cl      clear the terminal screen
cm      cursor movement
so      start standout mode like reverse video
se      end standout mode

A more complicated terminal capability definition is cursor movement in which the row and column arguments must be instantiated in the cursor movement command string, which provides its format. See the cursor command for details.

$ termput cl
(clear screen)
$ termput se
(reverse video)
$ termput so
(normal video)

For screen handling, it is much faster to set up shell variables with the capability strings and to use them in place of commands like termput, clear and cursor. Shell variables can be defined in the \&.profile file located in the user's home directory.

AE=`termput ae`         # end alternate character set - graphics
AS=`termput as`         # start alternate character set - graphics
CLEAR=`termput cl`      # use in here files
ECLEAR="$CLEAR\\c"       # use in echo commands - System V UNIX
ECLEAR="-n $CLEAR"      # use in echo commands - other UNIX
CURSOR=`termput cm`     # cursor movement - for the cursor command
MB=`termput mb`         # start blinking mode
ME=`termput me`         # turn off all attributes
SE=`termput se`         # end stand out mode
SO=`termput so`         # start stand out mode
UE=`termput ue`         # end underline mode
US=`termput us`         # start underline mode
export CLEAR CURSOR AE AS MB ME SE SO SE UE US

Once these capabilities are defined, they can be used in shell programs. For example, to make a message stand out, use the $SO and $SE variables:

$ echo "${SO} LOGOFF NOW ${SE}"
LOGOFF NOW