38.13 Terminal Output

The terminal output functions send output to a text terminal, or keep track of output sent to the terminal. The variable baud-rate tells you what Emacs thinks is the output speed of the terminal.

User Option: baud-rate

This variable’s value is the output speed of the terminal, as far as Emacs knows. Setting this variable does not change the speed of actual data transmission, but the value is used for calculations such as padding.

It also affects decisions about whether to scroll part of the screen or repaint on text terminals. See Forcing Redisplay, for the corresponding functionality on graphical terminals.

The value is measured in baud.

If you are running across a network, and different parts of the network work at different baud rates, the value returned by Emacs may be different from the value used by your local terminal. Some network protocols communicate the local terminal speed to the remote machine, so that Emacs and other programs can get the proper value, but others do not. If Emacs has the wrong value, it makes decisions that are less than optimal. To fix the problem, set baud-rate.

Function: send-string-to-terminal string &optional terminal

This function sends string to terminal without alteration. Control characters in string have terminal-dependent effects. This function operates only on text terminals. terminal may be a terminal object, a frame, or nil for the selected frame’s terminal. In batch mode, string is sent to stdout when terminal is nil.

One use of this function is to define function keys on terminals that have downloadable function key definitions. For example, this is how (on certain terminals) to define function key 4 to move forward four characters (by transmitting the characters C-u C-f to the computer):

(send-string-to-terminal "\eF4\^U\^F")
     ⇒ nil

Command: open-termscript filename

This function is used to open a termscript file that will record all the characters sent by Emacs to the terminal. It returns nil. Termscript files are useful for investigating problems where Emacs garbles the screen, problems that are due to incorrect Termcap entries or to undesirable settings of terminal options more often than to actual Emacs bugs. Once you are certain which characters were actually output, you can determine reliably whether they correspond to the Termcap specifications in use.

(open-termscript "../junk/termscript")
     ⇒ nil

You close the termscript file by calling this function with an argument of nil.

See also open-dribble-file in Recording Input.