  Disable Manual Input      \E \                -         Fs     -
DSR  Device Status Report      \E [ Ps n           0         -      -   (I)
DTA  Dimension Text Area *     \E [ Pn ; Pn SPC T  -         PC     -
EA   Erase in Area             \E [ Ps O           0         eF     -   (J)
ECH  Erase Character           \E [ Pn X           1         eF     ech
ED   Erase in Display          \E [ Ps J           0         eF     ed  (J)
EF   Erase in Field            \E [ Ps N           0         eF     -
EL   Erase in Line             \E [ Ps K           0         eF     el  (J)
EM   End of Medium *           ^Y                  -         -      -
EMI  Enable Manual Input       \E b                          Fs     -
ENQ  Enquire                   ^E                  -         -      -
EOT  End Of Transmission       ^D                  -         *      -
EPA  End of Protected Area     \E W                -         -      -   (K)
ESA  End of Selected Area      \E G                -         -      -
ESC  Escape                    ^[                  -         -      -
ETB  End Transmission Block    ^W                  -         -      -
ETX  End of Text               ^C                  -         -      -
FF   Form Feed                 ^L                  -         -      -
FNK  Function Key *            \E [ Pn SPC W       -         -      -
GCC  Graphic Char Combination* \E [ Pn ; Pn SPC B  -         -      -
FNT  Font Selection            \E [ Pn ; Pn SPC D  0, 0      FE     -
GSM  Graphic Size Modify       \E [ Pn ; Pn SPC B  100, 100  FE     -   (L)
GSS  Graphic Size Selection    \E [ Pn SPC C       none      FE     -
HPA  Horz Position Absolute    \E [ Pn `           1         FE     -   (B)
HPB  Char Position Backward    \E [ j              1         FE     -
HPR  Horz Position Relative    \E [ Pn a           1         FE     -   (M)
HT   Horizontal Tab *          ^I                  -         FE     -   (N)
HTJ  Horz Tab w/Justification  \E I                -         FE     -
HTS  Horizontal Tab Set        \E H                -         FE     hts
HVP  Horz & Vertical Position  \E [ Pn ; Pn f      1, 1      FE     -   (G)
ICH  Insert Character          \E [ Pn @           1         eF     ich
IDCS ID Device Control String  \E [ SPC O          -         *      -
IGS  ID Graphic Subrepertoire  \E [ SPC M          -         *      -
IL   Insert Line               \E [ Pn L           1         eF     il
IND  Index                     \E D                -         FE     -
INT  Interrupt                 \E a                -         Fs     -
JFY  Justify                   \E [ Ps SPC F       0         FE     -
IS1  Info Separator #1 *       ^_                  -         *      -
IS2  Info Separator #1 *       ^^                  -         *      -
IS3  Info Separator #1 *       ^]                  -         *      -
IS4  Info Separator #1 *       ^\                  -         *      -
LF   Line Feed                 ^J                  -         -      -
LS1R Locking Shift Right 1 *   \E ~                -         -      -
LS2  Locking Shift 2 *         \E n                -         -      -
LS2R Locking Shift Right 2 *   \E }                -         -      -
LS3  Locking Shift 3 *         \E o                -         -      -
LS3R Locking Shift Right 3 *   \E |                -         -      -
MC   Media Copy                \E [ Ps i           0         -      -   (S)
MW   Message Waiting           \E U                -         -      -
NAK  Negative Acknowledge *    ^U                  -         *      -
NBH  No Break Here *           \E C                -         -      -
NEL  Next Line                 \E E                -         FE     nel (D)
NP   Next Page                 \E [ Pn U           1         eF     -
NUL  Null *                    ^@                  -         -      -
OSC  Operating System Command  \E ]                -         Delim  -
PEC  Pres. Expand/Contract *   \E Pn SPC Z         0         -      -
PFS  Page Format Selection *   \E Pn SPC J         0         -      -
PLD  Partial Line Down         \E K                -         FE     -   (T)
PLU  Partial Line Up           \E L                -         FE     -   (U)
PM   Privacy Message           \E ^                -         Delim  -
PP   Preceding Page            \E [ Pn V           1         eF     -
PPA  Page Position Absolute *  \E [ Pn SPC P       1         FE     -
PPB  Page Position Backward *  \E [ Pn SPC R       1         FE     -
PPR  Page Position Forward *   \E [ Pn SPC Q       1         FE     -
PTX  Parallel Texts *          \E [ \              -         -      -
PU1  Private Use 1             \E Q                -         -      -
PU2  Private Use 2             \E R                -         -      -
QUAD Typographic Quadding      \E [ Ps SPC H       0         FE     -
REP  Repeat Char or Control    \E [ Pn b           1         -      rep
RI   Reverse Index             \E M                -         FE     -   (V)
RIS  Reset to Initial State    \E c                -         Fs     -
RM   Reset Mode *              \E [ Ps l           -         -      -   (W)
SACS Set Add. Char. Sep. *     \E [ Pn SPC /       0         -      -
SAPV Sel. Alt. Present. Var. * \E [ Ps SPC ]       0         -      -   (X)
SCI  Single-Char Introducer    \E Z                -         -      -
SCO  Sel. Char. Orientation *  \E [ Pn ; Pn SPC k  -         -      -
SCS  Set Char. Spacing *       \E [ Pn SPC g       -         -      -
SD   Scroll Down               \E [ Pn T           1         eF     rin
SDS  Start Directed String *   \E [ Pn ]           1         -      -
SEE  Select Editing Extent     \E [ Ps Q           0         -      -   (Y)
SEF  Sheet Eject & Feed *  \E [ Ps ; Ps SPC Y  0,0       -      -
SGR  Select Graphic Rendition  \E [ Ps m           0         FE     sgr (O)
SHS  Select Char. Spacing *    \E [ Ps SPC K       0         -      -
SI   Shift In                  ^O                  -         -      -   (P)
SIMD Sel. Imp. Move Direct. *  \E [ Ps ^           -         -      -
SL   Scroll Left               \E [ Pn SPC @       1         eF     -
SLH  Set Line Home *           \E [ Pn SPC U       -         -      -
SLL  Set Line Limit *          \E [ Pn SPC V       -         -      -
SLS  Set Line Spacing *        \E [ Pn SPC h       -         -      -
SM   Select Mode               \E [ Ps h           none      -      -   (W)
SO   Shift Out                 ^N                  -         -      -   (Q)
SOH  Start Of Heading *        ^A                  -         -      -
SOS  Start of String *         \E X                -         -      -
SPA  Start of Protected Area   \E V                -         -      -   (Z)
SPD  Select Pres. Direction *  \E [ Ps ; Ps SPC S  0,0       -      -
SPH  Set Page Home *           \E [ Ps SPC G       -         -      -
SPI  Spacing Increment         \E [ Pn ; Pn SPC G  none      FE     -
SPL  Set Page Limit *          \E [ Ps SPC j       -         -      -
SPQR Set Pr. Qual. & Rapid. *  \E [ Ps SPC X       0         -      -
SR   Scroll Right              \E [ Pn SPC A       1         eF     -
SRCS Set Reduced Char. Sep. *  \E [ Pn SPC f       0         -      -
SRS  Start Reversed String *   \E [ Ps [           0         -      -
SSA  Start of Selected Area    \E F                -         -      -
SSU  Select Size Unit *        \E [ Pn SPC I       0         -      -
SSW  Set Space Width *         \E [ Pn SPC [       none      -      -
SS2  Single Shift 2 (G2 set)   \E N                -         Intro  -
SS3  Single Shift 3 (G3 set)   \E O                -         Intro  -
ST   String Terminator         \E \                -         Delim  -
STAB Selective Tabulation *    \E [ Pn SPC ^       -         -      -
STS  Set Transmit State        \E S                -         -      -
STX  Start pf Text *           ^B                  -         -      -
SU   Scroll Up                 \E [ Pn S           1         eF     indn
SUB  Substitute *              ^Z                  -         -      -
SVS  Select Line Spacing *     \E [ Pn SPC \       1         -      -
SYN  Synchronous Idle *        ^F                  -         -      -
TAC  Tabul. Aligned Centered * \E [ Pn SPC b       -         -      -
TALE Tabul. Al. Leading Edge * \E [ Pn SPC a       -         -      -
TATE Tabul. Al. Trailing Edge* \E [ Pn SPC `       -         -      -
TBC  Tab Clear                 \E [ Ps g           0         FE     tbc
TCC  Tabul. Centered on Char * \E [ Pn SPC c       -         -      -
TSR  Tabulation Stop Remove  * \E [ Pn SPC d       -         FE     -
TSS  Thin Space Specification  \E [ Pn SC E        none      FE     -
VPA  Vert. Position Absolute   \E [ Pn d           1         FE     vpa
VPB  Line Position Backward *  \E [ Pn k           1         FE     -
VPR  Vert. Position Relative   \E [ Pn e           1         FE     -   (R)
VPR  Vert. Position Relative   \E [ Pn e           1         FE     -   (R)
VT   Vertical Tabulation *     ^K                  -         FE     -
VTS  Vertical Tabulation Set   \E J                -         FE     -

Basic Characteristics

This section documents the capabilities that describe the basic and nature of the terminal, and also those that are relevant to the output of graphic characters.

7bit vs. 8bit

These recommendations are optional. IBCS2 allows the leading escape to # be either the 7-bit \E[ or 8-bit \0233 introducer, in accordance with # the ANSI X.364/ISO 6429/ECMA-48 standard.

1.6.1 Describing the Encoding

For example, the cm string for a standard ANSI terminal is written as \E[%i%d;%dH. (\E stands for .) cm by convention always requires two parameters, the vertical and horizontal goal positions, so this string specifies the encoding of two parameters. Here %i increments the two values supplied, and each %d encodes one of the values in decimal. If the cursor position values 20,58 are encoded with this string, the result is \E[21;59H.

First, here are the %-sequences that generate output. Except for %%, each of them encodes one parameter and advances the pointer to the following parameter.

• %% Output a single %. This is the only way to represent a literal % in a terminal command with parameters. %% does not use up a parameter.
• %d As in printf, output the next parameter in decimal.
• %2 Like %02d in printf: output the next parameter in decimal, and always use at least two digits.
• %3 Like %03d in printf: output the next parameter in decimal, and always use at least three digits. Note that %4 and so on are _not_ defined.
• %. Output the next parameter as a single character whose ASCII code is the parameter value. Like %c in printf.
• %+CHAR Add the next parameter to the character CHAR, and output the resulting character. For example, %+ represents 0 as a space, 1 as !, etc.

The following %-sequences specify alteration of the parameters (their values, or their order) rather than encoding a parameter for output. They generate no output; they are used only for their side effects on the parameters. Also, they do not advance the "next parameter" pointer except as explicitly stated. Only %i, %r and %> are defined in standard Unix termcap. The others are GNU extensions.

• %i Increment the next two parameters. This is used for terminals that expect cursor positions in origin 1. For example, %i%d,%d would output two parameters with 1 for 0, 2 for 1, etc.
• %r Interchange the next two parameters. This is used for terminals whose cursor positioning command expects the horizontal position first.
• %s Skip the next parameter. Do not output anything.
• %b Back up one parameter. The last parameter used will become once again the next parameter to be output, and the next output command will use it. Using %b more than once, you can back up any number of parameters, and you can refer to each parameter any number of times.
• %>C1C2 Conditionally increment the next parameter. Here C1 and C2 are characters which stand for their ASCII codes as numbers. If the next parameter is greater than the ASCII code of C1, the ASCII code of C2 is added to it.
• %a OP TYPE POS Perform arithmetic on the next parameter, do not use it up, and do not output anything. Here OP specifies the arithmetic operation, while TYPE and POS together specify the other operand.

Spaces are used above to separate the operands for clarity; the spaces don't appear in the data base, where this sequence is exactly five characters long. The character OP says what kind of arithmetic operation to perform. It can be any of these characters:

• = - assign a value to the next parameter, ignoring its old value. The new value comes from the other operand.
• + - add the other operand to the next parameter.
• - - subtract the other operand from the next parameter.
• * - multiply the next parameter by the other operand.
• / - divide the next parameter by the other operand.

The "other operand" may be another parameter's value or a constant; the character TYPE says which. It can be:

• p - Use another parameter. The character POS says which parameter to use. Subtract 64 from its ASCII code to get the position of the desired parameter relative to this one. Thus, the character A as POS means the parameter after the next one; the character ? means the parameter before the next one.
• c - Use a constant value. The character POS specifies the value of the constant. The 0200 bit is cleared out, so that 0200 can be used to represent zero.

The following %-sequences are special purpose hacks to compensate for the weird designs of obscure terminals. They modify the next parameter or the next two parameters but do not generate output and do not use up any parameters. %m is a GNU extension; the others are defined in standard Unix termcap.

• %n - Exclusive-or the next parameter with 0140, and likewise the parameter after next.
• %m - Complement all the bits of the next parameter and the parameter after next.
• %B - Encode the next parameter in BCD. It alters the value of the parameter by adding six times the quotient of the parameter by ten. Here is a C statement that shows how the new value is computed: PARM = (PARM / 10) * 16 + PARM % 10;
• %D - Transform the next parameter as needed by Delta Data terminals. This involves subtracting twice the remainder of the parameter by 16. PARM -= 2 * (PARM % 16);

Terminal Type Name Conventions

Here is a list of standard suffixes and their conventional meanings:

• -w - Short for "wide". This is a mode that gives the terminal more columns than usual. This is normally a user option.
• -am - "Automatic margins". This is an alternate description for use when the terminal's margin-wrap switch is on; it contains the am flag. The implication is that normally the switch is off and the usual description for the terminal says that the switch is off.
• -nam - "No automatic margins". The opposite of -am, this names an alternative description which lacks the am flag. This implies that the terminal is normally operated with the margin-wrap switch turned on, and the normal description of the terminal says so.
• -na - "No arrows". This terminal description initializes the terminal to keep its arrow keys in local mode. This is a user option.
• -rv - "Reverse video". This terminal description causes text output for normal video to appear as reverse, and text output for reverse video to come out as normal. Often this description differs from the usual one by interchanging the two strings which turn reverse video on and off.

This is a user option; you can choose either the "reverse video" variant terminal type or the normal terminal type, and termcap will obey.

• -s - "Status". Says to enable use of a status line which ordinary output does not touch (*note Status Line::).

Some terminals have a special line that is used only as a status line. For these terminals, there is no need for an -s variant; the status line commands should be defined by default. On other terminals, enabling a status line means removing one screen line from ordinary use and reducing the effective screen height. For these terminals, the user can choose the -s variant type to request use of a status line.

• -NLINES - Says to operate with NLINES lines on the screen, for terminals such as the Ambassador which provide this as an option. Normally this is a user option; by choosing the terminal type, you control how many lines termcap will use.
• -NPAGESp - Says that the terminal has NPAGES pages worth of screen memory, for terminals where this is a hardware option.
• -unk - Says that description is not for direct use, but only for reference in tc capabilities. Such a description is a kind of subroutine, because it describes the common characteristics of several variant descriptions that would use other suffixes in place of -unk.

MS-DOS ANSI.SYS

Here is a description of the color and attribute controls supported in the ANSI.SYS driver under MS-DOS. Most console drivers and ANSI terminal emulators for Intel boxes obey these. They are a proper subset of the ECMA-48 escapes.

Bright black becomes gray, bright brown becomes yellow. These coincide with the prescriptions of the ISO 6429/ECMA-48 standard. * If the 5 attribute is on and you set a background color (40-47) it is supposed to enable bright background.

0        all attributes off
1        foreground bright
4        underscore on
5        blink on/background bright (not reliable with brown)
7        reverse-video
8        set blank (non-display)
10       set primary font
11       set first alternate font (on PCs, display ROM characters 1-31)
12       set second alternate font (on PCs, display IBM high-half chars)
3n       set foreground color       / 0=black, 1=red,     2=green, 3=brown,
4n       set background color       \ 4=blue,  5=magenta, 6=cyan,  7=white

STTY

Stty Control Settings

Stty Input settings

Stty Output settings

These arguments specify output-related operations.

Stty Local settings

Stty Combination settings

cread -ignbrk brkint -inlcr -igncr icrnl -ixoff -iuclc -ixany imaxbel opost -olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0 isig icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase -tostop -echoprt echoctl echoke

-ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr -icrnl -ixon -ixoff -iuclc -ixany -imaxbel -opost -isig -icanon -xcase min 1 time 0

Special characters

The special characters' default values vary from system to system. They are set with the syntax name value, where the names are listed below and the value can be given either literally, in hat notation (^C), or as an integer which may start with 0x to indicate hexadecimal, 0 to indicate octal, or any other digit to indicate decimal.

For GNU stty, giving a value of ^- or undef disables that special character. (This is incompatible with Ultrix stty, which uses a value of u to disable a special character. GNU stty treats a value u like any other, namely to set that special character to .)

Special settings

• min N - Set the minimum number of characters that will satisfy a read until the time value has expired, when -icanon is set.
• time N - Set the number of tenths of a second before reads time out if the minimum number of characters have not been read, when -icanon is set.
• ispeed N - Set the input speed to N.
• ospeed N - Set the output speed to N.
• rows N - Tell the tty kernel driver that the terminal has N rows. Non-POSIX.
• cols N, columns N - Tell the kernel that the terminal has N columns. Non-POSIX.
• size - Print the number of rows and columns that the kernel thinks the terminal has. (Systems that don't support rows and columns in the kernel typically use the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS instead; however, GNU stty does not know anything about them.) Non-POSIX.
• line N - Use line discipline N. Non-POSIX.
• speed - Print the terminal speed.
• N - Set the input and output speeds to N. N can be one of: 0 50 75 110 134 134.5 150 200 300 600 1200 1800 2400 4800 9600 19200 38400 exta extb. exta is the same as 19200; extb is the same as 38400. 0 hangs up the line if -clocal is set.

Color Terminals

color256 ()
{
    local L=$(sed 's/[0-9]//g; s/./#/g' <<<`seq -s+0 $(($COLUMNS - 10))`);
    for i in `seq 0 $(tput colors)`;
    do printf " %.3d `tput setab $i`${L}${R} %.3d `tput setab 0;tput setaf 7`\n" $i $i | tr '#' ' ';
    done
}

for F in `find ~/.terminfo/ -type f | sed 's/^.*\///' | xargs -P0 -I'TT' sh -c 'echo "$(tput -T TT colors): TT"'|sed '/^-/d'| grep ^16:|cut -d: -f2`; do
echo -e "\n\n";
pm $F; export TERM=$F; tput -T $F initc; color256; done

find ~/.terminfo/ -type f | sed 's/^.*\///' | xargs -I'TT' sh -c 'echo "$(tput -T TT colors): TT"'|sed '/^-/d'

Terminals with 16 Colors

• aixterm-16color
• amiga-vnc
• hp2397
• hp2397a
• hp+color
• ibm+16color
• konsole-16color
• nsterm-16color
• nsterm-7-c
• nsterm-7-c-s
• nsterm-acs-c
• nsterm-acs-c-s
• nsterm-c
• nsterm+c
• nsterm-c-7
• nsterm-c-acs
• nsterm-c-s
• nsterm-c-s-7
• nsterm-c-s-acs
• rxvt-16color
• screen-16color
• screen-16color-bce
• screen-16color-bce-s
• screen-16color-s
• xterm-16color

Terminals with 52 Colors

• d430c-dg-ccc
• d430c-unix-25-ccc
• d430c-unix-ccc
• d430c-unix-s-ccc
• d430c-unix-sr-ccc
• d430c-unix-w-ccc
• d430-dg-ccc
• d430-unix-25-ccc
• d430-unix-ccc
• d430-unix-s-ccc
• d430-unix-sr-ccc
• d430-unix-w-ccc
• dg+ccc
• dgunix+ccc

Terminals with 64 Colors

• hpterm-color
• wy370
• wy370-101k
• wy370-105k
• wy370-EPC
• wy370-nk
• wy370-rv
• wy370-vb
• wy370-w
• wy370-wvb
• wyse370
• Eterm-88color
• rxvt-88color
• xterm-88color
• xterm+88color

Terminals with 256 colors

• Eterm-256color
• gnome-256color
• konsole-256color
• putty-256color
• rxvt-256color
• screen-256color
• screen-256color-bce
• screen-256color-bce-s
• screen-256color-s
• xterm-256color
• xterm+256color

View All tput capabilities

http://blogs.msdn.com/adioltean/articles/271063.aspx

function tputs(){ infocmp -1|sed 's/^[   ]*//; /=/!d; s/=.*//g; /[#\|]/d'; }

Some common terminfo parameter sequences, their termcap equivalents, and some terminal types which commonly have such sequences, are:

terminfo                    termcap   Representative Terminals
---------------------------------------------------------------
%p1%c                       %.        adm
%p1%d                       %d        hp, ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%+%c                 %+x       concept
%i                          %iq       ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%?%>%t%p1%+%;    %>xy      concept
%p2 is printed before %p1   %r        hp

Installing your Own Terminfo

MostLike, or if that is offline I uploaded a copy: mostlike - manpages with color looking like most

rm -rvf ~/.terminfo
mkdir -pv ~/.terminfo
curl -o terminfo.master http://nion.modprobe.de/mostlike.txt; curl -Ss ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.gz
export TERMINFO=~/.terminfo;
sudo tic -e screen-256color,screen-256color-s,screen-256color-bce,screen-256color-bce-s,xterm+256color,xterm,xterm-pcolor terminfo.src

256 Colors in Terminal

256 Colors (Background)

W=`tput setaf 7` RC="\E[0;0;0m" L=$(sed 's/[0-9]//g; s/./ /g' <<<`seq -s+0 $(($COLUMNS/2))`);
 
for i in `seq 0 256`;
do
  printf "${W}\n%.3d `tput setab $i`${L}${RC}" $i;
done

256 Colors (Foreground)

W=`tput setaf 7` WB=`tput setab 0` RC="\E[0;0;0m" L=$(sed 's/[0-9]//g; s/./#/g' <<<`seq -s+0 $(($COLUMNS/2))`);
for i in `seq 0 256`;
do
  printf "${WB}\n%.3d `tput setaf $i`${L}${RC}" $i;
done

Terminal Capabilities - Infocmp

infocmp -1Lq|grep -v "$TERM\|#"|tr -d '  '

DEC/ANSI special sequences

List of the DEC/ANSI special sequences recognized:

Term Sorted

./MKtermsort.sh |sed 's/.*\/\*  \(.*\)  \*\//\1/g'|sort -u|grep ^[a-zA-Z]|sortwc|grep -v ^static|sort -d|tr " " ','|sed 's/\([^,]\{1,\}\),/<var>\1<\/var>,/g'

AB,ac,acs_btee,acsc,acs_chars,acs_hline,acs_llcorner,acs_lrcorner,acs_ltee,acs_plus,acs_rtee,acs_ttee,acs_ulcorner,acs_urcorner,acs_vline,ae,AF,al,AL,alt_scancode_esc,am,apstr,arrow_key_map,as,auto_left_margin,auto_right_margin,back_color_erase,backspace_delay,backspace_if_not_bs,backspaces_with_bs,back_tab,batt1,batt2,bc,bce,bel,bell,bicr,binel,birep,bit_image_carriage_return,bit_image_entwining,bit_image_newline,bit_image_repeat,bit_image_type,bitwin,bitype,bl,blink,bold,box1,box2,box_chars_1,bs,bt,BT,btml,btns,buffer_capacity,bufsz,buttons,bw,bx,can_change,carriage_return,carriage_return_delay,cb,cbt,cc,CC,ccc,cd,ce,ceol_standout_glitch,ch,change_char_pitch,change_line_pitch,change_res_horz,change_res_vert,change_scroll_region,char_padding,char_set_names,chr,chts,ci,civis,cl,clear,clear_all_tabs,clear_margins,clear_screen,clr_bol,clr_eol,clr_eos,cm,CM,cmdch,cnorm,co,Co,code_set_init,col_addr_glitch,colb0,colb1,colb2,colb3,colb4,colb5,colb6,colb7,colf0,colf1,colf2,colf3,colf4,colf5,colf6,colf7,color_names,colornm,colors,cols,column_address,columns,command_character,cpi,cpi_changes_res,cpix,cps,cr,cr_cancels_micro_mode,create_window,crt_no_scrolling,crxm,cs,csin,csnm,csr,ct,cub,cub1,cud,cud1,cuf,cuf1,cup,cursor_address,cursor_down,cursor_home,cursor_invisible,cursor_left,cursor_mem_address,cursor_normal,cursor_right,cursor_to_ll,cursor_up,cursor_visible,cuu,cuu1,cv,cvr,cvvis,CW,cwin,da,daisy,db,dB,dc,dC,DC,dch,dch1,dclk,defbi,defc,define_bit_image_region,define_char,delete_character,delete_line,dest_tabs_magic_smso,device_type,devt,DI,dial,dial_phone,dim,dispc,display_clock,display_pc_char,dis_status_line,DK,dl,DL,dl1,dm,dN,do,DO,docr,dot_horz_spacing,dot_vert_spacing,down_half_line,ds,dsl,dT,dv,eA,eat_newline_glitch,ec,ech,ed,ehhlm,ei,el,el1,elhlm,elohlm,ena_acs,enacs,endbi,end_bit_image_region,enter_alt_charset_mode,enter_am_mode,enter_blink_mode,enter_bold_mode,enter_ca_mode,enter_delete_mode,enter_dim_mode,enter_doublewide_mode,enter_draft_quality,enter_horizontal_hl_mode,enter_insert_mode,enter_italics_mode,enter_left_hl_mode,enter_leftward_mode,enter_low_hl_mode,enter_micro_mode,enter_near_letter_quality,enter_normal_quality,enter_pc_charset_mode,enter_protected_mode,enter_reverse_mode,enter_right_hl_mode,enter_scancode_mode,enter_secure_mode,enter_shadow_mode,enter_standout_mode,enter_subscript_mode,enter_superscript_mode,enter_top_hl_mode,enter_underline_mode,enter_upward_mode,enter_vertical_hl_mode,enter_xon_mode,eo,erase_chars,erase_overstrike,erhlm,es,eslok,ethlm,evhlm,exit_alt_charset_mode,exit_am_mode,exit_attribute_mode,exit_ca_mode,exit_delete_mode,exit_doublewide_mode,exit_insert_mode,exit_italics_mode,exit_leftward_mode,exit_micro_mode,exit_pc_charset_mode,exit_scancode_mode,exit_shadow_mode,exit_standout_mode,exit_subscript_mode,exit_superscript_mode,exit_underline_mode,exit_upward_mode,exit_xon_mode,F1,F2,F3,F4,F5,F6,F7,F8,F9,Fa,FA,Fb,FB,Fc,FC,Fd,FD,Fe,FE,ff,Ff,FF,Fg,FG,fh,Fh,FH,Fi,FI,fixed_pause,Fj,FJ,Fk,FK,Fl,FL,flash,flash_hook,flash_screen,fln,Fm,FM,Fn,FN,Fo,FO,font0,font1,font2,font3,font4,font5,font6,font7,form_feed,Fp,FP,Fq,FQ,Fr,FR,from_status_line,fs,FS,fsl,FT,FU,FV,FW,FX,FY,FZ,G1,G2,G3,G4,GC,GD,generic_type,getm,get_mouse,GH,GL,Gm,gn,gnu_has_meta_key,goto_window,GR,GU,GV,hangup,hard_copy,hard_cursor,has_hardware_tabs,has_meta_key,has_print_wheel,has_status_line,hc,HC,hd,hl,hls,ho,home,hook,horizontal_tab_delay,hpa,hs,ht,hts,hu,HU,hue_lightness_saturation,hup,hz,i1,i2,i3,ic,Ic,IC,ich,ich1,if,il,il1,im,in,ind,indn,init_1string,init_2string,init_3string,initc,init_file,initialize_color,initial ize_pair,initp,init_prog,init_tabs,insert_character,insert_line,insert_null_glitch,insert_padding,invis,ip,iP,Ip,iprog,is,is1,is2,is3,it,k;,k0,k1,K1,k2,K2,k3,K3,k4,K4,k5,K5,k6,k7,k8,k9,ka,kA,ka1,ka3,kact,kb,kB,kb2,kbeg,kBEG,kbs,kbtab,kC,kc1,kc3,kcan,kCAN,kcbt,kclo,kclr,kcmd,kCMD,kcpn,kcpy,kCPY,kcrt,kCRT,kctab,kcub1,kcud1,kcuf1,kcuu1,kd,kD,kDC,kdch1,kDL,kdl1,kdo,ke,kE,ked,kel,kend,kEND,kent,kEOL,kext,kEXT,key_a1,key_a3,key_b2,key_backspace,key_beg,key_btab,key_c1,key_c3,key_cancel,key_catab,key_clear,key_close,key_command,key_copy,key_create,key_ctab,key_dc,key_dl,key_down,key_eic,key_end,key_enter,key_eol,key_eos,key_exit,key_f0,key_f1,key_f10,key_f11,key_f12,key_f13,key_f14,key_f15,key_f16,key_f17,key_f18,key_f19,key_f2,key_f20,key_f21,key_f22,key_f23,key_f24,key_f25,key_f26,key_f27,key_f28,key_f29,key_f3,key_f30,key_f31,key_f32,key_f33,key_f34,key_f35,key_f36,key_f37,key_f38,key_f39,key_f4,key_f40,key_f41,key_f42,key_f43,key_f44,key_f45,key_f46,key_f47,key_f48,key_f49,key_f5,key_f50,key_f51,key_f52,key_f53,key_f54,key_f55,key_f56,key_f57,key_f58,key_f59,key_f6,key_f60,key_f61,key_f62,key_f63,key_f7,key_f8,key_f9,key_find,key_help,key_home,key_ic,key_il,key_left,key_ll,key_mark,key_message,key_mouse,key_move,key_next,key_npage,key_open,key_options,keypad_local,keypad_xmit,key_ppage,key_previous,key_print,key_redo,key_reference,key_refresh,key_replace,key_restart,key_resume,key_right,key_save,key_sbeg,key_scancel,key_scommand,key_scopy,key_screate,key_sdc,key_sdl,key_select,key_send,key_seol,key_sexit,key_sf,key_sfind,key_shelp,key_shome,key_sic,key_sleft,key_smessage,key_smove,key_snext,key_soptions,key_sprevious,key_sprint,key_sr,key_sredo,key_sreplace,key_sright,key_srsume,key_ssave,key_ssuspend,key_stab,key_sundo,key_suspend,key_undo,key_up,kF,kf0,kf1,kf10,kf11,kf12,kf13,kf14,kf15,kf16,kf17,kf18,kf19,kf2,kf20,kf21,kf22,kf23,kf24,kf25,kf26,kf27,kf28,kf29,kf3,kf30,kf31,kf32,kf33,kf34,kf35,kf36,kf37,kf38,kf39,kf4,kf40,kf41,kf42,kf43,kf44,kf45,kf46,kf47,kf48,kf49,kf5,kf50,kf51,kf52,kf53,kf54,kf55,kf56,kf57,kf58,kf59,kf6,kf60,kf61,kf62,kf63,kf7,kf8,kf9,kfnd,kFND,kh,kH,khlp,kHLP,kHOM,khome,khts,kI,kIC,kich1,kil1,kind,kl,kL,kLFT,kll,km,kM,Km,kmous,kmov,kMOV,kmpf1,kmpf2,kmpf3,kmpf4,kmpf5,kmpf6,kmpf7,kmpf8,kmpf9,kmpt1,kmpt2,kmpt3,kmpt4,kmpt5,kmpt6,kmpt7,kmpt8,kmpt9,kmrk,kmsg,kMSG,kn,kN,knl,knp,knpn,knxt,kNXT,ko,kopn,kopt,kOPT,kP,kpp,kppn,kprt,kPRT,kprv,kPRV,kquit,kr,kR,krdo,kRDO,kref,kres,kRES,krfr,kri,kRIT,krmir,krpl,kRPL,krst,ks,kS,ksav,kSAV,kscl,kscr,ksel,ksf1,ksf10,ksf2,ksf3,ksf4,ksf5,ksf6,ksf7,ksf8,ksf9,kslt,kspd,kSPD,kt,kT,ktab,ktbc,ku,kund,kUND,l0,l1,l2,l3,l4,l5,l6,l7,l8,l9,la,label_format,label_height,label_off,label_on,label_width,lab_f0,lab_f1,lab_f10,lab_f2,lab_f3,lab_f4,lab_f5,lab_f6,lab_f7,lab_f8,lab_f9,le,LE,Lf,LF,lf0,lf1,lf10,lf2,lf3,lf4,lf5,lf6,lf7,lf8,lf9,lh,li,linefeed_if_not_lf,linefeed_is_newline,lines,lines_of_memory,ll,lm,LO,lpi,lpi_changes_res,lpix,lvert,lw,ma,maddr,magic_cookie_glitch,magic_cookie_glitch_ul,max_attributes,max_colors,maximum_windows,max_micro_address,max_micro_jump,max_pairs,mb,MC,mc0,mc4,mc5,mc5i,mc5p,mcs,mcub,mcub1,mcud,mcud1,mcuf,mcuf1,mcuu,mcuu1,md,me,meml,memory_above,memory_below,memory_lock,memory_unlock,memu,meta_off,meta_on,mgc,mh,mhpa,mi,Mi,micro_col_size,micro_column_address,micro_down,micro_left,micro_line_size,micro_right,micro_row_address,micro_up,minfo,mir,mjump,mk,ml,ML,mls,mm,mo,mouse_info,move_insert_mode,move_standout_mode,mp,mr,MR,mrcup,ms,msgr,MT,mu,mvpa,MW,nc,NC,ncv,nd,ND,ndscr,needs_xon_xoff,nel,newline,new_line_delay,nl,Nl,NL,nlab,no_color_video,no_correctly_working_cr,no_esc_ctlc,non_dest_scroll_region,non_rev_rmcup,no_pad_char,NP,npc,npins,NR,nrrmc,ns,number_of_function_keys,number_of_pins,num_labels,nw,nx,nxon,oc,op,orc,order_of_pins,orhi,orig_colors,orig_pair,orl,orvi,os,OTbc,OTbs,OTdB,OTdC,OTdN,OTdT,OTG1,OTG2,OTG3,OTG4,OTGC,OTGD,OTGH,OTGL,OTGR,OTGU,OTGV,other_non_function_keys,OTi2,OTkn,OTko,OTma,OTMT,OTnc,OTnl,OTNL,OTns,OTpt,OTrs,OTug,OTxr,output_res_char,output_res_horz_inch,output_res_line,output_res_vert_inch,over_strike,pa,PA,pad,pad_char,padding_baud_rate,pairs,parm_dch,parm_delete_line,parm_down_cursor,parm_down_micro,parm_ich,parm_index,parm_insert_line,parm_left_cursor,parm_left_micro,parm_right_cursor,parm_right_micro,parm_rindex,parm_up_cursor,parm_up_micro,pause,pb,pc,pc_term_options,pctrm,pf,pfkey,pfloc,pfx,pfxl,pk,pkey_key,pkey_local,pkey_plab,pkey_xmit,pl,plab_norm,pln,pn,po,pO,porder,print_rate,print_screen,prot,prtr_non,prtr_off,prtr_on,prtr_silent,ps,pt,PU,pulse,px,QD,qdial,quick_dial,r1,r2,r3,RA,rbim,rc,RC,rcsd,remove_clock,rep,repeat_char,req_for_input,req_mouse_pos,reqmp,reset_1string,reset_2string,reset_3string,reset_file,restore_cursor,return_does_clr_eol,rev,rf,RF,rfi,ri,RI,rin,ritm,rlm,rmacs,rmam,rmclk,rmcup,rmdc,rmicm,rmir,rmkx,rmln,rmm,rmp,rmpch,rmsc,rmso,rmul,rmxon,row_address,row_addr_glitch,rp,rP,RQ,rs,rs1,rs2,rs3,rshm,rsubm,rsupm,rum,rvert,rwidm,RX,s0,s0ds,s1,S1,s1ds,s2,S2,s2ds,s3,S3,s3ds,S4,S5,S6,S7,S8,sa,sA,SA,sam,save_cursor,Sb,sbim,sc,SC,scancode_escape,scesa,scesc,sclk,scp,scroll_forward,scroll_reverse,scs,scsd,sdrfq,se,select_char_set,semi_auto_right_margin,set0_des_seq,set1_des_seq,set2_des_seq,set3_des_seq,set_a_attributes,setab,set_a_background,setaf,set_a_foreground,set_attributes,setb,set_background,set_bottom_margin,set_bottom_margin_parm,set_clock,setcolor,set_color_band,set_color_pair,setf,set_foreground,set_left_margin,set_left_margin_parm,set_lr_margin,set_page_length,set_pglen_inch,set_right_margin,set_right_margin_parm,set_tab,set_tb_margin,set_top_margin,set_top_margin_parm,set_window,sf,Sf,SF,sg,sgr,sgr0,sgr1,sitm,sL,slength,slines,slm,smacs,smam,smcup,smdc,smgb,smgbp,smgl,smglp,smglr,smgr,smgrp,smgt,smgtb,smgtp,smicm,smir,smkx,smln,smm,smpch,smsc,smso,smul,smxon,snlq,snrmq,so,sp,spinh,spinv,sr,SR,sshm,ssubm,ssupm,st,start_bit_image,start_char_set_def,status_line_esc_ok,stop_bit_image,stop_char_set_def,subcs,subscript_characters,sum,supcs,superscript_characters,swidm,SX,ta,tab,tbc,te,termcap_init2,termcap_reset,these_cause_cr,ti,tilde_glitch,TO,tone,topl,to_status_line,transparent_underline,ts,tsl,u0,u1,u2,u3,u4,u5,u6,u7,u8,u9,uc,ue,ug,ul,underline_char,up,UP,up_half_line,us,user0,user1,user2,user3,user4,user5,user6,user7,user8,user9,ut,vb,ve,vi,virtual_terminal,vpa,vs,vt,WA,wait,wait_tone,WG,wi,widcs,wide_char_size,width_status_line,wind,wingo,wnum,ws,wsl,xb,xenl,XF,Xh,xhp,xhpa,xl,Xl,xmc,xn,XN,xo,Xo,xoffc,xoff_character,xon,xonc,xon_character,xon_xoff,xr,Xr,xs,xsb,xt,Xt,Xv,xvpa,Xy,Ya,YA,Yb,YB,Yc,YC,Yd,YD,Ye,YE,Yf,YF,Yg,YG,Yh,Yi,Yj,Yk,Yl,Ym,Yn,Yo,Yp,Yv,Yw,Yx,Yy,Yz,YZ,Za,ZA,Zb,ZB,Zc,ZC,Zd,ZD,Ze,ZE,zerom,zero_motion,Zf,ZF,Zg,ZG,Zh,ZH,Zi,ZI,Zj,ZJ,Zk,ZK,Zl,ZL,Zm,ZM,Zn,ZN,Zo,ZO,Zp,ZP,Zq,ZQ,Zr,ZR,Zs,ZS,Zt,ZT,Zu,ZU,Zv,ZV,Zw,ZW,Zx,ZX,Zy,ZY,Zz,ZZ

TERMINAL TYPE DESCRIPTIONS SOURCE FILE

ANSI, UNIX CONSOLE, AND SPECIAL TYPES
Specials
ANSI.SYS/ISO 6429/ECMA-48 Capabilities
ANSI/ECMA-48 terminals and terminal emulators
DOS ANSI.SYS variants
ANSI console types
BeOS
Linux consoles
Mach
OSF Unix
QNX
NetBSD consoles
FreeBSD console entries
386BSD and BSD/OS Consoles
DEC VT52
DEC VT100 and compatibles
VT100 emulations
X terminal emulators
MGR
UNIX VIRTUAL TERMINALS, VIRTUAL CONSOLES, AND TELNET CLIENTS
Pilot Pro Palm-Top
COMMERCIAL WORKSTATION CONSOLES
Alpha consoles
Sun consoles
Iris consoles
NeWS consoles
NeXT consoles
Sony NEWS workstations
Common Desktop Environment
Non-Unix Consoles
COMMON TERMINAL TYPES
Altos
Hewlett-Packard (hp)
Honeywell-Bull
Lear-Siegler (adm)
Prime
Qume (qvt)
Televideo (tvi)
Visual (vi)
Wyse (wy)
Kermit terminal emulations
NON-ANSI TERMINAL EMULATIONS
Avatar
RBcomm
LCD DISPLAYS
Matrix Orbital
OLDER TERMINAL TYPES
AT&T (att, tty)
Ampex (Dialogue)
Ann Arbor (aa)
Applied Digital Data Systems (adds)
C. Itoh Electronics
Control Data (cdc)
Getronics
Human Designed Systems (Concept)
Contel Business Systems.
Data General (dg)
Datamedia (dm)
Falco

Just something sorta cool for you to check out

{
 local t=`tputm 'clear' 'setaf 75'` l a b f=/tmp/ps IFS=' ';
exec 6<>$f;ps L|tr -s ' ' &>$f;
while read -u6 l;do a=${l/% */} b=${l/* /};
figlet -rtw $((${COLUMNS} /2 )) -f big "$l";
tput sgr0;
command ps wwo pid:6,user:8,vsize:8,comm:20,$a:50 k -$a -A;cont;
done;
};

Terminal Escape Code Zen originally appeared on AskApache.com

This is part of the GRUB article on the Arch Linux wiki that I contributed. As of now, just a copy.

The grub menu.lst provides for a convenient way to add a number of entries with extended kernel parameters to configure all sorts of advanced settings to enable you to quickly and conveniently boot into your existing system with varying levels of debugging output. It's very easy and useful to create several levels of debugging just by adding additional entries to your grub configuration. And if you ever have issues or problems down the road due to a power-failure or hardware failure, it can save you hours of trouble, and of course nothing can beat debugging output when it comes to learning about your system.

Useful Menu.lst Entries

If you are interested in debugging, then you deserve some grub entries for powerusers, here are a few that I like (just add to your menu.lst).

title Shutdown the Computer
halt
 
title Reboot the Computer
reboot
 
title Command Line
commandline
 
title Install GRUB to hd0 MBR
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
 
title Matrix
color green/black light-green/green
 
title Scan for /boot/grub/menu.lst
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /boot/grub/menu.lst
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
 
title Scan for /boot/menu.lst
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /menu.lst
configfile /boot/menu.lst
 
# http://www.vortex.prodigynet.co.uk/x86test/
title    Run x86test (CPU Info)
kernel /boot/x86test_zImage.bin
#wget http://www.vortex.prodigynet.co.uk/x86test/x86test_zImage.bin
 
# http://www.memtest.org/
title    Run memtest86+ (Memory Testing)
kernel /boot/memtest86+-1.70.bin

Light Debug

A quick way to see more verbose messages on your console is to bootup your normal grub entry after appending verbose to the kernel line. This simple word added to your kernel line turns on more logging thanks to the /etc/rc.sysinit file, which at the top of the file runs:

if /bin/grep -q " verbose" /proc/cmdline; then /bin/dmesg -n 8; fi

Very simple way to get a bit more messages and debug output in your logs.

title  Arch Linux DEBUG Light
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro rootwait verbose
initrd /kernel26.img

Medium Debug

This example menu.lst entry turns on real logging that is set by the kernel and not in an init script. Adding the debug kernel parameter to your kernel line is recognized by a lot of linux internals and enables quite a bit of debugging compared to the default.

title Arch Linux DEBUG Medium
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro rootdelay=5 panic=10 debug
initrd /kernel26.img

Heavy Debug

An even more impressive kernel parameter is the ignore_loglevel, which causes the system to ignore any loglevel and keeps the internal loglevel at the maximum debugging level, basically rendering dmesg unable to lower the debug level.

title Arch Linux DEBUG Heavy
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro rootdelay=5 panic=10 debug ignore_loglevel
initrd /kernel26.img

Extreme Debug

If the "Heavy Debug" seemed like a lot of output, thats about 1/2 of the logging that occurs with this example. This does a couple things, it uses the earlyprintk parameter to setup your kernel for "early" "printing" of messages to your "vga" screen. The ,keep just lets it stay on the screen longer. This will let you see logs that normally are hidden due to the boot-up process. This also changes the log buffer length to 10MB, and also instructs that any fatal signals be printed with print_fatal_signals. The last one, sched_debug, you can look up in the very excellent kernel documentation on kernel parameters.

title Arch Linux DEBUG Extreme
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro debug ignore_loglevel log_buf_len=10M print_fatal_signals=1 LOGLEVEL=8 earlyprintk=vga,keep sched_debug
initrd /kernel26.img

Insane Debug

The first few debugging examples showed some really nice kernel parameters to turn on really verbose debugging. This kind of debugging is absolutely critical if you want to max out your system or just learn more about what is going on behind the scenes. But there is a final trick that is my favorite, it's the ability to set both environment variables, and more importantly, module parameters at boot.

As an example, here is the boot line that I am using at the moment on an older Dell Desktop, just to illustrate module parameters and environment vars.

title  Arch Linux X-256
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro rootwait pause_on_oops=5 panic=60 i915.modeset=1 no_console_suspend ipv6.disable=1 TERM=xterm-256color quiet 5
initrd /kernel26.img

Since it's low on both memory and CPU, I disable ipv6. I also turn on kernel modesetting for the i915 video card, set my terminal to be xterm-256color, and boot straight into X. This lets me use a very optimized arch-linux configuration, amazing how fast thanks to using slim as the login manager, ratpoison as my window manager, and terminal with tmux as my login shell, all from boot, as the pstree shows (plus Synergy!).

init,1
  |-slim,3096
  |   |-X,3098 -nolisten tcp vt07 -auth /var/run/slim.auth
  |   `-ratpoison,3107,askapache
  |       |-terminal,5341 -x sh -c exec /usr/bin/tmux -2 -l -u -q attach -d -t tmux-askapache
  |       |   |-bash,11165
  |       |   |-tmux,5345 -2 -l -u -q attach -d -t tmux-askapache
  |       |   `-{terminal},5346
  |       `-xscreensaver,3113 -no-splash
  |-synergyc,6121,galileo -f --name galileo-fire --restart 10.66.66.2:26666
  |
  `-tmux,5348,askapache -2 -l -u -q attach -d -t tmux-askapache
      |-bash,5351
      |   `-ssh,9969 lug@askapache.com
      `-bash,5868
         `-vim,11149 -p sda1/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst

That kind of optimized system is only possible if you first can figure out your system, by debugging both the kernel as previously illustrated, debugging the init process, and most importantly, by debugging the modules enabled for your system's hardware/firmware/software. Debugging modules is challenging but worth the effort, and then you are able to do some truly insane debugging from grub like the following example, note that the actual grub entry is all on one line, but I split it into 4 lines so you could see it all. This basically turns on every module on this little Dell desktop to be at the absolute max debug level. There is so much logging when I boot this that the system grinds to a halt and is slower than a TI-89 calculator (See Improve Boot Performance).

title  Arch Linux DEBUG INSANE
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro rootwait ignore_loglevel debug debug_locks_verbose=1 sched_debug initcall_debug mminit_loglevel=4 udev.log_priority=8
       loglevel=8 earlyprintk=vga,keep log_buf_len=10M print_fatal_signals=1 apm.debug=Y i8042.debug=Y drm.debug=1 scsi_logging_level=1 usbserial.debug=Y
       option.debug=Y pl2303.debug=Y firewire_ohci.debug=1 hid.debug=1 pci_hotplug.debug=Y pci_hotplug.debug_acpi=Y shpchp.shpchp_debug=Y apic=debug
       show_lapic=all hpet=verbose lmb=debug pause_on_oops=5 panic=10 sysrq_always_enabled
initrd /kernel26.img

A couple key items from that grub entry are sysrq_always_enabled which forces on the sysrq magic, which really is a lifesaver when debugging at this level as your machine will freeze/stop-responding sometimes and it's nice to use sysrq to kill all tasks, change the loglevel, unmount all filesystems, or do a hard reboot. Another key parameter is the initcall_debug, which debugs the init process in excruciating detail. Very useful at times. The last parametery I find very useful is the udev.log_priority=8 to turn on udev logging.

Break Into Init

For instance, If you add break=y to your kernel cmdline, init will pause early in the boot process (after loading modules) and launch an interactive sh shell which can be used for troubleshooting purposes. (Normal boot continues after logout.) This is very similar to the shell that shows up if your computer gets turned off before it is able to shutdown properly. But using this parameter lets you enter into this mode differently at will.

title  Arch Linux Init Break
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro rootwait break=y
initrd /kernel26.img

Debugging init

This awesome parameter udev.log_priority=8 does the same thing as editing the file /etc/udev/udev.conf except it executes earlier, turning on debugging output for udev. If you want to know your hardware, that is the key parameter right there. Another trick is if you change the /etc/udev/udev.conf to be verbose, then you can make your initrd image include that file to turn on verbose udeb debugging by adding it to your {{Filename|/etc/mkinitcpio.conf} like:

FILES="/etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf /etc/udev/udev.conf"

, which on arch is as easy as

# mkinitcpio -p kernel26

Debugging udev is key because the initrd performs a root change at the end of its run to usually launch a program like /sbin/init as part of a chroot, and unless the new file system has a valid /dev directory, udev must be initialized before invoking chroot in order to provide /dev/console.

exec chroot . /sbin/init <dev/console >dev/console 2>&1

So basically, you aren't able to view the logs that are generated before /dev/console is initialized by udev or by a special initrd you compiled yourself. One method the kernel developers use to be able to still get the log messages generated before /dev/console is available is to provide an alternative console that you can enable or disable from grub.

Net Console

If you read through the kernel documentation regarding debugging, you will hear about Netconsole, which can be loaded from the kernel line in GRUB, compiled into your kernel, or loaded at runtime as a module. Having a netconsole entry in your menu.lst is most excellent for debugging slower computers like old laptops or thin-clients. It's easy to use. Just setup a 2nd computer (running arch) to accept syslog requests on a remote port, very fast and quick to do on arch-linux, 1 line to syslog.conf. Then you could use a log-color-parser like ccze to view all syslog logs, or just tail your everything.log. Then on your laptop, boot up and select the netconsole entry from the grub menu, and you will start seeing as much logging as you want on your syslog system. This logging lets you view even earlier log output than is available with the earlyprintk=vga kernel parameter, as netconsole is used by kernel hackers and developers, so it's very powerful.

title  Arch Linux DEBUG Netconsole
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro netconsole=514@10.0.0.2/12:34:56:78:9a:bc debug ignore_loglevel
initrd /kernel26.img

Hijacking cmdline

If you do not have access to GRUB or the kernel boottime cmdline, like on a server or virtual machine, as long as you have root permissions you can still enable this kind of simplistic verbose logging using a neat hack. While you cannot modify the /proc/cmdline even as root, you can place your own cmdline file on top of /proc/cmdline, so that accessing /proc/cmdline actually accesses your file.

For example if I cat /proc/cmdline, I have the following:

root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro console=tty1 logo.nologo quiet

So I use a simple sed command to replace quiet with verbose like:

sed 's/ quiet/ verbose/' /proc/cmdline > /root/cmdline

Then I bind mount /root/cmdline so that it becomes /proc/cmdline, using the -n option to mount so that this mount won't be recorded in the systems mtab.

mount -n --bind -o ro /root/cmdline /proc/cmdline

Now if I cat /proc/cmdline, I have the following:

root=/dev/disk/by-label/ROOT ro console=tty1 logo.nologo verbose

Advanced Linux Debugging using a Bootloader (GRUB) originally appeared on AskApache.com

Back in the mid-90's I was doing a lot of war-dialing with modems (a more recent phenomenon is wardriving, the searching for wireless networks (Wi-Fi) from a moving vehicle. Wardriving was named after wardialing, since both techniques involve brute-force searches to find computer networks) and discovering all sorts of networks and machines, many of them were Unix and Solaris based public systems, and when I managed to gain access to the system and found myself staring at a unix shell I was very excited but also a total idiot. In those days of using the phone networks to research unknown systems it was very difficult for anyone to actually get the phone company to trace a call, so instead of what happens today where it is child's play to trace an IP address, back then it was a very real back-and-forth battle between the system admin and whoever was gaining access to their system.

Essentially, I would gain a shell or some kind of terminal, and just go at it trying to figure out what it could do, trying all kinds of commands. Inevitably this would eventually alert even the laziest admin and they would proceed to attempt to lock me out. It was great sport and extremely addictive. When my favorite system (a massive sun machine in the basement of a big library) finally locked me out and I couldn't get back in I went to my local library and got some reading material -- one of my favorites was the red hat bible. I was able to acquire my own computer and the first thing I did was install red hat linux onto it from the discs included with the book. For the next several years I was essentially offline, all we had at home was a modem and it was becoming difficult to locate any more systems in my area code.. I was into phreaking of course as well, but I never was able to make free long-distance war-dialing a reality.

So I just read the books and learned what I could. I would also goto the library when I could in order to use their machines which were connected to the internet (before aol it was much different than today's internet) and since my time was short I would download as many documents as I could so that I could read them offline. The TLDP documentation that we know today was around back then in various forms, and I read every HOWTO in the index, though not understanding half. The other big resource I found for really intense reading was the kernel documentation, which admitedly I still don't comprehend 1/4th of.. I try and peruse all the new documents when a new kernel is released, since the kernel is where all the real action is, hence the military authoritative name, and that is how I discovered one of the coolest features of Linux that I have found. TMPFS!

What I learned

I learned that with our present technology, which I try to keep somewhat updated on, using a mouse to point and click your way to a solution is always much much much slower than just getting dirty and writing straight code to a terminal. BTW, you know they are close (within 100 years) of enabling connection at the speed of thought. Yes it's a mind-meld between you and a super-computer AI to process it. That's the whole story behind popular Japanese anime like "Ghost in the Shell".

That's also a fundamental reason that certain vast segments of the computing world have a dislike of Microsoft, the way they build (to sell) their operating systems.. no open-code, which is their obvious #1 problem, and why they have a million viruses. Perhaps even a bigger issue some have with "the empire", is how they stuck this gooey, thats how you pronounce GUI - graphical user interface, in a way that tries to create multiple classes of people, those behind the scenes with all the control (they are a middleman between you and your real computer, for millions), and a second group of people on the outside, sheep - I believe they are referred to as sheep.

Cleanup Screenrc Files

You can run this command to get a wildly confusing screenrc file under control. You could have a heavily commented version, and then run this to create the actual... I like to start there but because the screenrc file is read in order, you should take out the 'sort'.

sed -e '/^#/d; s/^[\t\ ]*//g; /^[a-z]/I!d' /etc/screenrc|sort|tr -s ' \t' | tr -d '\015\032'

Read lots of .screenrc files

This is easy with Google's futuristic Code Searching Engine! I get excited about this search engine because it is sooo dope! Here's a search for files named .screenrc, thanks for this free tool Google, much love!

autodetach on
bufferfile $HOME/.screen/buffer
 
nethack on # print wackier status messages
chdir $HOME
password HJa4Dp4UIDlLA
 
setenv LC_CTYPE en_US.UTF-8
sorendition =s Gk
startup_message off
shell bash # use the default shell
shelltitle "$ |bash"
term screen-256color #By default, screen uses an 8-color terminal emulator. Use the following line to enable more colors, more-capable terminal emulator:
 
defmode 620
defmonitor off # turn monitoring on
defnonblock 5 # flaky/slow ssh lines
defscrollback 300
defutf8 on
hardcopydir ~/.hardcopy/screen_%y-%m-%d_%0c.%n
 
defbce on # erase background with current bg color
defencoding UTF-8
defflow auto # will force screen to process ^S/^Q
defflow on # disable Ctrl-S/Ctrl-Q "flow control"
defhstatus "screen: ^En (^Et)"
deflogin off
 
deflog off
logfile ~/.screen/screen_%y-%m-%d_%0c.%n
 
silencewait 15
vbell_msg " Wuff ---- Wuff!! "
 
activity "%C -> %n%f %t activity!"
bell "%C -> %n%f %t bell!~"
 
altscreen on # restore window contents after using (e.g.) vi
attrcolor b ".I" # allow bold colors - necessary for some reason
 
hardstatus on
hardstatus alwayslastline "[%02c] %`%-w%{=b bw}%n %t%{-}%+w %=%{..Lw} %H %{..g} %m/%d %C%a "
caption always "%{kG}%?%-Lw%?%{bw}%n*%f %t%?(%u)%?%{kG}%?%+Lw%?"
 
idle 3600 eval "screen nice -n 19 /opt/s/cmatrix" "idle 6400 detach"
 
msgwait 5 # 1 second messages
multiuser off
nonblock on # If a window goes unresponsive, don't block the whole session waiting for it.
pow_detach_msg "Screen session of $LOGNAME $:cr:$:nl:ended." # emulate .logout message
 
screen -h 500 -t 'bash' sh $HOME/welcome.sh
screen -h 0 -t 'MATRIX' nice -n 19 /opt/s/cmatrix
screen -h 0 -t 'WHO' sudo /opt/s/whowatch
screen -h 100 -t 'gator' sh $HOME/.ssh/start_control.sh
screen -h 100 -t 'gator' ssh gator sh ~/welcome.sh
screen -h 500 -t 'root' sudo bash -l
screen -h 0 -t 'MEM' nice -n 19 sh -c 'sleep 4 && tput civis; CLS=$`tput clear`; trap "tput cnorm; exit 0" 1 2 3; while :; do free -olt && sleep 2 && echo $CLS; done;'
screen -h 0 -t 'TOP' nice -n 19 sh -c 'sleep 4 && tput civis; CLS=$`tput clear`; trap "tput cnorm; exit 0" 1 2 3; while :; do top -b -n 1 -H -d 10 -c |sed "/$USER/!d" && echo $CLS; done;'
screen -h 0 -t 'NET' nice -n 19 sh -c 'while :; do /bin/netstat --numeric-ports -a -e --tcp |sort --key=4 && sleep 5; done;'
select 0
 
#select -h 100 -t 'log' 4 sudo sh -c 'nice tail -n 60 -s 10 -f /var/log/everything.log | ccze -A'
 
zombie "^[" # don't kill window after the process died

More on War Dialing

War dialing or wardialing is a technique of using a modem to automatically scan a list of telephone numbers, usually dialing every number in a local area code to search for computers, Bulletin board systems and fax machines. Hackers use the resulting lists for various purposes, hobbyists for exploration, and crackers - hackers that specialize in computer security - for password guessing.

A single wardialing call would involve calling an unknown number, and waiting for one or two rings, since answering computers usually pick up on the first ring. If the phone rings twice, the modem hangs up and tries the next number. If a modem or fax machine answers, the wardialer program makes a note of the number. If a human or answering machine answers, the wardialer program hangs up. Depending on the time of day, wardialing 10,000 numbers in a given area code might annoy dozens or hundreds of people, some who attempt and fail to answer a phone in two rings, and some who succeed, only to hear the wardialing modem's carrier tone and hang up. The repeated incoming calls are especially annoying to businesses that have many consecutively numbered lines in the exchange, such as used with a Centrex telephone system.

The popularity of wardialing in 1980s and 1990s prompted some states to enact legislation prohibiting the use of a device to dial telephone numbers without the intent of communicating with a person.

The name for this technique originated in the 1983 film WarGames. In the film, the protagonist programmed his computer to dial every telephone number in Sunnyvale, California to find other computer systems. 'WarGames Dialer' programs became common on bulletin board systems of the time, with file names often truncated to wardial.exe and the like due to length restrictions on such systems. Eventually, the etymology of the name fell behind as "war dialing" gained its own currency within computing culture.[1]

A more recent phenomenon is wardriving, the searching for wireless networks (Wi-Fi) from a moving vehicle. Wardriving was named after wardialing, since both techniques involve brute-force searches to find computer networks. The aim of wardriving is to collect information about wireless access points (not to be confused with piggybacking).

Similar to war dialing is a port scan under TCP/IP, which "dials" every TCP port of every IP address to find out what services are available. Unlike wardialing, however, a port scan will generally not disturb a human being when it tries an IP address, regardless of whether there is a computer responding on that address or not. Related to wardriving is warchalking, the practice of drawing chalk symbols in public places to advertise the availability of wireless networks. Despite its widespread coverage [in the news?], warchalking never particularly caught on as a popular activity.

The term is also used today by analogy for various sorts of exhaustive brute force attack against an authentication mechanism, such as a password. While a dictionary attack might involve trying each word in a dictionary as the password, "wardialing the password" would involve trying every possible password. Password protection systems are usually designed to make this impractical, by making the process slow and/or locking out an account for minutes or hours after some low number of wrong password entries.

War dialing is sometimes used as a synonym for demon dialing, a related technique which also involves automating a computer modem in order to repeatedly place telephone calls.

This page contains content by Author of Article from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU FDL.

Magic in the Terminal: Screen, Bash, and SSH originally appeared on AskApache.com

First off, this is a single windows .bat file that I have written to do advanced batch scripting the easy way, meaning it's mostly a series of functions you can call from the script or within other functions for extremely modular code. Before you get all bent out of shape by my choice of words ("easy, modular"), when I say this is advanced I mean for Windows .bat files, one of the worlds worst scripting languages, but it works on all windows versions so it's ideal for things like autorun, autoplay, custom startups, usb drives, etc.. If you are looking for information on how to use and program windows .bat files to do anything cool, this is the right place! I tried my best to mimic linux shell-scripting, so it's likely different than other batch files you have seen.

Batch File IDE and Script Source

My favorite tool (and I've tried sooo many) for editing most Windows files and especially .bat files is the free and open-source Notepad++. Set that up and you will have a color-syntax-highlighted editor for Batch Scripting that works very very well.

The next thing to do is download the source code, which includes comments and formatting I had to remove for this online article. Then rename from .txt to .bat and open in your IDE/text-editor of choice.

Quick Batch File Example

This is a simple batch file named ping-check.bat that I use when rebooting remote servers. The reboot is issued from an SSH session and causes the server to go down and then come back up. When the server goes down the network goes down too so I fire this script up to continually ping the remote server until it responds, at which point I can ssh back in.

One of the first hacks for batch files is line 1, the PUSHD command cd's the scripts working environment to the directory of the script itself.

@ECHO OFF && PUSHD "%~dp0" && SETLOCAL
 
CALL :PINGCHECK "%~1"
 
nircmd.exe speak text "PING RECEIVED.  HOST BACK ONLINE" 7 60
ENDLOCAL && POPD && GOTO :EOF
 
:PINGCHECK
ECHO CHECKING %~1
ping.exe -n 1 %~1 -w 5000 | FIND /C "Reply from %~1" | FIND "1" >nul 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 CALL :PINGCHECK "%~1" ELSE EXIT /B

Super-hero like even

Just added this as an after thought, moving the main example further down this page. This is an easier file to understand the scope of. It effectively creates SSH-encrypted SOCK5 tunnels that stay connected and auto-reconnect if the link goes down. I wanted to try and write a pure batch method to do that. I wrote this to run automatically from a USB key so that I could keep my tools with me portably. The thing of this script that is the most revolutionary is the method it uses to create auto-reconnecting SSH-encrypted SOCKS5 tunnels using the windows SYSTEM account to do it all in the background with plink.exe. The hack to run it as a system account is by using the built-in AT command to run interactively, which lets you interactively do whatever you want as the builtin NT AUTHORITY/SYSTEM account. The other part I am proud of with this is how lean I got the code, specifically how lean the function is that creates the at job to run every 5 minutes, while still doing connection-testing, all by parsing the cmd.exe processors builtin in DATE and TIME variables. Do a google search for "windows batch file date and time" and you will appreciate just how lean this sucker is.

Almost forgot, check out the ways to keep a plink.exe (putty.exe for cmd.exe) SOCKS5 tunnel hidden and safe and continuously connected to a remote server in minimal lines od code. This was a fun one to work on! Enjoy (and remember this is just the warm-up example to glance at).

@ECHO OFF && PUSHD "%~dp0" && SETLOCAL && SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION && SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS
 
SET _CRYPTDRIVE=%~d0\
SET PATH=%_CRYPTDRIVE%PP;%_CRYPTDRIVE%PP\bin;%PATH%
SET _PUTTYBIN=%_CRYPTDRIVE%P\PP\putty.exe
 
SET _PSERVER=solar.power.com
SET _PPORT=22
SET _PSESSION=newclean-tunnel
 
SET _ADMINUSER=admin
SET _RUNUSER=life
 
REM SAY CHECKING PLINK OUT LOUD
CALL :SPEAK "Checking Putty"
ECHO "CHECKING PUTTY"
 
REM
IF NOT EXIST "%_CRYPTDRIVE%" (
  CALL :SPEAK "Crypt Not Mounted"
  AT|FOR /F "tokens=1" %%i IN ('FIND /I "%~f0"') DO AT %%i /delete /yes >nul 2>&1
  pskill.exe -t putty >nul 2>&1
  pskill.exe -t thunderbird >nul 2>&1
  pskill.exe -t ThunderbirdPortable >nul 2>&1
  pskill.exe -t Firefox >nul 2>&1
  pskill.exe -t FirefoxPortable >nul 2>&1
  pskill.exe -t GC >nul 2>&1
  EXIT
)
 
REM CREATE AT JOB TO RUN THIS SCRIPT EVERY 5 MINUTES
CALL :CREATEATJOB
 
pslist putty >nul 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 psexec.exe -i 0 -e -d -u %_RUNUSER% %_PUTTYBIN% -load %_PSESSION%
 
REM KILL MULTIPLE PSEXEC's
CALL :KILLDUPES "psexec.exe"
 
REM KILL MULTIPLE CMD.EXE's
CALL :KILLDUPES "cmd.exe"
 
REM REACHABLE SERVER CHECK
CALL :PINGCHECK %_PSERVER%
 
REM CHECK FOR INACTIVE PUTTY
CALL :PUTTYCHECK
 
REM CHECK PORT IS LISTENING (FOR SOCKISFIED TUNNEL)
CALL :PORTCHECK %_PPORT%
 
REM CALL :SPEAK "OK"
SLEEP 100 && ECHO "OK" && SLEEP 1 && ENDLOCAL && POPD && EXIT
 
REM =======================================================================================
REM =   SPEAK - Speak text
REM =======================================================================================
:SPEAK
nircmd.exe speak text "%~1" 5 60
ECHO "%~1"
EXIT /B
 
REM =======================================================================================
REM =   RESTARTPLINK - Sleeps for %1 number of seconds
REM =======================================================================================
:RESTARTPLINK
CALL :SPEAK "%~1 ReSTARTing Plink"
REM runas /savecred /user:admin "%_PUTTYBIN% -load %_PSESSION%"
psexec.exe -i 0 -e -d -u %_RUNUSER% %_PUTTYBIN% -load %_PSESSION%
EXIT
EXIT /B
 
REM =======================================================================================
REM =   PORTCHECK - Check that Port is being used (for tunnels)
REM =======================================================================================
:PORTCHECK
netstat.exe -n -v -a -p TCP | FIND "ESTABLISHED" | FIND ":%~1" >nul 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 CALL :RESTARTPLINK "PORT CHECK FAILED"
EXIT /B
 
REM =======================================================================================
REM =   INACTIVEPUTTYCHECK - Check for inactive putty windows
REM =======================================================================================
:PUTTYCHECK
tasklist.exe /V /NH /FI "WINDOWTITLE eq PuTTY (inactive)" 2>nul|FIND "INFO: " >nul 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 taskkill.exe /T /F /FI "WINDOWTITLE eq PuTTY (inactive)" >nul 2>&1
 
:: MAKE SURE ONLY 1 putty is running that is connected to the remote server
netstat.exe -n -a -o -p TCP | FIND ":%_PPORT%" | FIND /C ":%_PPORT%" | FIND "1" >nul 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
  tasklist.exe /V /FO TABLE /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq putty.exe" 2>nul | FIND /C "Running" | FIND "1" >nul 2>&1
  IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
    REM kill all running puttys (owned by system)
    FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %%p IN (`tasklist.exe /V /FO TABLE /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq putty.exe"`) DO taskkill.exe /F /PID %%p /T >nul 2>&1
    CALL :RESTARTPLINK "EXTRA PUTTY FOUND"
  )
)
EXIT /B
 
REM =======================================================================================
REM =   PINGCHECK - PING address to make sure it is reachable
REM =======================================================================================
:PINGCHECK
PING %~1 -n 1 -w 5000 | FIND "TTL=" >nul 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
  PING google.com -n 1 -w 500 | FIND "TTL=" >nul 2>&1
  IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ( CALL :SPEAK "CHECK INTERNET CONNECTION" && SLEEP 60 )
 
  PING google.com -n 1 -w 5000 | FIND "TTL=" >nul 2>&1
  IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ( CALL :SPEAK "CHECK INTERNET CONNECTION" && SLEEP 60 )
 
  PING google.com -n 1 -w 5000 | FIND "TTL=" >nul 2>&1
  IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
    CALL :SPEAK "KILL SOCKS PROGRAMS"
  SLEEP 100
  pskill.exe -t putty >nul 2>&1
  pskill.exe -t thunderbird >nul 2>&1
  pskill.exe -t ThunderbirdPortable >nul 2>&1
  )
)
EXIT /B
 
REM =======================================================================================
REM =   KILLDUPES - kills duplicate processes, except for the one with lowest pid
REM =======================================================================================
:KILLDUPES
REM Check that more than 1 process is running
tasklist.exe /V /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %~1" /FI "USERNAME eq SYSTEM" 2>nul | FIND /C "K Running" | FIND "1" >nul 2>&1
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 EXIT /B
 
REM Create Filename in current dir (of this script)
SET _T=%TIME: =0%&&SET _T=!_T::=-!&&SET _T=%~dp0%!_T:~0,-2!log
 
REM Create the file in the same dir as this script named for date and sorted by PID
tasklist.exe /V /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %~1" /FI "USERNAME eq SYSTEM" 2>nul | SORT /+29 > "%_T%"
 
REM Check that the file was created or exit
IF NOT EXIST "%_T%" ( CALL :SPEAK "FILE CREATION FAILED" && EXIT /B )
 
REM kill all the processes found except for 1, do not kill the process with the lowest pid number
FOR /F "tokens=2 skip=2" %%p IN (%_T%) DO taskkill.exe /F /PID %%p /T
 
REM erase the file
REM ERASE /Q "%_T%" >nul 2>&1
 
REM check that the file was erased
REM IF EXIST "%_T%" ( CALL :SPEAK "ERASE FILE FAILED" && EXIT /B )
 
EXIT /B
 
REM =======================================================================================
REM =   CREATEATJOB - runs job (START this file) every 5 minutes
REM =======================================================================================
:CREATEATJOB
:: delete all putty AT jobs
AT | FIND /C "%~f0" | FIND "1" >nul 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ( AT|FOR /F "tokens=1" %%i IN ('FIND /I "%~f0"') DO AT %%i /delete /yes >nul 2>&1 )
SET /A H=!TIME:~0,2!&& SET M=!TIME:~3,2!
SET Y=%H%:%M%&& SET /A M+=5
IF !M! GEQ 61 ( SET /A H+=1&&SET /A M-=61 )
IF !H! GEQ 24 SET /A H-=24
SET M=0!M!&& SET H=0!H!
:: create AT job
AT %H:~-2%:%M:~-2% /INTERACTIVE %ComSpec% /E:ON /D /Q /C START /B /MIN %ComSpec% /E:ON /D /Q /C "%~f0" >nul
EXIT /B

Advanced Batch File

This is the main batch file example which you can download here. Other than some minor changes this is the actual script I use at work when I logon to my PC. The first thing it does is mount an encrypted TrueCrypt Drive where all of my files and settings are located. It also starts a putty session named "1" that I configured to start a few encrypted tunnels and socks proxies so that my email Thunderbird and Website IDE Dreamweaver and other network apps can communicate 100% encrypted and my real location becomes hidden (thanks socks!).

I might come back later and add comments if I get any kind of response for this article, and because it's such a unique and low-traffic topic, I will try to answer any questions added with the comment form.

Starting the Script

The first line is of my own design and is perhaps the coolest hack in the script. I use this 1 line to start pretty much all of my .bat files.

@ECHO OFF&& SETLOCAL&& PUSHD "%~dp0"&& SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION&& SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS&& SET V=5&& IF NOT "!V!"=="5" (ECHO DelayedExpansion Failed&& GOTO :EOF)

SCRIPT VARIABLES

These are all local to this script thanks to the SETLOCAL above, so they won't exist outside the scripts execution environment.

REM ** Various vars for output used by functions
SET P1=^^^>^^^>^^^>
SET P2=++
SET P3=::
SET L1=+==============================================================================================================+
SET L2=+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 
REM ** administrator username, unless changed for more security, its Administrator
SET ADMINUSER=admin
 
REM ** runuser is the username you use when running this script
SET RUNUSER=bill
 
REM ** Custom COMSPEC for running cmd.exe
SET _SCOM=%COMSPEC% /E:ON /F:ON /D /Q /T:0C /C
 
REM ** Custom START command
SET _START=START /WAIT /MIN /B %_SCOM%

MAIN PROGRAM EXECUTION

This is where the main code starts, note how small it is thanks to the use of functions (labels/call/goto). Read the comments in this area (start with :: or REM ) to see the extent of this script. The gold is in the functions.

:: Only allow certain users to run this script or die (prevents global STARTup or service running it)
CALL :CHECKUSERVALID %RUNUSER% %ADMINUSER%
 
:: Mount the truecrypt container
CALL :CRYPTMOUNT "L" "%SYSTEMDRIVE%\CRYPT\LEONARDO" "%SYSTEMDRIVE%\CRYPT\LEONARDO_KEY"
 
:: Start Mozilla Firefox
CALL :RUNONE "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"
 
:: Start Thunderbird Portable
CALL :RUNONE "L:\P\PP\putty.exe" "/MIN" -load 1
 
:: Start Thunderbird Portable
CALL :RUNONE "L:\P\TB\ThunderbirdPortable.exe" "/MIN"
 
:: Start Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
CALL :RUNONE "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CS4\Dreamweaver.exe" "/MIN"
 
:: Start LightScreen Portable
CALL :RUNONE "L:\P\LP\LightscreenPortable.exe" /B /B
 
:: Start Google Chrome Portable ( GREAT to use for pandora/last.fm as its so low mem )
CALL :RUNONE "L:\P\GC\GC.exe" "/NORMAL"
 
:: Start Adobe Photoshop CS4
CALL :RUNONE "%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\Photoshop.exe" "/MAX"

Exit Script

This is the last line executed in the Main, it forces the script to exit cleanly at this point, otherwise the functions below would all get executed. This is what allows the use of all the functions below. I end all my scripts MAIN with this.

REM ** EXIT Script
CALL :MDYE "EOF" && POPD && ENDLOCAL && GOTO :EOF

SCRIPT FUNCTIONS

Now then, onto the MEAT of the script, all the functions. These functions are designed for global use in other batch files, so that the only modification when you make a new batch is the above variables and main execution.. If you know much about batch files you will realize that creating these functions was a very painful process in some cases.. I freakin hate windows! Anyway, enjoy!

CRYPTMOUNT - mounts a truecrypt container and returns to CALLer. On fail, quit

REM
REM     CALL :CRYPTMOUNT "%LEONARDO%" "%LEONARDO_FILE%" "%LEONARDO_KEY%"
REM     CALL :CRYPTMOUNT "L" "%SYSTEMDRIVE%\CRYPT\LEONARDO" "%SYSTEMDRIVE%\CRYPT\LEONARDO_KEY"
REM
REM :: print the settings
REM :: CALL :MP 3 "DRIVE: %DRIVE%"&&CALL :MP 3 " FILE: %FILE%"&&CALL :MP 3 "  KEY: %KEY%"&&CALL :MP 3 "  VOL: %VOL%"

:CRYPTMOUNT
SET DRIVE=%~1&& SET FILE=%~2&& SET KEY=%~3&& SET VOL=!FILE:~0,3!
CALL :MP 1 "Mounting TrueCrypt on %DRIVE% from %FILE%"
 
:: Check for Truecrypt or die
CALL :EXISTORQUIT "%ProgramFiles%\TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe" && CALL :EXISTORQUIT "%FILE%" && CALL :EXISTORQUIT "%KEY%"
 
:: checks that MOUNTVOL works and the drive containing the truecrypt container file is present or dies
MOUNTVOL %VOL% /L 2>NUL | FIND "\\?\Volume{" >NUL 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 CALL :MDYE "%VOL% NOT FOUND"
 
REM ** Converts G:\ to its \\?\Volume{234234}\ equivalent for greater portability
FOR /F %%i IN ('MOUNTVOL %VOL% /L') DO @SET VOL=%%i%FILE:~3%
 
:: IF the drive is already mounted then continue, otherwise try to mount
MOUNTVOL %DRIVE%:\ /L >NUL 2>&1
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 (
  CALL :MP 2 "%DRIVE% ALREADY MOUNTED" && EXIT /B
) ELSE (
  START "Mounting TrueCrypt" /D"%ProgramFiles%\TrueCrypt" /MIN /B TrueCrypt.exe /c n /b /q background /h n /k %KEY% /l %DRIVE% /p /v %VOL% && SLEEP 10
)
 
:: try again in case of bad password and accidental keypress
MOUNTVOL %DRIVE%:\ /L >NUL 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (START "Mounting TrueCrypt" /D"%ProgramFiles%\TrueCrypt" /MIN /B TrueCrypt.exe /c n /b /q background /h n /k %KEY% /l %DRIVE% /p /v %VOL% && SLEEP 10)
 
:: IF it still doesnt exist then quit
MOUNTVOL %DRIVE%:\ /L >NUL 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 CALL :MDYE "Failed to mount %FILE% on %DRIVE%"
 
CALL :MF && ENDLOCAL && EXIT /B
EXIT /B

RUNONE - Starts one instance of executable after verifying it exists and is not already running.

REM     %~1 is location of executatable
REM     %~2 is optional (unless %~3 is used) START parameters
REM     %~3 is optional parameters for executable
REM
REM     CALL :RUNONE "L:\P\LP\LightscreenPortable.exe" "/MAX" "/HIDE"

:RUNONE
SETLOCAL
CALL :MP 1 "Starting %~n1"
 
:: SLEEP FOR NICENESS, LOCAL VARS _P2 and _P3
SLEEP 2 && SETLOCAL
 
SET P=%~1
ECHO %P%|FIND " " >NUL 2>&1
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 ( PUSHD "%~dp1" && SET P=%~nx1 )
 
:: SET _P2 TO DEFAULT TO "/MIN" IF EMPTY
SET _P2=/MIN
IF NOT " %~2" == " " SET _P2=%~2
IF NOT " %~3" == " " SET _P3=%~3
IF NOT " %~4" == " " SET _P4=%~4
 
:: CHECK THAT EXECUTABLE EXISTS
CALL :EXISTORQUIT "%~1"
 
REM ECHO START %_P2% /D"%~dp1" %P% %_P3% %_P4%&& PAUSE&&
:: CHECK FOR EXISTING PROCESSNAME ( %~n1 is file name without ext, %~nx1 is the file name and extension. )
pslist.exe /e %~n1 >NUL 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (START %_P2% /D"%~dp1" %P% %_P3% %_P4% ) ELSE (CALL :MP 2 "%~n1 already running!" )
 
ENDLOCAL && EXIT /B

ADMINRUNONE - Runs %1 with admin rights IF neccessary

:ADMINRUNONE
CALL :MP 3 "Exec %~1 as %ADMINUSER%"
 
:: Check that file exists
CALL :EXISTORQUIT "%~1"
 
:: test for rights to the task scheduler
:: %SYSTEMDRIVE%\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /E:ON /D /Q /T:0C /C START /WAIT /MIN /B %SYSTEMDRIVE%\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /E:ON /D /Q /T:0C /C %~1
AT >NUL 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
  RUNAS /noprofile /user:%USERDOMAIN%\%ADMINUSER% "%~1"
) ELSE (
  %COMSPEC% /E:ON /D /Q /T:0C /C "%~1"
)
SLEEP 2 && CALL :MF && EXIT /B

CHECKUSERVALID - checks that defined username equals %ADMINUSER% or %RUNUSER%, then returns to CALLer

:CHECKUSERVALID
:: EXIT IF USERNAME IS NOT DEFINED, CATCHES SYSTEM ACCOUNTS TRYING TO RUN WHEN IN GLOBAL STARTUP
IF NOT DEFINED USERNAME EXIT
 
SETLOCAL
SET UP=no
SET _P1= %~1
SET _P2= %~2
IF NOT "%_P1%" == " " ( IF /I "%~1" == "%USERNAME%" SET UP=yes)
IF NOT "%_P1%" == " " ( IF /I "%~1" == "%USERNAME%" SET UP=yes)
IF NOT "%_P1%" == " " ( IF /I "%~1" == "%USERNAME%" SET UP=yes)
IF /I "bill" == "%USERNAME%" SET UP=yes
IF /I "newbill" == "%USERNAME%" SET UP=yes
IF /I "max" == "%USERNAME%" SET UP=yes
IF /I NOT "%UP%" == "yes" EXIT
ENDLOCAL
EXIT /B

SETPROMPT - sets prompt, then returns to CALLer

REM =   [user@MACHINE] [C:\DR\PEPPER\SCRIPTS]
REM =   > REG /?

:SETPROMPT
set PROMPT=$_[%USERNAME%@%USERDOMAIN%]$S[$P]$_$M$G && EXIT /B

BEEP - beeps once, then returns to CALLer

The character after the echo is the actual BEL char, so unless you have my source file, you will need to copy a literal BEL char here to make it beep.

:BEEP
@ECHO # && EXIT /B

MSETCOLOR - SET colors for screen, then returns to CALLer

REM
REM     0 = Black       8 = Gray
REM     1 = Blue        9 = Light Blue
REM     2 = Green       A = Light Green
REM     3 = Aqua        B = Light Aqua
REM     4 = Red         C = Light Red
REM     5 = Purple      D = Light Purple
REM     6 = Yellow      E = Light Yellow
REM     7 = White       F = Bright White
REM

:MSETCOLOR
COLOR %~1 && EXIT /B

MSETCONSOLE - sets the cols and lines of current screen buffer, then returns to CALLer

:MSETCONSOLE
MODE CON COLS=%~1 LINES=%~2 && EXIT /B

PARAMTEST - tests params, then returns to CALLer

:PARAMTEST
ECHO. && CALL :MP 1 "PARAMTEST CALLED WITH: %*" && ECHO %L1%
SET _P= %~1
IF NOT "%_P%" == " " ( ECHO %%1          = %1 && ECHO %%~f1        = %~f1 && ECHO %%~d1        = %~d1 && ECHO %%~p1        = %~p1
  ECHO %%~n1        = %~n1 && ECHO %%~x1        = %~x1 && ECHO %%~s1        = %~s1 && ECHO %%~dp1       = %~dp1
  ECHO %%~nx1       = %~nx1 && ECHO %%~$PATH:1   = %~$PATH:1 && ECHO %%~dp$PATH:1 = %~dp$PATH:1 && ECHO %L1% )
SET _P= %~2
IF NOT "%_P%" == " " ( ECHO %%2          = %2 && ECHO %%~f2        = %~f2 && ECHO %%~d2        = %~d2 && ECHO %%~p2        = %~p2
  ECHO %%~n2        = %~n2 && ECHO %%~x2        = %~x2 && ECHO %%~s2        = %~s2 && ECHO %%~dp2       = %~dp2
  ECHO %%~nx2       = %~nx2 && ECHO %%~$PATH:2   = %~$PATH:2 && ECHO %%~dp$PATH:2 = %~dp$PATH:2 && ECHO %L1% )
SET _P= %~3
IF NOT "%_P%" == " " ( ECHO %%3          = %3 && ECHO %%~f3        = %~f3 && ECHO %%~d3        = %~d3 && ECHO %%~p3        = %~p3
  ECHO %%~n3        = %~n3 && ECHO %%~x3        = %~x3 && ECHO %%~s3        = %~s3 && ECHO %%~dp3       = %~dp3
  ECHO %%~nx3       = %~nx3 && ECHO %%~$PATH:3   = %~$PATH:3 && ECHO %%~dp$PATH:3 = %~dp$PATH:3 && ECHO %L1% )
SET _P= %~4
IF NOT "%_P%" == " " ( ECHO %%4          = %4 && ECHO %%~f4        = %~f4 && ECHO %%~d4        = %~d4 && ECHO %%~p4        = %~p4
  ECHO %%~n4        = %~n4 && ECHO %%~x4        = %~x4 && ECHO %%~s4        = %~s4 && ECHO %%~dp4       = %~dp4
  ECHO %%~nx4       = %~nx4 && ECHO %%~$PATH:4   = %~$PATH:4 && ECHO %%~dp$PATH:4 = %~dp$PATH:4 && ECHO %L1% )
SET _P= %~5
IF NOT "%_P%" == " " ( ECHO %%5          = %5 && ECHO %%~f5        = %~f5 && ECHO %%~d5        = %~d5 && ECHO %%~p5        = %~p5
  ECHO %%~n5        = %~n5 && ECHO %%~x5        = %~x5 && ECHO %%~s5        = %~s5 && ECHO %%~dp5       = %~dp5
  ECHO %%~nx5       = %~nx5 && ECHO %%~$PATH:5   = %~$PATH:5 && ECHO %%~dp$PATH:5 = %~dp$PATH:5 && ECHO %L1% )
SET _P= %~6
IF NOT "%_P%" == " " ( ECHO %%6          = %6 && ECHO %%~f6        = %~f6 && ECHO %%~d6        = %~d6 && ECHO %%~p6        = %~p6
  ECHO %%~n6        = %~n6 && ECHO %%~x6        = %~x6 && ECHO %%~s6        = %~s6 && ECHO %%~dp6       = %~dp6
  ECHO %%~nx6       = %~nx6 && ECHO %%~$PATH:6   = %~$PATH:6 && ECHO %%~dp$PATH:6 = %~dp$PATH:6 && ECHO %L1% )
SET _P= %~7
IF NOT "%_P%" == " " ( ECHO %%7          = %7 && ECHO %%~f7        = %~f7 && ECHO %%~d7        = %~d7 && ECHO %%~p7        = %~p7
  ECHO %%~n7        = %~n7 && ECHO %%~x7        = %~x7 && ECHO %%~s7        = %~s7 && ECHO %%~dp7       = %~dp7
  ECHO %%~nx7       = %~nx7 && ECHO %%~$PATH:7   = %~$PATH:7 && ECHO %%~dp$PATH:7 = %~dp$PATH:7 && ECHO %L1% )
SLEEP 3
CALL :MF
EXIT /B

PARAMTESTHELP - show params help, then returns to CALLer

:PARAMTESTHELP
ECHO %%~1 Expands %%1 and removes any surrounding quotation marks
ECHO %%~f1 Expands %%1 to a fully qualified path name.
ECHO %%~d1 Expands %%1 to a drive letter.
ECHO %%~p1 Expands %%1 to a path.
ECHO %%~n1 Expands %%1 to a file name.
ECHO %%~x1 Expands %%1 to a file extension.
ECHO %%~s1 Expanded path contains short names only.
ECHO %%~a1 Expands %%1 to file attributes.
ECHO %%~t1 Expands %%1 to date and time of file.
ECHO %%~z1 Expands %%1 to size of file.
ECHO %%~dp1 Expands %%1 to a drive letter and path.
ECHO %%~nx1 Expands %%1 to a file name and extension.
ECHO %%~ftza1 Expands %%1 to a dir-like output line.
ECHO %%~$PATH:1 Searches the dirs in PATH expanding %%1 to fully qualified name of first found. If var name isn't defined or the files not found, expands to empty string.
ECHO %%~dp$PATH:1 Searches the directories listed in the PATH environment variable for %%1 and expands to the drive letter and path of the first one found.
CALL :MF
EXIT /B

EXAMINEFILE - FINDs useful strings in file, then returns to CALLer

:EXAMINEFILE
CALL :MP 1 "Examine File %~1"
CALL :EXISTORQUIT "%~1"
STRINGS "%~1" | FINDSTR /R /C:"[A-Z][A-Z]\="
CALL :MF
EXIT /B

ADMINSHELL - sets prompt, then returns to CALLer

:ADMINSHELL
CALL :MP 1 "Creating Admin Shell"
CALL :EXISTORQUIT "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\runas.exe"
START %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\runas.exe /profile /savecred /user:%ADMINUSER% "%COMSPEC% /T:0C /E:ON /F:ON /K cmd.exe /K cd C:\CRYPT\BIN"
CALL :MF
EXIT /B

EXISTORQUIT - checks %~1 exists, IF it does returns to CALLer, otherwise, quit

:EXISTORQUIT
:: CALL :MP 1 "Checking for %~1"
IF NOT EXIST "%~1" CALL :MDYE "%~1 NOT FOUND"
EXIT /B

RR - IF file %1 EXISTs then :MT "Removing %1" then :MF, then ( or IF %1 not EXISTs) returns to CALLer

:RR
CALL :MP 1 "Removing %~1"
IF EXIST "%~1" ERASE /q "%~1"
CALL :MF && EXIT /B

LOCKDOWN - locks workstation, then returns to CALLer (pointless)

:LOCKDOWN
RUNDLL32 USER32.DLL,LockWorkStation && EXIT /B

SHUTDOWNIN - initiates shutdown, then returns to CALLer (pointless)

REM shutdown /a aborts

:SHUTDOWNIN
SHUTDOWN -r -t "%~1" && EXIT /B

LISTSERVICES - lists services, then returns to CALLer

:LISTSERVICES
SC query state= all type= all | FOR /F "tokens=2" %%i IN ('FIND /I "SERVICE_NAME"') DO @ECHO %%i
SC query | FOR /F "tokens=2" %%i IN ('FIND /I "SERVICE_NAME"') DO @ECHO %%i
EXIT /B

TASKS - Advanced Tasklisting

:TASKS
SET _P=%~1
SET _PP= %~1
IF "%_PP%" == " " EXIT /B
 
REM SORTABLES
IF /I "%_P%" == "pid" ( tasklist.exe /V /NH | SORT /+29 && EXIT /B )
IF /I "%_P%" == "size" ( tasklist.exe /V /NH | SORT /+59 && EXIT /B )
IF /I "%_P%" == "user" ( tasklist.exe /V /NH | SORT /+89 && EXIT /B )
IF /I "%_P%" == "time" ( tasklist.exe /V /NH | SORT /+138 && EXIT /B )
IF /I "%_P%" == "window" ( tasklist.exe /V /NH | SORT /+152 && EXIT /B )
 
REM FILTERS
IF /I "%_P%" == "image" ( tasklist.exe /V /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %~2" && EXIT /B )
IF /I "%_P%" == "username" ( tasklist.exe /V /NH /FI "USERNAME eq %~2" && EXIT /B )
IF /I "%_P%" == "running" ( tasklist.exe /V /NH /FI "STATUS eq Running" && EXIT /B )
IF /I "%_P%" == "status" ( tasklist.exe /V /NH /FI "STATUS eq %~2" && EXIT /B )
CALL :MF
EXIT /B

SPEAK - Speak text

:SPEAK
REM ECHO "%~1"
nircmd.exe speak text "%~1" 5 60 && EXIT /B

MF - SLEEPs for 1 second, then prints out completed message, followed by 2 blank lines, then returns to CALLer

:MF
SLEEP 1 && ECHO  [COMPLETED] && ECHO. && ECHO. && EXIT /B

MM - prints blank line, L1, changes title of the interpreter window to %~1, prints >>> %~1..., L2, blank line, then returns to CALLer

:MM
SLEEP 1 && ECHO. && ECHO %L1% && title +++ %~1... && ECHO %P1% %~1... && ECHO %L2% && ECHO. && EXIT /B

MT - prints blank line, L1, changes title of the interpreter window to %~1, prints >>> %~1..., L2, blank line, then returns to CALLer

:MT
CALL :MM "%~1" && CALL :SPEAK "%~1" && EXIT /B

MP - Print Output, then returns to CALLer

:MP
IF "%~1" == "1" ECHO %P1% %~2 && EXIT /B
IF "%~1" == "2" ECHO %P2% %~2 && ECHO. && EXIT /B
IF "%~1" == "3" ECHO %P3% %~2 && EXIT /B
EXIT /B

MP3 - ECHO %~1, speak %~1 with nircmd.exe, then returns to CALLer

:MP3
CALL :MP 1 "%~1" && CALL :SPEAK "%~1" && EXIT /B

MDYE - exit script with message %~1, then returns to CALLer

:MDYE
SETLOCAL
SET _M= %~1
IF NOT "%_M%" == " " SET _M=REASON: %~1
CALL :MP 1 "EXITING SCRIPT...  %_M%" && ECHO. && ECHO.
ENDLOCAL && EXIT /B

MKILL - exit cmd processor with message %~1

:MKILL
SETLOCAL
SET _M= %~1
IF NOT "%_M%" == " " SET _M=REASON: %~1
ECHO. && ECHO. && CALL :MP 1 "EXITING CMD WINDOW IN 3 SECONDS...  %_M%" && ECHO. && ECHO. && SLEEP 3
ENDLOCAL && EXIT && EXIT && EXIT

EOF: Thoughts

So what did you think? I have around 20 batch scripts that utilize these and other functions to do all sorts of cool things. One takes a screenshot of my desktop every 10 minutes and saves it for a real-cool archive of my activity. Another lets me edit a boot.ini file with 1 command.. And another runs when I insert a USB drive to automatically mount a truecrypt volume and create SSH tunnels in the background by using Plink, AT, and the runas.exe command.

If you want to program, please use linux... If you need to write a Windows batch file, I hope this helps.

Advanced Windows Batch File Scripting originally appeared on AskApache.com