what is it called when programs operate like man?

[disciple]

Does anyone know if there is a term to describe what programs like `man` do, where they take over your terminal to display stuff without printing to stdout, so when they are finished/exited the stuff disappears?

Thanks.

[amigo]

I suspect most are just 'clearing' the screen -by printf-ing the 'clear screen character'. Others, like fsck don't clear the whole screen, but clear a single line each time the output updates and when the program finishes.

[disciple]

I suspect most are just 'clearing' the screen -by printf-ing the 'clear screen character'.

Like pressing Ctrl-L ?
That's quite different from what man or less does, as you can scroll up to see the output afterwards.

[Ibidem]

I think that's a terminal emulator feature, called alternate screen switching or something like that. Basically, when a "full-screen" terminal program starts, the terminal emulator switches the buffers around; when the program exits, the terminal emulator switches it back to the main screen buffer.
In xterm, you can ctrl+middleclick to select/unselect this feature.
If you run the programs in the Linux console, you don't have alternate screen switching.

[technosaurus]

Those programs are in "raw mode", a bit of info is here:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Text-Terminal ... ormal_exit
but no code - I think dialog does the same thing (maybe all curses programs?)

[Ted Dog]

clear command as the last statement in a script.

[jamesbond]

I think that's a terminal emulator feature, called alternate screen switching or something like that. Basically, when a "full-screen" terminal program starts, the terminal emulator switches the buffers around; when the program exits, the terminal emulator switches it back to the main screen buffer.
In xterm, you can ctrl+middleclick to select/unselect this feature.
If you run the programs in the Linux console, you don't have alternate screen switching.

Bingo!
http://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlse ... n%20Buffer

You can use "tput smcup" to activate the alternate buffer, and "tput rmcup" to return to the original buffer. As Ibidem said - it won't work on linux console itself because the capability isn't supported, but on xterm and urxvt it works well.

[disciple]

Ah, thanks.
So here's someone circumventing it
https://blogs.oracle.com/samf/entry/smcup_rmcup_hate

[jamesbond]

Ah, thanks.
So here's someone circumventing it
https://blogs.oracle.com/samf/entry/smcup_rmcup_hate

Haven't he heard of "screen" or "tmux" (or, how about opening multiple xterm windows)?

[Ibidem]

Ah, thanks.
So here's someone circumventing it
https://blogs.oracle.com/samf/entry/smcup_rmcup_hate

Haven't he heard of "screen" or "tmux" (or, how about opening multiple xterm windows)?

Or Ctrl+Middleclick?
(For xterm, there are menus. You just have to press Ctrl while you click.)

[disciple]

He probably thinks this is nice and simple compared to them.