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+ * Copyright 2018-2023,2024 Thomas E. Dickey *
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-<H1 class="no-header">tic 1m</H1>
+<H1 class="no-header">tic 1m 2024-03-16 ncurses 6.4 User commands</H1>
<PRE>
-<STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
<STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
+<STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
User commands <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG>tic</STRONG> - the <EM>terminfo</EM> entry-description compiler
+ <STRONG>tic</STRONG> - compile terminal descriptions for <EM>terminfo</EM> or <EM>termcap</EM>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG>tic</STRONG> [<STRONG>-01CDGIKLNTUVWacfgqrstx</STRONG>] [<STRONG>-e</STRONG> <EM>names</EM>] [<STRONG>-o</STRONG> <EM>dir</EM>] [<STRONG>-Q</STRONG>[<EM>n</EM>]] [<STRONG>-R</STRONG> <EM>subset</EM>]
- [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>[<EM>n</EM>]] [<STRONG>-w</STRONG>[<EM>n</EM>]] <EM>file</EM>
+ <STRONG>tic</STRONG> [<STRONG>-01acCDfgGIKLNqrstTUVWx</STRONG>] [<STRONG>-e</STRONG> <EM>terminal-type-list</EM>] [<STRONG>-o</STRONG> <EM>dir</EM>] [<STRONG>-Q</STRONG>[<EM>n</EM>]]
+ [<STRONG>-R</STRONG> <EM>subset</EM>] [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>[<EM>n</EM>]] [<STRONG>-w</STRONG>[<EM>n</EM>]] <EM>file</EM>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
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 (no default value), and
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> a compiled-in list of directories (/usr/share/terminfo), and
<STRONG>o</STRONG> the system terminfo database (<EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>).
+ The <EM>Fetching</EM> <EM>Compiled</EM> <EM>Descriptions</EM> section in the <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> manual
+ goes into further detail.
+
-</PRE><H3><a name="h3-A
LIASES">ALIASES</a></H3><PRE>
- This is the same program as infotocap and captoinfo; usually those are
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-A
liases">Aliases</a></H3><PRE>
+ This is the same program as infotocap and captoinfo; usually those are
linked to, or copied from this program:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> When invoked as infotocap, tic sets the <STRONG>-I</STRONG> option.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> When invoked as captoinfo, tic sets the <STRONG>-C</STRONG> option.
-</PRE><H
3><a name="h3-OPTIONS">OPTIONS</a></H3><PRE>
+</PRE><H
2><a name="h2-OPTIONS">OPTIONS</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>-0</STRONG> restricts the output to a single line
<STRONG>-1</STRONG> restricts the output to a single column
- <STRONG>-a</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to retain commented-out capabilities rather than
- discarding them. Capabilities are commented by prefixing them
- with a period. This sets the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> 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.
+ <STRONG>-a</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to retain commented-out capabilities rather than
+ discarding them. Capabilities are commented by prefixing them
+ with a period. This sets the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> 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.
- <STRONG>-C</STRONG> Force source translation to termcap format. Note: this differs
- from the <STRONG>-C</STRONG> option of <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG> in that it does not merely
+ <STRONG>-C</STRONG> Force source translation to termcap format. Note: this differs
+ from the <STRONG>-C</STRONG> option of <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG> 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.
+ 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 <STRONG>-K</STRONG> option.
- If this is combined with <STRONG>-c</STRONG>, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> makes additional checks to
- report cases where the terminfo values do not have an exact
+ If this is combined with <STRONG>-c</STRONG>, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> makes additional checks to
+ report cases where the terminfo values do not have an exact
equivalent in termcap form. For example:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>sgr</STRONG> 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
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>sgr</STRONG> 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.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> capabilities with more than one delay or with delays before
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> capabilities with more than one delay or with delays before
the end of the string will not convert completely.
- <STRONG>-c</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to only check <EM>file</EM> for errors, including syntax
- problems and bad use-links. If you specify <STRONG>-C</STRONG> (<STRONG>-I</STRONG>) with this
- option, the code will print warnings about entries which, after
- use resolution, are more than 1023 (4096) bytes long. Due to a
+ <STRONG>-c</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to only check <EM>file</EM> for errors, including syntax
+ problems and bad use-links. If you specify <STRONG>-C</STRONG> (<STRONG>-I</STRONG>) 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
+ checking for the buffer length (and a documented limit in
terminfo), these entries may cause core dumps with other
implementations.
<STRONG>tic</STRONG> checks string capabilities to ensure that those with
- parameters will be valid expressions. It does this check only
- for the predefined string capabilities; those which are defined
+ parameters will be valid expressions. It does this check only
+ for the predefined string capabilities; those which are defined
with the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option are ignored.
- <STRONG>-D</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to print the database locations that it knows about,
+ <STRONG>-D</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> 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 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> is not able to
+ write compiled terminal descriptions. If <STRONG>tic</STRONG> is not able to
find a writable database location according to the rules
- summarized above, it will print a diagnostic and exit with an
+ summarized above, it will print a diagnostic and exit with an
error rather than printing a list of database locations.
- <STRONG>-e</STRONG> <EM>names</EM>
- 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
+ <STRONG>-e</STRONG> <EM>list</EM>
+ Limit writes and translations to the comma-separated <EM>list</EM> of
+ terminal types. 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
+ it. The option value is interpreted as a file containing the
+ list if it contains a '/'. (Note: depending on how tic was
compiled, this option may require <STRONG>-I</STRONG> or <STRONG>-C</STRONG>.)
- <STRONG>-f</STRONG> Display complex terminfo strings which contain
+ <STRONG>-f</STRONG> Display complex terminfo strings which contain
if/then/else/endif expressions indented for readability.
- <STRONG>-G</STRONG> Display constant literals in decimal form rather than their
+ <STRONG>-G</STRONG> Display constant literals in decimal form rather than their
character equivalents.
- <STRONG>-g</STRONG> Display constant character literals in quoted form rather than
+ <STRONG>-g</STRONG> Display constant character literals in quoted form rather than
their decimal equivalents.
<STRONG>-I</STRONG> Force source translation to terminfo format.
- <STRONG>-K</STRONG> Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to termcap format,
+ <STRONG>-K</STRONG> Suppress some longstanding <EM>ncurses</EM> extensions to termcap format,
e.g., "\s" for space.
- <STRONG>-L</STRONG> Force source translation to terminfo format using the long C
+ <STRONG>-L</STRONG> Force source translation to terminfo format using the long C
variable names listed in <<STRONG>term.h</STRONG>>
<STRONG>-N</STRONG> Disable smart defaults. Normally, when translating from termcap
- to terminfo, the compiler makes a number of assumptions about
- the defaults of string capabilities <STRONG>reset1_string</STRONG>,
- <STRONG>carriage_return</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_left</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_down</STRONG>, <STRONG>scroll_forward</STRONG>, <STRONG>tab</STRONG>,
+ to terminfo, the compiler makes a number of assumptions about
+ the defaults of string capabilities <STRONG>reset1_string</STRONG>,
+ <STRONG>carriage_return</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_left</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_down</STRONG>, <STRONG>scroll_forward</STRONG>, <STRONG>tab</STRONG>,
<STRONG>newline</STRONG>, <STRONG>key_backspace</STRONG>, <STRONG>key_left</STRONG>, and <STRONG>key_down</STRONG>, then attempts to
- use obsolete termcap capabilities to deduce correct values. It
+ use obsolete termcap capabilities to deduce correct values. It
also normally suppresses output of obsolete termcap capabilities
- such as <STRONG>bs</STRONG>. This option forces a more literal translation that
+ such as <STRONG>bs</STRONG>. This option forces a more literal translation that
also preserves the obsolete capabilities.
- <STRONG>-o</STRONG><EM>dir</EM> Write compiled entries to given database location. Overrides
- the TERMINFO environment variable.
+ <STRONG>-o</STRONG><EM>dir</EM> Write compiled entries to given database location. Overrides
+ 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,
+ <STRONG>-Q</STRONG><EM>n</EM> Rather than show source in terminfo (text) format, print the
+ compiled (binary) format in hexadecimal or base64 form,
depending on the option's value:
1 hexadecimal
source.
<STRONG>-R</STRONG><EM>subset</EM>
- 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 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 <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for
- details.
-
- <STRONG>-r</STRONG> 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
+ 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 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 <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for details.
+
+ <STRONG>-r</STRONG> 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 multiple tc
capabilities per entry.
- <STRONG>-s</STRONG> Summarize the compile by showing the database location into
- which entries are written, and the number of entries which are
+ <STRONG>-s</STRONG> Summarize the compile by showing the database location into
+ which entries are written, and the number of entries which are
compiled.
- <STRONG>-T</STRONG> 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
+ <STRONG>-T</STRONG> 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).
- <STRONG>-t</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to discard commented-out capabilities. Normally when
- translating from terminfo to termcap, untranslatable
+ <STRONG>-t</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to discard commented-out capabilities. Normally when
+ translating from terminfo to termcap, untranslatable
capabilities are commented-out.
- <STRONG>-U</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to not post-process the data after parsing the source
+ <STRONG>-U</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> 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.
- <STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
+ <STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of <EM>ncurses</EM> which was used in this program, and
exits.
<STRONG>-v</STRONG><EM>n</EM> specifies that (verbose) output be written to standard error trace
information showing <STRONG>tic</STRONG>'s progress.
- The optional parameter <EM>n</EM> 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 <EM>n</EM> is omitted, the default level is 1. If <EM>n</EM> is
- specified and greater than 1, the level of detail is increased.
+ The optional parameter <EM>n</EM> is a number from 1 to 9, inclusive,
+ indicating the desired level of detail of information.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> If <EM>ncurses</EM> is built without tracing support, the optional
+ parameter is ignored.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> If <EM>n</EM> is omitted, the default level is 1.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> If <EM>n</EM> is specified and greater than 1, the level of detail is
+ increased, and the output is written (with tracing
+ information) to the "trace" file.
The debug flag levels are as follows:
- 1 Names of files created and linked
+ 1 Names of files created and linked
+
+ 2 Information related to the "use" facility
- 2 Information related to the "use" facility
+ 3 Statistics from the hashing algorithm
- 3 Statistics from the hashing algorithm
+ 4 Details of extended capabilities
- 5 String-table memory allocations
+ 5 (unused)
- 7 Entries into the string-table
+ 6 (unused)
- 8 List of tokens encountered by scanner
+ 7 Entries into the string-table
- 9 All values computed in construction of the hash table
+ 8 List of tokens encountered by scanner
- If the debug level <EM>n</EM> is not given, it is taken to be one.
+ 9 All values computed in construction of the hash table
- <STRONG>-W</STRONG> By itself, the <STRONG>-w</STRONG> option will not force long strings to be
+ <STRONG>-W</STRONG> By itself, the <STRONG>-w</STRONG> option will not force long strings to be
wrapped. Use the <STRONG>-W</STRONG> option to do this.
- If you specify both <STRONG>-f</STRONG> and <STRONG>-W</STRONG> options, the latter is ignored when
+ If you specify both <STRONG>-f</STRONG> and <STRONG>-W</STRONG> options, the latter is ignored when
<STRONG>-f</STRONG> has already split the line.
<STRONG>-w</STRONG><EM>n</EM> specifies the width of the output. The parameter is optional. If
it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
- <STRONG>-x</STRONG> Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined (see <STRONG>user_caps(5)</STRONG>).
- That is, if you supply a capability name which <STRONG>tic</STRONG> 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
+ <STRONG>-x</STRONG> Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined (see <STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG>).
+ That is, if you supply a capability name which <STRONG>tic</STRONG> 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.
-</PRE><H3><a name="h3-P
ARAMETERS">PARAMETERS</a></H3><PRE>
- <EM>file</EM> contains one or more <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> terminal descriptions in source
- format [see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>]. Each description in the file
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-P
arameters">Parameters</a></H3><PRE>
+ <EM>file</EM> contains one or more <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> terminal descriptions in source
+ format [see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>]. Each description in the file
describes the capabilities of a particular terminal.
- If <EM>file</EM> is "-", then the data is read from the standard input.
+ If <EM>file</EM> is "-", then the data is read from the standard input.
The <EM>file</EM> parameter may also be the path of a character-device.
-</PRE><H3><a name="h3-P
ROCESSING">PROCESSING</a></H3><PRE>
- All but one of the capabilities recognized by <STRONG>tic</STRONG> are documented in
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-P
rocessing">Processing</a></H3><PRE>
+ All but one of the capabilities recognized by <STRONG>tic</STRONG> are documented in
<STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>. The exception is the <STRONG>use</STRONG> capability.
When a <STRONG>use</STRONG>=<EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> field is discovered in a terminal entry currently
- being compiled, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> reads in the binary from <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG> to
- complete the entry. (Entries created from <EM>file</EM> will be used first.
- <STRONG>tic</STRONG> duplicates the capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> for the current entry,
+ being compiled, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> reads in the binary from <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG> to
+ complete the entry. (Entries created from <EM>file</EM> will be used first.
+ <STRONG>tic</STRONG> duplicates the capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> for the current entry,
with the exception of those capabilities that explicitly are defined in
the current entry.
- When an entry, e.g., <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>, contains a <STRONG>use=</STRONG><EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> field,
- any canceled capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> must also appear in
- <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG> before <STRONG>use=</STRONG> for these capabilities to be canceled in
+ When an entry, e.g., <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>, contains a <STRONG>use=</STRONG><EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> field,
+ any canceled capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> must also appear in
+ <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG> before <STRONG>use=</STRONG> for these capabilities to be canceled in
<STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>.
- 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.
-
-
-</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
- 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
- (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
- <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
- development of the corresponding terminfo-to-termcap source conversion,
- 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
- capabilities.
-
- 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
- file. Continued development provides additional checks:
-
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>pcurses</EM> had 8 warnings
-
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses in 1996 had 16 warnings
-
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris (SVr4) curses has 28 warnings
-
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> NetBSD tic in 2019 has 19 warnings.
-
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses in 2019 has 96 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
- user-defined.
+ Total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy storage
+ format, or 32768 using the extended number format. 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.
-</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 True64 UNIX.
- 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
- 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,
- 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
- feature of SVr3.
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
+ <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>
+ compiled terminal description database
-</PRE><H
3><a name="h3-COMPATIBILITY">COMPATIBILITY</a></H3><PRE>
+</PRE><H
2><a name="h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></H2><PRE>
There is some evidence that historic <STRONG>tic</STRONG> implementations treated
description fields with no whitespace in them as additional aliases or
short names. This <STRONG>tic</STRONG> does not do that, but it does warn when
characters.
-</PRE><H
3><a name="h3-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></H3><PRE>
+</PRE><H
2><a name="h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></H2><PRE>
Unlike the SVr4 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> 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 <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for the list of
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>$HOME/.terminfo</EM>
database (if it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file
tree of compiled entries.
<STRONG>-0</STRONG> <STRONG>-1</STRONG> <STRONG>-C</STRONG> <STRONG>-G</STRONG> <STRONG>-I</STRONG> <STRONG>-N</STRONG> <STRONG>-R</STRONG> <STRONG>-T</STRONG> <STRONG>-V</STRONG> <STRONG>-a</STRONG> <STRONG>-e</STRONG> <STRONG>-f</STRONG> <STRONG>-g</STRONG> <STRONG>-o</STRONG> <STRONG>-r</STRONG> <STRONG>-s</STRONG> <STRONG>-t</STRONG> <STRONG>-x</STRONG>
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> The NetBSD <STRONG>tic</STRONG> supports a few of the ncurses options
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The NetBSD <STRONG>tic</STRONG> supports a few of the <EM>ncurses</EM> options
<STRONG>-a</STRONG> <STRONG>-o</STRONG> <STRONG>-x</STRONG>
The SVr4 <STRONG>-c</STRONG> mode does not report bad "use=" links.
System V does not compile entries to or read entries from your
- <EM>$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-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/?/*</STRONG>
- Compiled terminal description database.
+</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. 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
+ Solaris), <EM>ncurses</EM> 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,
+ omitting the <STRONG>-v</STRONG> option.
-</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG><A HREF="captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infotocap.1m.html">infotocap(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="toe.1m.html">toe(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>,
- <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>. <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>. <STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG>.
+ 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
+ Ridge's comment in <EM>mytinfo</EM>, this version of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> was unable to represent
+ cancelled capabilities.
- This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.2 (patch 20210102).
+ 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 <EM>ncurses</EM> (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>).
-</PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHOR">AUTHOR</a></H2><PRE>
+ Eric Raymond incorporated parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM> into <EM>ncurses</EM> 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
+ years.
+
+ 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 <EM>ncurses</EM>,
+ 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
+ file. Continued development provides additional checks:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>pcurses</EM> had 8 warnings
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>ncurses</EM> in 1996 had 16 warnings
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris (SVr4) curses has 28 warnings
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> NetBSD tic in 2019 has 19 warnings.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>ncurses</EM> in 2019 has 96 warnings
+
+ The checking done in <EM>ncurses</EM>' <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 <EM>ncurses</EM>' terminal database; 128 of those are
+ user-defined.
+
+
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></H2><PRE>
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
+ <STRONG><A HREF="captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infotocap.1m.html">infotocap(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="toe.1m.html">toe(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>,
+ <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG>
+
+
-
<STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
+
ncurses 6.4 2024-03-16 <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
<div class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
<ul>
-<li><a href="#h3-ALIASES">ALIASES</a></li>
-<li><a href="#h3-OPTIONS">OPTIONS</a></li>
-<li><a href="#h3-PARAMETERS">PARAMETERS</a></li>
-<li><a href="#h3-PROCESSING">PROCESSING</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h3-Aliases">Aliases</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
-<li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
-<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a>
+<li><a href="#h2-OPTIONS">OPTIONS</a>
<ul>
-<li><a href="#h3-COMPATIBILITY">COMPATIBILITY</a></li>
-<li><a href="#h3-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h3-Parameters">Parameters</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h3-Processing">Processing</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
-<li><a href="#h2-AUTHOR">AUTHOR</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
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