Re: [doc] LINES/COLUMNS auto-update in non-interactive shells contradicts manual

Chet Ramey <[email protected]> Thu, 14 May 2026 11:30:46 -0400

Newsgroups	gmane.comp.shells.bash.bugs
Organization	ITS, Case Western Reserve University
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

On 5/12/26 12:58 PM, Robert Elz wrote:

> So a user (or script) can just do
> 
> 	tsize() { set -- $(stty size); rows=$1 cols=$2; }
> 	trap tsize WINCH
> 	tsize

Scripts could always do this with LINES and COLUMNS. The OG way is to use
something like this:

tsize() { eval `resize -u`; }
trap tsize WINCH
tsize

This is what we all used to use in the earlier X11 days. `resize' gives
you output like

$ resize
COLUMNS=80;
LINES=30;
export COLUMNS LINES;

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
		 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    [email protected]    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/

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