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30 * @Id: term.5,v 1.33 2020/02/02 23:34:34 tom Exp @
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42 <H1 class="no-header">term 5</H1>
44 <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG> File Formats Manual <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>
49 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
50 term - format of compiled term file.
53 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
57 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
59 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-STORAGE-LOCATION">STORAGE LOCATION</a></H3><PRE>
60 Compiled terminfo descriptions are placed under the directory
61 <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>. Two configurations are supported (when building
62 the <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> libraries):
64 <STRONG>directory</STRONG> <STRONG>tree</STRONG>
65 A two-level scheme is used to avoid a linear search of a huge UNIX
66 system directory: <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/c/name</STRONG> where <EM>name</EM> is the
67 name of the terminal, and <EM>c</EM> is the first character of <EM>name</EM>. Thus,
68 <EM>act4</EM> can be found in the file <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/a/act4</STRONG>. Syn-
69 onyms for the same terminal are implemented by multiple links to
70 the same compiled file.
72 <STRONG>hashed</STRONG> <STRONG>database</STRONG>
73 Using Berkeley database, two types of records are stored: the ter-
74 minfo data in the same format as stored in a directory tree with
75 the terminfo's primary name as a key, and records containing only
76 aliases pointing to the primary name.
78 If built to write hashed databases, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> can still read ter-
79 minfo databases organized as a directory tree, but cannot write
80 entries into the directory tree. It can write (or rewrite)
81 entries in the hashed database.
83 <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> distinguishes the two cases in the TERMINFO and TER-
84 MINFO_DIRS environment variable by assuming a directory tree for
85 entries that correspond to an existing directory, and hashed data-
89 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-LEGACY-STORAGE-FORMAT">LEGACY STORAGE FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
90 The format has been chosen so that it will be the same on all hardware.
91 An 8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte order-
92 ing or sign extension are made.
94 The compiled file is created with the <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program, and read by the rou-
95 tine <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG>. The file is divided into six parts: the header,
96 terminal names, boolean flags, numbers, strings, and string table.
98 The header section begins the file. This section contains six short
99 integers in the format described below. These integers are
101 (1) the magic number (octal 0432);
103 (2) the size, in bytes, of the names section;
105 (3) the number of bytes in the boolean section;
107 (4) the number of short integers in the numbers section;
109 (5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the strings section;
111 (6) the size, in bytes, of the string table.
113 Short integers are stored in two 8-bit bytes. The first byte contains
114 the least significant 8 bits of the value, and the second byte contains
115 the most significant 8 bits. (Thus, the value represented is 256*sec-
116 ond+first.) The value -1 is represented by the two bytes 0377, 0377;
117 other negative values are illegal. This value generally means that the
118 corresponding capability is missing from this terminal. Note that this
119 format corresponds to the hardware of the VAX and PDP-11 (that is, lit-
120 tle-endian machines). Machines where this does not correspond to the
121 hardware must read the integers as two bytes and compute the little-
124 The terminal names section comes next. It contains the first line of
125 the terminfo description, listing the various names for the terminal,
126 separated by the "|" character. The section is terminated with an
129 The boolean flags have one byte for each flag. This byte is either 0
130 or 1 as the flag is present or absent. The capabilities are in the
131 same order as the file <term.h>.
133 Between the boolean section and the number section, a null byte will be
134 inserted, if necessary, to ensure that the number section begins on an
135 even byte (this is a relic of the PDP-11's word-addressed architecture,
136 originally designed in to avoid IOT traps induced by addressing a word
137 on an odd byte boundary). All short integers are aligned on a short
140 The numbers section is similar to the flags section. Each capability
141 takes up two bytes, and is stored as a little-endian short integer. If
142 the value represented is -1, the capability is taken to be missing.
144 The strings section is also similar. Each capability is stored as a
145 short integer, in the format above. A value of -1 means the capability
146 is missing. Otherwise, the value is taken as an offset from the begin-
147 ning of the string table. Special characters in ^X or \c notation are
148 stored in their interpreted form, not the printing representation.
149 Padding information $<nn> and parameter information %x are stored
150 intact in uninterpreted form.
152 The final section is the string table. It contains all the values of
153 string capabilities referenced in the string section. Each string is
157 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
158 The previous section describes the conventional terminfo binary format.
159 With some minor variations of the offsets (see PORTABILITY), the same
160 binary format is used in all modern UNIX systems. Each system uses a
161 predefined set of boolean, number or string capabilities.
163 The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> libraries and applications support extended terminfo binary
164 format, allowing users to define capabilities which are loaded at run-
165 time. This extension is made possible by using the fact that the other
166 implementations stop reading the terminfo data when they have reached
167 the end of the size given in the header. <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> checks the size, and
168 if it exceeds that due to the predefined data, continues to parse
169 according to its own scheme.
171 First, it reads the extended header (5 short integers):
173 (1) count of extended boolean capabilities
175 (2) count of extended numeric capabilities
177 (3) count of extended string capabilities
179 (4) count of the items in extended string table
181 (5) size of the extended string table in bytes
183 The count- and size-values for the extended string table include the
184 extended capability <EM>names</EM> as well as extended capability <EM>values</EM>.
186 Using the counts and sizes, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> allocates arrays and reads data for
187 the extended capabilities in the same order as the header information.
189 The extended string table contains values for string capabilities.
190 After the end of these values, it contains the names for each of the
191 extended capabilities in order, e.g., booleans, then numbers and
194 Applications which manipulate terminal data can use the definitions
195 described in <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG> which associate the long capability
196 names with members of a <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure.
199 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">EXTENDED NUMBER FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
200 On occasion, 16-bit signed integers are not large enough. With <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>
201 6.1, a new format was introduced by making a few changes to the legacy
204 <STRONG>o</STRONG> a different magic number (octal 01036)
206 <STRONG>o</STRONG> changing the type for the <EM>number</EM> array from signed 16-bit integers
207 to signed 32-bit integers.
209 To maintain compatibility, the library presents the same data struc-
210 tures to direct users of the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure as in previous formats.
211 However, that cannot provide callers with the extended numbers. The
212 library uses a similar but hidden data structure <STRONG>TERMTYPE2</STRONG> to provide
213 data for the terminfo functions.
216 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
218 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-setupterm">setupterm</a></H3><PRE>
219 Note that it is possible for <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> to expect a different set of
220 capabilities than are actually present in the file. Either the data-
221 base may have been updated since <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> has been recompiled (result-
222 ing in extra unrecognized entries in the file) or the program may have
223 been recompiled more recently than the database was updated (resulting
224 in missing entries). The routine <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> must be prepared for both
225 possibilities - this is why the numbers and sizes are included. Also,
226 new capabilities must always be added at the end of the lists of bool-
227 ean, number, and string capabilities.
230 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Binary-format">Binary format</a></H3><PRE>
231 X/Open Curses does not specify a format for the terminfo database.
232 UNIX System V curses used a directory-tree of binary files, one per
233 terminal description.
235 Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the other-
236 wise self-describing format, it is not wise to count on portability of
237 binary terminfo entries between commercial UNIX versions. The problem
238 is that there are at least three versions of terminfo (under HP-UX,
239 AIX, and OSF/1) which diverged from System V terminfo after SVr1, and
240 have added extension capabilities to the string table that (in the
241 binary format) collide with System V and XSI Curses extensions. See
242 <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for detailed discussion of terminfo source compatibility
245 This implementation is by default compatible with the binary terminfo
246 format used by Solaris curses, except in a few less-used details where
247 it was found that the latter did not match X/Open Curses. The format
248 used by the other Unix versions can be matched by building ncurses with
249 different configuration options.
252 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Magic-codes">Magic codes</a></H3><PRE>
253 The magic number in a binary terminfo file is the first 16-bits (two
254 bytes). Besides making it more reliable for the library to check that
255 a file is terminfo, utilities such as <STRONG>file</STRONG> also use that to tell what
256 the file-format is. System V defined more than one magic number, with
257 0433, 0435 as screen-dumps (see <STRONG><A HREF="scr_dump.5.html">scr_dump(5)</A></STRONG>). This implementation uses
258 01036 as a continuation of that sequence, but with a different high-
259 order byte to avoid confusion.
262 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-The-TERMTYPE-structure">The TERMTYPE structure</a></H3><PRE>
263 Direct access to the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure is provided for legacy applica-
264 tions. Portable applications should use the <STRONG>tigetflag</STRONG> and related
265 functions described in <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG> for reading terminal capabili-
269 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Mixed-case-terminal-names">Mixed-case terminal names</a></H3><PRE>
270 A small number of terminal descriptions use uppercase characters in
271 their names. If the underlying filesystem ignores the difference
272 between uppercase and lowercase, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> represents the "first charac-
273 ter" of the terminal name used as the intermediate level of a directory
274 tree in (two-character) hexadecimal form.
277 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLE">EXAMPLE</a></H2><PRE>
278 As an example, here is a description for the Lear-Siegler ADM-3, a pop-
279 ular though rather stupid early terminal:
284 bel=^G, clear= 32$<1>, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,
285 cuf1=^L, cup=\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,
289 and a hexadecimal dump of the compiled terminal description:
291 0000 1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00 82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33 ........ ..1.adm3
292 0010 61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64 6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00 a|lsi ad m3a...P.
293 0020 ff ff 18 00 ff ff 00 00 02 00 ff ff ff ff 04 00 ........ ........
294 0030 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 0a 00 25 00 27 00 ff ff ........ ..%.'...
295 0040 29 00 ff ff ff ff 2b 00 ff ff 2d 00 ff ff ff ff ).....+. ..-.....
296 0050 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
297 0060 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
298 0070 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
299 0080 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
300 0090 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
301 00a0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
302 00b0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
303 00c0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
304 00d0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
305 00e0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
306 00f0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
307 0100 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
308 0110 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
309 0120 ff ff ff ff ff ff 2f 00 07 00 0d 00 1a 24 3c 31 ....../. .....$<1
310 0130 3e 00 1b 3d 25 70 31 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 >..=%p1% {32}%+%c
311 0140 25 70 32 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 00 0a 00 1e %p2%{32} %+%c....
312 0150 00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a 00 ........ .
316 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-LIMITS">LIMITS</a></H2><PRE>
319 <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy for-
322 <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 32768 bytes in the extended
325 <STRONG>o</STRONG> the name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
328 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
329 /usr/share/terminfo/*/* compiled terminal capability data base
332 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
333 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
336 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></H2><PRE>
338 extended terminfo format for ncurses 5.0
339 hashed database support for ncurses 5.6
340 extended number support for ncurses 6.1
343 documented legacy terminfo format, e.g., from pcurses.
347 <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>
351 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
352 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
353 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
355 <li><a href="#h3-STORAGE-LOCATION">STORAGE LOCATION</a></li>
356 <li><a href="#h3-LEGACY-STORAGE-FORMAT">LEGACY STORAGE FORMAT</a></li>
357 <li><a href="#h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT</a></li>
358 <li><a href="#h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">EXTENDED NUMBER FORMAT</a></li>
361 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a>
363 <li><a href="#h3-setupterm">setupterm</a></li>
364 <li><a href="#h3-Binary-format">Binary format</a></li>
365 <li><a href="#h3-Magic-codes">Magic codes</a></li>
366 <li><a href="#h3-The-TERMTYPE-structure">The TERMTYPE structure</a></li>
367 <li><a href="#h3-Mixed-case-terminal-names">Mixed-case terminal names</a></li>
370 <li><a href="#h2-EXAMPLE">EXAMPLE</a></li>
371 <li><a href="#h2-LIMITS">LIMITS</a></li>
372 <li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
373 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
374 <li><a href="#h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></li>