3 * DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND!
4 * It is generated from terminfo.head, Caps, and terminfo.tail.
5 * Note: this must be run through tbl before nroff.
6 * The magic cookie on the first line triggers this under some man programs.
7 ****************************************************************************
8 * Copyright (c) 1998-2013,2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
10 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
11 * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
12 * "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including *
13 * without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, *
14 * distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell *
15 * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is *
16 * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: *
18 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included *
19 * in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. *
21 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS *
22 * OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF *
23 * MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. *
24 * IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, *
25 * DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR *
26 * OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR *
27 * THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. *
29 * Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright *
30 * holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the *
31 * sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
33 ****************************************************************************
34 * @Id: terminfo.head,v 1.22 2016/10/15 17:02:31 tom Exp @
35 * Head of terminfo man page ends here
36 * @Id: terminfo.tail,v 1.76 2017/01/07 18:32:49 tom Exp @
37 * Beginning of terminfo.tail file
38 * This file is part of ncurses.
39 * See "terminfo.head" for copyright.
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51 <TITLE>terminfo 5 File Formats</TITLE>
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56 <H1 class="no-header">terminfo 5 File Formats</H1>
58 <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> File Formats <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>
63 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
64 terminfo - terminal capability data base
67 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
68 /usr/share/terminfo/*/*
71 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
72 <EM>Terminfo</EM> is a data base describing terminals, used by
73 screen-oriented programs such as <STRONG>nvi(1)</STRONG>, <STRONG>rogue(1)</STRONG> and
74 libraries such as <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>. <EM>Terminfo</EM> describes termi-
75 nals by giving a set of capabilities which they have, by
76 specifying how to perform screen operations, and by speci-
77 fying padding requirements and initialization sequences.
78 This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.0 (patch 20170204).
80 Entries in <EM>terminfo</EM> consist of a sequence of `,' separated
81 fields (embedded commas may be escaped with a backslash or
82 notated as \054). White space after the `,' separator is
83 ignored. The first entry for each terminal gives the
84 names which are known for the terminal, separated by `|'
85 characters. The first name given is the most common
86 abbreviation for the terminal, the last name given should
87 be a long name fully identifying the terminal, and all
88 others are understood as synonyms for the terminal name.
89 All names but the last should be in lower case and contain
90 no blanks; the last name may well contain upper case and
91 blanks for readability.
93 Lines beginning with a `#' in the first column are treated
94 as comments. While comment lines are legal at any point,
95 the output of <STRONG>captoinfo</STRONG> and <STRONG>infotocap</STRONG> (aliases for <STRONG>tic</STRONG>)
96 will move comments so they occur only between entries.
98 Newlines and leading tabs may be used for formatting
99 entries for readability. These are removed from parsed
100 entries. The <STRONG>infocmp</STRONG> <STRONG>-f</STRONG> option relies on this to format
101 if-then-else expressions: the result can be read by <STRONG>tic</STRONG>.
103 Terminal names (except for the last, verbose entry) should
104 be chosen using the following conventions. The particular
105 piece of hardware making up the terminal should have a
106 root name, thus "hp2621". This name should not contain
107 hyphens. Modes that the hardware can be in, or user pref-
108 erences, should be indicated by appending a hyphen and a
109 mode suffix. Thus, a vt100 in 132 column mode would be
110 vt100-w. The following suffixes should be used where pos-
113 <STRONG>Suffix</STRONG> <STRONG>Meaning</STRONG> <STRONG>Example</STRONG>
114 -<EM>nn</EM> Number of lines on the screen aaa-60
115 -<EM>n</EM>p Number of pages of memory c100-4p
116 -am With automargins (usually the default) vt100-am
117 -m Mono mode; suppress color ansi-m
118 -mc Magic cookie; spaces when highlighting wy30-mc
119 -na No arrow keys (leave them in local) c100-na
120 -nam Without automatic margins vt100-nam
121 -nl No status line att4415-nl
122 -ns No status line hp2626-ns
123 -rv Reverse video c100-rv
124 -s Enable status line vt100-s
125 -vb Use visible bell instead of beep wy370-vb
127 -w Wide mode (> 80 columns, usually 132) vt100-w
129 For more on terminal naming conventions, see the <STRONG>term(7)</STRONG>
133 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Predefined-Capabilities">Predefined Capabilities</a></H3><PRE>
134 The following is a complete table of the capabilities
135 included in a terminfo description block and available to
136 terminfo-using code. In each line of the table,
138 The <STRONG>variable</STRONG> is the name by which the programmer (at the
139 terminfo level) accesses the capability.
141 The <STRONG>capname</STRONG> is the short name used in the text of the
142 database, and is used by a person updating the database.
143 Whenever possible, capnames are chosen to be the same as
144 or similar to the ANSI X3.64-1979 standard (now superseded
145 by ECMA-48, which uses identical or very similar names).
146 Semantics are also intended to match those of the specifi-
149 The termcap code is the old <STRONG>termcap</STRONG> capability name (some
150 capabilities are new, and have names which termcap did not
153 Capability names have no hard length limit, but an infor-
154 mal limit of 5 characters has been adopted to keep them
155 short and to allow the tabs in the source file <STRONG>Caps</STRONG> to
158 Finally, the description field attempts to convey the
159 semantics of the capability. You may find some codes in
160 the description field:
162 (P) indicates that padding may be specified
164 #[1-9] in the description field indicates that the string
165 is passed through tparm with parms as given (#<EM>i</EM>).
167 (P*) indicates that padding may vary in proportion to
168 the number of lines affected
170 (#<EM>i</EM>) indicates the <EM>i</EM>th parameter.
173 These are the boolean capabilities:
176 <STRONG>Variable</STRONG> <STRONG>Cap-</STRONG> <STRONG>TCap</STRONG> <STRONG>Description</STRONG>
177 <STRONG>Booleans</STRONG> <STRONG>name</STRONG> <STRONG>Code</STRONG>
178 auto_left_margin bw bw cub1 wraps from col-
180 auto_right_margin am am terminal has auto-
182 back_color_erase bce ut screen erased with
184 can_change ccc cc terminal can re-
187 ceol_standout_glitch xhp xs standout not erased
189 col_addr_glitch xhpa YA only positive motion
194 cpi_changes_res cpix YF changing character
197 cr_cancels_micro_mode crxm YB using cr turns off
199 dest_tabs_magic_smso xt xt tabs destructive,
202 eat_newline_glitch xenl xn newline ignored
205 erase_overstrike eo eo can erase over-
207 generic_type gn gn generic line type
208 hard_copy hc hc hardcopy terminal
209 hard_cursor chts HC cursor is hard to
211 has_meta_key km km Has a meta key
213 has_print_wheel daisy YC printer needs opera-
216 has_status_line hs hs has extra status
218 hue_lightness_saturation hls hl terminal uses only
221 insert_null_glitch in in insert mode distin-
223 lpi_changes_res lpix YG changing line pitch
225 memory_above da da display may be
228 memory_below db db display may be
231 move_insert_mode mir mi safe to move while
233 move_standout_mode msgr ms safe to move while
235 needs_xon_xoff nxon nx padding will not
238 no_esc_ctlc xsb xb beehive (f1=escape,
240 no_pad_char npc NP pad character does
242 non_dest_scroll_region ndscr ND scrolling region is
244 non_rev_rmcup nrrmc NR smcup does not
246 over_strike os os terminal can over-
248 prtr_silent mc5i 5i printer will not
250 row_addr_glitch xvpa YD only positive motion
252 semi_auto_right_margin sam YE printing in last
254 status_line_esc_ok eslok es escape can be used
256 tilde_glitch hz hz cannot print ~'s
260 transparent_underline ul ul underline character
262 xon_xoff xon xo terminal uses
265 These are the numeric capabilities:
268 <STRONG>Variable</STRONG> <STRONG>Cap-</STRONG> <STRONG>TCap</STRONG> <STRONG>Description</STRONG>
269 <STRONG>Numeric</STRONG> <STRONG>name</STRONG> <STRONG>Code</STRONG>
270 columns cols co number of columns in
272 init_tabs it it tabs initially every
274 label_height lh lh rows in each label
275 label_width lw lw columns in each
277 lines lines li number of lines on
279 lines_of_memory lm lm lines of memory if >
281 magic_cookie_glitch xmc sg number of blank
284 max_attributes ma ma maximum combined
287 max_colors colors Co maximum number of
289 max_pairs pairs pa maximum number of
292 maximum_windows wnum MW maximum number of
294 no_color_video ncv NC video attributes
297 num_labels nlab Nl number of labels on
299 padding_baud_rate pb pb lowest baud rate
301 virtual_terminal vt vt virtual terminal
303 width_status_line wsl ws number of columns in
306 The following numeric capabilities are present in the
307 SVr4.0 term structure, but are not yet documented in the
308 man page. They came in with SVr4's printer support.
311 <STRONG>Variable</STRONG> <STRONG>Cap-</STRONG> <STRONG>TCap</STRONG> <STRONG>Description</STRONG>
312 <STRONG>Numeric</STRONG> <STRONG>name</STRONG> <STRONG>Code</STRONG>
313 bit_image_entwining bitwin Yo number of passes for
315 bit_image_type bitype Yp type of bit-image
317 buffer_capacity bufsz Ya numbers of bytes
320 buttons btns BT number of buttons on
322 dot_horz_spacing spinh Yc spacing of dots hor-
326 dot_vert_spacing spinv Yb spacing of pins ver-
329 max_micro_address maddr Yd maximum value in
331 max_micro_jump mjump Ye maximum value in
333 micro_col_size mcs Yf character step size
335 micro_line_size mls Yg line step size when
337 number_of_pins npins Yh numbers of pins in
339 output_res_char orc Yi horizontal resolu-
342 output_res_horz_inch orhi Yk horizontal resolu-
345 output_res_line orl Yj vertical resolution
347 output_res_vert_inch orvi Yl vertical resolution
349 print_rate cps Ym print rate in char-
351 wide_char_size widcs Yn character step size
355 These are the string capabilities:
358 <STRONG>Variable</STRONG> <STRONG>Cap-</STRONG> <STRONG>TCap</STRONG> <STRONG>Description</STRONG>
359 <STRONG>String</STRONG> <STRONG>name</STRONG> <STRONG>Code</STRONG>
360 acs_chars acsc ac graphics charset
363 back_tab cbt bt back tab (P)
364 bell bel bl audible signal
366 carriage_return cr cr carriage return (P*)
368 change_char_pitch cpi ZA Change number of
371 change_line_pitch lpi ZB Change number of
373 change_res_horz chr ZC Change horizontal
375 change_res_vert cvr ZD Change vertical res-
377 change_scroll_region csr cs change region to
380 char_padding rmp rP like ip but when in
382 clear_all_tabs tbc ct clear all tab stops
384 clear_margins mgc MC clear right and left
386 clear_screen clear cl clear screen and
388 clr_bol el1 cb Clear to beginning
392 clr_eol el ce clear to end of line
394 clr_eos ed cd clear to end of
396 column_address hpa ch horizontal position
398 command_character cmdch CC terminal settable
401 create_window cwin CW define a window #1
403 cursor_address cup cm move to row #1 col-
405 cursor_down cud1 do down one line
406 cursor_home home ho home cursor (if no
408 cursor_invisible civis vi make cursor invisi-
410 cursor_left cub1 le move left one space
411 cursor_mem_address mrcup CM memory relative cur-
414 cursor_normal cnorm ve make cursor appear
417 cursor_right cuf1 nd non-destructive
420 cursor_to_ll ll ll last line, first
422 cursor_up cuu1 up up one line
423 cursor_visible cvvis vs make cursor very
425 define_char defc ZE Define a character
428 delete_character dch1 dc delete character
430 delete_line dl1 dl delete line (P*)
431 dial_phone dial DI dial number #1
432 dis_status_line dsl ds disable status line
433 display_clock dclk DK display clock
434 down_half_line hd hd half a line down
435 ena_acs enacs eA enable alternate
437 enter_alt_charset_mode smacs as start alternate
439 enter_am_mode smam SA turn on automatic
441 enter_blink_mode blink mb turn on blinking
442 enter_bold_mode bold md turn on bold (extra
444 enter_ca_mode smcup ti string to start pro-
446 enter_delete_mode smdc dm enter delete mode
447 enter_dim_mode dim mh turn on half-bright
449 enter_doublewide_mode swidm ZF Enter double-wide
451 enter_draft_quality sdrfq ZG Enter draft-quality
453 enter_insert_mode smir im enter insert mode
454 enter_italics_mode sitm ZH Enter italic mode
455 enter_leftward_mode slm ZI Start leftward car-
458 enter_micro_mode smicm ZJ Start micro-motion
460 enter_near_letter_quality snlq ZK Enter NLQ mode
461 enter_normal_quality snrmq ZL Enter normal-quality
463 enter_protected_mode prot mp turn on protected
465 enter_reverse_mode rev mr turn on reverse
467 enter_secure_mode invis mk turn on blank mode
470 enter_shadow_mode sshm ZM Enter shadow-print
472 enter_standout_mode smso so begin standout mode
473 enter_subscript_mode ssubm ZN Enter subscript mode
474 enter_superscript_mode ssupm ZO Enter superscript
476 enter_underline_mode smul us begin underline mode
477 enter_upward_mode sum ZP Start upward car-
479 enter_xon_mode smxon SX turn on xon/xoff
481 erase_chars ech ec erase #1 characters
483 exit_alt_charset_mode rmacs ae end alternate char-
485 exit_am_mode rmam RA turn off automatic
487 exit_attribute_mode sgr0 me turn off all
489 exit_ca_mode rmcup te strings to end pro-
491 exit_delete_mode rmdc ed end delete mode
492 exit_doublewide_mode rwidm ZQ End double-wide mode
493 exit_insert_mode rmir ei exit insert mode
494 exit_italics_mode ritm ZR End italic mode
495 exit_leftward_mode rlm ZS End left-motion mode
496 exit_micro_mode rmicm ZT End micro-motion
498 exit_shadow_mode rshm ZU End shadow-print
500 exit_standout_mode rmso se exit standout mode
501 exit_subscript_mode rsubm ZV End subscript mode
502 exit_superscript_mode rsupm ZW End superscript mode
503 exit_underline_mode rmul ue exit underline mode
504 exit_upward_mode rum ZX End reverse charac-
506 exit_xon_mode rmxon RX turn off xon/xoff
508 fixed_pause pause PA pause for 2-3 sec-
510 flash_hook hook fh flash switch hook
511 flash_screen flash vb visible bell (may
513 form_feed ff ff hardcopy terminal
515 from_status_line fsl fs return from status
517 goto_window wingo WG go to window #1
518 hangup hup HU hang-up phone
519 init_1string is1 i1 initialization
521 init_2string is2 is initialization
524 init_3string is3 i3 initialization
526 init_file if if name of initializa-
528 init_prog iprog iP path name of program
530 initialize_color initc Ic initialize color #1
532 initialize_pair initp Ip Initialize color
536 insert_character ich1 ic insert character (P)
537 insert_line il1 al insert line (P*)
538 insert_padding ip ip insert padding after
540 key_a1 ka1 K1 upper left of keypad
541 key_a3 ka3 K3 upper right of key-
543 key_b2 kb2 K2 center of keypad
544 key_backspace kbs kb backspace key
545 key_beg kbeg @1 begin key
546 key_btab kcbt kB back-tab key
547 key_c1 kc1 K4 lower left of keypad
548 key_c3 kc3 K5 lower right of key-
550 key_cancel kcan @2 cancel key
551 key_catab ktbc ka clear-all-tabs key
552 key_clear kclr kC clear-screen or
554 key_close kclo @3 close key
555 key_command kcmd @4 command key
556 key_copy kcpy @5 copy key
557 key_create kcrt @6 create key
558 key_ctab kctab kt clear-tab key
559 key_dc kdch1 kD delete-character key
560 key_dl kdl1 kL delete-line key
561 key_down kcud1 kd down-arrow key
562 key_eic krmir kM sent by rmir or smir
564 key_end kend @7 end key
565 key_enter kent @8 enter/send key
566 key_eol kel kE clear-to-end-of-line
568 key_eos ked kS clear-to-end-of-
570 key_exit kext @9 exit key
571 key_f0 kf0 k0 F0 function key
572 key_f1 kf1 k1 F1 function key
573 key_f10 kf10 k; F10 function key
574 key_f11 kf11 F1 F11 function key
575 key_f12 kf12 F2 F12 function key
576 key_f13 kf13 F3 F13 function key
577 key_f14 kf14 F4 F14 function key
578 key_f15 kf15 F5 F15 function key
579 key_f16 kf16 F6 F16 function key
580 key_f17 kf17 F7 F17 function key
581 key_f18 kf18 F8 F18 function key
582 key_f19 kf19 F9 F19 function key
583 key_f2 kf2 k2 F2 function key
584 key_f20 kf20 FA F20 function key
585 key_f21 kf21 FB F21 function key
586 key_f22 kf22 FC F22 function key
587 key_f23 kf23 FD F23 function key
588 key_f24 kf24 FE F24 function key
590 key_f25 kf25 FF F25 function key
591 key_f26 kf26 FG F26 function key
592 key_f27 kf27 FH F27 function key
593 key_f28 kf28 FI F28 function key
594 key_f29 kf29 FJ F29 function key
595 key_f3 kf3 k3 F3 function key
596 key_f30 kf30 FK F30 function key
597 key_f31 kf31 FL F31 function key
598 key_f32 kf32 FM F32 function key
599 key_f33 kf33 FN F33 function key
600 key_f34 kf34 FO F34 function key
601 key_f35 kf35 FP F35 function key
602 key_f36 kf36 FQ F36 function key
603 key_f37 kf37 FR F37 function key
604 key_f38 kf38 FS F38 function key
605 key_f39 kf39 FT F39 function key
606 key_f4 kf4 k4 F4 function key
607 key_f40 kf40 FU F40 function key
608 key_f41 kf41 FV F41 function key
609 key_f42 kf42 FW F42 function key
610 key_f43 kf43 FX F43 function key
611 key_f44 kf44 FY F44 function key
612 key_f45 kf45 FZ F45 function key
613 key_f46 kf46 Fa F46 function key
614 key_f47 kf47 Fb F47 function key
615 key_f48 kf48 Fc F48 function key
616 key_f49 kf49 Fd F49 function key
617 key_f5 kf5 k5 F5 function key
618 key_f50 kf50 Fe F50 function key
619 key_f51 kf51 Ff F51 function key
620 key_f52 kf52 Fg F52 function key
621 key_f53 kf53 Fh F53 function key
622 key_f54 kf54 Fi F54 function key
623 key_f55 kf55 Fj F55 function key
624 key_f56 kf56 Fk F56 function key
625 key_f57 kf57 Fl F57 function key
626 key_f58 kf58 Fm F58 function key
627 key_f59 kf59 Fn F59 function key
628 key_f6 kf6 k6 F6 function key
629 key_f60 kf60 Fo F60 function key
630 key_f61 kf61 Fp F61 function key
631 key_f62 kf62 Fq F62 function key
632 key_f63 kf63 Fr F63 function key
633 key_f7 kf7 k7 F7 function key
634 key_f8 kf8 k8 F8 function key
635 key_f9 kf9 k9 F9 function key
636 key_find kfnd @0 find key
637 key_help khlp %1 help key
638 key_home khome kh home key
639 key_ic kich1 kI insert-character key
640 key_il kil1 kA insert-line key
641 key_left kcub1 kl left-arrow key
642 key_ll kll kH lower-left key (home
644 key_mark kmrk %2 mark key
645 key_message kmsg %3 message key
646 key_move kmov %4 move key
647 key_next knxt %5 next key
648 key_npage knp kN next-page key
649 key_open kopn %6 open key
650 key_options kopt %7 options key
651 key_ppage kpp kP previous-page key
652 key_previous kprv %8 previous key
653 key_print kprt %9 print key
654 key_redo krdo %0 redo key
656 key_reference kref &1 reference key
657 key_refresh krfr &2 refresh key
658 key_replace krpl &3 replace key
659 key_restart krst &4 restart key
660 key_resume kres &5 resume key
661 key_right kcuf1 kr right-arrow key
662 key_save ksav &6 save key
663 key_sbeg kBEG &9 shifted begin key
664 key_scancel kCAN &0 shifted cancel key
665 key_scommand kCMD *1 shifted command key
666 key_scopy kCPY *2 shifted copy key
667 key_screate kCRT *3 shifted create key
668 key_sdc kDC *4 shifted delete-char-
670 key_sdl kDL *5 shifted delete-line
672 key_select kslt *6 select key
673 key_send kEND *7 shifted end key
674 key_seol kEOL *8 shifted clear-to-
676 key_sexit kEXT *9 shifted exit key
677 key_sf kind kF scroll-forward key
678 key_sfind kFND *0 shifted find key
679 key_shelp kHLP #1 shifted help key
680 key_shome kHOM #2 shifted home key
681 key_sic kIC #3 shifted insert-char-
683 key_sleft kLFT #4 shifted left-arrow
685 key_smessage kMSG %a shifted message key
686 key_smove kMOV %b shifted move key
687 key_snext kNXT %c shifted next key
688 key_soptions kOPT %d shifted options key
689 key_sprevious kPRV %e shifted previous key
690 key_sprint kPRT %f shifted print key
691 key_sr kri kR scroll-backward key
692 key_sredo kRDO %g shifted redo key
693 key_sreplace kRPL %h shifted replace key
694 key_sright kRIT %i shifted right-arrow
696 key_srsume kRES %j shifted resume key
697 key_ssave kSAV !1 shifted save key
698 key_ssuspend kSPD !2 shifted suspend key
699 key_stab khts kT set-tab key
700 key_sundo kUND !3 shifted undo key
701 key_suspend kspd &7 suspend key
702 key_undo kund &8 undo key
703 key_up kcuu1 ku up-arrow key
704 keypad_local rmkx ke leave 'key-
706 keypad_xmit smkx ks enter 'key-
708 lab_f0 lf0 l0 label on function
710 lab_f1 lf1 l1 label on function
712 lab_f10 lf10 la label on function
714 lab_f2 lf2 l2 label on function
716 lab_f3 lf3 l3 label on function
718 lab_f4 lf4 l4 label on function
722 lab_f5 lf5 l5 label on function
724 lab_f6 lf6 l6 label on function
726 lab_f7 lf7 l7 label on function
728 lab_f8 lf8 l8 label on function
730 lab_f9 lf9 l9 label on function
732 label_format fln Lf label format
733 label_off rmln LF turn off soft labels
734 label_on smln LO turn on soft labels
735 meta_off rmm mo turn off meta mode
736 meta_on smm mm turn on meta mode
738 micro_column_address mhpa ZY Like column_address
740 micro_down mcud1 ZZ Like cursor_down in
742 micro_left mcub1 Za Like cursor_left in
744 micro_right mcuf1 Zb Like cursor_right in
746 micro_row_address mvpa Zc Like row_address #1
748 micro_up mcuu1 Zd Like cursor_up in
750 newline nel nw newline (behave like
752 order_of_pins porder Ze Match software bits
754 orig_colors oc oc Set all color pairs
756 orig_pair op op Set default pair to
758 pad_char pad pc padding char
760 parm_dch dch DC delete #1 characters
762 parm_delete_line dl DL delete #1 lines (P*)
763 parm_down_cursor cud DO down #1 lines (P*)
764 parm_down_micro mcud Zf Like parm_down_cur-
766 parm_ich ich IC insert #1 characters
768 parm_index indn SF scroll forward #1
770 parm_insert_line il AL insert #1 lines (P*)
771 parm_left_cursor cub LE move #1 characters
773 parm_left_micro mcub Zg Like parm_left_cur-
775 parm_right_cursor cuf RI move #1 characters
777 parm_right_micro mcuf Zh Like parm_right_cur-
779 parm_rindex rin SR scroll back #1 lines
781 parm_up_cursor cuu UP up #1 lines (P*)
782 parm_up_micro mcuu Zi Like parm_up_cursor
784 pkey_key pfkey pk program function key
788 pkey_local pfloc pl program function key
791 pkey_xmit pfx px program function key
794 plab_norm pln pn program label #1 to
796 print_screen mc0 ps print contents of
798 prtr_non mc5p pO turn on printer for
800 prtr_off mc4 pf turn off printer
801 prtr_on mc5 po turn on printer
802 pulse pulse PU select pulse dialing
803 quick_dial qdial QD dial number #1 with-
805 remove_clock rmclk RC remove clock
806 repeat_char rep rp repeat char #1 #2
808 req_for_input rfi RF send next input char
810 reset_1string rs1 r1 reset string
811 reset_2string rs2 r2 reset string
812 reset_3string rs3 r3 reset string
813 reset_file rf rf name of reset file
814 restore_cursor rc rc restore cursor to
817 row_address vpa cv vertical position #1
819 save_cursor sc sc save current cursor
821 scroll_forward ind sf scroll text up (P)
822 scroll_reverse ri sr scroll text down (P)
823 select_char_set scs Zj Select character
825 set_attributes sgr sa define video
828 set_background setb Sb Set background color
830 set_bottom_margin smgb Zk Set bottom margin at
832 set_bottom_margin_parm smgbp Zl Set bottom margin at
836 set_clock sclk SC set clock, #1 hrs #2
838 set_color_pair scp sp Set current color
840 set_foreground setf Sf Set foreground color
842 set_left_margin smgl ML set left soft margin
846 set_left_margin_parm smglp Zm Set left (right)
848 set_right_margin smgr MR set right soft mar-
851 set_right_margin_parm smgrp Zn Set right margin at
854 set_tab hts st set a tab in every
856 set_top_margin smgt Zo Set top margin at
858 set_top_margin_parm smgtp Zp Set top (bottom)
860 set_window wind wi current window is
863 start_bit_image sbim Zq Start printing bit
865 start_char_set_def scsd Zr Start character set
869 stop_bit_image rbim Zs Stop printing bit
871 stop_char_set_def rcsd Zt End definition of
873 subscript_characters subcs Zu List of subscript-
875 superscript_characters supcs Zv List of superscript-
877 tab ht ta tab to next 8-space
879 these_cause_cr docr Zw Printing any of
882 to_status_line tsl ts move to status line,
884 tone tone TO select touch tone
886 underline_char uc uc underline char and
888 up_half_line hu hu half a line up
889 user0 u0 u0 User string #0
890 user1 u1 u1 User string #1
891 user2 u2 u2 User string #2
892 user3 u3 u3 User string #3
893 user4 u4 u4 User string #4
894 user5 u5 u5 User string #5
895 user6 u6 u6 User string #6
896 user7 u7 u7 User string #7
897 user8 u8 u8 User string #8
898 user9 u9 u9 User string #9
899 wait_tone wait WA wait for dial-tone
900 xoff_character xoffc XF XOFF character
901 xon_character xonc XN XON character
902 zero_motion zerom Zx No motion for subse-
905 The following string capabilities are present in the
906 SVr4.0 term structure, but were originally not documented
910 <STRONG>Variable</STRONG> <STRONG>Cap-</STRONG> <STRONG>TCap</STRONG> <STRONG>Description</STRONG>
911 <STRONG>String</STRONG> <STRONG>name</STRONG> <STRONG>Code</STRONG>
912 alt_scancode_esc scesa S8 Alternate escape
915 bit_image_carriage_return bicr Yv Move to beginning
917 bit_image_newline binel Zz Move to next row
920 bit_image_repeat birep Xy Repeat bit image
922 char_set_names csnm Zy Produce #1'th item
925 code_set_init csin ci Init sequence for
927 color_names colornm Yw Give name for
929 define_bit_image_region defbi Yx Define rectangular
931 device_type devt dv Indicate lan-
934 display_pc_char dispc S1 Display PC charac-
936 end_bit_image_region endbi Yy End a bit-image
938 enter_pc_charset_mode smpch S2 Enter PC character
940 enter_scancode_mode smsc S4 Enter PC scancode
942 exit_pc_charset_mode rmpch S3 Exit PC character
944 exit_scancode_mode rmsc S5 Exit PC scancode
946 get_mouse getm Gm Curses should get
950 key_mouse kmous Km Mouse event has
952 mouse_info minfo Mi Mouse status
954 pc_term_options pctrm S6 PC terminal
956 pkey_plab pfxl xl Program function
960 req_mouse_pos reqmp RQ Request mouse
962 scancode_escape scesc S7 Escape for scan-
964 set0_des_seq s0ds s0 Shift to codeset 0
966 set1_des_seq s1ds s1 Shift to codeset 1
967 set2_des_seq s2ds s2 Shift to codeset 2
968 set3_des_seq s3ds s3 Shift to codeset 3
969 set_a_background setab AB Set background
972 set_a_foreground setaf AF Set foreground
975 set_color_band setcolor Yz Change to ribbon
977 set_lr_margin smglr ML Set both left and
982 set_page_length slines YZ Set page length to
986 set_tb_margin smgtb MT Sets both top and
990 The XSI Curses standard added these hardcopy capabili-
991 ties. They were used in some post-4.1 versions of System
992 V curses, e.g., Solaris 2.5 and IRIX 6.x. Except for <STRONG>YI</STRONG>,
993 the <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> termcap names for them are invented. Accord-
994 ing to the XSI Curses standard, they have no termcap
995 names. If your compiled terminfo entries use these, they
996 may not be binary-compatible with System V terminfo
997 entries after SVr4.1; beware!
1000 <STRONG>Variable</STRONG> <STRONG>Cap-</STRONG> <STRONG>TCap</STRONG> <STRONG>Description</STRONG>
1001 <STRONG>String</STRONG> <STRONG>name</STRONG> <STRONG>Code</STRONG>
1002 enter_horizontal_hl_mode ehhlm Xh Enter horizontal
1004 enter_left_hl_mode elhlm Xl Enter left highlight
1006 enter_low_hl_mode elohlm Xo Enter low highlight
1008 enter_right_hl_mode erhlm Xr Enter right high-
1010 enter_top_hl_mode ethlm Xt Enter top highlight
1012 enter_vertical_hl_mode evhlm Xv Enter vertical high-
1014 set_a_attributes sgr1 sA Define second set of
1017 set_pglen_inch slengthYI Set page length to
1019 inch (some implemen-
1024 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-User-Defined-Capabilities">User-Defined Capabilities</a></H3><PRE>
1025 The preceding section listed the <EM>predefined</EM> capabilities.
1026 They deal with some special features for terminals no
1027 longer (or possibly never) produced. Occasionally there
1028 are special features of newer terminals which are awkward
1029 or impossible to represent by reusing the predefined capa-
1032 <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> addresses this limitation by allowing user-defined
1033 capabilities. The <STRONG>tic</STRONG> and <STRONG>infocmp</STRONG> programs provide the <STRONG>-x</STRONG>
1034 option for this purpose. When <STRONG>-x</STRONG> is set, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> treats
1035 unknown capabilities as user-defined. That is, if <STRONG>tic</STRONG>
1036 encounters a capability name which it does not recognize,
1037 it infers its type (boolean, number or string) from the
1038 syntax and makes an extended table entry for that capabil-
1039 ity. The <STRONG>use_extended_names</STRONG> function makes this informa-
1040 tion conditionally available to applications. The ncurses
1041 library provides the data leaving most of the behavior to
1044 <STRONG>o</STRONG> User-defined capability strings whose name begins with
1045 "k" are treated as function keys.
1047 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The types (boolean, number, string) determined by <STRONG>tic</STRONG>
1048 can be inferred by successful calls on <STRONG>tigetflag</STRONG>, etc.
1050 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If the capability name happens to be two characters,
1051 the capability is also available through the termcap
1054 While termcap is said to be extensible because it does not
1055 use a predefined set of capabilities, in practice it has
1056 been limited to the capabilities defined by terminfo
1057 implementations. As a rule, user-defined capabilities
1058 intended for use by termcap applications should be limited
1059 to booleans and numbers to avoid running past the 1023
1060 byte limit assumed by termcap implementations and their
1061 applications. In particular, providing extended sets of
1062 function keys (past the 60 numbered keys and the handful
1063 of special named keys) is best done using the longer names
1064 available using terminfo.
1067 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-A-Sample-Entry">A Sample Entry</a></H3><PRE>
1068 The following entry, describing an ANSI-standard terminal,
1069 is representative of what a <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> entry for a modern
1070 terminal typically looks like.
1072 ansi|ansi/pc-term compatible with color,
1073 am, mc5i, mir, msgr,
1074 colors#8, cols#80, it#8, lines#24, ncv#3, pairs#64,
1075 acsc=+\020\,\021-\030.^Y0\333`\004a\261f\370g\361h\260
1076 j\331k\277l\332m\300n\305o~p\304q\304r\304s_t\303
1077 u\264v\301w\302x\263y\363z\362{\343|\330}\234~\376,
1078 bel=^G, blink=\E[5m, bold=\E[1m, cbt=\E[Z, clear=\E[H\E[J,
1079 cr=^M, cub=\E[%p1%dD, cub1=\E[D, cud=\E[%p1%dB, cud1=\E[B,
1080 cuf=\E[%p1%dC, cuf1=\E[C, cup=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dH,
1081 cuu=\E[%p1%dA, cuu1=\E[A, dch=\E[%p1%dP, dch1=\E[P,
1082 dl=\E[%p1%dM, dl1=\E[M, ech=\E[%p1%dX, ed=\E[J, el=\E[K,
1083 el1=\E[1K, home=\E[H, hpa=\E[%i%p1%dG, ht=\E[I, hts=\EH,
1084 ich=\E[%p1%d@, il=\E[%p1%dL, il1=\E[L, ind=^J,
1085 indn=\E[%p1%dS, invis=\E[8m, kbs=^H, kcbt=\E[Z, kcub1=\E[D,
1086 kcud1=\E[B, kcuf1=\E[C, kcuu1=\E[A, khome=\E[H, kich1=\E[L,
1087 mc4=\E[4i, mc5=\E[5i, nel=\r\E[S, op=\E[39;49m,
1088 rep=%p1%c\E[%p2%{1}%-%db, rev=\E[7m, rin=\E[%p1%dT,
1089 rmacs=\E[10m, rmpch=\E[10m, rmso=\E[m, rmul=\E[m,
1090 s0ds=\E(B, s1ds=\E)B, s2ds=\E*B, s3ds=\E+B,
1091 setab=\E[4%p1%dm, setaf=\E[3%p1%dm,
1092 sgr=\E[0;10%?%p1%t;7%;
1099 sgr0=\E[0;10m, smacs=\E[11m, smpch=\E[11m, smso=\E[7m,
1100 smul=\E[4m, tbc=\E[3g, u6=\E[%i%d;%dR, u7=\E[6n,
1101 u8=\E[?%[;0123456789]c, u9=\E[c, vpa=\E[%i%p1%dd,
1103 Entries may continue onto multiple lines by placing white
1104 space at the beginning of each line except the first.
1105 Comments may be included on lines beginning with "#".
1106 Capabilities in <EM>terminfo</EM> are of three types:
1108 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Boolean capabilities which indicate that the terminal
1109 has some particular feature,
1111 <STRONG>o</STRONG> numeric capabilities giving the size of the terminal
1112 or the size of particular delays, and
1114 <STRONG>o</STRONG> string capabilities, which give a sequence which can
1115 be used to perform particular terminal operations.
1118 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Types-of-Capabilities">Types of Capabilities</a></H3><PRE>
1119 All capabilities have names. For instance, the fact that
1120 ANSI-standard terminals have <EM>automatic</EM> <EM>margins</EM> (i.e., an
1121 automatic return and line-feed when the end of a line is
1122 reached) is indicated by the capability <STRONG>am</STRONG>. Hence the
1123 description of ansi includes <STRONG>am</STRONG>. Numeric capabilities are
1124 followed by the character "#" and then a positive value.
1125 Thus <STRONG>cols</STRONG>, which indicates the number of columns the ter-
1126 minal has, gives the value "80" for ansi. Values for
1127 numeric capabilities may be specified in decimal, octal or
1128 hexadecimal, using the C programming language conventions
1129 (e.g., 255, 0377 and 0xff or 0xFF).
1131 Finally, string valued capabilities, such as <STRONG>el</STRONG> (clear to
1132 end of line sequence) are given by the two-character code,
1133 an "=", and then a string ending at the next following
1136 A number of escape sequences are provided in the string
1137 valued capabilities for easy encoding of characters there.
1138 Both <STRONG>\E</STRONG> and <STRONG>\e</STRONG> map to an ESCAPE character, <STRONG>^x</STRONG> maps to a
1139 control-x for any appropriate x, and the sequences <STRONG>\n</STRONG> <STRONG>\l</STRONG>
1140 <STRONG>\r</STRONG> <STRONG>\t</STRONG> <STRONG>\b</STRONG> <STRONG>\f</STRONG> <STRONG>\s</STRONG> give a newline, line-feed, return, tab,
1141 backspace, form-feed, and space. Other escapes include
1143 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>\^</STRONG> for <STRONG>^</STRONG>,
1145 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>\\</STRONG> for <STRONG>\</STRONG>,
1147 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>\</STRONG>, for comma,
1149 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>\:</STRONG> for <STRONG>:</STRONG>,
1151 <STRONG>o</STRONG> and <STRONG>\0</STRONG> for null.
1153 <STRONG>\0</STRONG> will produce \200, which does not terminate a
1154 string but behaves as a null character on most termi-
1155 nals, providing CS7 is specified. See <STRONG>stty(1)</STRONG>.
1157 The reason for this quirk is to maintain binary com-
1158 patibility of the compiled terminfo files with other
1159 implementations, e.g., the SVr4 systems, which docu-
1160 ment this. Compiled terminfo files use null-termi-
1161 nated strings, with no lengths. Modifying this would
1162 require a new binary format, which would not work with
1163 other implementations.
1165 Finally, characters may be given as three octal digits
1166 after a <STRONG>\</STRONG>.
1168 A delay in milliseconds may appear anywhere in a string
1169 capability, enclosed in $<..> brackets, as in <STRONG>el</STRONG>=\EK$<5>,
1170 and padding characters are supplied by <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tputs(3x)</A></STRONG> to pro-
1173 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The delay must be a number with at most one decimal
1174 place of precision; it may be followed by suffixes "*"
1177 <STRONG>o</STRONG> A "*" indicates that the padding required is propor-
1178 tional to the number of lines affected by the opera-
1179 tion, and the amount given is the per-affected-unit
1180 padding required. (In the case of insert character,
1181 the factor is still the number of <EM>lines</EM> affected.)
1183 Normally, padding is advisory if the device has the
1184 <STRONG>xon</STRONG> capability; it is used for cost computation but
1185 does not trigger delays.
1187 <STRONG>o</STRONG> A "/" suffix indicates that the padding is mandatory
1188 and forces a delay of the given number of milliseconds
1189 even on devices for which <STRONG>xon</STRONG> is present to indicate
1192 Sometimes individual capabilities must be commented out.
1193 To do this, put a period before the capability name. For
1194 example, see the second <STRONG>ind</STRONG> in the example above.
1197 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Fetching-Compiled-Descriptions">Fetching Compiled Descriptions</a></H3><PRE>
1198 The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> library searches for terminal descriptions in
1199 several places. It uses only the first description found.
1200 The library has a compiled-in list of places to search
1201 which can be overridden by environment variables. Before
1202 starting to search, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> eliminates duplicates in its
1205 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If the environment variable TERMINFO is set, it is
1206 interpreted as the pathname of a directory containing
1207 the compiled description you are working on. Only
1208 that directory is searched.
1210 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If TERMINFO is not set, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> will instead look in
1211 the directory <STRONG>$HOME/.terminfo</STRONG> for a compiled descrip-
1214 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Next, if the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS is
1215 set, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> will interpret the contents of that vari-
1216 able as a list of colon-separated directories (or
1217 database files) to be searched.
1219 An empty directory name (i.e., if the variable begins
1220 or ends with a colon, or contains adjacent colons) is
1221 interpreted as the system location <EM>/usr/share/ter-</EM>
1224 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Finally, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> searches these compiled-in locations:
1226 <STRONG>o</STRONG> a list of directories
1227 (/usr/local/ncurses/share/terminfo:/usr/share/ter-
1230 <STRONG>o</STRONG> the system terminfo directory, <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>
1231 (the compiled-in default).
1234 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Preparing-Descriptions">Preparing Descriptions</a></H3><PRE>
1235 We now outline how to prepare descriptions of terminals.
1236 The most effective way to prepare a terminal description
1237 is by imitating the description of a similar terminal in
1238 <EM>terminfo</EM> and to build up a description gradually, using
1239 partial descriptions with <EM>vi</EM> or some other screen-oriented
1240 program to check that they are correct. Be aware that a
1241 very unusual terminal may expose deficiencies in the abil-
1242 ity of the <EM>terminfo</EM> file to describe it or bugs in the
1243 screen-handling code of the test program.
1245 To get the padding for insert line right (if the terminal
1246 manufacturer did not document it) a severe test is to edit
1247 a large file at 9600 baud, delete 16 or so lines from the
1248 middle of the screen, then hit the "u" key several times
1249 quickly. If the terminal messes up, more padding is usu-
1250 ally needed. A similar test can be used for insert char-
1254 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Basic-Capabilities">Basic Capabilities</a></H3><PRE>
1255 The number of columns on each line for the terminal is
1256 given by the <STRONG>cols</STRONG> numeric capability. If the terminal is
1257 a CRT, then the number of lines on the screen is given by
1258 the <STRONG>lines</STRONG> capability. If the terminal wraps around to the
1259 beginning of the next line when it reaches the right mar-
1260 gin, then it should have the <STRONG>am</STRONG> capability. If the termi-
1261 nal can clear its screen, leaving the cursor in the home
1262 position, then this is given by the <STRONG>clear</STRONG> string capabil-
1263 ity. If the terminal overstrikes (rather than clearing a
1264 position when a character is struck over) then it should
1265 have the <STRONG>os</STRONG> capability. If the terminal is a printing
1266 terminal, with no soft copy unit, give it both <STRONG>hc</STRONG> and <STRONG>os</STRONG>.
1267 (<STRONG>os</STRONG> applies to storage scope terminals, such as TEKTRONIX
1268 4010 series, as well as hard copy and APL terminals.) If
1269 there is a code to move the cursor to the left edge of the
1270 current row, give this as <STRONG>cr</STRONG>. (Normally this will be car-
1271 riage return, control M.) If there is a code to produce
1272 an audible signal (bell, beep, etc) give this as <STRONG>bel</STRONG>.
1274 If there is a code to move the cursor one position to the
1275 left (such as backspace) that capability should be given
1276 as <STRONG>cub1</STRONG>. Similarly, codes to move to the right, up, and
1277 down should be given as <STRONG>cuf1</STRONG>, <STRONG>cuu1</STRONG>, and <STRONG>cud1</STRONG>. These local
1278 cursor motions should not alter the text they pass over,
1279 for example, you would not normally use "<STRONG>cuf1</STRONG>= " because
1280 the space would erase the character moved over.
1282 A very important point here is that the local cursor
1283 motions encoded in <EM>terminfo</EM> are undefined at the left and
1284 top edges of a CRT terminal. Programs should never
1285 attempt to backspace around the left edge, unless <STRONG>bw</STRONG> is
1286 given, and never attempt to go up locally off the top. In
1287 order to scroll text up, a program will go to the bottom
1288 left corner of the screen and send the <STRONG>ind</STRONG> (index) string.
1290 To scroll text down, a program goes to the top left corner
1291 of the screen and sends the <STRONG>ri</STRONG> (reverse index) string.
1292 The strings <STRONG>ind</STRONG> and <STRONG>ri</STRONG> are undefined when not on their
1293 respective corners of the screen.
1295 Parameterized versions of the scrolling sequences are <STRONG>indn</STRONG>
1296 and <STRONG>rin</STRONG> which have the same semantics as <STRONG>ind</STRONG> and <STRONG>ri</STRONG> except
1297 that they take one parameter, and scroll that many lines.
1298 They are also undefined except at the appropriate edge of
1301 The <STRONG>am</STRONG> capability tells whether the cursor sticks at the
1302 right edge of the screen when text is output, but this
1303 does not necessarily apply to a <STRONG>cuf1</STRONG> from the last column.
1304 The only local motion which is defined from the left edge
1305 is if <STRONG>bw</STRONG> is given, then a <STRONG>cub1</STRONG> from the left edge will
1306 move to the right edge of the previous row. If <STRONG>bw</STRONG> is not
1307 given, the effect is undefined. This is useful for draw-
1308 ing a box around the edge of the screen, for example. If
1309 the terminal has switch selectable automatic margins, the
1310 <EM>terminfo</EM> file usually assumes that this is on; i.e., <STRONG>am</STRONG>.
1311 If the terminal has a command which moves to the first
1312 column of the next line, that command can be given as <STRONG>nel</STRONG>
1313 (newline). It does not matter if the command clears the
1314 remainder of the current line, so if the terminal has no
1315 <STRONG>cr</STRONG> and <STRONG>lf</STRONG> it may still be possible to craft a working <STRONG>nel</STRONG>
1316 out of one or both of them.
1318 These capabilities suffice to describe hard-copy and
1319 "glass-tty" terminals. Thus the model 33 teletype is
1322 33|tty33|tty|model 33 teletype,
1323 bel=^G, cols#72, cr=^M, cud1=^J, hc, ind=^J, os,
1325 while the Lear Siegler ADM-3 is described as
1328 am, bel=^G, clear=^Z, cols#80, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,
1332 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Parameterized-Strings">Parameterized Strings</a></H3><PRE>
1333 Cursor addressing and other strings requiring parameters
1334 in the terminal are described by a parameterized string
1335 capability, with <EM>printf</EM>-like escapes such as <EM>%x</EM> in it.
1336 For example, to address the cursor, the <STRONG>cup</STRONG> capability is
1337 given, using two parameters: the row and column to address
1338 to. (Rows and columns are numbered from zero and refer to
1339 the physical screen visible to the user, not to any unseen
1340 memory.) If the terminal has memory relative cursor
1341 addressing, that can be indicated by <STRONG>mrcup</STRONG>.
1343 The parameter mechanism uses a stack and special <STRONG>%</STRONG> codes
1344 to manipulate it. Typically a sequence will push one of
1345 the parameters onto the stack and then print it in some
1346 format. Print (e.g., "%d") is a special case. Other
1347 operations, including "%t" pop their operand from the
1348 stack. It is noted that more complex operations are often
1349 necessary, e.g., in the <STRONG>sgr</STRONG> string.
1351 The <STRONG>%</STRONG> encodings have the following meanings:
1353 <STRONG>%%</STRONG> outputs "%"
1355 <STRONG>%</STRONG><EM>[[</EM>:<EM>]flags][width[.precision]][</EM><STRONG>doxXs</STRONG><EM>]</EM>
1356 as in <STRONG>printf</STRONG>, flags are <EM>[-+#]</EM> and <EM>space</EM>. Use a ":"
1357 to allow the next character to be a "-" flag, avoid-
1358 ing interpreting "%-" as an operator.
1360 %c print <EM>pop()</EM> like %c in <STRONG>printf</STRONG>
1362 <STRONG>%s</STRONG> print <EM>pop()</EM> like %s in <STRONG>printf</STRONG>
1364 <STRONG>%p</STRONG><EM>[1-9]</EM>
1365 push <EM>i</EM>'th parameter
1367 <STRONG>%P</STRONG><EM>[a-z]</EM>
1368 set dynamic variable <EM>[a-z]</EM> to <EM>pop()</EM>
1370 <STRONG>%g</STRONG><EM>[a-z]/</EM>
1371 get dynamic variable <EM>[a-z]</EM> and push it
1373 <STRONG>%P</STRONG><EM>[A-Z]</EM>
1374 set static variable <EM>[a-z]</EM> to <EM>pop()</EM>
1376 <STRONG>%g</STRONG><EM>[A-Z]</EM>
1377 get static variable <EM>[a-z]</EM> and push it
1379 The terms "static" and "dynamic" are misleading.
1380 Historically, these are simply two different sets of
1381 variables, whose values are not reset between calls
1382 to <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG>. However, that fact is not documented
1383 in other implementations. Relying on it will
1384 adversely impact portability to other implementa-
1387 <STRONG>%'</STRONG><EM>c</EM><STRONG>'</STRONG> char constant <EM>c</EM>
1389 <STRONG>%{</STRONG><EM>nn</EM><STRONG>}</STRONG>
1390 integer constant <EM>nn</EM>
1392 <STRONG>%l</STRONG> push strlen(pop)
1394 <STRONG>%+</STRONG>, <STRONG>%-</STRONG>, <STRONG>%*</STRONG>, <STRONG>%/</STRONG>, <STRONG>%m</STRONG>
1395 arithmetic (%m is <EM>mod</EM>): <EM>push(pop()</EM> <EM>op</EM> <EM>pop())</EM>
1397 <STRONG>%&</STRONG>, <STRONG>%|</STRONG>, <STRONG>%^</STRONG>
1398 bit operations (AND, OR and exclusive-OR): <EM>push(pop()</EM>
1399 <EM>op</EM> <EM>pop())</EM>
1401 <STRONG>%=</STRONG>, <STRONG>%></STRONG>, <STRONG>%<</STRONG>
1402 logical operations: <EM>push(pop()</EM> <EM>op</EM> <EM>pop())</EM>
1404 <STRONG>%A</STRONG>, <STRONG>%O</STRONG>
1405 logical AND and OR operations (for conditionals)
1407 <STRONG>%!</STRONG>, <STRONG>%~</STRONG>
1408 unary operations (logical and bit complement):
1409 <EM>push(op</EM> <EM>pop())</EM>
1411 <STRONG>%i</STRONG> add 1 to first two parameters (for ANSI terminals)
1413 <STRONG>%?</STRONG> <EM>expr</EM> <STRONG>%t</STRONG> <EM>thenpart</EM> <STRONG>%e</STRONG> <EM>elsepart</EM> <STRONG>%;</STRONG>
1414 This forms an if-then-else. The <STRONG>%e</STRONG> <EM>elsepart</EM> is
1415 optional. Usually the <STRONG>%?</STRONG> <EM>expr</EM> part pushes a value
1416 onto the stack, and <STRONG>%t</STRONG> pops it from the stack, test-
1417 ing if it is nonzero (true). If it is zero (false),
1418 control passes to the <STRONG>%e</STRONG> (else) part.
1420 It is possible to form else-if's a la Algol 68:
1421 <STRONG>%?</STRONG> c1 <STRONG>%t</STRONG> b1 <STRONG>%e</STRONG> c2 <STRONG>%t</STRONG> b2 <STRONG>%e</STRONG> c3 <STRONG>%t</STRONG> b3 <STRONG>%e</STRONG> c4 <STRONG>%t</STRONG> b4 <STRONG>%e</STRONG> <STRONG>%;</STRONG>
1423 where ci are conditions, bi are bodies.
1425 Use the <STRONG>-f</STRONG> option of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> or <STRONG>infocmp</STRONG> to see the struc-
1426 ture of if-then-else's. Some strings, e.g., <STRONG>sgr</STRONG> can
1427 be very complicated when written on one line. The <STRONG>-f</STRONG>
1428 option splits the string into lines with the parts
1431 Binary operations are in postfix form with the operands in
1432 the usual order. That is, to get x-5 one would use
1433 "%gx%{5}%-". <STRONG>%P</STRONG> and <STRONG>%g</STRONG> variables are persistent across
1434 escape-string evaluations.
1436 Consider the HP2645, which, to get to row 3 and column 12,
1437 needs to be sent \E&a12c03Y padded for 6 milliseconds.
1438 Note that the order of the rows and columns is inverted
1439 here, and that the row and column are printed as two dig-
1440 its. Thus its <STRONG>cup</STRONG> capability is "cup=6\E&%p2%2dc%p1%2dY".
1442 The Microterm ACT-IV needs the current row and column sent
1443 preceded by a <STRONG>^T</STRONG>, with the row and column simply encoded
1444 in binary, "cup=^T%p1%c%p2%c". Terminals which use "%c"
1445 need to be able to backspace the cursor (<STRONG>cub1</STRONG>), and to
1446 move the cursor up one line on the screen (<STRONG>cuu1</STRONG>). This is
1447 necessary because it is not always safe to transmit <STRONG>\n</STRONG> <STRONG>^D</STRONG>
1448 and <STRONG>\r</STRONG>, as the system may change or discard them. (The
1449 library routines dealing with terminfo set tty modes so
1450 that tabs are never expanded, so \t is safe to send. This
1451 turns out to be essential for the Ann Arbor 4080.)
1453 A final example is the LSI ADM-3a, which uses row and col-
1454 umn offset by a blank character, thus "cup=\E=%p1%'
1455 '%+%c%p2%' '%+%c". After sending "\E=", this pushes the
1456 first parameter, pushes the ASCII value for a space (32),
1457 adds them (pushing the sum on the stack in place of the
1458 two previous values) and outputs that value as a charac-
1459 ter. Then the same is done for the second parameter.
1460 More complex arithmetic is possible using the stack.
1463 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Cursor-Motions">Cursor Motions</a></H3><PRE>
1464 If the terminal has a fast way to home the cursor (to very
1465 upper left corner of screen) then this can be given as
1466 <STRONG>home</STRONG>; similarly a fast way of getting to the lower left-
1467 hand corner can be given as <STRONG>ll</STRONG>; this may involve going up
1468 with <STRONG>cuu1</STRONG> from the home position, but a program should
1469 never do this itself (unless <STRONG>ll</STRONG> does) because it can make
1470 no assumption about the effect of moving up from the home
1471 position. Note that the home position is the same as
1472 addressing to (0,0): to the top left corner of the screen,
1473 not of memory. (Thus, the \EH sequence on HP terminals
1474 cannot be used for <STRONG>home</STRONG>.)
1476 If the terminal has row or column absolute cursor address-
1477 ing, these can be given as single parameter capabilities
1478 <STRONG>hpa</STRONG> (horizontal position absolute) and <STRONG>vpa</STRONG> (vertical posi-
1479 tion absolute). Sometimes these are shorter than the more
1480 general two parameter sequence (as with the hp2645) and
1481 can be used in preference to <STRONG>cup</STRONG>. If there are parameter-
1482 ized local motions (e.g., move <EM>n</EM> spaces to the right)
1483 these can be given as <STRONG>cud</STRONG>, <STRONG>cub</STRONG>, <STRONG>cuf</STRONG>, and <STRONG>cuu</STRONG> with a single
1484 parameter indicating how many spaces to move. These are
1485 primarily useful if the terminal does not have <STRONG>cup</STRONG>, such
1486 as the TEKTRONIX 4025.
1488 If the terminal needs to be in a special mode when running
1489 a program that uses these capabilities, the codes to enter
1490 and exit this mode can be given as <STRONG>smcup</STRONG> and <STRONG>rmcup</STRONG>. This
1491 arises, for example, from terminals like the Concept with
1492 more than one page of memory. If the terminal has only
1493 memory relative cursor addressing and not screen relative
1494 cursor addressing, a one screen-sized window must be fixed
1495 into the terminal for cursor addressing to work properly.
1496 This is also used for the TEKTRONIX 4025, where <STRONG>smcup</STRONG> sets
1497 the command character to be the one used by terminfo. If
1498 the <STRONG>smcup</STRONG> sequence will not restore the screen after an
1499 <STRONG>rmcup</STRONG> sequence is output (to the state prior to outputting
1500 <STRONG>rmcup</STRONG>), specify <STRONG>nrrmc</STRONG>.
1503 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Area-Clears">Area Clears</a></H3><PRE>
1504 If the terminal can clear from the current position to the
1505 end of the line, leaving the cursor where it is, this
1506 should be given as <STRONG>el</STRONG>. If the terminal can clear from the
1507 beginning of the line to the current position inclusive,
1508 leaving the cursor where it is, this should be given as
1509 <STRONG>el1</STRONG>. If the terminal can clear from the current position
1510 to the end of the display, then this should be given as
1511 <STRONG>ed</STRONG>. <STRONG>Ed</STRONG> is only defined from the first column of a line.
1512 (Thus, it can be simulated by a request to delete a large
1513 number of lines, if a true <STRONG>ed</STRONG> is not available.)
1516 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Insert_delete-line-and-vertical-motions">Insert/delete line and vertical motions</a></H3><PRE>
1517 If the terminal can open a new blank line before the line
1518 where the cursor is, this should be given as <STRONG>il1</STRONG>; this is
1519 done only from the first position of a line. The cursor
1520 must then appear on the newly blank line. If the terminal
1521 can delete the line which the cursor is on, then this
1522 should be given as <STRONG>dl1</STRONG>; this is done only from the first
1523 position on the line to be deleted. Versions of <STRONG>il1</STRONG> and
1524 <STRONG>dl1</STRONG> which take a single parameter and insert or delete
1525 that many lines can be given as <STRONG>il</STRONG> and <STRONG>dl</STRONG>.
1527 If the terminal has a settable scrolling region (like the
1528 vt100) the command to set this can be described with the
1529 <STRONG>csr</STRONG> capability, which takes two parameters: the top and
1530 bottom lines of the scrolling region. The cursor position
1531 is, alas, undefined after using this command.
1533 It is possible to get the effect of insert or delete line
1534 using <STRONG>csr</STRONG> on a properly chosen region; the <STRONG>sc</STRONG> and <STRONG>rc</STRONG> (save
1535 and restore cursor) commands may be useful for ensuring
1536 that your synthesized insert/delete string does not move
1537 the cursor. (Note that the <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">ncurses(3x)</A></STRONG> library does this
1538 synthesis automatically, so you need not compose
1539 insert/delete strings for an entry with <STRONG>csr</STRONG>).
1541 Yet another way to construct insert and delete might be to
1542 use a combination of index with the memory-lock feature
1543 found on some terminals (like the HP-700/90 series, which
1544 however also has insert/delete).
1546 Inserting lines at the top or bottom of the screen can
1547 also be done using <STRONG>ri</STRONG> or <STRONG>ind</STRONG> on many terminals without a
1548 true insert/delete line, and is often faster even on ter-
1549 minals with those features.
1551 The boolean <STRONG>non_dest_scroll_region</STRONG> should be set if each
1552 scrolling window is effectively a view port on a screen-
1553 sized canvas. To test for this capability, create a
1554 scrolling region in the middle of the screen, write some-
1555 thing to the bottom line, move the cursor to the top of
1556 the region, and do <STRONG>ri</STRONG> followed by <STRONG>dl1</STRONG> or <STRONG>ind</STRONG>. If the data
1557 scrolled off the bottom of the region by the <STRONG>ri</STRONG> re-
1558 appears, then scrolling is non-destructive. System V and
1559 XSI Curses expect that <STRONG>ind</STRONG>, <STRONG>ri</STRONG>, <STRONG>indn</STRONG>, and <STRONG>rin</STRONG> will simu-
1560 late destructive scrolling; their documentation cautions
1561 you not to define <STRONG>csr</STRONG> unless this is true. This <STRONG>curses</STRONG>
1562 implementation is more liberal and will do explicit erases
1563 after scrolling if <STRONG>ndsrc</STRONG> is defined.
1565 If the terminal has the ability to define a window as part
1566 of memory, which all commands affect, it should be given
1567 as the parameterized string <STRONG>wind</STRONG>. The four parameters are
1568 the starting and ending lines in memory and the starting
1569 and ending columns in memory, in that order.
1571 If the terminal can retain display memory above, then the
1572 <STRONG>da</STRONG> capability should be given; if display memory can be
1573 retained below, then <STRONG>db</STRONG> should be given. These indicate
1574 that deleting a line or scrolling may bring non-blank
1575 lines up from below or that scrolling back with <STRONG>ri</STRONG> may
1576 bring down non-blank lines.
1579 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Insert_Delete-Character">Insert/Delete Character</a></H3><PRE>
1580 There are two basic kinds of intelligent terminals with
1581 respect to insert/delete character which can be described
1582 using <EM>terminfo.</EM> The most common insert/delete character
1583 operations affect only the characters on the current line
1584 and shift characters off the end of the line rigidly.
1585 Other terminals, such as the Concept 100 and the Perkin
1586 Elmer Owl, make a distinction between typed and untyped
1587 blanks on the screen, shifting upon an insert or delete
1588 only to an untyped blank on the screen which is either
1589 eliminated, or expanded to two untyped blanks.
1591 You can determine the kind of terminal you have by clear-
1592 ing the screen and then typing text separated by cursor
1593 motions. Type "abc def" using local cursor motions
1594 (not spaces) between the "abc" and the "def". Then posi-
1595 tion the cursor before the "abc" and put the terminal in
1596 insert mode. If typing characters causes the rest of the
1597 line to shift rigidly and characters to fall off the end,
1598 then your terminal does not distinguish between blanks and
1599 untyped positions. If the "abc" shifts over to the "def"
1600 which then move together around the end of the current
1601 line and onto the next as you insert, you have the second
1602 type of terminal, and should give the capability <STRONG>in</STRONG>, which
1603 stands for "insert null".
1605 While these are two logically separate attributes (one
1606 line versus multi-line insert mode, and special treatment
1607 of untyped spaces) we have seen no terminals whose insert
1608 mode cannot be described with the single attribute.
1610 Terminfo can describe both terminals which have an insert
1611 mode, and terminals which send a simple sequence to open a
1612 blank position on the current line. Give as <STRONG>smir</STRONG> the
1613 sequence to get into insert mode. Give as <STRONG>rmir</STRONG> the
1614 sequence to leave insert mode. Now give as <STRONG>ich1</STRONG> any
1615 sequence needed to be sent just before sending the charac-
1616 ter to be inserted. Most terminals with a true insert
1617 mode will not give <STRONG>ich1</STRONG>; terminals which send a sequence
1618 to open a screen position should give it here.
1620 If your terminal has both, insert mode is usually prefer-
1621 able to <STRONG>ich1</STRONG>. Technically, you should not give both
1622 unless the terminal actually requires both to be used in
1623 combination. Accordingly, some non-curses applications
1624 get confused if both are present; the symptom is doubled
1625 characters in an update using insert. This requirement is
1626 now rare; most <STRONG>ich</STRONG> sequences do not require previous smir,
1627 and most smir insert modes do not require <STRONG>ich1</STRONG> before each
1628 character. Therefore, the new <STRONG>curses</STRONG> actually assumes
1629 this is the case and uses either <STRONG>rmir</STRONG>/<STRONG>smir</STRONG> or <STRONG>ich</STRONG>/<STRONG>ich1</STRONG> as
1630 appropriate (but not both). If you have to write an entry
1631 to be used under new curses for a terminal old enough to
1632 need both, include the <STRONG>rmir</STRONG>/<STRONG>smir</STRONG> sequences in <STRONG>ich1</STRONG>.
1634 If post insert padding is needed, give this as a number of
1635 milliseconds in <STRONG>ip</STRONG> (a string option). Any other sequence
1636 which may need to be sent after an insert of a single
1637 character may also be given in <STRONG>ip</STRONG>. If your terminal needs
1638 both to be placed into an "insert mode" and a special code
1639 to precede each inserted character, then both <STRONG>smir</STRONG>/<STRONG>rmir</STRONG>
1640 and <STRONG>ich1</STRONG> can be given, and both will be used. The <STRONG>ich</STRONG>
1641 capability, with one parameter, <EM>n</EM>, will repeat the effects
1642 of <STRONG>ich1</STRONG> <EM>n</EM> times.
1644 If padding is necessary between characters typed while not
1645 in insert mode, give this as a number of milliseconds pad-
1646 ding in <STRONG>rmp</STRONG>.
1648 It is occasionally necessary to move around while in
1649 insert mode to delete characters on the same line (e.g.,
1650 if there is a tab after the insertion position). If your
1651 terminal allows motion while in insert mode you can give
1652 the capability <STRONG>mir</STRONG> to speed up inserting in this case.
1653 Omitting <STRONG>mir</STRONG> will affect only speed. Some terminals
1654 (notably Datamedia's) must not have <STRONG>mir</STRONG> because of the way
1655 their insert mode works.
1657 Finally, you can specify <STRONG>dch1</STRONG> to delete a single charac-
1658 ter, <STRONG>dch</STRONG> with one parameter, <EM>n</EM>, to delete <EM>n</EM> <EM>characters,</EM>
1659 and delete mode by giving <STRONG>smdc</STRONG> and <STRONG>rmdc</STRONG> to enter and exit
1660 delete mode (any mode the terminal needs to be placed in
1661 for <STRONG>dch1</STRONG> to work).
1663 A command to erase <EM>n</EM> characters (equivalent to outputting
1664 <EM>n</EM> blanks without moving the cursor) can be given as <STRONG>ech</STRONG>
1668 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Highlighting_-Underlining_-and-Visible-Bells">Highlighting, Underlining, and Visible Bells</a></H3><PRE>
1669 If your terminal has one or more kinds of display
1670 attributes, these can be represented in a number of dif-
1671 ferent ways. You should choose one display form as <EM>stand-</EM>
1672 <EM>out</EM> <EM>mode</EM>, representing a good, high contrast, easy-on-the-
1673 eyes, format for highlighting error messages and other
1674 attention getters. (If you have a choice, reverse video
1675 plus half-bright is good, or reverse video alone.) The
1676 sequences to enter and exit standout mode are given as
1677 <STRONG>smso</STRONG> and <STRONG>rmso</STRONG>, respectively. If the code to change into
1678 or out of standout mode leaves one or even two blank spa-
1679 ces on the screen, as the TVI 912 and Teleray 1061 do,
1680 then <STRONG>xmc</STRONG> should be given to tell how many spaces are left.
1682 Codes to begin underlining and end underlining can be
1683 given as <STRONG>smul</STRONG> and <STRONG>rmul</STRONG> respectively. If the terminal has
1684 a code to underline the current character and move the
1685 cursor one space to the right, such as the Microterm Mime,
1686 this can be given as <STRONG>uc</STRONG>.
1688 Other capabilities to enter various highlighting modes
1689 include <STRONG>blink</STRONG> (blinking) <STRONG>bold</STRONG> (bold or extra bright) <STRONG>dim</STRONG>
1690 (dim or half-bright) <STRONG>invis</STRONG> (blanking or invisible text)
1691 <STRONG>prot</STRONG> (protected) <STRONG>rev</STRONG> (reverse video) <STRONG>sgr0</STRONG> (turn off <EM>all</EM>
1692 attribute modes) <STRONG>smacs</STRONG> (enter alternate character set
1693 mode) and <STRONG>rmacs</STRONG> (exit alternate character set mode).
1694 Turning on any of these modes singly may or may not turn
1697 If there is a sequence to set arbitrary combinations of
1698 modes, this should be given as <STRONG>sgr</STRONG> (set attributes), tak-
1699 ing 9 parameters. Each parameter is either 0 or nonzero,
1700 as the corresponding attribute is on or off. The 9 param-
1701 eters are, in order: standout, underline, reverse, blink,
1702 dim, bold, blank, protect, alternate character set. Not
1703 all modes need be supported by <STRONG>sgr</STRONG>, only those for which
1704 corresponding separate attribute commands exist.
1706 For example, the DEC vt220 supports most of the modes:
1708 <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> <STRONG>parameter</STRONG> <STRONG>attribute</STRONG> <STRONG>escape</STRONG> <STRONG>sequence</STRONG>
1711 p1 standout \E[0;1;7m
1712 p2 underline \E[0;4m
1715 p5 dim not available
1719 p9 altcharset ^O (off) ^N (on)
1721 We begin each escape sequence by turning off any existing
1722 modes, since there is no quick way to determine whether
1723 they are active. Standout is set up to be the combination
1724 of reverse and bold. The vt220 terminal has a protect
1725 mode, though it is not commonly used in sgr because it
1726 protects characters on the screen from the host's era-
1727 sures. The altcharset mode also is different in that it
1728 is either ^O or ^N, depending on whether it is off or on.
1729 If all modes are turned on, the resulting sequence is
1732 Some sequences are common to different modes. For exam-
1733 ple, ;7 is output when either p1 or p3 is true, that is,
1734 if either standout or reverse modes are turned on.
1736 Writing out the above sequences, along with their depen-
1739 <STRONG>sequence</STRONG> <STRONG>when</STRONG> <STRONG>to</STRONG> <STRONG>output</STRONG> <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> <STRONG>translation</STRONG>
1742 ;1 if p1 or p6 %?%p1%p6%|%t;1%;
1743 ;4 if p2 %?%p2%|%t;4%;
1744 ;5 if p4 %?%p4%|%t;5%;
1745 ;7 if p1 or p3 %?%p1%p3%|%t;7%;
1746 ;8 if p7 %?%p7%|%t;8%;
1748 ^N or ^O if p9 ^N, else ^O %?%p9%t^N%e^O%;
1750 Putting this all together into the sgr sequence gives:
1752 sgr=\E[0%?%p1%p6%|%t;1%;%?%p2%t;4%;%?%p4%t;5%;
1753 %?%p1%p3%|%t;7%;%?%p7%t;8%;m%?%p9%t\016%e\017%;,
1755 Remember that if you specify sgr, you must also specify
1756 sgr0. Also, some implementations rely on sgr being given
1757 if sgr0 is, Not all terminfo entries necessarily have an
1758 sgr string, however. Many terminfo entries are derived
1759 from termcap entries which have no sgr string. The only
1760 drawback to adding an sgr string is that termcap also
1761 assumes that sgr0 does not exit alternate character set
1764 Terminals with the "magic cookie" glitch (<STRONG>xmc</STRONG>) deposit
1765 special "cookies" when they receive mode-setting
1766 sequences, which affect the display algorithm rather than
1767 having extra bits for each character. Some terminals,
1768 such as the HP 2621, automatically leave standout mode
1769 when they move to a new line or the cursor is addressed.
1770 Programs using standout mode should exit standout mode
1771 before moving the cursor or sending a newline, unless the
1772 <STRONG>msgr</STRONG> capability, asserting that it is safe to move in
1773 standout mode, is present.
1775 If the terminal has a way of flashing the screen to indi-
1776 cate an error quietly (a bell replacement) then this can
1777 be given as <STRONG>flash</STRONG>; it must not move the cursor.
1779 If the cursor needs to be made more visible than normal
1780 when it is not on the bottom line (to make, for example, a
1781 non-blinking underline into an easier to find block or
1782 blinking underline) give this sequence as <STRONG>cvvis</STRONG>. If there
1783 is a way to make the cursor completely invisible, give
1784 that as <STRONG>civis</STRONG>. The capability <STRONG>cnorm</STRONG> should be given which
1785 undoes the effects of both of these modes.
1787 If your terminal correctly generates underlined characters
1788 (with no special codes needed) even though it does not
1789 overstrike, then you should give the capability <STRONG>ul</STRONG>. If a
1790 character overstriking another leaves both characters on
1791 the screen, specify the capability <STRONG>os</STRONG>. If overstrikes are
1792 erasable with a blank, then this should be indicated by
1793 giving <STRONG>eo</STRONG>.
1796 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Keypad-and-Function-Keys">Keypad and Function Keys</a></H3><PRE>
1797 If the terminal has a keypad that transmits codes when the
1798 keys are pressed, this information can be given. Note
1799 that it is not possible to handle terminals where the key-
1800 pad only works in local (this applies, for example, to the
1801 unshifted HP 2621 keys). If the keypad can be set to
1802 transmit or not transmit, give these codes as <STRONG>smkx</STRONG> and
1803 <STRONG>rmkx</STRONG>. Otherwise the keypad is assumed to always transmit.
1805 The codes sent by the left arrow, right arrow, up arrow,
1806 down arrow, and home keys can be given as <STRONG>kcub1,</STRONG> <STRONG>kcuf1,</STRONG>
1807 <STRONG>kcuu1,</STRONG> <STRONG>kcud1,</STRONG> and <STRONG>khome</STRONG> respectively. If there are func-
1808 tion keys such as f0, f1, ..., f10, the codes they send
1809 can be given as <STRONG>kf0,</STRONG> <STRONG>kf1,</STRONG> <STRONG>...,</STRONG> <STRONG>kf10</STRONG>. If these keys have
1810 labels other than the default f0 through f10, the labels
1811 can be given as <STRONG>lf0,</STRONG> <STRONG>lf1,</STRONG> <STRONG>...,</STRONG> <STRONG>lf10</STRONG>.
1813 The codes transmitted by certain other special keys can be
1816 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kll</STRONG> (home down),
1818 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kbs</STRONG> (backspace),
1820 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>ktbc</STRONG> (clear all tabs),
1822 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kctab</STRONG> (clear the tab stop in this column),
1824 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kclr</STRONG> (clear screen or erase key),
1826 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kdch1</STRONG> (delete character),
1828 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kdl1</STRONG> (delete line),
1830 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>krmir</STRONG> (exit insert mode),
1832 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kel</STRONG> (clear to end of line),
1834 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>ked</STRONG> (clear to end of screen),
1836 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kich1</STRONG> (insert character or enter insert mode),
1838 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kil1</STRONG> (insert line),
1840 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>knp</STRONG> (next page),
1842 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kpp</STRONG> (previous page),
1844 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kind</STRONG> (scroll forward/down),
1846 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>kri</STRONG> (scroll backward/up),
1848 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>khts</STRONG> (set a tab stop in this column).
1850 In addition, if the keypad has a 3 by 3 array of keys
1851 including the four arrow keys, the other five keys can be
1852 given as <STRONG>ka1</STRONG>, <STRONG>ka3</STRONG>, <STRONG>kb2</STRONG>, <STRONG>kc1</STRONG>, and <STRONG>kc3</STRONG>. These keys are use-
1853 ful when the effects of a 3 by 3 directional pad are
1856 Strings to program function keys can be given as <STRONG>pfkey</STRONG>,
1857 <STRONG>pfloc</STRONG>, and <STRONG>pfx</STRONG>. A string to program screen labels should
1858 be specified as <STRONG>pln</STRONG>. Each of these strings takes two
1859 parameters: the function key number to program (from 0 to
1860 10) and the string to program it with. Function key num-
1861 bers out of this range may program undefined keys in a
1862 terminal dependent manner. The difference between the
1863 capabilities is that <STRONG>pfkey</STRONG> causes pressing the given key
1864 to be the same as the user typing the given string; <STRONG>pfloc</STRONG>
1865 causes the string to be executed by the terminal in local;
1866 and <STRONG>pfx</STRONG> causes the string to be transmitted to the com-
1869 The capabilities <STRONG>nlab</STRONG>, <STRONG>lw</STRONG> and <STRONG>lh</STRONG> define the number of pro-
1870 grammable screen labels and their width and height. If
1871 there are commands to turn the labels on and off, give
1872 them in <STRONG>smln</STRONG> and <STRONG>rmln</STRONG>. <STRONG>smln</STRONG> is normally output after one
1873 or more pln sequences to make sure that the change becomes
1877 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Tabs-and-Initialization">Tabs and Initialization</a></H3><PRE>
1878 If the terminal has hardware tabs, the command to advance
1879 to the next tab stop can be given as <STRONG>ht</STRONG> (usually control
1880 I). A "back-tab" command which moves leftward to the pre-
1881 ceding tab stop can be given as <STRONG>cbt</STRONG>. By convention, if
1882 the teletype modes indicate that tabs are being expanded
1883 by the computer rather than being sent to the terminal,
1884 programs should not use <STRONG>ht</STRONG> or <STRONG>cbt</STRONG> even if they are
1885 present, since the user may not have the tab stops prop-
1886 erly set. If the terminal has hardware tabs which are
1887 initially set every <EM>n</EM> spaces when the terminal is powered
1888 up, the numeric parameter <STRONG>it</STRONG> is given, showing the number
1889 of spaces the tabs are set to. This is normally used by
1890 the <STRONG>tset</STRONG> command to determine whether to set the mode for
1891 hardware tab expansion, and whether to set the tab stops.
1892 If the terminal has tab stops that can be saved in non-
1893 volatile memory, the terminfo description can assume that
1894 they are properly set.
1896 Other capabilities include <STRONG>is1</STRONG>, <STRONG>is2</STRONG>, and <STRONG>is3</STRONG>, initializa-
1897 tion strings for the terminal, <STRONG>iprog</STRONG>, the path name of a
1898 program to be run to initialize the terminal, and <STRONG>if</STRONG>, the
1899 name of a file containing long initialization strings.
1900 These strings are expected to set the terminal into modes
1901 consistent with the rest of the terminfo description.
1902 They are normally sent to the terminal, by the <EM>init</EM> option
1903 of the <STRONG>tput</STRONG> program, each time the user logs in. They
1904 will be printed in the following order:
1907 <STRONG>iprog</STRONG>
1909 output <STRONG>is1</STRONG> <STRONG>is2</STRONG>
1911 set the margins using
1912 <STRONG>mgc</STRONG>, <STRONG>smgl</STRONG> and <STRONG>smgr</STRONG>
1915 <STRONG>tbc</STRONG> and <STRONG>hts</STRONG>
1921 output <STRONG>is3</STRONG>.
1923 Most initialization is done with <STRONG>is2</STRONG>. Special terminal
1924 modes can be set up without duplicating strings by putting
1925 the common sequences in <STRONG>is2</STRONG> and special cases in <STRONG>is1</STRONG> and
1926 <STRONG>is3</STRONG>.
1928 A set of sequences that does a harder reset from a totally
1929 unknown state can be given as <STRONG>rs1</STRONG>, <STRONG>rs2</STRONG>, <STRONG>rf</STRONG> and <STRONG>rs3</STRONG>, analo-
1930 gous to <STRONG>is1</STRONG> <STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>is2</STRONG> <STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>if</STRONG> and <STRONG>is3</STRONG> respectively. These
1931 strings are output by the <STRONG>reset</STRONG> program, which is used
1932 when the terminal gets into a wedged state. Commands are
1933 normally placed in <STRONG>rs1</STRONG>, <STRONG>rs2</STRONG> <STRONG>rs3</STRONG> and <STRONG>rf</STRONG> only if they pro-
1934 duce annoying effects on the screen and are not necessary
1935 when logging in. For example, the command to set the
1936 vt100 into 80-column mode would normally be part of <STRONG>is2</STRONG>,
1937 but it causes an annoying glitch of the screen and is not
1938 normally needed since the terminal is usually already in
1941 The <STRONG>reset</STRONG> program writes strings including <STRONG>iprog</STRONG>, etc., in
1942 the same order as the <EM>init</EM> program, using <STRONG>rs1</STRONG>, etc.,
1943 instead of <STRONG>is1</STRONG>, etc. If any of <STRONG>rs1</STRONG>, <STRONG>rs2</STRONG>, <STRONG>rs3</STRONG>, or <STRONG>rf</STRONG> reset
1944 capability strings are missing, the <STRONG>reset</STRONG> program falls
1945 back upon the corresponding initialization capability
1948 If there are commands to set and clear tab stops, they can
1949 be given as <STRONG>tbc</STRONG> (clear all tab stops) and <STRONG>hts</STRONG> (set a tab
1950 stop in the current column of every row). If a more com-
1951 plex sequence is needed to set the tabs than can be
1952 described by this, the sequence can be placed in <STRONG>is2</STRONG> or
1953 <STRONG>if</STRONG>.
1956 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Delays-and-Padding">Delays and Padding</a></H3><PRE>
1957 Many older and slower terminals do not support either
1958 XON/XOFF or DTR handshaking, including hard copy terminals
1959 and some very archaic CRTs (including, for example, DEC
1960 VT100s). These may require padding characters after cer-
1961 tain cursor motions and screen changes.
1963 If the terminal uses xon/xoff handshaking for flow control
1964 (that is, it automatically emits ^S back to the host when
1965 its input buffers are close to full), set <STRONG>xon</STRONG>. This capa-
1966 bility suppresses the emission of padding. You can also
1967 set it for memory-mapped console devices effectively that
1968 do not have a speed limit. Padding information should
1969 still be included so that routines can make better deci-
1970 sions about relative costs, but actual pad characters will
1973 If <STRONG>pb</STRONG> (padding baud rate) is given, padding is suppressed
1974 at baud rates below the value of <STRONG>pb</STRONG>. If the entry has no
1975 padding baud rate, then whether padding is emitted or not
1976 is completely controlled by <STRONG>xon</STRONG>.
1978 If the terminal requires other than a null (zero) charac-
1979 ter as a pad, then this can be given as <STRONG>pad</STRONG>. Only the
1980 first character of the <STRONG>pad</STRONG> string is used.
1983 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Status-Lines">Status Lines</a></H3><PRE>
1984 Some terminals have an extra "status line" which is not
1985 normally used by software (and thus not counted in the
1986 terminal's <STRONG>lines</STRONG> capability).
1988 The simplest case is a status line which is cursor-
1989 addressable but not part of the main scrolling region on
1990 the screen; the Heathkit H19 has a status line of this
1991 kind, as would a 24-line VT100 with a 23-line scrolling
1992 region set up on initialization. This situation is indi-
1993 cated by the <STRONG>hs</STRONG> capability.
1995 Some terminals with status lines need special sequences to
1996 access the status line. These may be expressed as a
1997 string with single parameter <STRONG>tsl</STRONG> which takes the cursor to
1998 a given zero-origin column on the status line. The capa-
1999 bility <STRONG>fsl</STRONG> must return to the main-screen cursor positions
2000 before the last <STRONG>tsl</STRONG>. You may need to embed the string
2001 values of <STRONG>sc</STRONG> (save cursor) and <STRONG>rc</STRONG> (restore cursor) in <STRONG>tsl</STRONG>
2002 and <STRONG>fsl</STRONG> to accomplish this.
2004 The status line is normally assumed to be the same width
2005 as the width of the terminal. If this is untrue, you can
2006 specify it with the numeric capability <STRONG>wsl</STRONG>.
2008 A command to erase or blank the status line may be speci-
2009 fied as <STRONG>dsl</STRONG>.
2011 The boolean capability <STRONG>eslok</STRONG> specifies that escape
2012 sequences, tabs, etc., work ordinarily in the status line.
2014 The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> implementation does not yet use any of these
2015 capabilities. They are documented here in case they ever
2019 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Line-Graphics">Line Graphics</a></H3><PRE>
2020 Many terminals have alternate character sets useful for
2021 forms-drawing. Terminfo and <STRONG>curses</STRONG> build in support for
2022 the drawing characters supported by the VT100, with some
2023 characters from the AT&T 4410v1 added. This alternate
2024 character set may be specified by the <STRONG>acsc</STRONG> capability.
2026 <STRONG>Glyph</STRONG> <STRONG>ACS</STRONG> <STRONG>Ascii</STRONG> <STRONG>VT100</STRONG>
2027 <STRONG>Name</STRONG> <STRONG>Name</STRONG> <STRONG>Default</STRONG> <STRONG>Name</STRONG>
2028 UK pound sign ACS_STERLING f }
2029 arrow pointing down ACS_DARROW v .
2030 arrow pointing left ACS_LARROW < ,
2031 arrow pointing right ACS_RARROW > +
2032 arrow pointing up ACS_UARROW ^ -
2033 board of squares ACS_BOARD # h
2034 bullet ACS_BULLET o ~
2035 checker board (stipple) ACS_CKBOARD : a
2036 degree symbol ACS_DEGREE \ f
2037 diamond ACS_DIAMOND + `
2038 greater-than-or-equal-to ACS_GEQUAL > z
2040 horizontal line ACS_HLINE - q
2041 lantern symbol ACS_LANTERN # i
2042 large plus or crossover ACS_PLUS + n
2043 less-than-or-equal-to ACS_LEQUAL < y
2044 lower left corner ACS_LLCORNER + m
2045 lower right corner ACS_LRCORNER + j
2046 not-equal ACS_NEQUAL ! |
2047 plus/minus ACS_PLMINUS # g
2048 scan line 1 ACS_S1 ~ o
2049 scan line 3 ACS_S3 - p
2050 scan line 7 ACS_S7 - r
2051 scan line 9 ACS_S9 _ s
2052 solid square block ACS_BLOCK # 0
2053 tee pointing down ACS_TTEE + w
2054 tee pointing left ACS_RTEE + u
2055 tee pointing right ACS_LTEE + t
2056 tee pointing up ACS_BTEE + v
2057 upper left corner ACS_ULCORNER + l
2058 upper right corner ACS_URCORNER + k
2059 vertical line ACS_VLINE | x
2061 The best way to define a new device's graphics set is to
2062 add a column to a copy of this table for your terminal,
2063 giving the character which (when emitted between
2064 <STRONG>smacs</STRONG>/<STRONG>rmacs</STRONG> switches) will be rendered as the correspond-
2065 ing graphic. Then read off the VT100/your terminal char-
2066 acter pairs right to left in sequence; these become the
2070 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Color-Handling">Color Handling</a></H3><PRE>
2071 The curses library functions <STRONG>init_pair</STRONG> and <STRONG>init_color</STRONG>
2072 manipulate the <EM>color</EM> <EM>pairs</EM> and <EM>color</EM> <EM>values</EM> discussed in
2073 this section (see <STRONG><A HREF="curs_color.3x.html">curs_color(3x)</A></STRONG> for details on these and
2076 Most color terminals are either "Tektronix-like" or "HP-
2079 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Tektronix-like terminals have a predefined set of <EM>N</EM>
2080 colors (where <EM>N</EM> is usually 8), and can set character-
2081 cell foreground and background characters indepen-
2082 dently, mixing them into <EM>N</EM> * <EM>N</EM> color-pairs.
2084 <STRONG>o</STRONG> On HP-like terminals, the user must set each color
2085 pair up separately (foreground and background are not
2086 independently settable). Up to <EM>M</EM> color-pairs may be
2087 set up from 2*<EM>M</EM> different colors. ANSI-compatible
2088 terminals are Tektronix-like.
2090 Some basic color capabilities are independent of the color
2091 method. The numeric capabilities <STRONG>colors</STRONG> and <STRONG>pairs</STRONG> specify
2092 the maximum numbers of colors and color-pairs that can be
2093 displayed simultaneously. The <STRONG>op</STRONG> (original pair) string
2094 resets foreground and background colors to their default
2095 values for the terminal. The <STRONG>oc</STRONG> string resets all colors
2096 or color-pairs to their default values for the terminal.
2097 Some terminals (including many PC terminal emulators)
2098 erase screen areas with the current background color
2099 rather than the power-up default background; these should
2100 have the boolean capability <STRONG>bce</STRONG>.
2102 While the curses library works with <EM>color</EM> <EM>pairs</EM> (reflect-
2103 ing the inability of some devices to set foreground and
2104 background colors independently), there are separate capa-
2105 bilities for setting these features:
2107 <STRONG>o</STRONG> To change the current foreground or background color
2108 on a Tektronix-type terminal, use <STRONG>setaf</STRONG> (set ANSI
2109 foreground) and <STRONG>setab</STRONG> (set ANSI background) or <STRONG>setf</STRONG>
2110 (set foreground) and <STRONG>setb</STRONG> (set background). These
2111 take one parameter, the color number. The SVr4 docu-
2112 mentation describes only <STRONG>setaf</STRONG>/<STRONG>setab</STRONG>; the XPG4 draft
2113 says that "If the terminal supports ANSI escape
2114 sequences to set background and foreground, they
2115 should be coded as <STRONG>setaf</STRONG> and <STRONG>setab</STRONG>, respectively.
2117 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If the terminal supports other escape sequences to set
2118 background and foreground, they should be coded as
2119 <STRONG>setf</STRONG> and <STRONG>setb</STRONG>, respectively. The <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG> and the
2120 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_refresh.3x.html">refresh(3x)</A></STRONG> functions use the <STRONG>setaf</STRONG> and <STRONG>setab</STRONG> capabil-
2121 ities if they are defined.
2123 The <STRONG>setaf</STRONG>/<STRONG>setab</STRONG> and <STRONG>setf</STRONG>/<STRONG>setb</STRONG> capabilities take a single
2124 numeric argument each. Argument values 0-7 of <STRONG>setaf</STRONG>/<STRONG>setab</STRONG>
2125 are portably defined as follows (the middle column is the
2126 symbolic #define available in the header for the <STRONG>curses</STRONG> or
2127 <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> libraries). The terminal hardware is free to map
2128 these as it likes, but the RGB values indicate normal
2129 locations in color space.
2131 <STRONG>Color</STRONG> <STRONG>#define</STRONG> <STRONG>Value</STRONG> <STRONG>RGB</STRONG>
2132 black <STRONG>COLOR_BLACK</STRONG> 0 0, 0, 0
2133 red <STRONG>COLOR_RED</STRONG> 1 max,0,0
2134 green <STRONG>COLOR_GREEN</STRONG> 2 0,max,0
2135 yellow <STRONG>COLOR_YELLOW</STRONG> 3 max,max,0
2136 blue <STRONG>COLOR_BLUE</STRONG> 4 0,0,max
2137 magenta <STRONG>COLOR_MAGENTA</STRONG> 5 max,0,max
2138 cyan <STRONG>COLOR_CYAN</STRONG> 6 0,max,max
2140 white <STRONG>COLOR_WHITE</STRONG> 7 max,max,max
2142 The argument values of <STRONG>setf</STRONG>/<STRONG>setb</STRONG> historically correspond
2143 to a different mapping, i.e.,
2145 <STRONG>Color</STRONG> <STRONG>#define</STRONG> <STRONG>Value</STRONG> <STRONG>RGB</STRONG>
2146 black <STRONG>COLOR_BLACK</STRONG> 0 0, 0, 0
2147 blue <STRONG>COLOR_BLUE</STRONG> 1 0,0,max
2148 green <STRONG>COLOR_GREEN</STRONG> 2 0,max,0
2149 cyan <STRONG>COLOR_CYAN</STRONG> 3 0,max,max
2150 red <STRONG>COLOR_RED</STRONG> 4 max,0,0
2151 magenta <STRONG>COLOR_MAGENTA</STRONG> 5 max,0,max
2152 yellow <STRONG>COLOR_YELLOW</STRONG> 6 max,max,0
2153 white <STRONG>COLOR_WHITE</STRONG> 7 max,max,max
2155 It is important to not confuse the two sets of color capa-
2156 bilities; otherwise red/blue will be interchanged on the
2159 On an HP-like terminal, use <STRONG>scp</STRONG> with a color-pair number
2160 parameter to set which color pair is current.
2162 Some terminals allow the <EM>color</EM> <EM>values</EM> to be modified:
2164 <STRONG>o</STRONG> On a Tektronix-like terminal, the capability <STRONG>ccc</STRONG> may
2165 be present to indicate that colors can be modified.
2166 If so, the <STRONG>initc</STRONG> capability will take a color number
2167 (0 to <STRONG>colors</STRONG> - 1)and three more parameters which
2168 describe the color. These three parameters default to
2169 being interpreted as RGB (Red, Green, Blue) values.
2170 If the boolean capability <STRONG>hls</STRONG> is present, they are
2171 instead as HLS (Hue, Lightness, Saturation) indices.
2172 The ranges are terminal-dependent.
2174 <STRONG>o</STRONG> On an HP-like terminal, <STRONG>initp</STRONG> may give a capability
2175 for changing a color-pair value. It will take seven
2176 parameters; a color-pair number (0 to <STRONG>max_pairs</STRONG> - 1),
2177 and two triples describing first background and then
2178 foreground colors. These parameters must be (Red,
2179 Green, Blue) or (Hue, Lightness, Saturation) depending
2180 on <STRONG>hls</STRONG>.
2182 On some color terminals, colors collide with highlights.
2183 You can register these collisions with the <STRONG>ncv</STRONG> capability.
2184 This is a bit-mask of attributes not to be used when col-
2185 ors are enabled. The correspondence with the attributes
2186 understood by <STRONG>curses</STRONG> is as follows:
2188 <STRONG>Attribute</STRONG> <STRONG>Bit</STRONG> <STRONG>Decimal</STRONG> <STRONG>Set</STRONG> <STRONG>by</STRONG>
2197 A_ALTCHARSET 8 256 sgr
2198 A_HORIZONTAL 9 512 sgr1
2201 A_RIGHT 12 4096 sgr1
2203 A_VERTICAL 14 16384 sgr1
2204 A_ITALIC 15 32768 sitm
2206 For example, on many IBM PC consoles, the underline
2207 attribute collides with the foreground color blue and is
2208 not available in color mode. These should have an <STRONG>ncv</STRONG>
2211 SVr4 curses does nothing with <STRONG>ncv</STRONG>, ncurses recognizes it
2212 and optimizes the output in favor of colors.
2215 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Miscellaneous">Miscellaneous</a></H3><PRE>
2216 If the terminal requires other than a null (zero) charac-
2217 ter as a pad, then this can be given as pad. Only the
2218 first character of the pad string is used. If the termi-
2219 nal does not have a pad character, specify npc. Note that
2220 ncurses implements the termcap-compatible <STRONG>PC</STRONG> variable;
2221 though the application may set this value to something
2222 other than a null, ncurses will test <STRONG>npc</STRONG> first and use
2223 napms if the terminal has no pad character.
2225 If the terminal can move up or down half a line, this can
2226 be indicated with <STRONG>hu</STRONG> (half-line up) and <STRONG>hd</STRONG> (half-line
2227 down). This is primarily useful for superscripts and sub-
2228 scripts on hard-copy terminals. If a hard-copy terminal
2229 can eject to the next page (form feed), give this as <STRONG>ff</STRONG>
2230 (usually control L).
2232 If there is a command to repeat a given character a given
2233 number of times (to save time transmitting a large number
2234 of identical characters) this can be indicated with the
2235 parameterized string <STRONG>rep</STRONG>. The first parameter is the
2236 character to be repeated and the second is the number of
2237 times to repeat it. Thus, tparm(repeat_char, 'x', 10) is
2238 the same as "xxxxxxxxxx".
2240 If the terminal has a settable command character, such as
2241 the TEKTRONIX 4025, this can be indicated with <STRONG>cmdch</STRONG>. A
2242 prototype command character is chosen which is used in all
2243 capabilities. This character is given in the <STRONG>cmdch</STRONG> capa-
2244 bility to identify it. The following convention is sup-
2245 ported on some UNIX systems: The environment is to be
2246 searched for a <STRONG>CC</STRONG> variable, and if found, all occurrences
2247 of the prototype character are replaced with the character
2248 in the environment variable.
2250 Terminal descriptions that do not represent a specific
2251 kind of known terminal, such as <EM>switch</EM>, <EM>dialup</EM>, <EM>patch</EM>, and
2252 <EM>network</EM>, should include the <STRONG>gn</STRONG> (generic) capability so
2253 that programs can complain that they do not know how to
2254 talk to the terminal. (This capability does not apply to
2255 <EM>virtual</EM> terminal descriptions for which the escape
2256 sequences are known.)
2258 If the terminal has a "meta key" which acts as a shift
2259 key, setting the 8th bit of any character transmitted,
2260 this fact can be indicated with <STRONG>km</STRONG>. Otherwise, software
2261 will assume that the 8th bit is parity and it will usually
2262 be cleared. If strings exist to turn this "meta mode" on
2263 and off, they can be given as <STRONG>smm</STRONG> and <STRONG>rmm</STRONG>.
2265 If the terminal has more lines of memory than will fit on
2266 the screen at once, the number of lines of memory can be
2267 indicated with <STRONG>lm</STRONG>. A value of <STRONG>lm</STRONG>#0 indicates that the
2268 number of lines is not fixed, but that there is still more
2269 memory than fits on the screen.
2271 If the terminal is one of those supported by the UNIX vir-
2272 tual terminal protocol, the terminal number can be given
2273 as <STRONG>vt</STRONG>.
2275 Media copy strings which control an auxiliary printer con-
2276 nected to the terminal can be given as <STRONG>mc0</STRONG>: print the con-
2277 tents of the screen, <STRONG>mc4</STRONG>: turn off the printer, and <STRONG>mc5</STRONG>:
2278 turn on the printer. When the printer is on, all text
2279 sent to the terminal will be sent to the printer. It is
2280 undefined whether the text is also displayed on the termi-
2281 nal screen when the printer is on. A variation <STRONG>mc5p</STRONG> takes
2282 one parameter, and leaves the printer on for as many char-
2283 acters as the value of the parameter, then turns the
2284 printer off. The parameter should not exceed 255. All
2285 text, including <STRONG>mc4</STRONG>, is transparently passed to the
2286 printer while an <STRONG>mc5p</STRONG> is in effect.
2289 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Glitches-and-Braindamage">Glitches and Braindamage</a></H3><PRE>
2290 Hazeltine terminals, which do not allow "~" characters to
2291 be displayed should indicate <STRONG>hz</STRONG>.
2293 Terminals which ignore a line-feed immediately after an <STRONG>am</STRONG>
2294 wrap, such as the Concept and vt100, should indicate <STRONG>xenl</STRONG>.
2296 If <STRONG>el</STRONG> is required to get rid of standout (instead of
2297 merely writing normal text on top of it), <STRONG>xhp</STRONG> should be
2300 Teleray terminals, where tabs turn all characters moved
2301 over to blanks, should indicate <STRONG>xt</STRONG> (destructive tabs).
2302 Note: the variable indicating this is now
2303 "dest_tabs_magic_smso"; in older versions, it was tel-
2304 eray_glitch. This glitch is also taken to mean that it is
2305 not possible to position the cursor on top of a "magic
2306 cookie", that to erase standout mode it is instead neces-
2307 sary to use delete and insert line. The ncurses implemen-
2308 tation ignores this glitch.
2310 The Beehive Superbee, which is unable to correctly trans-
2311 mit the escape or control C characters, has <STRONG>xsb</STRONG>, indicat-
2312 ing that the f1 key is used for escape and f2 for control
2313 C. (Only certain Superbees have this problem, depending
2314 on the ROM.) Note that in older terminfo versions, this
2315 capability was called "beehive_glitch"; it is now
2318 Other specific terminal problems may be corrected by
2319 adding more capabilities of the form <STRONG>x</STRONG><EM>x</EM>.
2322 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Similar-Terminals">Similar Terminals</a></H3><PRE>
2323 If there are two very similar terminals, one (the variant)
2324 can be defined as being just like the other (the base)
2325 with certain exceptions. In the definition of the vari-
2326 ant, the string capability <STRONG>use</STRONG> can be given with the name
2327 of the base terminal. The capabilities given before <STRONG>use</STRONG>
2328 override those in the base type named by <STRONG>use</STRONG>. If there
2329 are multiple <STRONG>use</STRONG> capabilities, they are merged in reverse
2330 order. That is, the rightmost <STRONG>use</STRONG> reference is processed
2331 first, then the one to its left, and so forth. Capabili-
2332 ties given explicitly in the entry override those brought
2333 in by <STRONG>use</STRONG> references.
2335 A capability can be canceled by placing <STRONG>xx@</STRONG> to the left of
2336 the use reference that imports it, where <EM>xx</EM> is the capa-
2337 bility. For example, the entry
2339 2621-nl, smkx@, rmkx@, use=2621,
2341 defines a 2621-nl that does not have the <STRONG>smkx</STRONG> or <STRONG>rmkx</STRONG>
2342 capabilities, and hence does not turn on the function key
2343 labels when in visual mode. This is useful for different
2344 modes for a terminal, or for different user preferences.
2347 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Pitfalls-of-Long-Entries">Pitfalls of Long Entries</a></H3><PRE>
2348 Long terminfo entries are unlikely to be a problem; to
2349 date, no entry has even approached terminfo's 4096-byte
2350 string-table maximum. Unfortunately, the termcap transla-
2351 tions are much more strictly limited (to 1023 bytes), thus
2352 termcap translations of long terminfo entries can cause
2355 The man pages for 4.3BSD and older versions of <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG>
2356 instruct the user to allocate a 1024-byte buffer for the
2357 termcap entry. The entry gets null-terminated by the
2358 termcap library, so that makes the maximum safe length for
2359 a termcap entry 1k-1 (1023) bytes. Depending on what the
2360 application and the termcap library being used does, and
2361 where in the termcap file the terminal type that <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG>
2362 is searching for is, several bad things can happen.
2364 Some termcap libraries print a warning message or exit if
2365 they find an entry that's longer than 1023 bytes; others
2366 do not; others truncate the entries to 1023 bytes. Some
2367 application programs allocate more than the recommended 1K
2368 for the termcap entry; others do not.
2370 Each termcap entry has two important sizes associated with
2371 it: before "tc" expansion, and after "tc" expansion. "tc"
2372 is the capability that tacks on another termcap entry to
2373 the end of the current one, to add on its capabilities.
2374 If a termcap entry does not use the "tc" capability, then
2375 of course the two lengths are the same.
2377 The "before tc expansion" length is the most important
2378 one, because it affects more than just users of that par-
2379 ticular terminal. This is the length of the entry as it
2380 exists in /etc/termcap, minus the backslash-newline pairs,
2381 which <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> strips out while reading it. Some termcap
2382 libraries strip off the final newline, too (GNU termcap
2383 does not). Now suppose:
2385 <STRONG>o</STRONG> a termcap entry before expansion is more than 1023
2388 <STRONG>o</STRONG> and the application has only allocated a 1k buffer,
2390 <STRONG>o</STRONG> and the termcap library (like the one in BSD/OS 1.1
2391 and GNU) reads the whole entry into the buffer, no
2392 matter what its length, to see if it is the entry it
2395 <STRONG>o</STRONG> and <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> is searching for a terminal type that
2396 either is the long entry, appears in the termcap file
2397 after the long entry, or does not appear in the file
2398 at all (so that <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> has to search the whole term-
2401 Then <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> will overwrite memory, perhaps its stack, and
2402 probably core dump the program. Programs like telnet are
2403 particularly vulnerable; modern telnets pass along values
2404 like the terminal type automatically. The results are
2405 almost as undesirable with a termcap library, like SunOS
2406 4.1.3 and Ultrix 4.4, that prints warning messages when it
2407 reads an overly long termcap entry. If a termcap library
2408 truncates long entries, like OSF/1 3.0, it is immune to
2409 dying here but will return incorrect data for the termi-
2412 The "after tc expansion" length will have a similar effect
2413 to the above, but only for people who actually set TERM to
2414 that terminal type, since <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> only does "tc" expansion
2415 once it is found the terminal type it was looking for, not
2418 In summary, a termcap entry that is longer than 1023 bytes
2419 can cause, on various combinations of termcap libraries
2420 and applications, a core dump, warnings, or incorrect
2421 operation. If it is too long even before "tc" expansion,
2422 it will have this effect even for users of some other ter-
2423 minal types and users whose TERM variable does not have a
2426 When in -C (translate to termcap) mode, the <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> imple-
2427 mentation of <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG> issues warning messages when the pre-
2428 tc length of a termcap translation is too long. The -c
2429 (check) option also checks resolved (after tc expansion)
2433 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Binary-Compatibility">Binary Compatibility</a></H3><PRE>
2434 It is not wise to count on portability of binary terminfo
2435 entries between commercial UNIX versions. The problem is
2436 that there are at least two versions of terminfo (under
2437 HP-UX and AIX) which diverged from System V terminfo after
2438 SVr1, and have added extension capabilities to the string
2439 table that (in the binary format) collide with System V
2440 and XSI Curses extensions.
2443 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></H2><PRE>
2444 Searching for terminal descriptions in <STRONG>$HOME/.terminfo</STRONG> and
2445 TERMINFO_DIRS is not supported by older implementations.
2447 Some SVr4 <STRONG>curses</STRONG> implementations, and all previous to
2448 SVr4, do not interpret the %A and %O operators in parame-
2451 SVr4/XPG4 do not specify whether <STRONG>msgr</STRONG> licenses movement
2452 while in an alternate-character-set mode (such modes may,
2453 among other things, map CR and NL to characters that do
2454 not trigger local motions). The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> implementation
2455 ignores <STRONG>msgr</STRONG> in <STRONG>ALTCHARSET</STRONG> mode. This raises the possi-
2456 bility that an XPG4 implementation making the opposite
2457 interpretation may need terminfo entries made for <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>
2458 to have <STRONG>msgr</STRONG> turned off.
2460 The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> library handles insert-character and insert-
2461 character modes in a slightly non-standard way to get bet-
2462 ter update efficiency. See the <STRONG>Insert/Delete</STRONG> <STRONG>Character</STRONG>
2465 The parameter substitutions for <STRONG>set_clock</STRONG> and <STRONG>dis-</STRONG>
2466 <STRONG>play_clock</STRONG> are not documented in SVr4 or the XSI Curses
2467 standard. They are deduced from the documentation for the
2468 AT&T 505 terminal.
2470 Be careful assigning the <STRONG>kmous</STRONG> capability. The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>
2471 wants to interpret it as <STRONG>KEY_MOUSE</STRONG>, for use by terminals
2472 and emulators like xterm that can return mouse-tracking
2473 information in the keyboard-input stream.
2475 X/Open Curses does not mention italics. Portable applica-
2476 tions must assume that numeric capabilities are signed
2477 16-bit values. This includes the <EM>no</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>color</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>video</EM> (ncv)
2478 capability. The 32768 mask value used for italics with
2479 ncv can be confused with an absent or cancelled ncv. If
2480 italics should work with colors, then the ncv value must
2481 be specified, even if it is zero.
2483 Different commercial ports of terminfo and curses support
2484 different subsets of the XSI Curses standard and (in some
2485 cases) different extension sets. Here is a summary, accu-
2486 rate as of October 1995:
2488 <STRONG>SVR4,</STRONG> <STRONG>Solaris,</STRONG> <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> -- These support all SVr4 capabili-
2491 <STRONG>SGI</STRONG> -- Supports the SVr4 set, adds one undocumented
2492 extended string capability (<STRONG>set_pglen</STRONG>).
2494 <STRONG>SVr1,</STRONG> <STRONG>Ultrix</STRONG> -- These support a restricted subset of ter-
2495 minfo capabilities. The booleans end with <STRONG>xon_xoff</STRONG>; the
2496 numerics with <STRONG>width_status_line</STRONG>; and the strings with
2497 <STRONG>prtr_non</STRONG>.
2499 <STRONG>HP/UX</STRONG> -- Supports the SVr1 subset, plus the SVr[234]
2500 numerics <STRONG>num_labels</STRONG>, <STRONG>label_height</STRONG>, <STRONG>label_width</STRONG>, plus func-
2501 tion keys 11 through 63, plus <STRONG>plab_norm</STRONG>, <STRONG>label_on</STRONG>, and
2502 <STRONG>label_off</STRONG>, plus some incompatible extensions in the string
2505 <STRONG>AIX</STRONG> -- Supports the SVr1 subset, plus function keys 11
2506 through 63, plus a number of incompatible string table
2509 <STRONG>OSF</STRONG> -- Supports both the SVr4 set and the AIX extensions.
2512 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
2513 /usr/share/terminfo/?/* files containing terminal
2517 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
2518 <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_color.3x.html">curs_color(3x)</A></STRONG>,
2519 <STRONG>printf(3)</STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>. <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG>.
2522 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></H2><PRE>
2523 Zeyd M. Ben-Halim, Eric S. Raymond, Thomas E. Dickey.
2524 Based on pcurses by Pavel Curtis.
2528 <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>
2532 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
2533 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
2534 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
2536 <li><a href="#h3-Predefined-Capabilities">Predefined Capabilities</a></li>
2537 <li><a href="#h3-User-Defined-Capabilities">User-Defined Capabilities</a></li>
2538 <li><a href="#h3-A-Sample-Entry">A Sample Entry</a></li>
2539 <li><a href="#h3-Types-of-Capabilities">Types of Capabilities</a></li>
2540 <li><a href="#h3-Fetching-Compiled-Descriptions">Fetching Compiled Descriptions</a></li>
2541 <li><a href="#h3-Preparing-Descriptions">Preparing Descriptions</a></li>
2542 <li><a href="#h3-Basic-Capabilities">Basic Capabilities</a></li>
2543 <li><a href="#h3-Parameterized-Strings">Parameterized Strings</a></li>
2544 <li><a href="#h3-Cursor-Motions">Cursor Motions</a></li>
2545 <li><a href="#h3-Area-Clears">Area Clears</a></li>
2546 <li><a href="#h3-Insert_delete-line-and-vertical-motions">Insert/delete line and vertical motions</a></li>
2547 <li><a href="#h3-Insert_Delete-Character">Insert/Delete Character</a></li>
2548 <li><a href="#h3-Highlighting_-Underlining_-and-Visible-Bells">Highlighting, Underlining, and Visible Bells</a></li>
2549 <li><a href="#h3-Keypad-and-Function-Keys">Keypad and Function Keys</a></li>
2550 <li><a href="#h3-Tabs-and-Initialization">Tabs and Initialization</a></li>
2551 <li><a href="#h3-Delays-and-Padding">Delays and Padding</a></li>
2552 <li><a href="#h3-Status-Lines">Status Lines</a></li>
2553 <li><a href="#h3-Line-Graphics">Line Graphics</a></li>
2554 <li><a href="#h3-Color-Handling">Color Handling</a></li>
2555 <li><a href="#h3-Miscellaneous">Miscellaneous</a></li>
2556 <li><a href="#h3-Glitches-and-Braindamage">Glitches and Braindamage</a></li>
2557 <li><a href="#h3-Similar-Terminals">Similar Terminals</a></li>
2558 <li><a href="#h3-Pitfalls-of-Long-Entries">Pitfalls of Long Entries</a></li>
2559 <li><a href="#h3-Binary-Compatibility">Binary Compatibility</a></li>
2562 <li><a href="#h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></li>
2563 <li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
2564 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
2565 <li><a href="#h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></li>
projects / ncurses.git / blob