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-<H1 class="no-header">tic 1m 2023-11-25 ncurses 6.4 User commands</H1>
+<H1 class="no-header">tic 1m 2023-12-02 ncurses 6.4 User commands</H1>
<PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG> User commands <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
in a different terminfo database. There are two ways to achieve this:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> First, you may override the system default either by using the <STRONG>-o</STRONG>
- option, or by setting the variable <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> in your shell
+ option, or by setting the variable <EM>TERMINFO</EM> in your shell
environment to a valid database location.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> Secondly, if <STRONG>tic</STRONG> cannot write in <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM> or the
- location specified using your TERMINFO variable, it looks for the
+ location specified using your <EM>TERMINFO</EM> variable, it looks for the
directory <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> (or hashed database <EM>$HOME/.terminfo.db)</EM>;
if that location exists, the entry is placed there.
Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check in
succession
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> a location specified with the TERMINFO environment variable,
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> a location specified with the <EM>TERMINFO</EM> environment variable,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM>,
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable,
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> directories listed in the <EM>TERMINFO</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>DIRS</EM> environment variable,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> a compiled-in list of directories (/usr/share/terminfo), and
also preserves the obsolete capabilities.
<STRONG>-o</STRONG><EM>dir</EM> Write compiled entries to given database location. Overrides
- the TERMINFO environment variable.
+ the <EM>TERMINFO</EM> environment variable.
<STRONG>-Q</STRONG><EM>n</EM> Rather than show source in terminfo (text) format, print the
compiled (binary) format in hexadecimal or base64 form,
The SVr4 manual pages are not clear on the resolution rules for <STRONG>use</STRONG>
capabilities. This implementation of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> will find <STRONG>use</STRONG> targets
anywhere in the source file, or anywhere in the file tree rooted at
- <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> (if <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> is defined), or in the user's <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM>
+ <EM>TERMINFO</EM> (if <EM>TERMINFO</EM> is defined), or in the user's <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM>
database (if it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file
tree of compiled entries.
The SVr4 <STRONG>-c</STRONG> mode does not report bad "use=" links.
System V does not compile entries to or read entries from your
- <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> database unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.
+ <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> database unless <EM>TERMINFO</EM> is explicitly set to it.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) provides a brief description of <STRONG>tic</STRONG>. It
lists one option: <STRONG>-c</STRONG>. The omission of <STRONG>-v</STRONG> is unexpected. The change
- history states that the description is derived from Tru64 UNIX.
- According to its manual pages, that system also supported the <STRONG>-v</STRONG>
- option.
+ history states that the description is derived from Tru64. According
+ to its manual pages, that system also supported the <STRONG>-v</STRONG> option.
- Shortly after Issue 7 was released, Tru64 was discontinued. As of
- 2019, the surviving implementations of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> are SVr4 (AIX, HP-UX and
+ Shortly after Issue 7 was released, Tru64 was discontinued. As of
+ 2019, the surviving implementations of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> are SVr4 (AIX, HP-UX and
Solaris), ncurses and NetBSD curses. The SVr4 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> programs all support
- the <STRONG>-v</STRONG> option. The NetBSD <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program follows X/Open's documentation,
+ the <STRONG>-v</STRONG> option. The NetBSD <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program follows X/Open's documentation,
omitting the <STRONG>-v</STRONG> option.
- The X/Open rationale states that some implementations of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> read
- terminal descriptions from the standard input if the <EM>file</EM> parameter is
- omitted. None of these implementations do that. Further, it comments
- that some may choose to read from "./terminfo.src" but that is
- obsolescent behavior from SVr2, and is not (for example) a documented
+ The X/Open rationale states that some implementations of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> read
+ terminal descriptions from the standard input if the <EM>file</EM> parameter is
+ omitted. None of these implementations do that. Further, it comments
+ that some may choose to read from "./terminfo.src" but that is
+ obsolescent behavior from SVr2, and is not (for example) a documented
feature of SVr3.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
- System V Release 2 provided a <STRONG>tic</STRONG> utility. It accepted a single
- option: <STRONG>-v</STRONG> (optionally followed by a number). According to Ross
+ System V Release 2 provided a <STRONG>tic</STRONG> utility. It accepted a single
+ option: <STRONG>-v</STRONG> (optionally followed by a number). According to Ross
Ridge's comment in <EM>mytinfo</EM>, this version of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> was unable to represent
cancelled capabilities.
- System V Release 3 provided a different <STRONG>tic</STRONG> utility, written by Pavel
- Curtis, (originally named "compile" in <EM>pcurses</EM>). This added an option
- <STRONG>-c</STRONG> to check the file for errors, with the caveat that errors in "use="
- links would not be reported. System V Release 3 documented a few
- warning messages which did not appear in <EM>pcurses</EM>. While the program
- itself was changed little as development continued with System V
- Release 4, the table of capabilities grew from 180 (<EM>pcurses</EM>) to 464
+ System V Release 3 provided a different <STRONG>tic</STRONG> utility, written by Pavel
+ Curtis, (originally named "compile" in <EM>pcurses</EM>). This added an option
+ <STRONG>-c</STRONG> to check the file for errors, with the caveat that errors in "use="
+ links would not be reported. System V Release 3 documented a few
+ warning messages which did not appear in <EM>pcurses</EM>. While the program
+ itself was changed little as development continued with System V
+ Release 4, the table of capabilities grew from 180 (<EM>pcurses</EM>) to 464
(Solaris).
- In early development of ncurses (1993), Zeyd Ben-Halim used the table
- from <EM>mytinfo</EM> to extend the <EM>pcurses</EM> table to 469 capabilities (456
- matched SVr4, 8 were only in SVr4, 13 were not in SVr4). Of those 13,
- 11 were ultimately discarded (perhaps to match the draft of X/Open
- Curses). The exceptions were <STRONG>memory_lock_above</STRONG> and <STRONG>memory_unlock</STRONG> (see
+ In early development of ncurses (1993), Zeyd Ben-Halim used the table
+ from <EM>mytinfo</EM> to extend the <EM>pcurses</EM> table to 469 capabilities (456
+ matched SVr4, 8 were only in SVr4, 13 were not in SVr4). Of those 13,
+ 11 were ultimately discarded (perhaps to match the draft of X/Open
+ Curses). The exceptions were <STRONG>memory_lock_above</STRONG> and <STRONG>memory_unlock</STRONG> (see
<STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG>).
- Eric Raymond incorporated parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM> into ncurses to implement
- the termcap-to-terminfo source conversion, and extended that to begin
+ Eric Raymond incorporated parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM> into ncurses to implement
+ the termcap-to-terminfo source conversion, and extended that to begin
development of the corresponding terminfo-to-termcap source conversion,
- Thomas Dickey completed that development over the course of several
+ Thomas Dickey completed that development over the course of several
years.
- In 1999, Thomas Dickey added the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option to support user-defined
+ In 1999, Thomas Dickey added the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option to support user-defined
capabilities.
- In 2010, Roy Marples provided a <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program and terminfo library for
- NetBSD. That implementation adapts several features from ncurses,
+ In 2010, Roy Marples provided a <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program and terminfo library for
+ NetBSD. That implementation adapts several features from ncurses,
including <STRONG>tic</STRONG>'s <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option.
- The <STRONG>-c</STRONG> option tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to check for problems in the terminfo source
+ The <STRONG>-c</STRONG> option tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to check for problems in the terminfo source
file. Continued development provides additional checks:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>pcurses</EM> had 8 warnings
The checking done in ncurses' <STRONG>tic</STRONG> helps with the conversion to termcap,
as well as pointing out errors and inconsistencies. It is also used to
- ensure consistency with the user-defined capabilities. There are 527
- distinct capabilities in ncurses' terminal database; 128 of those are
+ ensure consistency with the user-defined capabilities. There are 527
+ distinct capabilities in ncurses' terminal database; 128 of those are
user-defined.
-ncurses 6.4 2023-11-25 <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
+ncurses 6.4 2023-12-02 <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
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