Vttest
Application for feature demonstration of terminals or terminal emulators
title: "Vttest" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["unix-text-processing-utilities", "terminal-emulators"] description: "Application for feature demonstration of terminals or terminal emulators" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vttest" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Application for feature demonstration of terminals or terminal emulators ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | vttest |
| author | Per Lindberg |
| developer | Thomas Dickey |
| released | |
| latest_release_version | 20200420 |
| latest_release_date | |
| operating_system | Cross-platform |
| genre | Utility software |
| license | MIT License |
| website | |
| :: |
| name = vttest | logo = | caption = | screenshot = | author = Per Lindberg | developer = Thomas Dickey | released = | latest_release_version = 20200420 | latest_release_date = | operating_system = Cross-platform | genre = Utility software | license = MIT License | website = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/VTTEST-locking_shifts_test.png" caption="Example showing VTTEST locking-shifts test for xterm running as a [[VT220]]."] ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/VTTEST-doublesize.png" caption="Example showing VTTEST displaying doublesize characters in xterm."] ::
Vttest is an application that is used to demonstrate features of VT100 and related terminals, or emulations thereof, such as xterm. The program was originally written in 1986 by Per Lindberg. It has been maintained and extended since 1996 by Thomas Dickey, to test and demonstrate features of xterm.
The newer version has always been distributed as a separate program; older versions have been bundled with other software, e.g., terminal emulators such as Rxvt, Konsole,{{cite web |url=http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html#bug_konsole |title=XTERM - Frequently Asked Questions |author=Thomas E. Dickey |url=http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/usr.sbin/pcvt/vttest/ |title=FreeBSD CVS for pcvt/vttest |date=August 16, 2005
Perhaps prompted by the "scoresheet" presented by the developers of Kermit, some other developers of terminal emulators have asserted that their product achieves a given rating on the "VTTEST Score Card".{{cite web |url=http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/vttest.html |title=The VTTEST VT100/102 Terminal Emulation Test |url=https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=vttest+score+card |title=Google search for vttest score card However, no independent verification of any of those claims exists.
References
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