Compiled terminfo descriptions are placed under the directory
/usr/share/terminfo. Two configurations are supported (when building
- the ncurses libraries):
+ the ncurses libraries):
directorytree
A two-level scheme is used to avoid a linear search of a huge UNIX
system directory: /usr/share/terminfo/c/name where name is the
name of the terminal, and c is the first character of name. Thus,
- act4 can be found in the file /usr/share/terminfo/a/act4. Syn-
- onyms for the same terminal are implemented by multiple links to
- the same compiled file.
+ act4 can be found in the file /usr/share/terminfo/a/act4.
+ Synonyms for the same terminal are implemented by multiple links
+ to the same compiled file.
hasheddatabase
- Using Berkeley database, two types of records are stored: the ter-
- minfo 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.
+ 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, ncurses can still read ter-
- minfo databases organized as a directory tree, but cannot write
+ If built to write hashed databases, ncurses can still read
+ terminfo databases organized as a directory tree, but cannot write
entries into the directory tree. It can write (or rewrite)
entries in the hashed database.
- ncurses distinguishes the two cases in the TERMINFO and TER-
- MINFO_DIRS environment variable by assuming a directory tree for
- entries that correspond to an existing directory, and hashed data-
- base otherwise.
+ ncurses distinguishes the two cases in the TERMINFO and
+ TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable by assuming a directory tree
+ for entries that correspond to an existing directory, and hashed
+ database otherwise.
-
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 order-
- ing or sign extension are made.
+ An 8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte
+ ordering or sign extension are made.
- The compiled file is created with the tic program, and read by the rou-
- tine setupterm(3x). The file is divided into six parts: the header,
- terminal names, boolean flags, numbers, strings, and string table.
+ The compiled file is created with the tic program, and read by the
+ routine setupterm(3x). The file is divided into six parts:
- The header section begins the file. This section contains six short
+ a) header,
+
+ b) terminalnames,
+
+ c) booleanflags,
+
+ d) numbers,
+
+ e) strings, and
+
+ f) stringtable.
+
+ The header section begins the file. This section contains six short
integers in the format described below. These integers are
- (1) the magic number (octal 0432);
+ (1) the magicnumber (octal 0432);
+
+ (2) the size, in bytes, of the terminalnames section;
- (2) the size, in bytes, of the names section;
+ (3) the number of bytes in the booleanflags section;
- (3) the number of bytes in the boolean section;
+ (4) the number of short integers in the numbers section;
- (4) the number of short integers in the numbers section;
+ (5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the strings section;
- (5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the strings section;
+ (6) the size, in bytes, of the stringtable.
- (6) the size, in bytes, of the string table.
+ The capabilities in the booleanflags, numbers, and strings sections
+ are in the same order as the file <term.h>.
- Short integers are stored in 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*sec-
- ond+first.) The value -1 is represented by the two bytes 0377, 0377;
- other negative values are illegal. This value generally means that the
- corresponding capability is missing from this terminal. Note that this
- format corresponds to the hardware of the VAX and PDP-11 (that is, lit-
- tle-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. 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.
- The terminal names section comes next. It contains the first line of
- the terminfo description, listing the various names for the terminal,
- separated by the "|" character. The section is terminated with an
- ASCII NUL character.
+ Numbers in a terminal description, whether they are entries in the
+ numbers or strings 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
+ uses negative integers to handle the cases where a capability is not
+ available:
- The boolean flags have one byte for each flag. This byte is either 0
- or 1 as the flag is present or absent. The capabilities are in the
- same order as the file <term.h>.
+ o If a capability is absent from this terminal, tic stores a -1 in
+ the corresponding table.
- Between the boolean section and the number section, a null byte will be
- inserted, if necessary, to ensure that the number section begins on an
- even byte (this is a relic of the PDP-11's word-addressed architecture,
- originally designed in to avoid IOT traps induced by addressing a word
- on an odd byte boundary). All short integers are aligned on a short
- word boundary.
+ The integer value -1 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0377.
+ Absent boolean values are represented by the byte 0 (false).
- The numbers section is similar to the flags section. Each capability
- takes up two bytes, and is stored as a little-endian short integer. If
- the value represented is -1, the capability is taken to be missing.
+ o If a capability has been canceled from this terminal, tic stores a
+ -2 in the corresponding table.
- The strings section is also similar. Each capability is stored as a
- short integer, in the format above. A value of -1 means the capability
- is missing. Otherwise, the value is taken as an offset from the begin-
- ning of the string table. 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 uninterpreted form.
+ The integer value -2 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0376.
+ The boolean value -2 is represented by the byte 0376.
- The final section is the string table. It contains all the values of
- string capabilities referenced in the string section. Each string is
- null terminated.
+ o Other negative values are illegal.
+
+ The terminalnames section comes after the header. It contains the
+ first line of the terminfo description, listing the various names for
+ the terminal, separated by the "|" character. The terminalnames
+ section is terminated with an ASCII NUL character.
+
+ The booleanflags section has one byte for each flag. Boolean
+ capabilities are either 1 or 0 (true or false) according to whether the
+ terminal supports the given capability or not.
+
+ Between the booleanflags section and the number section, a null byte
+ will be inserted, if necessary, to ensure that the number section
+ begins on an even byte This is a relic of the PDP-11's word-addressed
+ architecture, originally designed to avoid traps induced by addressing
+ a word on an odd byte boundary. All short integers are aligned on a
+ short word boundary.
+
+ The numbers section is similar to the booleanflags section. Each
+ capability takes up two bytes, and is stored as a little-endian short
+ integer.
+
+ The strings section is also similar. Each capability is stored as a
+ short integer. The capability value is an index into the stringtable.
+
+ The stringtable is the last section. It contains all of the values of
+ string capabilities referenced in the strings 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
+ uninterpreted form.
The previous section describes the conventional terminfo 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
+ 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 ncurses libraries and applications support extended terminfo binary
- format, allowing users to define capabilities which are loaded at run-
- time. 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. ncurses checks the size, and
- if it exceeds that due to the predefined data, continues to parse
- according to its own scheme.
+ The ncurses libraries and applications support extended terminfo binary
+ format, allowing users to define capabilities which 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. ncurses 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):
@@ -175,11 +207,14 @@
(3) count of extended string capabilities
- (4) size of the extended string table in bytes.
+ (4) count of the items in extended string table
+
+ (5) size of the extended string table in bytes
- (5) last offset of the extended string table in bytes.
+ The count- and size-values for the extended string table include the
+ extended capability names as well as extended capability values.
- Using the counts and sizes, ncurses allocates arrays and reads data for
+ Using the counts and sizes, ncurses allocates arrays and reads data for
the extended capabilities in the same order as the header information.
The extended string table contains values for string capabilities.
@@ -187,72 +222,147 @@
extended capabilities in order, e.g., booleans, then numbers and
finally strings.
+ Applications which manipulate terminal data can use the definitions
+ described in term_variables(3x) which associate the long capability
+ names with members of a TERMTYPE structure.
+
+
+
+ On occasion, 16-bit signed integers are not large enough. With ncurses
+ 6.1, a new format was introduced by making a few changes to the legacy
+ format:
+
+ o a different magic number (octal 01036)
+
+ o changing the type for the number array from signed 16-bit integers
+ to signed 32-bit integers.
+
+ To maintain compatibility, the library presents the same data
+ structures to direct users of the TERMTYPE structure as in previous
+ formats. However, that cannot provide callers with the extended
+ numbers. The library uses a similar but hidden data structure
+ TERMTYPE2 to provide data for the terminfo functions.
+
- Note that it is possible for setupterm to expect a different set of
- capabilities than are actually present in the file. Either the data-
- base may have been updated since setupterm has been recompiled (result-
- ing in extra unrecognized entries in the file) or the program may have
- been recompiled more recently than the database was updated (resulting
- in missing entries). The routine setupterm must be prepared for both
- possibilities - this is why the numbers and sizes are included. Also,
- new capabilities must always be added at the end of the lists of bool-
- ean, number, and string capabilities.
-
- Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the other-
- wise 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 XSI Curses extensions. See
- terminfo(5) for detailed discussion of terminfo source compatibility
- issues.
+
+
+ Note that it is possible for setupterm to expect a different set of
+ capabilities than are actually present in the file. Either the
+ database may have been updated since setupterm was recompiled
+ (resulting in extra unrecognized entries in the file) or the program
+ may have been recompiled more recently than the database was updated
+ (resulting in missing entries). The routine setupterm must be prepared
+ for both possibilities - this is why the numbers and sizes are
+ included. Also, new capabilities must always be added at the end of
+ the lists of boolean, number, and string capabilities.
+
+
+
+ X/Open Curses does not specify a format for the terminfo database.
+ UNIX System V curses 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 XSI
+ Curses extensions. See terminfo(5) 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
+ 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 ncurses with
+ different configuration options.
+
+
+
+ The magic number in a binary terminfo 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 file 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 scr_dump(5)). This implementation uses
+ 01036 as a continuation of that sequence, but with a different high-
+ order byte to avoid confusion.
+
+
+
+ Direct access to the TERMTYPE structure is provided for legacy
+ applications. Portable applications should use the tigetflag and
+ related functions described in curs_terminfo(3x) for reading terminal
+ capabilities.
+
+
+
+ A small number of terminal descriptions use uppercase characters in
+ their names. If the underlying filesystem ignores the difference
+ between uppercase and lowercase, ncurses represents the "first
+ character" of the terminal name used as the intermediate level of a
+ directory tree in (two-character) hexadecimal form.
- Some limitations: total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes. The
- name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
+ Some limitations:
+
+ o total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy
+ format.
+
+ o total compiled entries cannot exceed 32768 bytes in the extended
+ format.
+
+ o the name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
+
+ Compiled entries are limited to 32768 bytes because offsets into the
+ stringstable use two-byte integers. The legacy format could have
+ supported 32768-byte entries, but was limited a virtual memory page's
+ 4096 bytes.
@@ -263,8 +373,10 @@
Thomas E. Dickey
extended terminfo format for ncurses 5.0
hashed database support for ncurses 5.6
+ extended number support for ncurses 6.1
Eric S. Raymond
+ documented legacy terminfo format, e.g., from pcurses.
@@ -277,11 +389,20 @@