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30 * @Id: term.7,v 1.28 2020/02/02 23:34:34 tom Exp @
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42 <H1 class="no-header">term 7</H1>
44 <STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG> Miscellaneous Information Manual <STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG>
49 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
50 term - conventions for naming terminal types
53 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
54 The environment variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> should normally contain the type name of
55 the terminal, console or display-device type you are using. This
56 information is critical for all screen-oriented programs, including
57 your editor and mailer.
59 A default <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> value will be set on a per-line basis by either
60 <STRONG>/etc/inittab</STRONG> (e.g., System-V-like UNIXes) or <STRONG>/etc/ttys</STRONG> (BSD UNIXes).
61 This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer con-
64 If you use a dialup line, the type of device attached to it may vary.
65 Older UNIX systems pre-set a very dumb terminal type like "dumb" or
66 "dialup" on dialup lines. Newer ones may pre-set "vt100", reflecting
67 the prevalence of DEC VT100-compatible terminals and personal-computer
70 Modern telnets pass your <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> environment variable from the local side
71 to the remote one. There can be problems if the remote terminfo or
72 termcap entry for your type is not compatible with yours, but this sit-
73 uation is rare and can almost always be avoided by explicitly exporting
74 "vt100" (assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset console, ter-
75 minal, or terminal emulator.)
77 In any case, you are free to override the system <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> setting to your
78 taste in your shell profile. The <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG> utility may be of assistance;
79 you can give it a set of rules for deducing or requesting a terminal
80 type based on the tty device and baud rate.
82 Setting your own <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> value may also be useful if you have created a
83 custom entry incorporating options (such as visual bell or reverse-
84 video) which you wish to override the system default type for your
87 Terminal type descriptions are stored as files of capability data
88 underneath /usr/share/terminfo. To browse a list of all terminal names
89 recognized by the system, do
93 from your shell. These capability files are in a binary format opti-
94 mized for retrieval speed (unlike the old text-based <STRONG>termcap</STRONG> format
95 they replace); to examine an entry, you must use the <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG> com-
96 mand. Invoke it as follows:
98 infocmp <EM>entry</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>name</EM>
100 where <EM>entry</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>name</EM> is the name of the type you wish to examine (and the
101 name of its capability file the subdirectory of /usr/share/terminfo
102 named for its first letter). This command dumps a capability file in
103 the text format described by <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
105 The first line of a <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> description gives the names by which
106 terminfo knows a terminal, separated by "|" (pipe-bar) characters with
107 the last name field terminated by a comma. The first name field is the
108 type's <EM>primary</EM> <EM>name</EM>, and is the one to use when setting <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>. The last
109 name field (if distinct from the first) is actually a description of
110 the terminal type (it may contain blanks; the others must be single
111 words). Name fields between the first and last (if present) are
112 aliases for the terminal, usually historical names retained for compat-
115 There are some conventions for how to choose terminal primary names
116 that help keep them informative and unique. Here is a step-by-step
117 guide to naming terminals that also explains how to parse them:
119 First, choose a root name. The root will consist of a lower-case let-
120 ter followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits. You need to
121 avoid using punctuation characters in root names, because they are used
122 and interpreted as filenames and shell meta-characters (such as !, $,
123 *, ?, etc.) embedded in them may cause odd and unhelpful behavior. The
124 slash (/), or any other character that may be interpreted by anyone's
125 file system (\, $, [, ]), is especially dangerous (terminfo is plat-
126 form-independent, and choosing names with special characters could
127 someday make life difficult for users of a future port). The dot (.)
128 character is relatively safe as long as there is at most one per root
129 name; some historical terminfo names use it.
131 The root name for a terminal or workstation console type should almost
132 always begin with a vendor prefix (such as <STRONG>hp</STRONG> for Hewlett-Packard, <STRONG>wy</STRONG>
133 for Wyse, or <STRONG>att</STRONG> for AT&T terminals), or a common name of the terminal
134 line (<STRONG>vt</STRONG> for the VT series of terminals from DEC, or <STRONG>sun</STRONG> for Sun
135 Microsystems workstation consoles, or <STRONG>regent</STRONG> for the ADDS Regent
136 series. You can list the terminfo tree to see what prefixes are
137 already in common use. The root name prefix should be followed when
138 appropriate by a model number; thus <STRONG>vt100</STRONG>, <STRONG>hp2621</STRONG>, <STRONG>wy50</STRONG>.
140 The root name for a PC-Unix console type should be the OS name, i.e.,
141 <STRONG>linux</STRONG>, <STRONG>bsdos</STRONG>, <STRONG>freebsd</STRONG>, <STRONG>netbsd</STRONG>. It should <EM>not</EM> be <STRONG>console</STRONG> or any other
142 generic that might cause confusion in a multi-platform environment! If
143 a model number follows, it should indicate either the OS release level
144 or the console driver release level.
146 The root name for a terminal emulator (assuming it does not fit one of
147 the standard ANSI or vt100 types) should be the program name or a read-
148 ily recognizable abbreviation of it (i.e., <STRONG>versaterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>ctrm</STRONG>).
150 Following the root name, you may add any reasonable number of hyphen-
151 separated feature suffixes.
153 2p Has two pages of memory. Likewise 4p, 8p, etc.
155 mc Magic-cookie. Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only sup-
156 port one attribute without magic-cookie lossage. Their base entry
157 is usually paired with another that has this suffix and uses magic
158 cookies to support multiple attributes.
160 -am Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound).
162 -m Mono mode - suppress color support.
164 -na No arrow keys - termcap ignores arrow keys which are actually
165 there on the terminal, so the user can use the arrow keys locally.
167 -nam No auto-margin - suppress am capability.
169 -nl No labels - suppress soft labels.
171 -nsl No status line - suppress status line.
173 -pp Has a printer port which is used.
175 -rv Terminal in reverse video mode (black on white).
177 -s Enable status line.
179 -vb Use visible bell (flash) rather than beep.
181 -w Wide; terminal is in 132-column mode.
183 Conventionally, if your terminal type is a variant intended to specify
184 a line height, that suffix should go first. So, for a hypothetical
185 FuBarCo model 2317 terminal in 30-line mode with reverse video, best
186 form would be <STRONG>fubar-30-rv</STRONG> (rather than, say, "fubar-rv-30").
188 Terminal types that are written not as standalone entries, but rather
189 as components to be plugged into other entries via <STRONG>use</STRONG> capabilities,
190 are distinguished by using embedded plus signs rather than dashes.
192 Commands which use a terminal type to control display often accept a -T
193 option that accepts a terminal name argument. Such programs should
194 fall back on the <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> environment variable when no -T option is speci-
198 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
199 For maximum compatibility with older System V UNIXes, names and aliases
200 should be unique within the first 14 characters.
203 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
204 /usr/share/terminfo/?/*
205 compiled terminal capability data base
208 tty line initialization (AT&T-like UNIXes)
211 tty line initialization (BSD-like UNIXes)
214 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
215 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>.
219 <STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG>
223 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
224 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
225 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
226 <li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
227 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>