* sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
* authorization. *
****************************************************************************
- * @Id: term.5,v 1.77 2024/04/20 21:24:19 tom Exp @
+ * @Id: term.5,v 1.80 2024/06/15 20:23:33 tom Exp @
-->
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="generator" content="Manpage converted by man2html - see https://invisible-island.net/scripts/readme.html#others_scripts">
-<TITLE>term 5 2024-04-20 ncurses 6.5 File formats</TITLE>
+<TITLE>term 5 2024-06-15 ncurses 6.5 File formats</TITLE>
<link rel="author" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
-<H1 class="no-header">term 5 2024-04-20 ncurses 6.5 File formats</H1>
+<H1 class="no-header">term 5 2024-06-15 ncurses 6.5 File formats</H1>
<PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG> File formats <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>
term - compiled <EM>terminfo</EM> terminal description
-</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG>term</STRONG>
-
-
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
+ <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1)</A></STRONG> compiles a <EM>terminfo</EM> terminal type description, and <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG>
+ reads it. A compiled description may be stored in a file or in a
+ database of, potentially, many such descriptions. Further, a compiled
+ description may be in one of two formats: one similar to that used by
+ System V, and a newer, extensible format employed exclusively by
+ <EM>ncurses</EM>.
+
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Storage-Location">Storage Location</a></H3><PRE>
- Compiled terminfo descriptions are placed under the directory
- <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>. Two configurations are supported (when building
- the <EM>ncurses</EM> libraries):
+ Compiled <EM>terminfo</EM> <EM>descriptions</EM> <EM>are</EM> <EM>placed</EM> under the directory
+ <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>. One of two configurations is selected when
+ building the <EM>ncurses</EM> libraries.
<STRONG>directory</STRONG> <STRONG>tree</STRONG>
A two-level scheme is used to avoid a linear search of a huge Unix
- system directory: <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/c/name</STRONG> where <EM>name</EM> is the
+ system directory: <EM>/usr/share/terminfo/</EM>c<EM>/</EM>name where <EM>name</EM> is the
name of the terminal, and <EM>c</EM> is the first character of <EM>name</EM>. Thus,
- <EM>act4</EM> can be found in the file <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/a/act4</STRONG>.
- Synonyms for the same terminal are implemented by multiple links
- to the same compiled file.
+ the compiled description of terminal type "act4" is found in the
+ file <EM>/usr/share/terminfo/a/act4</EM>. Synonyms for the same terminal
+ are implemented by multiple links to the same compiled file.
<STRONG>hashed</STRONG> <STRONG>database</STRONG>
- Using Berkeley database, two types of records are stored: the
- terminfo data in the same format as stored in a directory tree
- with the terminfo's primary name as a key, and records containing
- only aliases pointing to the primary name.
-
- If built to write hashed databases, <EM>ncurses</EM> can still read
- terminfo databases organized as a directory tree, but cannot write
- entries into the directory tree. It can write (or rewrite)
+ Using the Berkeley database API, two types of records are stored:
+ the <EM>terminfo</EM> data in the same format as that stored in a directory
+ tree with the terminal's primary type name as a key, and records
+ containing only aliases pointing to the primary name.
+
+ If built to write hashed databases, <EM>ncurses</EM> can still read <EM>term-</EM>
+ <EM>info</EM> databases organized as a directory tree, but cannot write
+ entries into the directory tree. It can write (or rewrite)
entries in the hashed database.
- <EM>ncurses</EM> distinguishes the two cases in the <EM>TERMINFO</EM> and
- <EM>TERMINFO</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>DIRS</EM> environment variable by assuming a directory tree
- for entries that correspond to an existing directory, and hashed
+ <EM>ncurses</EM> distinguishes the two cases in the <EM>TERMINFO</EM> and
+ <EM>TERMINFO</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>DIRS</EM> environment variable by assuming a directory tree
+ for entries that correspond to an existing directory, and a hashed
database otherwise.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Legacy-Storage-Format">Legacy Storage Format</a></H3><PRE>
The format has been chosen so that it will be the same on all hardware.
- An 8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte
- ordering or sign extension are made.
+ A byte of at least eight bits' width is assumed, but no assumptions
+ about bit ordering or sign extension are made.
- The compiled file is created with the <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program, and read by the
- routine <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG>. The file is divided into six parts:
+ The file is divided into six parts:
- a) <EM>header</EM>,
+ (a) <EM>header</EM>,
- b) <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM>,
+ (b) <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM>,
- c) <EM>Boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM>,
+ (c) <EM>Boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM>,
- d) <EM>numbers</EM>,
+ (d) <EM>numbers</EM>,
- e) <EM>strings</EM>, and
+ (e) <EM>strings</EM>, and
- f) <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
+ (f) a <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
The <EM>header</EM> section begins the file. This section contains six short
integers in the format described below. These integers are
- (1) the <EM>magic</EM> <EM>number</EM> (octal 0432);
+ (1) the <EM>magic</EM> <EM>number</EM>
+ (octal 0432);
- (2) the size, in bytes, of the <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section;
+ (2) the size,
+ in bytes, of the <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section;
(3) the number of bytes in the <EM>Boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section;
(4) the number of short integers in the <EM>numbers</EM> section;
- (5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the <EM>strings</EM> section;
+ (5) the number of offsets
+ (short integers) in the <EM>strings</EM> section;
- (6) the size, in bytes, of the <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
+ (6) the size,
+ in bytes, of the <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
The capabilities in the <EM>Boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM>, <EM>numbers</EM>, and <EM>strings</EM> sections
- are in the same order as the file <term.h>.
+ are in the same order as in the header file <EM>term.h</EM>.
- Short integers are signed, in the range -32768 to 32767. They are
- stored as two 8-bit bytes. The first byte contains the least
- significant 8 bits of the value, and the second byte contains the most
- significant 8 bits. (Thus, the value represented is 256*second+first.)
- This format corresponds to the hardware of the VAX and PDP-11 (that is,
- little-endian machines). Machines where this does not correspond to
- the hardware must read the integers as two bytes and compute the
- little-endian value.
+ Short integers are signed, in the range -32768 to 32767, and stored in
+ little-endian format.
Numbers in a terminal description, whether they are entries in the
<EM>numbers</EM> or <EM>strings</EM> table, are positive integers. Boolean flags are
treated as positive one-byte integers. In each case, those positive
- integers represent a terminal capability. The terminal compiler tic
+ integers represent a terminal capability. The terminal compiler <EM>tic</EM>
uses negative integers to handle the cases where a capability is not
available:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability is absent from this terminal, tic stores a -1 in
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability is absent from this terminal, <EM>tic</EM> stores a -1 in
the corresponding table.
The integer value -1 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0377.
Absent Boolean values are represented by the byte 0 (false).
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability has been canceled from this terminal, tic stores a
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability has been canceled from this terminal, <EM>tic</EM> stores a
-2 in the corresponding table.
The integer value -2 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0376.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> Other negative values are illegal.
The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section comes after the <EM>header</EM>. It contains the
- first line of the terminfo description, listing the various names for
+ first line of the <EM>terminfo</EM> description, listing the various names for
the terminal, separated by the "|" character. The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM>
section is terminated with an ASCII NUL character.
string capabilities referenced in the <EM>strings</EM> section. Each string is
null-terminated. Special characters in ^X or \c notation are stored in
their interpreted form, not the printing representation. Padding
- information $<nn> and parameter information %x are stored intact in
+ information <STRONG>$<</STRONG><EM>nn</EM><STRONG>></STRONG> and parameter information <STRONG>%x</STRONG> are stored intact in
uninterpreted form.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Extended-Storage-Format">Extended Storage Format</a></H3><PRE>
- The previous section describes the conventional terminfo binary format.
+ The previous section describes the conventional <EM>terminfo</EM> binary format.
With some minor variations of the offsets (see PORTABILITY), the same
binary format is used in all modern Unix systems. Each system uses a
predefined set of Boolean, number or string capabilities.
- The <EM>ncurses</EM> libraries and applications support extended terminfo binary
- format, allowing users to define capabilities which are loaded at
+ The <EM>ncurses</EM> libraries and applications support extended <EM>terminfo</EM> binary
+ format, allowing users to define capabilities that are loaded at
runtime. This extension is made possible by using the fact that the
- other implementations stop reading the terminfo data when they have
- reached the end of the size given in the header. <EM>ncurses</EM> checks the
- size, and if it exceeds that due to the predefined data, continues to
- parse according to its own scheme.
+ other implementations stop reading the <EM>terminfo</EM> data when they reach
+ the end of the size given in the header. <EM>ncurses</EM> checks the size, and
+ if it exceeds that due to the predefined data, continues to parse
+ according to its own scheme.
First, it reads the extended header (5 short integers):
The extended string table contains values for string capabilities.
After the end of these values, it contains the names for each of the
- extended capabilities in order, e.g., Booleans, then numbers and
- finally strings.
+ extended capabilities in order: Boolean, numeric, and string.
- By storing terminal descriptions in this way, <EM>ncurses</EM> is able to
+ By storing terminal descriptions in this way, <EM>ncurses</EM> is able to
provide a database useful with legacy applications, as well as
- providing data for applications which need more than the predefined
- capabilities. See <STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG> for an overview of the way <EM>ncurses</EM> uses
- this extended information.
+ providing data for applications that require more information about a
+ terminal type than was anticipated by X/Open Curses. See <STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG>
+ for an overview of the way <EM>ncurses</EM> uses this extended information.
- Applications which manipulate terminal data can use the definitions
- described in <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG> which associate the long capability
- names with members of a <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure.
+ Applications that manipulate terminal data can use the definitions
+ described in <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG> associating the long capability names
+ with members of a <EM>TERMTYPE</EM> structure.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Extended-Number-Format">Extended Number Format</a></H3><PRE>
- On occasion, 16-bit signed integers are not large enough. With <EM>ncurses</EM>
- 6.1, a new format was introduced by making a few changes to the legacy
- format:
+ On occasion, 16-bit signed integers are not large enough. <EM>ncurses</EM> 6.1
+ introduced a new format by making a few changes to the legacy format:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> a different magic number (octal 01036)
to signed 32-bit integers.
To maintain compatibility, the library presents the same data
- structures to direct users of the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure as in previous
+ structures to direct users of the <EM>TERMTYPE</EM> structure as in previous
formats. However, that cannot provide callers with the extended
numbers. The library uses a similar but hidden data structure
- <STRONG>TERMTYPE2</STRONG> to provide data for the terminfo functions.
+ <EM>TERMTYPE2</EM> to provide data for the <EM>terminfo</EM> functions.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Binary-Format">Binary Format</a></H3><PRE>
- X/Open Curses does not specify a format for the terminfo database.
- System V curses used a directory-tree of binary files, one per terminal
+ X/Open Curses does not specify a format for the <EM>terminfo</EM> database.
+ System V <EM>curses</EM> used a directory-tree of binary files, one per terminal
description.
- Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the
- otherwise self-describing format, it is not wise to count on
- portability of binary terminfo entries between commercial Unix
- versions. The problem is that there are at least three versions of
- terminfo (under HP-UX, AIX, and OSF/1) which diverged from System V
- terminfo after SVr1, and have added extension capabilities to the
- string table that (in the binary format) collide with System V and
- X/Open Curses extensions. See <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for detailed discussion of
- terminfo source compatibility issues.
-
- This implementation is by default compatible with the binary terminfo
- format used by Solaris curses, except in a few less-used details where
+ Despite the consistent use of little-endian numbers and the otherwise
+ self-describing format, it is not wise to count on portability of
+ binary <EM>terminfo</EM> entries between commercial Unix versions. The problem
+ is that there are at least three versions of <EM>terminfo</EM> (under HP-UX,
+ AIX, and OSF/1) each of which diverged from System V <EM>terminfo</EM> after
+ SVr1, and added extension capabilities to the string table that (in the
+ binary format) collide with System V and X/Open Curses extensions. See
+ <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for detailed discussion of <EM>terminfo</EM> source compatibility
+ issues.
+
+ This implementation is by default compatible with the binary <EM>terminfo</EM>
+ format used by Solaris <EM>curses</EM>, except in a few less-used details where
it was found that the latter did not match X/Open Curses. The format
used by the other Unix versions can be matched by building <EM>ncurses</EM> with
different configuration options.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Magic-Codes">Magic Codes</a></H3><PRE>
- The magic number in a binary terminfo file is the first 16-bits (two
+ The magic number in a binary <EM>terminfo</EM> file is the first 16 bits (two
bytes). Besides making it more reliable for the library to check that
- a file is terminfo, utilities such as <STRONG>file(1)</STRONG> also use that to tell
+ a file is <EM>terminfo</EM>, utilities such as <STRONG>file(1)</STRONG> also use that to tell
what the file-format is. System V defined more than one magic number,
with 0433, 0435 as screen-dumps (see <STRONG><A HREF="scr_dump.5.html">scr_dump(5)</A></STRONG>). This implementation
uses 01036 as a continuation of that sequence, but with a different
high-order byte to avoid confusion.
<STRONG>The</STRONG> <EM>TERMTYPE</EM> <STRONG>Structure</STRONG>
- Direct access to the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure is provided for legacy
- applications. Portable applications should use the <STRONG>tigetflag</STRONG> and
- related functions described in <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG> for reading terminal
- capabilities.
+ Direct access to the <EM>TERMTYPE</EM> structure is provided for legacy
+ applications. Portable applications should use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tigetflag(3x)</A></STRONG> and
+ related functions to read terminal capabilities.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Mixed-case-Terminal-Names">Mixed-case Terminal Names</a></H3><PRE>
- A small number of terminal descriptions use uppercase characters in
- their names. If the underlying filesystem ignores the difference
- between uppercase and lowercase, <EM>ncurses</EM> represents the "first
- character" of the terminal name used as the intermediate level of a
+ A small number of terminal descriptions use uppercase characters in
+ their names. If the underlying file system ignores the difference
+ between uppercase and lowercase, <EM>ncurses</EM> represents the "first
+ character" of the terminal name used as the intermediate level of a
directory tree in (two-character) hexadecimal form.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Limits">Limits</a></H3><PRE>
<EM>ncurses</EM> stores compiled terminal descriptions in three related formats,
- described in the sections
+ described in the subsections
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>LEGACY</STRONG> <STRONG>STORAGE</STRONG> <STRONG>FORMAT</STRONG>, and
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>Legacy</STRONG> <STRONG>Storage</STRONG> <STRONG>Format</STRONG>, and
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>EXTENDED</STRONG> <STRONG>STORAGE</STRONG> <STRONG>FORMAT</STRONG>, and
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>Extended</STRONG> <STRONG>Storage</STRONG> <STRONG>Format</STRONG>, and
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>EXTENDED</STRONG> <STRONG>NUMBER</STRONG> <STRONG>FORMAT</STRONG>.
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>Extended</STRONG> <STRONG>Number</STRONG> <STRONG>Format</STRONG>.
- The legacy storage format and the extended number format differ by the
- types of numeric capability which they can store (i.e., 16-bit versus
- 32-bit integers). The extended storage format introduced by <EM>ncurses</EM>
- 5.0 adds data to either of these formats.
+ The legacy storage format and the extended number format differ by the
+ types of numeric capability that they can store (for example, 16-
+ versus 32-bit integers). The extended storage format introduced by
+ <EM>ncurses</EM> 5.0 adds data to either of these formats.
Some limitations apply:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy
format.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 32768 bytes in the extended
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 32768 bytes in the extended
format.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> the name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
- Compiled entries are limited to 32768 bytes because offsets into the
- <EM>strings</EM> <EM>table</EM> use two-byte integers. The legacy format could have
- supported 32768-byte entries, but was limited to a virtual memory
+ Compiled entries are limited to 32768 bytes because offsets into the
+ <EM>strings</EM> <EM>table</EM> use two-byte integers. The legacy format could have
+ supported 32768-byte entries, but was limited to a virtual memory
page's 4096 bytes.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></H2><PRE>
- As an example, here is a description for the Lear-Siegler ADM-3, a
- popular though rather stupid early terminal:
+ Here is a <EM>terminfo</EM> description of the Lear-Siegler ADM-3, a popular
+ though rather stupid early terminal.
adm3a|lsi adm3a,
am,
cuf1=^L, cup=\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,
home=^^, ind=^J,
- and a hexadecimal dump of the compiled terminal description:
+ A hexadecimal dump of its compiled terminal description (in legacy
+ format) follows.
0000 1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00 82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33 ........ ..1.adm3
0010 61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64 6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00 a|lsi ad m3a...P.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></H2><PRE>
Thomas E. Dickey
- extended terminfo format for <EM>ncurses</EM> 5.0
+ extended <EM>terminfo</EM> format for <EM>ncurses</EM> 5.0
hashed database support for <EM>ncurses</EM> 5.6
extended number support for <EM>ncurses</EM> 6.1
Eric S. Raymond
- documented legacy terminfo format, e.g., from <EM>pcurses</EM>.
+ documented legacy <EM>terminfo</EM> format (that used by <EM>pcurses</EM>).
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
-ncurses 6.5 2024-04-20 <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>
+ncurses 6.5 2024-06-15 <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
<div class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
-<li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h3-Storage-Location">Storage Location</a></li>