LINES and COLUMNS environmental variables lost in a script
bash, environment-variables, shell, terminal
Solution
You could get the lines and columns from `tput`:
#!/bin/bash
lines=$(tput lines)
columns=$(tput cols)
echo "Lines: " $lines
echo "Columns: " $columns
Problem
Consider the following: ``` me@mine:~$ cat a.sh #!/bin/bash echo "Lines: " $LINES echo "Columns: " $COLUMNS me@mine:~$ ./a.sh Lines: Columns: me@mine:~$ echo "Lines: " $LINES Lines: 52 me@mine:~$ echo "Columns: " $COLUMNS Columns: 157 me@mine:~$ ``` The variables `$LINES` and `$COLUMNS` are shell variables, not environmental variables, and thus are not exported to the child process (but they are automatically updated when I resize the xterm window, even when logged in via ssh from a remote location). Is there a way in which I can let my script know the current terminal size? EDIT: I need this as a workaround do this problem: vi (as well as vim, less, and similar commands) messes up the screen every time I use it. Changing the terminal is not an option, and thus I'm looking for workarounds (scrolling down `$LINES` lines surely is not the perfect solution, but at least is better than losing the previous screen)