tic 1m

tic(1m)                                                                tic(1m)




NAME

       tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler


SYNOPSIS

       tic  [-01CDGIKLNTUVWacfgqrstx]  [-e names] [-o dir] [-Q[n]] [-R subset]
       [-v[n]] [-w[n]] file


DESCRIPTION

       The tic command translates a terminfo file from source format into com-
       piled  format.   The  compiled  format  is  necessary  for use with the
       library routines in ncurses(3x).

       As described in term(5), the database may be either  a  directory  tree
       (one  file  per  terminal  entry)  or a hashed database (one record per
       entry).  The tic command writes only one type of  entry,  depending  on
       how it was built:

       o   For directory trees, the top-level directory, e.g., /usr/share/ter-
           minfo, specifies the location of the database.

       o   For hashed databases, a filename is needed.  If the given  file  is
           not  found  by  that  name,  but  can be found by adding the suffix
           ".db", then that is used.

           The default name for the hashed database is the same as the default
           directory name (only adding a ".db" suffix).

       In either case (directory or hashed database), tic will create the con-
       tainer if it does not exist.  For a directory, this would be the  "ter-
       minfo" leaf, versus a "terminfo.db" file.

       The  results  are  normally  placed  in  the  system  terminfo database
       /usr/share/terminfo.  The compiled terminal description can  be  placed
       in a different terminfo database.  There are two ways to achieve this:

       o   First,  you  may override the system default either by using the -o
           option, or by setting the variable TERMINFO in your shell  environ-
           ment to a valid database location.

       o   Secondly,  if  tic cannot write in /usr/share/terminfo or the loca-
           tion specified using your  TERMINFO  variable,  it  looks  for  the
           directory  $HOME/.terminfo (or hashed database $HOME/.terminfo.db);
           if that location exists, the entry is placed there.

       Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check  in  succes-
       sion

       o   a location specified with the TERMINFO environment variable,

       o   $HOME/.terminfo,

       o   directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable,

       o   a  compiled-in  list  of directories (/usr/local/ncurses/share/ter-
           minfo:/usr/share/terminfo), and

       o   the system terminfo database (/usr/share/terminfo).


OPTIONS

       -0     restricts the output to a single line

       -1     restricts the output to a single column

       -a     tells tic to retain commented-out capabilities rather than  dis-
              carding them.  Capabilities are commented by prefixing them with
              a period.  This sets the -x option, because it treats  the  com-
              mented-out  entries  as  user-defined  names.   If the source is
              termcap, accept the 2-character names  required  by  version  6.
              Otherwise these are ignored.

       -C     Force  source translation to termcap format.  Note: this differs
              from the -C option of infocmp(1m) in that  it  does  not  merely
              translate capability names, but also translates terminfo strings
              to termcap format.  Capabilities that are not  translatable  are
              left  in  the entry under their terminfo names but commented out
              with two preceding dots.  The actual  format  used  incorporates
              some  improvements  for escaped characters from terminfo format.
              For a stricter BSD-compatible translation, add the -K option.

              If this is combined with -c,  tic  makes  additional  checks  to
              report  cases  where  the  terminfo  values do not have an exact
              equivalent in termcap form.  For example:

              o   sgr usually will not  convert,  because  termcap  lacks  the
                  ability  to  work with more than two parameters, and because
                  termcap lacks many of the arithmetic/logical operators  used
                  in terminfo.

              o   capabilities  with more than one delay or with delays before
                  the end of the string will not convert completely.

       -c     tells tic to only check file for errors, including syntax  prob-
              lems  and  bad  use  links.   If  you  specify -C (-I) with this
              option, the code will print warnings about entries which,  after
              use  resolution, are more than 1023 (4096) bytes long.  Due to a
              fixed buffer length in older termcap libraries, as well as buggy
              checking  for  the buffer length (and a documented limit in ter-
              minfo), these entries may cause core dumps with other  implemen-
              tations.

              tic checks string capabilities to ensure that those with parame-
              ters will be valid expressions.  It does this check only for the
              predefined string capabilities; those which are defined with the
              -x option are ignored.

       -D     tells tic to print the database locations that it  knows  about,
              and exit.  The first location shown is the one to which it would
              write compiled terminal descriptions.  If tic  is  not  able  to
              find  a writable database location according to the rules summa-
              rized above, it will print a diagnostic and exit with  an  error
              rather than printing a list of database locations.

       -e names
              Limit  writes  and translations to the following comma-separated
              list of terminals.  If any name or alias of a  terminal  matches
              one  of  the  names  in  the  list, the entry will be written or
              translated as normal.  Otherwise no output will be generated for
              it.   The  option  value is interpreted as a file containing the
              list if it contains a '/'.  (Note: depending on how tic was com-
              piled, this option may require -I or -C.)

       -f     Display     complex     terminfo     strings    which    contain
              if/then/else/endif expressions indented for readability.

       -G     Display constant literals in  decimal  form  rather  than  their
              character equivalents.

       -g     Display  constant  character literals in quoted form rather than
              their decimal equivalents.

       -I     Force source translation to terminfo format.

       -K     Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to termcap format,
              e.g., "\s" for space.

       -L     Force  source  translation  to  terminfo format using the long C
              variable names listed in <term.h>

       -N     Disable smart defaults.  Normally, when translating from termcap
              to  terminfo,  the  compiler makes a number of assumptions about
              the  defaults  of  string   capabilities   reset1_string,   car-
              riage_return,  cursor_left,  cursor_down,  scroll_forward,  tab,
              newline, key_backspace, key_left, and key_down, then attempts to
              use  obsolete termcap capabilities to deduce correct values.  It
              also normally suppresses output of obsolete termcap capabilities
              such  as bs.  This option forces a more literal translation that
              also preserves the obsolete capabilities.

       -odir  Write compiled entries to given  database  location.   Overrides
              the TERMINFO environment variable.

       -Qn    Rather  than  show  source  in terminfo (text) format, print the
              compiled (binary) format in hexadecimal or base64 form,  depend-
              ing on the option's value:

               1  hexadecimal

               2  base64

               3  hexadecimal and base64

       -q     Suppress  comments  and  blank  lines  when  showing  translated
              source.

       -Rsubset
              Restrict output to a given subset.  This option is for use  with
              archaic  versions  of  terminfo  like  those on SVr1, Ultrix, or
              HP/UX that do not support the full set of SVR4/XSI  Curses  ter-
              minfo;  and  outright  broken ports like AIX 3.x that have their
              own extensions incompatible with  SVr4/XSI.   Available  subsets
              are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", "BSD" and "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for
              details.

       -r     Force entry resolution (so there are no remaining  tc  capabili-
              ties)  even  when doing translation to termcap format.  This may
              be needed if you are preparing a  termcap  file  for  a  termcap
              library  (such as GNU termcap through version 1.3 or BSD termcap
              through 4.3BSD) that does not handle  multiple  tc  capabilities
              per entry.

       -s     Summarize  the  compile  by  showing  the database location into
              which entries are written, and the number of entries  which  are
              compiled.

       -T     eliminates  size-restrictions  on  the  generated text.  This is
              mainly useful for  testing  and  analysis,  since  the  compiled
              descriptions  are limited (e.g., 1023 for termcap, 4096 for ter-
              minfo).

       -t     tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities.  Normally  when
              translating  from  terminfo to termcap, untranslatable capabili-
              ties are commented-out.

       -U   tells tic to not post-process the data after  parsing  the  source
            file.  Normally, it infers data which is commonly missing in older
            terminfo data, or in termcaps.

       -V   reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
            exits.

       -vn  specifies that (verbose) output be written to standard error trace
            information showing tic's progress.

            The optional parameter n is a number  from  1  to  10,  inclusive,
            indicating the desired level of detail of information.  If ncurses
            is built  without  tracing  support,  the  optional  parameter  is
            ignored.  If n is omitted, the default level is 1.  If n is speci-
            fied and greater than 1, the level of detail is increased.

            The debug flag levels are as follows:

            1      Names of files created and linked

            2      Information related to the "use" facility

            3      Statistics from the hashing algorithm

            5      String-table memory allocations

            7      Entries into the string-table

            8      List of tokens encountered by scanner

            9      All values computed in construction of the hash table

            If the debug level n is not given, it is taken to be one.

       -W   By itself, the -w  option  will  not  force  long  strings  to  be
            wrapped.  Use the -W option to do this.

            If  you specify both -f and -W options, the latter is ignored when
            -f has already split the line.

       -wn  specifies the width of the output.  The parameter is optional.  If
            it is omitted, it defaults to 60.

       -x   Treat  unknown capabilities as user-defined.  That is, if you sup-
            ply a capability name which tic does not recognize, it will  infer
            its  type  (boolean, number or string) from the syntax and make an
            extended table entry for that.   User-defined  capability  strings
            whose name begins with "k" are treated as function keys.


PARAMETERS

       file   contains  one  or  more terminfo terminal descriptions in source
              format  [see  terminfo(5)].   Each  description  in   the   file
              describes the capabilities of a particular terminal.

              If  file  is "-", then the data is read from the standard input.
              The file parameter may also be the path of a character-device.


PROCESSING

       All but one of the capabilities recognized by  tic  are  documented  in
       terminfo(5).  The exception is the use capability.

       When a use=entry-name field is discovered in a terminal entry currently
       being compiled, tic reads in the  binary  from  /usr/share/terminfo  to
       complete  the  entry.   (Entries  created from file will be used first.
       tic duplicates the capabilities in entry-name for  the  current  entry,
       with the exception of those capabilities that explicitly are defined in
       the current entry.

       When an entry, e.g., entry_name_1, contains a  use=entry_name_2  field,
       any   canceled   capabilities  in  entry_name_2  must  also  appear  in
       entry_name_1 before use= for  these  capabilities  to  be  canceled  in
       entry_name_1.

       Total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes.  The name field cannot
       exceed 512 bytes.  Terminal names exceeding the  maximum  alias  length
       (32 characters on systems with long filenames, 14 characters otherwise)
       will be truncated to the maximum alias length  and  a  warning  message
       will be printed.


COMPATIBILITY

       There  is  some  evidence  that  historic  tic  implementations treated
       description fields with no whitespace in them as additional aliases  or
       short names.  This tic does not do that, but it does warn when descrip-
       tion fields may be treated that way and check them for dangerous  char-
       acters.


EXTENSIONS

       Unlike  the  SVr4 tic command, this implementation can actually compile
       termcap sources.  In fact, entries in terminfo and termcap  syntax  can
       be  mixed  in  a  single  source file.  See terminfo(5) for the list of
       termcap names taken to be equivalent to terminfo names.

       The SVr4 manual pages are not clear on the  resolution  rules  for  use
       capabilities.   This  implementation  of tic will find use targets any-
       where in the source file, or anywhere in the file tree rooted  at  TER-
       MINFO  (if TERMINFO is defined), or in the user's $HOME/.terminfo data-
       base (if it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file tree of
       compiled entries.

       The  error  messages  from this tic have the same format as GNU C error
       messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's compile facility.

       The -0, -1, -C, -G, -I, -N, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -o, -r, -s,  -t
       and -x options are not supported under SVr4.  The SVr4 -c mode does not
       report bad use links.

       System V does  not  compile  entries  to  or  read  entries  from  your
       $HOME/.terminfo database unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.


FILES

       /usr/share/terminfo/?/*
            Compiled terminal description database.


SEE ALSO

       infocmp(1m),   captoinfo(1m),   infotocap(1m),   toe(1m),   curses(3x),
       term(5).  terminfo(5).

       This describes ncurses version 6.0 (patch 20170812).


AUTHOR

       Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
       Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>



                                                                       tic(1m)