+ 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).
+ As described in term(5), the database may be either a
+ directory tree (one file per terminal entry) or a hashed
+ database (one record per entry). The tic command writes
+ only one type of entry, depending on how it was built:
+
+ o For directory trees, the top-level directory, e.g.,
+ /usr/share/terminfo, specifies the location of the
+ database.
+
+ o For hashed databases, a filename is needed. If the
+ given file is not found by that name, but can be found
+ by adding the suffix ".db", then that is used.
+
+ The default name for the hashed database is the same
+ as the default directory name (only adding a ".db"
+ suffix).
+
+ In either case (directory or hashed database), tic will
+ create the container if it does not exist. For a direc-
+ tory, this would be the "terminfo" leaf, versus a "ter-
+ minfo.db" file.
+
The results are normally placed in the system terminfo
- directory /usr/share/terminfo. There are two ways to
- change this behavior.
+ database /usr/share/terminfo. The compiled terminal
+ description can be placed in a different terminfo data-
+ base. There are two ways to achieve this:
- First, you may override the system default by setting the
- variable TERMINFO in your shell environment to a valid
- (existing) directory name.
+ o First, you may override the system default either by
+ using the -o option, or by setting the variable TER-
+ MINFO in your shell environment to a valid database
+ location.
- Secondly, if tic cannot get access to /usr/share/terminfo
- or your TERMINFO directory, it looks for the directory
- $HOME/.terminfo; if that directory exists, the entry is
- placed there.
+ o Secondly, if tic cannot write in /usr/share/terminfo
+ or the location specified using your TERMINFO vari-
+ able, it looks for the directory $HOME/.terminfo (or
+ hashed database $HOME/.terminfo.db); if that location
+ exists, the entry is placed there.
Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check
- for a TERMINFO directory first, look at $HOME/.terminfo if
- TERMINFO is not set, and finally look in /usr/share/ter-
- minfo.
+ in succession
+
+ o a location specified with the TERMINFO environment
+ variable,
+
+ o$HOME/.terminfo,
+
+ o directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
+ variable,
+
+ o a compiled-in list of directories
+ (/usr/local/ncurses/share/terminfo:/usr/share/ter-
+ minfo), and
+
+ o the system terminfo database (/usr/share/terminfo).
+
+
+
+ -0 restricts the output to a single line
-1 restricts the output to a single column
-a tells tic to retain commented-out capabilities
rather than discarding them. Capabilities are com-
- mented by prefixing them with a period. This sets
- the -x option, because it treats the commented-out
- entries as user-defined names. If the source is
- termcap, accept the 2-character names required by
+ mented by prefixing them with a period. This sets
+ the -x option, because it treats the commented-out
+ entries as user-defined names. If the source is
+ termcap, accept the 2-character names required by
version 6. Otherwise these are ignored.
- -C Force source translation to termcap format. Note:
- this differs from the -C option of infocmp(1m) in
+ -C Force source translation to termcap format. Note:
+ this differs from the -C option of infocmp(1m) in
that it does not merely translate capability names,
- but also translates terminfo strings to termcap
+ but also translates terminfo strings to termcap
format. Capabilities that are not translatable are
- left in the entry under their terminfo names but
- commented out with two preceding dots.
+ left in the entry under their terminfo names but
+ commented out with two preceding dots. The actual
+ format used incorporates some improvements for
+ escaped characters from terminfo format. For a
+ stricter BSD-compatible translation, add the -K
+ option.
+
+ 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:
+
+ osgr 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 (and a
- documented limit in terminfo), these entries may
- cause core dumps.
+ 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.
+
+ 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
+ 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
+ database locations.
-enames
Limit writes and translations to the following
@@ -130,23 +203,39 @@
-I Force source translation to terminfo format.
- -L Force source translation to terminfo format using
+ -K Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to
+ termcap format, e.g., "\s" for space.
+
+ -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 directory. Over-
- rides the TERMINFO environment variable.
+ -odir Write compiled entries to given database location.
+ Overrides the TERMINFO environment variable.
+
+ -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
+
+ 2 base64
+
+ 3 hexadecimal and base64
+
+ -q Suppress comments and blank lines when showing
+ translated source.
-Rsubset
Restrict output to a given subset. This option is
@@ -166,9 +255,9 @@
through 4.3BSD) that does not handle multiple tc
capabilities per entry.
- -s Summarize the compile by showing the directory into
- which entries are written, and the number of
- entries which are compiled.
+ -s Summarize the compile by showing the database loca-
+ tion into which entries are written, and the number
+ of entries which are compiled.
-T eliminates size-restrictions on the generated text.
This is mainly useful for testing and analysis,
@@ -188,48 +277,62 @@
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
- of detail is increased.
-
- -wn specifies the width of the output. The parameter is
- optional. If it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
+ dard error trace information showing tic's progress.
- -x Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined. That is,
- 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
- entry for that. User-defined capability strings
- whose name begins with ``k'' are treated as function
- keys.
+ 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. 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:
+
+ 1 Names of files created and linked
+
+ 2 Information related to the "use" facility
- file contains one or more terminfo terminal descriptions
- in source format [see terminfo(5)]. Each description
- in the file describes the capabilities of a particu-
- lar terminal.
+ 3 Statistics from the hashing algorithm
- The debug flag levels are as follows:
+ 5 String-table memory allocations
- 1 Names of files created and linked
+ 7 Entries into the string-table
- 2 Information related to the ``use'' facility
+ 8 List of tokens encountered by scanner
- 3 Statistics from the hashing algorithm
+ 9 All values computed in construction of the
+ hash table
- 5 String-table memory allocations
+ If the debug level n is not given, it is taken to be
+ one.
+
+ -W By itself, the -w option will not force long strings
+ to be wrapped. Use the -W option to do this.
+
+ -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
+ recognize, it will infer its type (boolean, number or
+ 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
+ keys.
- 7 Entries into the string-table
- 8 List of tokens encountered by scanner
+
+ 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
+ particular terminal.
- 9 All values computed in construction of the hash ta-
- ble
+ If file is "-", then the data is read from the
+ standard input. The file parameter may also be the
+ path of a character-device.
- If the debug level n is not given, it is taken to be one.
+
All but one of the capabilities recognized by tic are doc-
umented in terminfo(5). The exception is the use capabil-
ity.
@@ -237,10 +340,8 @@
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. If the environment
- variable TERMINFO is set, that directory is searched
- instead of /usr/share/terminfo.) tic duplicates the capa-
- bilities in entry-name for the current entry, with the
+ 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
defined in the current entry.
@@ -249,76 +350,87 @@
entry_name_2 must also appear in entry_name_1 before use=
for these capabilities to be canceled in entry_name_1.
- If the environment variable TERMINFO is set, the compiled
- results are placed there instead of /usr/share/terminfo.
-
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 stock SVr4 tic 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 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
+
+ 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
+ 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
will find use targets anywhere in the source file, or any-
- where in the file tree rooted at TERMINFO (if TERMINFO is
- defined), or in the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory (if
- it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file
- tree of compiled entries.
+ 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
+ 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 -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.
+ 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 directory 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.
-