UL(1) User Commands UL(1)
NAME
ul - do underlining
SYNOPSIS
ul [options] [file ...]
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 terminfo database 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.
OPTIONS
-i, --indicated
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 output stream on a crt-terminal.
-t, -T, --terminal terminal
Overrides the terminal type specified in the environment with TERM.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-h, --help
Display a help text and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variable is used:
TERM The TERM variable is used to relate a tty device with its device capability description (see ter‐
minfo(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 setenv(1)).
SEE ALSO
colcrt(1), login(1), man(1), nroff(1), setenv(1), terminfo(5)
BUGS
Nroff usually outputs a series of backspaces and underlines intermixed with the text to indicate underlining.
No attempt is made to optimize the backward motion.
HISTORY
The ul command appeared in 3.0BSD.
AVAILABILITY
The ul command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive ⟨ftp://
ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩.
util-linux September 2011 UL(1)
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