- The environment variable TERM should normally contain the type name of
+ The environment variable TERM should normally contain the type name of
the terminal, console or display-device type you are using. This
information is critical for all screen-oriented programs, including
your editor and mailer.
- A default TERM value will be set on a per-line basis by either
- /etc/inittab (e.g., System-V-like UNIXes) or /etc/ttys (BSD UNIXes).
- This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer con-
- soles.
+ A default TERM value will be set on a per-line basis by either
+ /etc/inittab (e.g., System-V-like Unices) or /etc/ttys (BSD Unices).
+ This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer
+ consoles.
If you use a dialup line, the type of device attached to it may vary.
- Older UNIX systems pre-set a very dumb terminal type like "dumb" or
+ Older Unix systems pre-set a very dumb terminal type like "dumb" or
"dialup" on dialup lines. Newer ones may pre-set "vt100", reflecting
the prevalence of DEC VT100-compatible terminals and personal-computer
emulators.
- Modern telnets pass your TERM environment variable from the local side
+ Modern telnets pass your TERM environment variable from the local side
to the remote one. There can be problems if the remote terminfo or
- termcap entry for your type is not compatible with yours, but this sit-
- uation is rare and can almost always be avoided by explicitly exporting
- "vt100" (assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset console, ter-
- minal, or terminal emulator.)
+ termcap entry for your type is not compatible with yours, but this
+ situation is rare and can almost always be avoided by explicitly
+ exporting "vt100" (assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset
+ console, terminal, or terminal emulator).
- In any case, you are free to override the system TERM setting to your
+ In any case, you are free to override the system TERM setting to your
taste in your shell profile. The tset(1) utility may be of assistance;
you can give it a set of rules for deducing or requesting a terminal
type based on the tty device and baud rate.
- Setting your own TERM value may also be useful if you have created a
+ Setting your own TERM value may also be useful if you have created a
custom entry incorporating options (such as visual bell or reverse-
video) which you wish to override the system default type for your
line.
@@ -87,14 +88,14 @@
underneath /usr/share/terminfo. To browse a list of all terminal names
recognized by the system, do
- toe | more
+ toe | more
- from your shell. These capability files are in a binary format opti-
- mized for retrieval speed (unlike the old text-based termcap format
- they replace); to examine an entry, you must use the infocmp(1m) com-
- mand. Invoke it as follows:
+ from your shell. These capability files are in a binary format
+ optimized for retrieval speed (unlike the old text-based termcap format
+ they replace); to examine an entry, you must use the infocmp(1m)
+ command. Invoke it as follows:
- infocmp entry_name
+ infocmp entry_name
where entry_name is the name of the type you wish to examine (and the
name of its capability file the subdirectory of /usr/share/terminfo
@@ -104,25 +105,25 @@
The first line of a terminfo(5) description gives the names by which
terminfo knows a terminal, separated by "|" (pipe-bar) characters with
the last name field terminated by a comma. The first name field is the
- type's primaryname, and is the one to use when setting TERM. The last
+ type's primaryname, and is the one to use when setting TERM. The last
name field (if distinct from the first) is actually a description of
the terminal type (it may contain blanks; the others must be single
words). Name fields between the first and last (if present) are
- aliases for the terminal, usually historical names retained for compat-
- ibility.
+ aliases for the terminal, usually historical names retained for
+ compatibility.
There are some conventions for how to choose terminal primary names
that help keep them informative and unique. Here is a step-by-step
guide to naming terminals that also explains how to parse them:
- First, choose a root name. The root will consist of a lower-case let-
- ter followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits. You need to
- avoid using punctuation characters in root names, because they are used
- and interpreted as filenames and shell meta-characters (such as !, $,
- *, ?, etc.) embedded in them may cause odd and unhelpful behavior. The
- slash (/), or any other character that may be interpreted by anyone's
- file system (\, $, [, ]), is especially dangerous (terminfo is plat-
- form-independent, and choosing names with special characters could
+ First, choose a root name. The root will consist of a lower-case
+ letter followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits. You need
+ to avoid using punctuation characters in root names, because they are
+ used and interpreted as filenames and shell meta-characters (such as !,
+ $, *, ?, etc.) embedded in them may cause odd and unhelpful behavior.
+ The slash (/), or any other character that may be interpreted by
+ anyone's file system (\, $, [, ]), is especially dangerous (terminfo is
+ platform-independent, and choosing names with special characters could
someday make life difficult for users of a future port). The dot (.)
character is relatively safe as long as there is at most one per root
name; some historical terminfo names use it.
@@ -143,18 +144,18 @@
or the console driver release level.
The root name for a terminal emulator (assuming it does not fit one of
- the standard ANSI or vt100 types) should be the program name or a read-
- ily recognizable abbreviation of it (i.e., versaterm, ctrm).
+ the standard ANSI or vt100 types) should be the program name or a
+ readily recognizable abbreviation of it (i.e., versaterm, ctrm).
Following the root name, you may add any reasonable number of hyphen-
separated feature suffixes.
2p Has two pages of memory. Likewise 4p, 8p, etc.
- mc Magic-cookie. Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only sup-
- port one attribute without magic-cookie lossage. Their base entry
- is usually paired with another that has this suffix and uses magic
- cookies to support multiple attributes.
+ mc Magic-cookie. Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only
+ support one attribute without magic-cookie lossage. Their base
+ entry is usually paired with another that has this suffix and uses
+ magic cookies to support multiple attributes.
-am Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound).
@@ -177,7 +178,7 @@
-vb Use visible bell (flash) rather than beep.
- -w Wide; terminal is in 132 column mode.
+ -w Wide; terminal is in 132-column mode.
Conventionally, if your terminal type is a variant intended to specify
a line height, that suffix should go first. So, for a hypothetical
@@ -190,39 +191,39 @@
Commands which use a terminal type to control display often accept a -T
option that accepts a terminal name argument. Such programs should
- fall back on the TERM environment variable when no -T option is speci-
- fied.
+ fall back on the TERM environment variable when no -T option is
+ specified.
-