+
tic [-01CDGIKLNTUVacfgrstx] [-e names] [-o dir] [-R sub-
set] [-v[n]] [-w[n]] file
-DESCRIPTION
+
The tic command translates a terminfo file from source
format into compiled format. The compiled format is nec-
essary for use with the library routines in ncurses(3x).
@@ -117,7 +118,9 @@
o the system terminfo database (/usr/share/terminfo).
- OPTIONS
+
+
+
-0 restricts the output to a single line
-1 restricts the output to a single column
@@ -142,85 +145,106 @@
stricter BSD-compatible translation, add the -K
option.
- -c tells tic to only check file for errors, including
- syntax problems and bad use links. If you specify
+ If this is combined with -c, tic makes additional
+ checks to report cases where the terminfo values do
+ not have an exact equivalent in termcap form. For
+ example:
+
+ o sgr 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 ter-
+ minfo.
+
+ o capabilities with more than one delay or with
+ delays before the end of the string will not
+ convert completely.
+
+ -c tells tic to only check file for errors, including
+ syntax problems and bad use links. If you specify
-C (-I) with this option, the code will print warn-
ings 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
+ 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 doc-
umented limit in terminfo), these entries may cause
core dumps with other implementations.
- -D tells tic to print the database locations that it
+ tic checks string capabilities to ensure that those
+ with parameters will be valid expressions. It does
+ this check only for the predefined string capabili-
+ ties; those which are defined with the -x option
+ are ignored.
+
+ -D tells tic 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
+ the one to which it would write compiled terminal
descriptions. If tic is not able to find a
- writable database location according to the rules
- summarized above, it will print a diagnostic and
- exit with an error rather than printing a list of
+ writable database location according to the rules
+ summarized above, it will print a diagnostic and
+ exit with an error rather than printing a list of
database locations.
-e names
- Limit writes and translations to the following
- comma-separated list of terminals. If any name or
+ 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 translated as
- normal. Otherwise no output will be generated for
+ 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 con-
- taining the list if it contains a '/'. (Note:
- depending on how tic was compiled, this option may
+ taining the list if it contains a '/'. (Note:
+ depending on how tic was compiled, this option may
require -I or -C.)
-f Display complex terminfo strings which contain
- if/then/else/endif expressions indented for read-
+ if/then/else/endif expressions indented for read-
ability.
- -G Display constant literals in decimal form rather
+ -G Display constant literals in decimal form rather
than their character equivalents.
- -g Display constant character literals in quoted form
+ -g Display constant character literals in quoted form
rather than their decimal equivalents.
-I Force source translation to terminfo format.
- -K Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to
+ -K Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to
termcap format, e.g., "\s" for space.
- -L Force source translation to terminfo format using
+ -L Force source translation to terminfo format using
the long C variable names listed in <term.h>
-N Disable smart defaults. Normally, when translating
from termcap to terminfo, the compiler makes a num-
- ber of assumptions about the defaults of string
- capabilities reset1_string, carriage_return, cur-
- sor_left, cursor_down, scroll_forward, tab, new-
- line, key_backspace, key_left, and key_down, then
- attempts to use obsolete termcap capabilities to
+ ber of assumptions about the defaults of string
+ capabilities reset1_string, carriage_return, cur-
+ sor_left, cursor_down, scroll_forward, tab, new-
+ line, key_backspace, key_left, and key_down, then
+ attempts to use obsolete termcap capabilities to
deduce correct values. It also normally suppresses
output of obsolete termcap capabilities such as bs.
- This option forces a more literal translation that
+ This option forces a more literal translation that
also preserves the obsolete capabilities.
- -odir Write compiled entries to given database location.
+ -odir Write compiled entries to given database location.
Overrides the TERMINFO environment variable.
-Rsubset
- Restrict output to a given subset. This option is
- for use with archaic versions of terminfo like
+ 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 out-
+ the full set of SVR4/XSI Curses terminfo; and out-
right broken ports like AIX 3.x that have their own
- extensions incompatible with SVr4/XSI. Available
+ extensions incompatible with SVr4/XSI. Available
subsets are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", "BSD" and
"AIX"; see terminfo(5) for details.
- -r Force entry resolution (so there are no remaining
- tc capabilities) even when doing translation to
+ -r Force entry resolution (so there are no remaining
+ tc capabilities) even when doing translation to
termcap format. This may be needed if you are pre-
- paring 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
+ paring 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.
-s Summarize the compile by showing the database loca-
@@ -228,28 +252,28 @@
of entries which are compiled.
-T eliminates size-restrictions on the generated text.
- This is mainly useful for testing and analysis,
- since the compiled descriptions are limited (e.g.,
+ 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.
+ -t tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities.
Normally when translating from terminfo to termcap,
untranslatable capabilities are commented-out.
- -U tells tic 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 term-
+ -U tells tic 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 term-
caps.
-V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this
program, and exits.
- -vn specifies that (verbose) output be written to stan-
- dard error trace information showing tic's progress.
- The optional parameter n is a number from 1 to 10,
- inclusive, indicating the desired level of detail of
- information. If n is omitted, the default level is
- 1. If n is specified and greater than 1, the level
+ -vn specifies that (verbose) output be written to stan-
+ dard error trace information showing tic's progress.
+ The optional parameter n is a number from 1 to 10,
+ inclusive, indicating the desired level of detail of
+ information. If n is omitted, the default level is
+ 1. If n is specified and greater than 1, the level
of detail is increased.
The debug flag levels are as follows:
@@ -266,113 +290,117 @@
8 List of tokens encountered by scanner
- 9 All values computed in construction of the
+ 9 All values computed in construction of the
hash table
- If the debug level n is not given, it is taken to be
+ If the debug level n is not given, it is taken to be
one.
- -wn specifies the width of the output. The parameter is
+ -wn specifies the width of the output. The parameter is
optional. If it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
-x Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined. That is,
- if you supply a capability name which tic does not
+ if you supply a capability name which tic does not
recognize, it will infer its type (boolean, number or
- string) from the syntax and make an extended table
+ 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
+ whose name begins with "k" are treated as function
keys.
- PARAMETERS
+
+
+
file contains one or more terminfo terminal descriptions
- in source format [see terminfo(5)]. Each descrip-
- tion in the file describes the capabilities of a
+ in source format [see terminfo(5)]. Each descrip-
+ tion in the file describes the capabilities of a
particular terminal.
- If file is "-", then the data is read from the
+ If file is "-", then the data is read from the
standard input. The file parameter may also be the
path of a character-device.
- PROCESSING
+
+
+
All but one of the capabilities recognized by tic are doc-
umented in terminfo(5). The exception is the use capabil-
ity.
- When a use=entry-name field is discovered in a terminal
- entry currently being compiled, tic reads in the binary
- from /usr/share/terminfo to complete the entry. (Entries
- created from file will be used first. tic duplicates the
+ When a use=entry-name field is discovered in a terminal
+ entry currently being compiled, tic reads in the binary
+ from /usr/share/terminfo to complete the entry. (Entries
+ created from file will be used first. tic duplicates the
capabilities in entry-name for the current entry, with the
- exception of those capabilities that explicitly are
+ exception of those capabilities that explicitly are
defined in the current entry.
- When an entry, e.g., entry_name_1, contains a
- use=entry_name_2 field, any canceled capabilities in
- entry_name_2 must also appear in entry_name_1 before use=
+ When an entry, e.g., entry_name_1, contains a
+ use=entry_name_2 field, any canceled capabilities in
+ entry_name_2 must also appear in entry_name_1 before use=
for these capabilities to be canceled in entry_name_1.
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
+ 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
+ to the maximum alias length and a warning message will be
printed.
-COMPATIBILITY
- There is some evidence that historic tic implementations
- treated description fields with no whitespace in them as
- additional aliases or short names. This tic does not do
- that, but it does warn when description fields may be
+
+ There is some evidence that historic tic implementations
+ treated description fields with no whitespace in them as
+ additional aliases or short names. This tic does not do
+ that, but it does warn when description fields may be
treated that way and check them for dangerous characters.
-EXTENSIONS
+
Unlike the SVr4 tic command, this implementation can actu-
- ally compile termcap sources. In fact, entries in ter-
- minfo and termcap syntax can be mixed in a single source
+ ally compile termcap sources. In fact, entries in ter-
+ minfo and termcap syntax can be mixed in a single source
file. See terminfo(5) 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 use capabilities. This implementation of tic
+ The SVr4 manual pages are not clear on the resolution
+ rules for use capabilities. This implementation of tic
will find use targets anywhere in the source file, or any-
- where in the file tree rooted at TERMINFO (if TERMINFO is
+ where in the file tree rooted at TERMINFO (if TERMINFO is
defined), or in the user's $HOME/.terminfo database (if it
- exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file tree
+ exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file tree
of compiled entries.
- The error messages from this tic have the same format as
- GNU C error messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's
+ The error messages from this tic have the same format as
+ GNU C error messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's
compile facility.
- The -0, -1, -C, -G, -I, -N, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g,
- -o, -r, -s, -t and -x options are not supported under
+ The -0, -1, -C, -G, -I, -N, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g,
+ -o, -r, -s, -t and -x options are not supported under
SVr4. The SVr4 -c mode does not report bad use links.
- System V does not compile entries to or read entries from
- your $HOME/.terminfo database unless TERMINFO is explic-
+ System V does not compile entries to or read entries from
+ your $HOME/.terminfo database unless TERMINFO is explic-
itly set to it.
-FILES
+
/usr/share/terminfo/?/*
Compiled terminal description database.
-SEE ALSO
- infocmp(1m), captoinfo(1m), infotocap(1m), toe(1m),
+
+ infocmp(1m), captoinfo(1m), infotocap(1m), toe(1m),
curses(3x), term(5). terminfo(5).
- This describes ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20131221).
+ This describes ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20150215).
-AUTHOR
+
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
@@ -380,10 +408,23 @@
tic(1m)
-
-
-Man(1) output converted with
-man2html
-
+