UL(1) | General Commands Manual | UL(1)

# NAME

`ul` — do underlining

# SYNOPSIS

`ul` | [`-i`] [`-t` terminal] [name ...]

# DESCRIPTION

`ul` reads the named files (or standard input if none are given) and translates occurrences of underscores to the sequence which indicates underlining for the terminal in use, as specified by the environment variable `TERM`. The file /usr/share/misc/terminfo is read to determine the appropriate sequences for underlining. If the terminal is incapable of underlining, but is capable of a standout mode then that is used instead. If the terminal can overstrike, or handles underlining automatically, `ul` degenerates to cat(1). If the terminal cannot underline, underlining is ignored.

The following options are available:

`-i`
  Underlining is indicated by a separate line containing appropriate dashes `-'; this is useful when you want to look at the underlining which is present in an nroff(1) output stream on a crt-terminal.
`-t` terminal
  Overrides the terminal type specified in the environment with terminal.

# ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variable is used:

`TERM`
  The `TERM` variable is used to relate a tty device with its device capability description (see terminfo(5)). `TERM` is set at login time, either by the default terminal type specified in /etc/ttys or as set during the login process by the user in their login file (see for example csh(1)'s `setenv`).

# FILES

/usr/share/misc/terminfo
  File containing terminal descriptions.

# SEE ALSO

colcrt(1), man(1), nroff(1), terminfo(3), terminfo(5)

# HISTORY

The `ul` command appeared in 3.0BSD.

# BUGS

nroff(1) usually outputs a series of backspaces and underlines intermixed with the text to indicate underlining. No attempt is made to optimize the backward motion.

June 23, 2016 | NetBSD 11.0