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 appro-
priate sequences for underlining. If the terminal is incapable of un-
derlining 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, underlin-
ing is ignored.
OPTIONS
-i, --indicated
Underlining is indicated by a separate line containing appropri-
ate dashes `-'; this is useful when you want to look at the un-
derlining which is present in an nroff output stream on a crt-
terminal.
-t, -T, --terminal terminal
Override the environment variable TERM with the specified termi-
nal type.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-h, --help
Display 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 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 setenv(3)).
SEE ALSO
colcrt(1), login(1), man(1), nroff(1), setenv(3), 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 <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
linux/>.
util-linux September 2011 UL(1)