---
name: "tty-clock"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "tty-clock"
version: "2.3+git.20211121.f2f847c-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/tty-clock"
---

# tty-clock(1)

a terminal digital clock

## NAME

tty-clock - a terminal digital clock

## SYNOPSIS

**tty-clock \[-iuvsScbtrahDBxn\] \[-C \[***0-7***\]\] \[-f** *format***\] \[-d** *delay***\] \[-a** *nsdelay***\] \[-T** *tty***\]**

## DESCRIPTION

*tty-clock* displays a simple digital clock on the terminal. Invoked without options it will display the clock on the upper left corner of the screen on the terminal it was executed from.

## COMMANDS

*tty-clock* accepts a number of runtime keyboard commands, upper and lower case characters are treated identically.

- K,J,H,L

  vi-style movement commands to set the position of the displayed clock. These commands have no effect when the **centered** option is set.

- \[0-7\]

  Select a different color for displaying the clock.

- B

  Toggles between bold and normal colors.

- X

  Toggles displaying a box around the clock. This option is disabled by default.

- C

  Toggle the clock's position to **centered**. When set the movement commands are disabled.

- R

  Set the clock to **rebound** along the edges of the terminal.

- S

  Display seconds.

- T

  Switch time output to the 12-hour format.

- Q

  Quit.

## OPTIONS

- **-s**

  Show seconds.

- **-S**

  Screensaver mode. tty-clock terminates when any key is pressed.

- **-x**

  Show box.

- **-c**

  Set the clock at the center of the terminal.

- **-C** *\[0-7\]*

  Set the clock color.

- **-b**

  Use bold colors.

- **-t**

  Set the hour in 12h format.

- **-u**

  Use UTC time.

- **-T** *tty*

  Display the clock on the given *tty*. *tty* must be a valid character device to which the user has rw access permissions. (See **EXAMPLES**)

- **-r**

  Do rebound the clock.

- **-f** *format*

  Set the date format as described in **[strftime(3)](/strftime/3.md)**.

- **-n**

  Do not quit the program when the Q key is pressed (or when any key is pressed while in **Screensaver** mode). A signal must be sent to *tty-clock* in order to terminate its execution. (See **EXAMPLES**)

- **-v**

  Show tty-clock version.

- **-i**

  Show some info about tty-clock.

- **-h**

  Show usage information.

- **-D**

  Hide the date.

- **-B**

  Enable blinking colon.

- **-d** *delay*

  Set the delay (in seconds) between two redraws of the clock. Default 1s.

- **-a** *nsdelay*

  Additional delay (in nanoseconds) between two redraws of the clock. Default 0ns.

## EXAMPLES

To invoke *tty-clock* in screensaver mode with the clock display set to rebound and the update delay set to 1/10th of a second (10 FPS):

-

  $ tty-clock -Sra 100000000 -d 0

The following example arranges for *tty-clock* to be displayed indefinitely on one of the Virtual Terminals on a Linux system at boot time using an **[inittab(5)](/inittab/5.md)** entry:

-

  \# /etc/inittab:\
   9:2345:respawn:/usr/bin/tty-clock -c -n -T /dev/tty9