def winsize # Ruby 1.9.3 added 'io/console' to the standard library. require 'io/console' IO.console.winsize rescue LoadError # This works with older Ruby, but only with systems # that have a tput(1) command, such as Unix clones. [Integer(`tput li`), Integer(`tput co`)] end rows, cols = winsize printf "%d rows by %d columns\n", rows, cols