- The command tic translates a terminfo file from source
+ The command tic 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).
+ essary for use with the library routines in ncurses(3x).
The results are normally placed in the system terminfo
- directory /usr/share/terminfo. There are two ways to
+ directory /usr/share/terminfo. There are two ways to
change this behavior.
First, you may override the system default by setting the
- variable TERMINFO in your shell environment to a valid
+ variable TERMINFO in your shell environment to a valid
(existing) directory name.
- Secondly, if tic cannot get access to /usr/share/terminfo
+ 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
+ $HOME/.terminfo; if that directory 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.
+ for a TERMINFO directory first, look at $HOME/.terminfo if
+ TERMINFO is not set, and finally look in /usr/share/ter-
+ minfo.
+
+ -1 restricts the output to a single column
- -a tells tic to retain commented-out capabilities
+ -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
+ the -x option, because it treats the commented-out
entries as user-defined names.
- -c tells tic to only check file for errors, including
+ -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
+ format. Capabilities that are not translatable are
+ left in the entry under their terminfo names but
+ commented out with two preceding dots.
+
+ -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-
+ -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.
- -vn specifies that (verbose) output be written to stan-
- dard error trace information showing tic's
- progress. The optional integer 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.
-
- -odir Write compiled entries to given directory.
- Overrides the TERMINFO environment variable.
-
- -wn specifies the width of the output.
-
- -1 restricts the output to a single column
+ -enames
+ 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
+ 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
+ require -I or -C.)
- -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
- format. Capabilities that are not translatable are
- left in the entry under their terminfo names but
- commented out with two preceding dots.
+ -f Display complex terminfo strings which contain
+ 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.
- -I Force source translation to terminfo format.
+ -g Display constant character literals in quoted form
+ rather than their decimal equivalents.
- -L Force source translation to terminfo format using
- the long C variable names listed in <term.h>
+ -I Force source translation to terminfo format.
- -N Disable smart defaults. Normally, when translating
+ -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
+ 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.
+ output of obsolete termcap capabilities such as bs.
This option forces a more literal translation that
also preserves the obsolete capabilities.
- -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 don't support
- the full set of SVR4/XSI Curses terminfo; and out-
+ -odir Write compiled entries to given directory. Over-
+ rides the TERMINFO environment variable.
+
+ -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 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.
+ "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for details.
- -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).
+ -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
+ preparing 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 multi-
+ ple tc capabilities per entry.
- -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in
- this program, and exits.
+ -s Summarize the compile by showing the directory into
+ which entries are written, and the number of
+ entries which are compiled.
- -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
- preparing a termcap file for a termcap library
- (such as GNU termcap up to version 1.3 or BSD term-
- cap up to 4.3BSD) that doesn't handle multiple tc
- capabilities per entry.
+ -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).
- -e 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
- 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
- require -I or -C.)
+ -t tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities.
+ Normally when translating from terminfo to termcap,
+ untranslatable capabilities are commented-out.
- -f Display complex terminfo strings which contain
- if/then/else/endif expressions indented for read-
- ability.
+ -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in
+ this program, and exits.
- -g Display constant character literals in quoted form
- rather than their decimal equivalents.
+ -vn specifies that (verbose) output be written to stan-
+ dard error trace information showing tic's
+ progress. The optional integer 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.
- -s Summarize the compile by showing the directory into
- which entries are written, and the number of
- entries which are compiled.
+ -wn specifies the width of the output.
- -x Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined. That
- is, if you supply a capability name which tic does
+ -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.
- file contains one or more terminfo terminal descriptions
- in source format [see terminfo(5)]. Each descrip-
+ 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.
@@ -171,91 +214,86 @@
9 All values computed in construction of the hash
table
- If n is not given, it is taken to be one.
+ 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-
+ 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. 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
- exception of those capabilities that explicitly are
+ 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
+ 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=
- for these capabilities to be canceled in entry_name_1.
+ 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.
- If the environment variable TERMINFO is set, the compiled
- results are placed there instead of /usr/share/terminfo.
+ 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
- treated that way and check them for dangerous characters.
+ 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
+ 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
- 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
+ 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.
- 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
- and -x options are not supported under SVr4. The SVr4 -c
- mode does not report bad use links.
+ 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.
- 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 directory unless TERMINFO is explic-
itly set to it.