19.2.6 Special characters

The special characters’ default values vary from system to system. They are set with the syntax ‘name value’, where the names are listed below and the value can be given either literally, in hat notation (‘^c’), or as an integer which may start with ‘0x’ to indicate hexadecimal, ‘0’ to indicate octal, or any other digit to indicate decimal.

For GNU stty, giving a value of ^- or undef disables that special character. (This is incompatible with Ultrix stty, which uses a value of ‘u’ to disable a special character. GNU stty treats a value ‘u’ like any other, namely to set that special character to U.)

intr

Send an interrupt signal.

quit

Send a quit signal.

erase

Erase the last character typed.

kill

Erase the current line.

eof

Send an end of file (terminate the input).

eol

End the line.

eol2

Alternate character to end the line. Non-POSIX.

discard

Alternate character to toggle discarding of output. Non-POSIX.

swtch

Switch to a different shell layer. Non-POSIX.

status

Send an info signal. Not currently supported on GNU/Linux. Non-POSIX.

start

Restart the output after stopping it.

stop

Stop the output.

susp

Send a terminal stop signal.

dsusp

Send a terminal stop signal after flushing the input. Non-POSIX.

rprnt

Redraw the current line. Non-POSIX.

werase

Erase the last word typed. Non-POSIX.

lnext

Enter the next character typed literally, even if it is a special character. Non-POSIX.