+ 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-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
+ <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>
+ compiled terminal description database
+
+
+</PRE><H2><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
+ description fields may be treated that way and check them for dangerous
+ characters.
+
+
+</PRE><H2><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
+ termcap names taken to be equivalent to terminfo names.
+
+ 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
+ <EM>TERMINFO</EM> (if <EM>TERMINFO</EM> is defined), or in the user's <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM>
+ database (if it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file
+ tree of compiled entries.
+
+ The error messages from this <STRONG>tic</STRONG> have the same format as GNU C error
+ messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's compile facility.
+
+ Aside from <STRONG>-c</STRONG> and <STRONG>-v</STRONG>, options are not portable:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Most of tic's options are not supported by SVr4 <STRONG>tic</STRONG>:
+
+ <STRONG>-0</STRONG> <STRONG>-1</STRONG> <STRONG>-C</STRONG> <STRONG>-G</STRONG> <STRONG>-I</STRONG> <STRONG>-N</STRONG> <STRONG>-R</STRONG> <STRONG>-T</STRONG> <STRONG>-V</STRONG> <STRONG>-a</STRONG> <STRONG>-e</STRONG> <STRONG>-f</STRONG> <STRONG>-g</STRONG> <STRONG>-o</STRONG> <STRONG>-r</STRONG> <STRONG>-s</STRONG> <STRONG>-t</STRONG> <STRONG>-x</STRONG>
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The NetBSD <STRONG>tic</STRONG> supports a few of the <EM>ncurses</EM> options
+
+ <STRONG>-a</STRONG> <STRONG>-o</STRONG> <STRONG>-x</STRONG>
+
+ and adds <STRONG>-S</STRONG> (a feature which does the same thing as infocmp's <STRONG>-e</STRONG>
+ and <STRONG>-E</STRONG> options).
+
+ The SVr4 <STRONG>-c</STRONG> mode does not report bad "use=" links.
+
+ System V does not compile entries to or read entries from your
+ <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> database unless <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. 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.
+
+ 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.