- infocmp can be used to compare a binary terminfo entry
- with other terminfo entries, rewrite a terminfo descrip-
- tion to take advantage of the use= terminfo field, or
- print out a terminfo description from the binary file
- (term) in a variety of formats. In all cases, the boolean
- fields will be printed first, followed by the numeric
- fields, followed by the string fields.
+ infocmp can be used to compare a binary terminfo entry with other
+ terminfo entries, rewrite a terminfo description to take advantage of
+ the use= terminfo field, or print out a terminfo description from the
+ binary file (term) in a variety of formats. In all cases, the Boolean
+ fields will be printed first, followed by the numeric fields, followed
+ by the string fields.
- If no options are specified and zero or one termnames are
- specified, the -I option will be assumed. If more than
- one termname is specified, the -d option will be assumed.
-
-
-
- infocmp compares the terminfo description of the first
- terminal termname with each of the descriptions given by
- the entries for the other terminal's termnames. If a
- capability is defined for only one of the terminals, the
- value returned will depend on the type of the capability:
- F for boolean variables, -1 for integer variables, and
- NULL for string variables.
-
- The -d option produces a list of each capability that is
- different between two entries. This option is useful to
- show the difference between two entries, created by dif-
- ferent people, for the same or similar terminals.
-
- The -c option produces a list of each capability that is
- common between two or more entries. Capabilities that are
- not set are ignored. This option can be used as a quick
- check to see if the -u option is worth using.
-
- The -n option produces a list of each capability that is
- in none of the given entries. If no termnames are given,
- the environment variable TERM will be used for both of the
- termnames. This can be used as a quick check to see if
- anything was left out of a description.
-
-
-
- The -I, -L, and -C options will produce a source listing
- for each terminal named.
-
- -I use the terminfo names
- -L use the long C variable name listed in <term.h>
- -C use the termcap names
- -r when using -C, put out all capabilities in termcap form
- -K modifies the -C option, improving BSD-compatibility.
-
- If no termnames are given, the environment variable TERM
- will be used for the terminal name.
-
- The source produced by the -C option may be used directly
- as a termcap entry, but not all parameterized strings can
- be changed to the termcap format. infocmp will attempt to
- convert most of the parameterized information, and any-
- thing not converted will be plainly marked in the output
- and commented out. These should be edited by hand.
-
- For best results when converting to termcap format, you
- should use both -C and -r. Normally a termcap description
- is limited to 1023 bytes. infocmp trims away less essen-
- tial parts to make it fit. If you are converting to one
- of the (rare) termcap implementations which accept an
- unlimited size of termcap, you may want to add the -T
- option. More often however, you must help the termcap
- implementation, and trim excess whitespace (use the -0
- option for that).
-
- All padding information for strings will be collected
- together and placed at the beginning of the string where
- termcap expects it. Mandatory padding (padding informa-
- tion with a trailing '/') will become optional.
-
- All termcap variables no longer supported by terminfo, but
- which are derivable from other terminfo variables, will be
- output. Not all terminfo capabilities will be translated;
- only those variables which were part of termcap will nor-
- mally be output. Specifying the -r option will take off
- this restriction, allowing all capabilities to be output
- in termcap form. Normally you would use both the -C and
- -r options. The actual format used incorporates some
- improvements for escaped characters from terminfo format.
- For a stricter BSD-compatible translation, use the -K
- option rather than -C.
-
- Note that because padding is collected to the beginning of
- the capability, not all capabilities are output. Manda-
- tory padding is not supported. Because termcap strings
- are not as flexible, it is not always possible to convert
- a terminfo string capability into an equivalent termcap
- format. A subsequent conversion of the termcap file back
- into terminfo format will not necessarily reproduce the
- original terminfo source.
-
- Some common terminfo parameter sequences, their termcap
- equivalents, and some terminal types which commonly have
- such sequences, are:
-
- terminfotermcap Representative Terminals
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
- %p1%c%. adm
- %p1%d%d hp, ANSI standard, vt100
- %p1%'x'%+%c%+x concept
- %i%iq ANSI standard, vt100
- %p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%;%>xy concept
- %p2 is printed before %p1%r hp
-
-
-
- The -u option produces a terminfo source description of
- the first terminal termname which is relative to the sum
- of the descriptions given by the entries for the other
- terminals termnames. It does this by analyzing the dif-
- ferences between the first termname and the other
- termnames and producing a description with use= fields for
- the other terminals. In this manner, it is possible to
- retrofit generic terminfo entries into a terminal's
- description. Or, if two similar terminals exist, but were
- coded at different times or by different people so that
- each description is a full description, using infocmp will
- show what can be done to change one description to be rel-
- ative to the other.
-
- A capability will get printed with an at-sign (@) if it no
- longer exists in the first termname, but one of the other
- termname entries contains a value for it. A capability's
- value gets printed if the value in the first termname is
- not found in any of the other termname entries, or if the
- first of the other termname entries that has this capabil-
- ity gives a different value for the capability than that
- in the first termname.
-
- The order of the other termname entries is significant.
- Since the terminfo compiler tic does a left-to-right scan
- of the capabilities, specifying two use= entries that con-
- tain differing entries for the same capabilities will pro-
- duce different results depending on the order that the
- entries are given in. infocmp will flag any such incon-
- sistencies between the other termname entries as they are
- found.
-
- Alternatively, specifying a capability after a use= entry
- that contains that capability will cause the second speci-
- fication to be ignored. Using infocmp to recreate a
- description can be a useful check to make sure that every-
- thing was specified correctly in the original source
+ If no options are specified and zero or one terminal-types are
+ specified, the -I option will be assumed. If more than one terminal-
+ type is specified, the -d option will be assumed.
+
+
+
+ infocmp compares the terminfo description of the first terminal
+ terminal-type with each of the descriptions given by the entries for
+ the other terminal's terminal-types. If a capability is defined for
+ only one of the terminals, the value returned depends on the type of
+ the capability:
+
+ oF for missing Boolean variables
+
+ oNULL for missing integer or string variables
+
+ Use the -q option to show the distinction between absent and cancelled
+ capabilities.
+
+ These options produce a list which you can use to compare two or more
+ terminal descriptions:
+
+ -d produces a list of each capability that is different between two
+ entries. Each item in the list shows ":" after the capability
+ name, followed by the capability values, separated by a comma.
+
+ -c produces a list of each capability that is common between two or
+ more entries. Missing capabilities are ignored. Each item in the
+ list shows "=" after the capability name, followed by the
+ capability value.
+
+ The -u option provides a related output, showing the first
+ terminal description rewritten to use the second as a building
+ block via the "use=" clause.
+
+ -n produces a list of each capability that is in none of the given
+ entries. Each item in the list shows "!" before the capability
+ name.
+
+ Normally only the conventional capabilities are shown. Use the -x
+ option to add the BSD-compatibility capabilities (names prefixed
+ with "OT").
+
+ If no terminal-types are given, infocmp uses the environment
+ variable TERM for each of the terminal-types.
+
+
+
+ The -I, -L, and -C options will produce a source listing for each
+ terminal named.
+
+ -I use terminfo capability codes
+ -L use "long" capability names
+ -C use termcap capability codes
+ -r with -C, include nonstandard capabilities
+ -K with -C, improve BSD compatibility
+
+ If no terminal-types are given, the environment variable TERM will be
+ used for the terminal name.
+
+ The source produced by the -C option may be used directly as a termcap
+ entry, but not all parameterized strings can be changed to the termcap
+ format. infocmp will attempt to convert most of the parameterized
+ information, and anything not converted will be plainly marked in the
+ output and commented out. These should be edited by hand.
+
+ For best results when converting to termcap format, you should use both
+ -C and -r. Normally a termcap description is limited to 1023 bytes.
+ infocmp trims away less essential parts to make it fit. If you are
+ converting to one of the (rare) termcap implementations which accept an
+ unlimited size of termcap, you may want to add the -T option. More
+ often however, you must help the termcap implementation, and trim
+ excess whitespace (use the -0 option for that).
+
+ All padding information for strings will be collected together and
+ placed at the beginning of the string where termcap expects it.
+ Mandatory padding (padding information with a trailing "/") will become
+ optional.
+
+ All termcap variables no longer supported by terminfo, but which are
+ derivable from other terminfo variables, will be output. Not all
+ terminfo capabilities will be translated; only those variables which
+ were part of termcap will normally be output. Specifying the -r option
+ will take off this restriction, allowing all capabilities to be output
+ in termcap form. Normally you would use both the -C and -r options.
+ The actual format used incorporates some improvements for escaped
+ characters from terminfo format. For a stricter BSD-compatible
+ translation, use the -K option rather than -C.
+
+ Note that because padding is collected to the beginning of the
+ capability, not all capabilities are output. Mandatory padding is not
+ supported. Because termcap strings are not as flexible, it is not
+ always possible to convert a terminfo string capability into an
+ equivalent termcap format. A subsequent conversion of the termcap file
+ back into terminfo format will not necessarily reproduce the original
+ terminfo source.
+
+ Some common terminfo parameter sequences, their termcap equivalents,
+ and some terminal types which commonly have such sequences, are:
+
+ terminfotermcap Terminal Types
+ ----------------------------------------------------
+ %p1%c%. ansi-m
+ %p1%d%d ansi, vt100
+ %p1%''%+%c%+x vt52
+ %i%iq ansi, vt100
+ %p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%;%>xy annarbor4080
+ %p2...%p1%r hpgeneric
+
+
+
+ The -u option produces a terminfo source description of the first
+ terminal terminal-type which is relative to the sum of the descriptions
+ given by the entries for the other terminal-types. It does this by
+ analyzing the differences between the first terminal-types and the
+ other terminal-types and producing a description with use= fields for
+ the other terminals. In this manner, it is possible to retrofit
+ generic terminfo entries into a terminal's description. Or, if two
+ similar terminals exist, but were coded at different times or by
+ different people so that each description is a full description, using
+ infocmp will show what can be done to change one description to be
+ relative to the other.
+
+ A capability will be printed with an at-sign (@) if it no longer exists
+ in the first terminal-type, but one of the other terminal-type entries
+ contains a value for it. A capability's value will be printed if the
+ value in the first terminal-type is not found in any of the other
+ terminal-type entries, or if the first of the other terminal-type
+ entries that has this capability gives a different value for the
+ capability than that in the first terminal-type.
+
+ The order of the other terminal-type entries is significant. Since the
+ terminfo compiler tic does a left-to-right scan of the capabilities,
+ specifying two use= entries that contain differing entries for the same
+ capabilities will produce different results depending on the order that
+ the entries are given in. infocmp will flag any such inconsistencies
+ between the other terminal-type entries as they are found.
+
+ Alternatively, specifying a capability after a use= entry that contains
+ that capability will cause the second specification to be ignored.
+ Using infocmp to recreate a description can be a useful check to make
+ sure that everything was specified correctly in the original source
description.
- Another error that does not cause incorrect compiled
- files, but will slow down the compilation time, is speci-
- fying extra use= fields that are superfluous. infocmp
- will flag any other termnameuse= fields that were not
- needed.
+ Another error that does not cause incorrect compiled files, but will
+ slow down the compilation time, is specifying extra use= fields that
+ are superfluous. infocmp will flag any other terminal-typeuse= fields
+ that were not needed.
ChangingDatabases[-Adirectory] [-B directory]
- Like other ncurses utilities, infocmp looks for the termi-
- nal descriptions in several places. You can use the TER-
- MINFO and TERMINFO_DIRS environment variables to override
- the compiled-in default list of places to search (see
- curses(3x) for details).
+ Like other ncurses utilities, infocmp looks for the terminal
+ descriptions in several places. You can use the TERMINFO and
+ TERMINFO_DIRS environment variables to override the compiled-in default
+ list of places to search. See curses(3x), as well as the Fetching
+ CompiledDescriptions section in terminfo(5).
- You can also use the options -A and -B to override the
- list of places to search when comparing terminal descrip-
- tions:
+ You can also use the options -A and -B to override the list of places
+ to search when comparing terminal descriptions:
- o The -A option sets the location for the first termname
+ o The -A option sets the location for the first terminal-type
- o The -B option sets the location for the other
- termnames.
+ o The -B option sets the location for the other terminal-types.
- Using these options, it is possible to compare descrip-
- tions for a terminal with the same name located in two
- different databases. For instance, you can use this fea-
- ture for comparing descriptions for the same terminal cre-
- ated by different people.
+ Using these options, it is possible to compare descriptions for a
+ terminal with the same name located in two different databases. For
+ instance, you can use this feature for comparing descriptions for the
+ same terminal created by different people.
- -0 causes the fields to be printed on one line, without
- wrapping.
-
- -1 causes the fields to be printed out one to a line.
- Otherwise, the fields will be printed several to a
- line to a maximum width of 60 characters.
-
- -a tells infocmp to retain commented-out capabilities
- rather than discarding them. Capabilities are com-
- mented by prefixing them with a period.
-
- -D tells infocmp to print the database locations that it
- knows about, and exit.
-
- -E Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as
- tables, needed in the C initializer for a TERMTYPE
- structure (the terminal capability structure in the
- <term.h>). This option is useful for preparing ver-
- sions of the curses library hardwired for a given
- terminal type. The tables are all declared static,
- and are named according to the type and the name of
- the corresponding terminal entry.
-
- Before ncurses 5.0, the split between the -e and -E
- options was not needed; but support for extended
- names required making the arrays of terminal capabil-
- ities separate from the TERMTYPE structure.
-
- -e Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as a C
- initializer for a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal
- capability structure in the <term.h>). This option
- is useful for preparing versions of the curses
- library hardwired for a given terminal type.
-
- -F compare terminfo files. This assumes that two fol-
- lowing arguments are filenames. The files are
- searched for pairwise matches between entries, with
- two entries considered to match if any of their names
- do. The report printed to standard output lists
- entries with no matches in the other file, and
- entries with more than one match. For entries with
- exactly one match it includes a difference report.
- Normally, to reduce the volume of the report, use
- references are not resolved before looking for dif-
- ferences, but resolution can be forced by also speci-
- fying -r.
-
- -f Display complex terminfo strings which contain
- if/then/else/endif expressions indented for readabil-
- ity.
-
- -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 Analyze the initialization (is1, is2, is3), and reset
- (rs1, rs2, rs3), strings in the entry, as well as
- those used for starting/stopping cursor-positioning
- mode (smcup, rmcup) as well as starting/stopping
- keymap mode (smkx, rmkx).
-
- For each string, the code tries to analyze it into
- actions in terms of the other capabilities in the
- entry, certain X3.64/ISO 6429/ECMA-48 capabilities,
- and certain DEC VT-series private modes (the set of
- recognized special sequences has been selected for
- completeness over the existing terminfo database).
- Each report line consists of the capability name,
- followed by a colon and space, followed by a print-
- able expansion of the capability string with sections
- matching recognized actions translated into {}-brack-
- eted descriptions.
-
- Here is a list of the DEC/ANSI special sequences rec-
- ognized:
-
- Action Meaning
- -----------------------------------------
- RIS full reset
- SC save cursor
- RC restore cursor
- LL home-down
- RSR reset scroll region
- -----------------------------------------
- DECSTR soft reset (VT320)
- S7C1T 7-bit controls (VT220)
- -----------------------------------------
- ISO DEC G0 enable DEC graphics for G0
- ISO UK G0 enable UK chars for G0
- ISO US G0 enable US chars for G0
- ISO DEC G1 enable DEC graphics for G1
- ISO UK G1 enable UK chars for G1
- ISO US G1 enable US chars for G1
- -----------------------------------------
- DECPAM application keypad mode
- DECPNM normal keypad mode
- DECANSI enter ANSI mode
- -----------------------------------------
- ECMA[+-]AM keyboard action mode
- ECMA[+-]IRM insert replace mode
- ECMA[+-]SRM send receive mode
- ECMA[+-]LNM linefeed mode
- -----------------------------------------
- DEC[+-]CKM application cursor keys
- DEC[+-]ANM set VT52 mode
- DEC[+-]COLM 132-column mode
- DEC[+-]SCLM smooth scroll
- DEC[+-]SCNM reverse video mode
- DEC[+-]OM origin mode
- DEC[+-]AWM wraparound mode
- DEC[+-]ARM auto-repeat mode
-
- It also recognizes a SGR action corresponding to
- ANSI/ISO 6429/ECMA Set Graphics Rendition, with the
- values NORMAL, BOLD, UNDERLINE, BLINK, and REVERSE.
- All but NORMAL may be prefixed with `+' (turn on) or
- `-' (turn off).
-
- An SGR0 designates an empty highlight sequence
- (equivalent to {SGR:NORMAL}).
+ -0 causes the fields to be printed on one line, without wrapping.
+
+ -1 causes the fields to be printed out one to a line. Otherwise, the
+ fields will be printed several to a line to a maximum width of 60
+ characters.
+
+ -a tells infocmp to retain commented-out capabilities rather than
+ discarding them. Capabilities are commented by prefixing them
+ with a period.
+
+ -D tells infocmp to print the database locations that it knows about,
+ and exit.
+
+ -E Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as tables, needed in
+ the C initializer for a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal
+ capability structure in the <term.h>). This option is useful for
+ preparing versions of the curses library hardwired for a given
+ terminal type. The tables are all declared static, and are named
+ according to the type and the name of the corresponding terminal
+ entry.
+
+ Before ncurses 5.0, the split between the -e and -E options was
+ not needed; but support for extended names required making the
+ arrays of terminal capabilities separate from the TERMTYPE
+ structure.
+
+ -e Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as a C initializer for
+ a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal capability structure in the
+ <term.h>). This option is useful for preparing versions of the
+ curses library hardwired for a given terminal type.
+
+ -F compare terminfo files. This assumes that two following arguments
+ are filenames. The files are searched for pairwise matches
+ between entries, with two entries considered to match if any of
+ their names do. The report printed to standard output lists
+ entries with no matches in the other file, and entries with more
+ than one match. For entries with exactly one match it includes a
+ difference report. Normally, to reduce the volume of the report,
+ use references are not resolved before looking for differences,
+ but resolution can be forced by also specifying -r.
+
+ -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 Analyze the initialization (is1, is2, is3), and reset (rs1, rs2,
+ rs3), strings in the entry, as well as those used for
+ starting/stopping cursor-positioning mode (smcup, rmcup) as well
+ as starting/stopping keymap mode (smkx, rmkx).
+
+ For each string, the code tries to analyze it into actions in
+ terms of the other capabilities in the entry, certain X3.64/ISO
+ 6429/ECMA-48 capabilities, and certain DEC VT-series private modes
+ (the set of recognized special sequences has been selected for
+ completeness over the existing terminfo database). Each report
+ line consists of the capability name, followed by a colon and
+ space, followed by a printable expansion of the capability string
+ with sections matching recognized actions translated into
+ {}-bracketed descriptions.
+
+ Here is a list of the DEC/ANSI special sequences recognized:
+
+ Action Meaning
+ -----------------------------------------
+ RIS full reset
+ SC save cursor
+ RC restore cursor
+ LL home-down
+ RSR reset scroll region
+ -----------------------------------------
+
+ DECSTR soft reset (VT320)
+ S7C1T 7-bit controls (VT220)
+ -----------------------------------------
+ ISO DEC G0 enable DEC graphics for G0
+ ISO UK G0 enable UK chars for G0
+ ISO US G0 enable US chars for G0
+ ISO DEC G1 enable DEC graphics for G1
+ ISO UK G1 enable UK chars for G1
+ ISO US G1 enable US chars for G1
+ -----------------------------------------
+ DECPAM application keypad mode
+ DECPNM normal keypad mode
+ DECANSI enter ANSI mode
+ -----------------------------------------
+ ECMA[+-]AM keyboard action mode
+ ECMA[+-]IRM insert replace mode
+ ECMA[+-]SRM send receive mode
+ ECMA[+-]LNM linefeed mode
+ -----------------------------------------
+ DEC[+-]CKM application cursor keys
+ DEC[+-]ANM set VT52 mode
+ DEC[+-]COLM 132-column mode
+ DEC[+-]SCLM smooth scroll
+ DEC[+-]SCNM reverse video mode
+ DEC[+-]OM origin mode
+ DEC[+-]AWM wraparound mode
+ DEC[+-]ARM auto-repeat mode
+
+ It also recognizes a SGR action corresponding to ANSI/ISO 6429/ECMA Set
+ Graphics Rendition, with the values NORMAL, BOLD, UNDERLINE, BLINK, and
+ REVERSE. All but NORMAL may be prefixed with
+
+ o "+" (turn on) or
+
+ o "-" (turn off).
+
+ An SGR0 designates an empty highlight sequence (equivalent to
+ {SGR:NORMAL}).
-l Set output format to terminfo.
-p Ignore padding specifications when comparing strings.
- -Qn Rather than show source in terminfo (text) format,
- print the compiled (binary) format in hexadecimal or
- base64 form, depending on the option's value:
+ -Qn 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
@@ -376,35 +367,53 @@
3 hexadecimal and base64
+ For example, this prints the compiled terminfo value as a string
+ which could be assigned to the TERMINFO environment variable:
+
+ infocmp -0 -q -Q2
+
-q This makes the output a little shorter:
- o Make the comparison listing shorter by omitting
- subheadings, and using "-" for absent capabili-
- ties, "@" for canceled rather than "NULL".
+ o Make the comparison listing shorter by omitting subheadings,
+ and using "-" for absent capabilities, "@" for canceled rather
+ than "NULL".
+
+ o However, show differences between absent and cancelled
+ capabilities.
- o Omit the "Reconstructed from" comment for source
- listings.
+ o Omit the "Reconstructed from" comment for source listings.
-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 variants
- such as AIX that have their own extensions incompati-
- ble with SVr4/XSI.
-
- Available terminfo subsets are "SVr1", "Ultrix",
- "HP", and "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for details. You
- can also choose the subset "BSD" which selects only
- capabilities with termcap equivalents recognized by
- 4.4BSD.
+ 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
+ variants such as AIX that have their own extensions incompatible
+ with SVr4/XSI.
+
+ o Available terminfo subsets are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", and
+ "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for details.
+
+ o You can also choose the subset "BSD" which selects only
+ capabilities with termcap equivalents recognized by 4.4BSD.
+
+ o If you select any other value for -R, it is the same as no
+ subset, i.e., all capabilities are used.
+
+ A few options override the subset selected with -R, if they are
+ processed later in the command parameters:
+
+ -C sets the "BSD" subset as a side-effect.
+
+ -I sets the subset to all capabilities.
+
+ -r sets the subset to all capabilities.
-s[d|i|l|c]
- The -s option sorts the fields within each type
- according to the argument below:
+ The -s option sorts the fields within each type according to the
+ argument below:
- d leave fields in the order that they are stored
- in the terminfo database.
+ d leave fields in the order that they are stored in the
+ terminfo database.
i sort by terminfo name.
@@ -412,79 +421,117 @@
c sort by the termcap name.
- If the -s option is not given, the fields printed out
- will be sorted alphabetically by the terminfo name
- within each type, except in the case of the -C or the
- -L options, which cause the sorting to be done by the
- termcap name or the long C variable name, respec-
- tively.
+ If the -s option is not given, the fields printed out will be
+ sorted alphabetically by the terminfo name within each type,
+ except in the case of the -C or the -L options, which cause the
+ sorting to be done by the termcap name or the long C variable
+ name, respectively.
+
+ -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 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.
- -t tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities.
- Normally when translating from terminfo to termcap,
- untranslatable capabilities are commented-out.
+ -U tells infocmp to not post-process the data after parsing the
+ source file. This feature helps when comparing the actual
+ contents of two source files, since it excludes the inferences
+ that infocmp makes to fill in missing data.
- -U tells infocmp to not post-process the data after
- parsing the source file. This feature helps when
- comparing the actual contents of two source files,
- since it excludes the inferences that infocmp makes
- to fill in missing data.
+ -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
+ exits.
- -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this
- program, and exits.
+ -vn prints out tracing information on standard error as the program
+ runs.
- -vn prints out tracing information on standard error as
- the program runs. Higher values of n induce greater
- verbosity.
+ 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.
+
+ -W By itself, the -w option will not force long strings to be
+ wrapped. Use the -W option to do this.
-wwidth
changes the output to width characters.
- -x print information for user-defined capabilities.
- These are extensions to the terminfo repertoire which
- can be loaded using the -x option of tic.
+ -x print information for user-defined capabilities (see user_caps(5).
+ These are extensions to the terminfo repertoire which can be
+ loaded using the -x option of tic.
- The -0, -1, -E, -F, -G, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -i,
- -l, -p, -q and -t options are not supported in SVr4
- curses.
+ The -0, -1, -E, -F, -G, -Q, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -i, -l, -p, -q
+ and -t options are not supported in SVr4 curses.
- The -r option's notion of `termcap' capabilities is System
- V Release 4's. Actual BSD curses versions will have a
- more restricted set. To see only the 4.4BSD set, use -r
- -RBSD.
+ SVr4 infocmp does not distinguish between absent and cancelled
+ capabilities. Also, it shows missing integer capabilities as -1 (the
+ internal value used to represent missing integers). This
+ implementation shows those as "NULL", for consistency with missing
+ strings.
+ The -r option's notion of "termcap" capabilities is System V Release
+ 4's. Actual BSD curses versions will have a more restricted set. To
+ see only the 4.4BSD set, use -r-RBSD.
-
+ Although System V Release 2 provided a terminfo library, it had no
+ documented tool for decompiling the terminal descriptions. Tony Hansen
+ (AT&T) wrote the first infocmp in early 1984, for System V Release 3.
+
+ Eric Raymond used the AT&T documentation in 1995 to provide an
+ equivalent infocmp for ncurses. In addition, he added a few new
+ features such as:
+
+ o the -e option, to support fallback (compiled-in) terminal
+ descriptions
+
+ o the -i option, to help with analysis
+
+ Later, Thomas Dickey added the -x (user-defined capabilities) option,
+ and the -E option to support fallback entries with user-defined
+ capabilities.
+
+ For a complete list, see the EXTENSIONS section.
+
+ In 2010, Roy Marples provided an infocmp program for NetBSD. It is
+ less capable than the SVr4 or ncurses versions (e.g., it lacks the
+ sorting options documented in X/Open), but does include the -x option
+ adapted from ncurses.
- This describes ncurses version 6.0 (patch 20160326).
+