- infocmp can be used to compare a binary terminfo entry with other ter-
- minfo 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
+ 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.
+ 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
- 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 depends on the type of the capabil-
- ity:
+ 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
+ oF for missing Boolean variables
oNULL for missing integer or string variables
@@ -95,12 +96,12 @@
-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 capabil-
- ity value.
+ list shows "=" after the capability name, followed by the
+ capability value.
- The -u option provides a related output, showing the first termi-
- nal description rewritten to use the second as a building block
- via the "use=" clause.
+ 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
@@ -110,22 +111,22 @@
option to add the BSD-compatibility capabilities (names prefixed
with "OT").
- If no termnames are given, infocmp uses the environment variable
- TERM for each of the termnames.
+ 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 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.
+ -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 termnames are given, the environment variable TERM will be used
- for the terminal name.
+ 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
@@ -142,94 +143,96 @@
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. Manda-
- tory padding (padding information with a trailing "/") will become
+ 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 ter-
- minfo 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 charac-
- ters 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 capabil-
- ity, not all capabilities are output. Mandatory padding is not sup-
- ported. 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.
+ 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 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 ter-
- minal termname which is relative to the sum of the descriptions given
- by the entries for the other terminals termnames. It does this by ana-
- lyzing the differences 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 relative 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
- capability gives a different value for the capability than that in the
- first termname.
-
- The order of the other termname entries is significant. Since the ter-
- minfo compiler tic does a left-to-right scan of the capabilities, spec-
- ifying two use= entries that contain differing entries for the same
+ 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 termname entries as they are found.
+ 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
+ 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 specifying 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 terminal descrip-
- tions 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) 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 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 descriptions for a ter-
- minal with the same name located in two different databases. For
+ 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.
@@ -249,114 +252,114 @@
and exit.
-E Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as tables, needed in
- the C initializer for a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal capabil-
- ity structure in the <term.h>). This option is useful for prepar-
- ing 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 struc-
- ture.
+ 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
+ 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,
+ 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
+ -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 char-
- acter equivalents.
+ -G Display constant literals in decimal form rather than their
+ character equivalents.
- -g Display constant character literals in quoted form rather than
+ -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 start-
- ing/stopping cursor-positioning mode (smcup, rmcup) as well as
- starting/stopping keymap mode (smkx, rmkx).
+ -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
+ 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
+ (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}).
+ 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 com-
- piled (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
@@ -364,41 +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,
+ 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 capa-
- bilities.
+ o However, show differences between absent and cancelled
+ capabilities.
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 incompatible
+ 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
+ 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 capa-
- bilities with termcap equivalents recognized by 4.4BSD. The
- -C option sets the "BSD" subset as a side-effect.
+ 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. The -I option like-
- wise selects no subset as a side-effect.
+ 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:
- d leave fields in the order that they are stored in the ter-
- minfo database.
+ d leave fields in the order that they are stored in the
+ terminfo database.
i sort by terminfo name.
@@ -414,26 +429,26 @@
-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 ter-
- minfo).
+ 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 infocmp to not post-process the data after parsing the
- source file. This feature helps when comparing the actual con-
- tents of two source files, since it excludes the inferences that
- infocmp makes to fill in missing data.
+ 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
+ -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.
The optional parameter n is a number from 1 to 10, inclusive,
- indicating the desired level of detail of information. If ncurses
+ indicating the desired level of detail of information. If ncurses
is built without tracing support, the optional parameter is
ignored.
@@ -443,49 +458,80 @@
-wwidth
changes the output to width characters.
- -x print information for user-defined capabilities. These are exten-
- sions 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, -Q, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -i, -l, -p, -q
and -t options are not supported in SVr4 curses.
- SVr4 infocmp does not distinguish between absent and cancelled capabil-
- ities. 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.
+ 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
+ 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:
- http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
+ o the -e option, to support fallback (compiled-in) terminal
+ descriptions
- This describes ncurses version 6.0 (patch 20171028).
+ 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.
+
+
+