tic 1m



tic(1m)                                                         tic(1m)




NAME

       tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler


SYNOPSIS

       tic  [-01CDGIKLNTUVacfgrstx]  [-e names] [-o dir] [-R sub-
       set] [-v[n]] [-w[n]] file


DESCRIPTION

       The tic command translates a  terminfo  file  from  source
       format  into compiled format.  The compiled format is nec-
       essary 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 writes only  one
       type of entry, depending on how it was built:

       o   For  directory  trees,  the top-level directory, e.g.,
           /usr/share/terminfo, 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).

       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 by  setting
           the  variable  TERMINFO in your shell environment to a
           valid database location, e.g., an  existing  directory
           (for  directory  trees) or valid location for a hashed
           database.

       o   Secondly, if tic cannot write  in  /usr/share/terminfo
           or  the  location  specified using your TERMINFO vari-
           able, 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
       for a location specified with the TERMINFO variable first,
       look at  $HOME/.terminfo  if  TERMINFO  is  not  set,  and
       finally look in /usr/share/terminfo.

       -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 discarding them.  Capabilities are com-
              mented  by prefixing them with a period.  This sets
              the -x option, because it treats the  commented-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.

       -c     tells  tic to only check file for errors, including
              syntax problems and bad use links.  If you  specify
              -C (-I) with this option, the code will print warn-
              ings 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 doc-
              umented limit in terminfo), these entries may cause
              core dumps with other implementations.

       -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
              summarized 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 con-
              taining the list if  it  contains  a  '/'.   (Note:
              depending  on how tic was compiled, this option may
              require -I or -C.)

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

       -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 num-
              ber of assumptions about  the  defaults  of  string
              capabilities  reset1_string,  carriage_return, cur-
              sor_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 sup-
              presses output  of  obsolete  termcap  capabilities
              such  as  bs.   This  option  forces a more literal
              translation that also preserves the obsolete  capa-
              bilities.

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

       -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 terminfo; and out-
              right 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 capabilities) 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 multi-
              ple tc capabilities per entry.

       -s     Summarize the compile by showing the database loca-
              tion 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 terminfo).

       -t     tells tic to  discard  commented-out  capabilities.
              Normally when translating from terminfo to termcap,
              untranslatable capabilities 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  term-
            caps.

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

       -vn  specifies that (verbose) output be written  to  stan-
            dard  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 n is omitted, the default  level  is
            1.   If  n is specified and greater than 1, the level
            of detail is increased.

       -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 supply 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.

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

       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 ta-
              ble

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

       All but one of the capabilities recognized by tic are doc-
       umented in terminfo(5).  The exception is the use capabil-
       ity.

       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.  If the environment
       variable  TERMINFO  is  set,  that  database  location  is
       searched  instead of /usr/share/terminfo.)  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.

       If  the environment variable TERMINFO is set, the compiled
       results are placed there instead of /usr/share/terminfo.

       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  description  fields  may  be
       treated  that way and check them for dangerous characters.


EXTENSIONS

       Unlike the stock 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 anywhere in the source file, or any-
       where  in the file tree rooted at TERMINFO (if TERMINFO is
       defined), or in the user's $HOME/.terminfo database (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 explic-
       itly 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 5.9 (patch 20120107).


AUTHOR

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



                                                                tic(1m)

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