Problem with tput

[sprankhub]

On a client's server, I get the following output when using modman:
./module-manager/modman: Zeile 223: tput: Kommando nicht gefunden.
./module-manager/modman: Zeile 224: tput: Kommando nicht gefunden.

Maybe it is possible to avoid the usage of tput or check if it is available beforehand...

[kojiromike]

tput is a IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 standard utility. It might not hurt to check if it's available before using it, but it would be pretty fair to not support such a nonstandard system, too.

[pocallaghan]

Since tput is only used for output formatting and is never called if stdout isn't connected to a terminal, it doesn't seem like too much of a problem to support a system without it. One potential way would be to change ISTTY=0; if [ -t 1 ]; then ISTTY=1; fi to something like ISTTY=0; if [ -t 1 ] && type "tput" > /dev/null; then ISTTY=1; fi. Technically this may make the name of the ISTTY variable semantically inaccurate, but I think it would work.

NB: I'm assuming that type will be available in systems where tput is not, this is purely an assumption by somebody with minimal bash experience.

[colinmollenhour]

On my test system "type type" says it is a shell built-in so since Bash is already a requirement then I would think "type tput" should be safe.

[kojiromike]

type is a POSIX utility. Any of type, hash, and command utilities provide POSIX-compliant means to determine if an external command exists. My preference would be a custom shell function to wrap and clarify intent, e.g.

installed() {
    type "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1
}

References:

• http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/type.html
• http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/hash.html
• http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/command.html
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/592620/check-if-a-program-exists-from-a-bash-script/677212#677212