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30 * @Id: term.5,v 1.38 2020/07/25 21:56:02 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>.
69 Synonyms for the same terminal are implemented by multiple links
70 to the same compiled file.
72 <STRONG>hashed</STRONG> <STRONG>database</STRONG>
73 Using Berkeley database, two types of records are stored: the
74 terminfo data in the same format as stored in a directory tree
75 with the terminfo's primary name as a key, and records containing
76 only aliases pointing to the primary name.
78 If built to write hashed databases, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> can still read
79 terminfo 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
84 TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable by assuming a directory tree
85 for entries that correspond to an existing directory, and hashed
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
92 ordering or sign extension are made.
94 The compiled file is created with the <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program, and read by the
95 routine <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG>. The file is divided into six parts:
99 b) <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM>,
101 c) <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM>,
105 e) <EM>strings</EM>, and
107 f) <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
109 The <EM>header</EM> section begins the file. This section contains six short
110 integers in the format described below. These integers are
112 (1) the <EM>magic</EM> <EM>number</EM> (octal 0432);
114 (2) the size, in bytes, of the <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section;
116 (3) the number of bytes in the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section;
118 (4) the number of short integers in the <EM>numbers</EM> section;
120 (5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the <EM>strings</EM> section;
122 (6) the size, in bytes, of the <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
124 The capabilities in the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM>, <EM>numbers</EM>, and <EM>strings</EM> sections
125 are in the same order as the file <term.h>.
127 Short integers are signed, in the range -32768 to 32767. They are
128 stored as two 8-bit bytes. The first byte contains the least
129 significant 8 bits of the value, and the second byte contains the most
130 significant 8 bits. (Thus, the value represented is 256*second+first.)
131 This format corresponds to the hardware of the VAX and PDP-11 (that is,
132 little-endian machines). Machines where this does not correspond to
133 the hardware must read the integers as two bytes and compute the
136 Numbers in a terminal description, whether they are entries in the
137 <EM>numbers</EM> or <EM>strings</EM> table, are positive integers. Boolean flags are
138 treated as positive one-byte integers. In each case, those positive
139 integers represent a terminal capability. The terminal compiler tic
140 uses negative integers to handle the cases where a capability is not
143 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability is absent from this terminal, tic stores a -1 in
144 the corresponding table.
146 The integer value -1 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0377.
147 Absent boolean values are represented by the byte 0 (false).
149 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability has been canceled from this terminal, tic stores a
150 -2 in the corresponding table.
152 The integer value -2 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0376.
153 The boolean value -2 is represented by the byte 0376.
155 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Other negative values are illegal.
157 The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section comes after the <EM>header</EM>. It contains the
158 first line of the terminfo description, listing the various names for
159 the terminal, separated by the "|" character. The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM>
160 section is terminated with an ASCII NUL character.
162 The <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section has one byte for each flag. Boolean
163 capabilities are either 1 or 0 (true or false) according to whether the
164 terminal supports the given capability or not.
166 Between the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section and the <EM>number</EM> section, a null byte
167 will be inserted, if necessary, to ensure that the <EM>number</EM> section
168 begins on an even byte This is a relic of the PDP-11's word-addressed
169 architecture, originally designed to avoid traps induced by addressing
170 a word on an odd byte boundary. All short integers are aligned on a
173 The <EM>numbers</EM> section is similar to the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section. Each
174 capability takes up two bytes, and is stored as a little-endian short
177 The <EM>strings</EM> section is also similar. Each capability is stored as a
178 short integer. The capability value is an index into the <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
180 The <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM> is the last section. It contains all of the values of
181 string capabilities referenced in the <EM>strings</EM> section. Each string is
182 null-terminated. Special characters in ^X or \c notation are stored in
183 their interpreted form, not the printing representation. Padding
184 information $<nn> and parameter information %x are stored intact in
188 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
189 The previous section describes the conventional terminfo binary format.
190 With some minor variations of the offsets (see PORTABILITY), the same
191 binary format is used in all modern UNIX systems. Each system uses a
192 predefined set of boolean, number or string capabilities.
194 The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> libraries and applications support extended terminfo binary
195 format, allowing users to define capabilities which are loaded at
196 runtime. This extension is made possible by using the fact that the
197 other implementations stop reading the terminfo data when they have
198 reached the end of the size given in the header. <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> checks the
199 size, and if it exceeds that due to the predefined data, continues to
200 parse according to its own scheme.
202 First, it reads the extended header (5 short integers):
204 (1) count of extended boolean capabilities
206 (2) count of extended numeric capabilities
208 (3) count of extended string capabilities
210 (4) count of the items in extended string table
212 (5) size of the extended string table in bytes
214 The count- and size-values for the extended string table include the
215 extended capability <EM>names</EM> as well as extended capability <EM>values</EM>.
217 Using the counts and sizes, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> allocates arrays and reads data for
218 the extended capabilities in the same order as the header information.
220 The extended string table contains values for string capabilities.
221 After the end of these values, it contains the names for each of the
222 extended capabilities in order, e.g., booleans, then numbers and
225 Applications which manipulate terminal data can use the definitions
226 described in <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG> which associate the long capability
227 names with members of a <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure.
230 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">EXTENDED NUMBER FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
231 On occasion, 16-bit signed integers are not large enough. With <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>
232 6.1, a new format was introduced by making a few changes to the legacy
235 <STRONG>o</STRONG> a different magic number (octal 01036)
237 <STRONG>o</STRONG> changing the type for the <EM>number</EM> array from signed 16-bit integers
238 to signed 32-bit integers.
240 To maintain compatibility, the library presents the same data
241 structures to direct users of the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure as in previous
242 formats. However, that cannot provide callers with the extended
243 numbers. The library uses a similar but hidden data structure
244 <STRONG>TERMTYPE2</STRONG> to provide data for the terminfo functions.
247 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
249 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-setupterm">setupterm</a></H3><PRE>
250 Note that it is possible for <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> to expect a different set of
251 capabilities than are actually present in the file. Either the
252 database may have been updated since <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> has been recompiled
253 (resulting in extra unrecognized entries in the file) or the program
254 may have been recompiled more recently than the database was updated
255 (resulting in missing entries). The routine <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> must be prepared
256 for both possibilities - this is why the numbers and sizes are
257 included. Also, new capabilities must always be added at the end of
258 the lists of boolean, number, and string capabilities.
261 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Binary-format">Binary format</a></H3><PRE>
262 X/Open Curses does not specify a format for the terminfo database.
263 UNIX System V curses used a directory-tree of binary files, one per
264 terminal description.
266 Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the
267 otherwise self-describing format, it is not wise to count on
268 portability of binary terminfo entries between commercial UNIX
269 versions. The problem is that there are at least three versions of
270 terminfo (under HP-UX, AIX, and OSF/1) which diverged from System V
271 terminfo after SVr1, and have added extension capabilities to the
272 string table that (in the binary format) collide with System V and XSI
273 Curses extensions. See <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for detailed discussion of terminfo
274 source compatibility issues.
276 This implementation is by default compatible with the binary terminfo
277 format used by Solaris curses, except in a few less-used details where
278 it was found that the latter did not match X/Open Curses. The format
279 used by the other Unix versions can be matched by building ncurses with
280 different configuration options.
283 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Magic-codes">Magic codes</a></H3><PRE>
284 The magic number in a binary terminfo file is the first 16-bits (two
285 bytes). Besides making it more reliable for the library to check that
286 a file is terminfo, utilities such as <STRONG>file</STRONG> also use that to tell what
287 the file-format is. System V defined more than one magic number, with
288 0433, 0435 as screen-dumps (see <STRONG><A HREF="scr_dump.5.html">scr_dump(5)</A></STRONG>). This implementation uses
289 01036 as a continuation of that sequence, but with a different high-
290 order byte to avoid confusion.
293 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-The-TERMTYPE-structure">The TERMTYPE structure</a></H3><PRE>
294 Direct access to the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure is provided for legacy
295 applications. Portable applications should use the <STRONG>tigetflag</STRONG> and
296 related functions described in <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG> for reading terminal
300 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Mixed-case-terminal-names">Mixed-case terminal names</a></H3><PRE>
301 A small number of terminal descriptions use uppercase characters in
302 their names. If the underlying filesystem ignores the difference
303 between uppercase and lowercase, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> represents the "first
304 character" of the terminal name used as the intermediate level of a
305 directory tree in (two-character) hexadecimal form.
308 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLE">EXAMPLE</a></H2><PRE>
309 As an example, here is a description for the Lear-Siegler ADM-3, a
310 popular though rather stupid early terminal:
315 bel=^G, clear= 32$<1>, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,
316 cuf1=^L, cup=\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,
320 and a hexadecimal dump of the compiled terminal description:
322 0000 1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00 82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33 ........ ..1.adm3
323 0010 61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64 6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00 a|lsi ad m3a...P.
324 0020 ff ff 18 00 ff ff 00 00 02 00 ff ff ff ff 04 00 ........ ........
325 0030 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 0a 00 25 00 27 00 ff ff ........ ..%.'...
326 0040 29 00 ff ff ff ff 2b 00 ff ff 2d 00 ff ff ff ff ).....+. ..-.....
327 0050 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
328 0060 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
329 0070 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
330 0080 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
331 0090 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
332 00a0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
333 00b0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
334 00c0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
335 00d0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
336 00e0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
337 00f0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
338 0100 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
339 0110 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
340 0120 ff ff ff ff ff ff 2f 00 07 00 0d 00 1a 24 3c 31 ....../. .....$<1
341 0130 3e 00 1b 3d 25 70 31 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 >..=%p1% {32}%+%c
342 0140 25 70 32 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 00 0a 00 1e %p2%{32} %+%c....
343 0150 00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a 00 ........ .
347 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-LIMITS">LIMITS</a></H2><PRE>
350 <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy
353 <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 32768 bytes in the extended
356 <STRONG>o</STRONG> the name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
358 Compiled entries are limited to 32768 bytes because offsets into the
359 <EM>strings</EM> <EM>table</EM> use two-byte integers. The legacy format could have
360 supported 32768-byte entries, but was limited a virtual memory page's
364 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
365 /usr/share/terminfo/*/* compiled terminal capability data base
368 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
369 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
372 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></H2><PRE>
374 extended terminfo format for ncurses 5.0
375 hashed database support for ncurses 5.6
376 extended number support for ncurses 6.1
379 documented legacy terminfo format, e.g., from pcurses.
383 <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>
387 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
388 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
389 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
391 <li><a href="#h3-STORAGE-LOCATION">STORAGE LOCATION</a></li>
392 <li><a href="#h3-LEGACY-STORAGE-FORMAT">LEGACY STORAGE FORMAT</a></li>
393 <li><a href="#h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT</a></li>
394 <li><a href="#h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">EXTENDED NUMBER FORMAT</a></li>
397 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a>
399 <li><a href="#h3-setupterm">setupterm</a></li>
400 <li><a href="#h3-Binary-format">Binary format</a></li>
401 <li><a href="#h3-Magic-codes">Magic codes</a></li>
402 <li><a href="#h3-The-TERMTYPE-structure">The TERMTYPE structure</a></li>
403 <li><a href="#h3-Mixed-case-terminal-names">Mixed-case terminal names</a></li>
406 <li><a href="#h2-EXAMPLE">EXAMPLE</a></li>
407 <li><a href="#h2-LIMITS">LIMITS</a></li>
408 <li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
409 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
410 <li><a href="#h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></li>