what was on the screen before it takes over, then it won't know what to put back. I think programs that use ncurses and initialize the screen properly automatically do this. It's been awhile since I messed around with curses and text user interfaces... I have memories of sometimes wanting to "disable" that auto-screen-redraw when quitting an app because I wanted to then use the output for something else. I used to achieve this by changing the terminal emulation from xterm to vt100... But that's not what you're trying to do. -Rob --0016e6d96d9817154a04929923b5 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <br><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 1:58 PM, Mike Mi= ller <span dir=3D"ltr"><<a href=3D"mailto:mbmiller%2Bl at gmail.com">mbmill= er+l at gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" s= tyle=3D"margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204= ); padding-left: 1ex;"> It seems that with my terminal settings, I can pipe anything to "less&= quot; and<br> then kill "less" and return to my command prompt without disturbi= ng<br> anything. =C2=A0Most programs that fill the terminal window also work this = way<br> -- when they exit, they remove themselves from the screen and show the<br> screen as it was when they started.<br><br></blockquote><div><br>This is al= most certainly an application issue.=C2=A0 It /might/ be a terminal emulati= on issue.=C2=A0 <br><br>From the application side, if top does not take car= e to save a snapshot of what was on the screen before it takes over, then i= t won't know what to put back.=C2=A0 I think programs that use ncurses = and initialize the screen properly automatically do this.=C2=A0 It's be= en awhile since I messed around with curses and text user interfaces... =C2= =A0 <br> <br>I have memories of sometimes wanting to "disable" that auto-s= creen-redraw when quitting an app because I wanted to then use the output f= or something else.=C2=A0 I used to achieve this by changing the terminal em= ulation from xterm to vt100... But that's not what you're trying to= do. <br> <br>-Rob<br><br><br><br></div></div> --0016e6d96d9817154a04929923b5--