Manual: ul

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 appropriate sequences for underlining. If the terminal is incapable of
       underlining 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, underlining is ignored.

OPTIONS
       -i, --indicated
	   Underlining is indicated by a separate line containing appropriate dashes `-'; this is useful when you want to
	   look at the underlining which is present in an nroff output stream on a crt-terminal.

       -t, -T, --terminal terminal
	   Override the environment variable TERM with the specified terminal type.

       -h, --help
	   Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
	   Display version 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)).

HISTORY
       The ul command appeared in 3.0BSD.

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.

SEE ALSO
       colcrt(1), login(1), man(1), nroff(1), setenv(3), terminfo(5)

REPORTING BUGS
       For bug reports, use the issue tracker .

AVAILABILITY
       The ul command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       .

util-linux 2.41.3					 2025-12-15						       UL(1)