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43 <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
50 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> - the <EM>terminfo</EM> entry-description compiler
54 <H2>SYNOPSIS</H2><PRE>
55 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> [<STRONG>-01CDGIKLNTUVacfgrstx</STRONG>] [<STRONG>-e</STRONG> <EM>names</EM>] [<STRONG>-o</STRONG> <EM>dir</EM>] [<STRONG>-R</STRONG> <EM>sub-</EM>
56 <EM>set</EM>] [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>[<EM>n</EM>]] [<STRONG>-w</STRONG>[<EM>n</EM>]] <EM>file</EM>
60 <H2>DESCRIPTION</H2><PRE>
61 The <STRONG>tic</STRONG> command translates a <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> file from source
62 format into compiled format. The compiled format is nec-
63 essary for use with the library routines in <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">ncurses(3x)</A></STRONG>.
65 As described in <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>, the database may be either a
66 directory tree (one file per terminal entry) or a hashed
67 database (one record per entry). The <STRONG>tic</STRONG> command writes
68 only one type of entry, depending on how it was built:
70 <STRONG>o</STRONG> For directory trees, the top-level directory, e.g.,
71 /usr/share/terminfo, specifies the location of the
74 <STRONG>o</STRONG> For hashed databases, a filename is needed. If the
75 given file is not found by that name, but can be found
76 by adding the suffix ".db", then that is used.
78 The default name for the hashed database is the same
79 as the default directory name (only adding a ".db"
82 In either case (directory or hashed database), <STRONG>tic</STRONG> will
83 create the container if it does not exist. For a direc-
84 tory, this would be the "terminfo" leaf, versus a "ter-
87 The results are normally placed in the system terminfo
88 database <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>. The compiled terminal
89 description can be placed in a different terminfo data-
90 base. There are two ways to achieve this:
92 <STRONG>o</STRONG> First, you may override the system default either by
93 using the <STRONG>-o</STRONG> option, or by setting the variable <STRONG>TER-</STRONG>
94 <STRONG>MINFO</STRONG> in your shell environment to a valid database
97 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Secondly, if <STRONG>tic</STRONG> cannot write in <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>
98 or the location specified using your TERMINFO vari-
99 able, it looks for the directory <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> (or
100 hashed database <EM>$HOME/.terminfo.db)</EM>; if that location
101 exists, the entry is placed there.
103 Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check
106 <STRONG>o</STRONG> a location specified with the TERMINFO environment
109 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM>,
111 <STRONG>o</STRONG> directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
114 <STRONG>o</STRONG> a compiled-in list of directories
115 (/usr/local/ncurses/share/terminfo:/usr/share/ter-
118 <STRONG>o</STRONG> the system terminfo database (<EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>).
120 <STRONG>OPTIONS</STRONG>
121 <STRONG>-0</STRONG> restricts the output to a single line
123 <STRONG>-1</STRONG> restricts the output to a single column
125 <STRONG>-a</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to retain commented-out capabilities
126 rather than discarding them. Capabilities are com-
127 mented by prefixing them with a period. This sets
128 the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option, because it treats the commented-out
129 entries as user-defined names. If the source is
130 termcap, accept the 2-character names required by
131 version 6. Otherwise these are ignored.
133 <STRONG>-C</STRONG> Force source translation to termcap format. Note:
134 this differs from the <STRONG>-C</STRONG> option of <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG> in
135 that it does not merely translate capability names,
136 but also translates terminfo strings to termcap
137 format. Capabilities that are not translatable are
138 left in the entry under their terminfo names but
139 commented out with two preceding dots. The actual
140 format used incorporates some improvements for
141 escaped characters from terminfo format. For a
142 stricter BSD-compatible translation, add the <STRONG>-K</STRONG>
145 <STRONG>-c</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to only check <EM>file</EM> for errors, including
146 syntax problems and bad use links. If you specify
147 <STRONG>-C</STRONG> (<STRONG>-I</STRONG>) with this option, the code will print warn-
148 ings about entries which, after use resolution, are
149 more than 1023 (4096) bytes long. Due to a fixed
150 buffer length in older termcap libraries, as well
151 as buggy checking for the buffer length (and a doc-
152 umented limit in terminfo), these entries may cause
153 core dumps with other implementations.
155 <STRONG>-D</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to print the database locations that it
156 knows about, and exit. The first location shown is
157 the one to which it would write compiled terminal
158 descriptions. If <STRONG>tic</STRONG> is not able to find a
159 writable database location according to the rules
160 summarized above, it will print a diagnostic and
161 exit with an error rather than printing a list of
164 <STRONG>-e</STRONG> <EM>names</EM>
165 Limit writes and translations to the following
166 comma-separated list of terminals. If any name or
167 alias of a terminal matches one of the names in the
168 list, the entry will be written or translated as
169 normal. Otherwise no output will be generated for
170 it. The option value is interpreted as a file con-
171 taining the list if it contains a '/'. (Note:
172 depending on how tic was compiled, this option may
173 require <STRONG>-I</STRONG> or <STRONG>-C</STRONG>.)
175 <STRONG>-f</STRONG> Display complex terminfo strings which contain
176 if/then/else/endif expressions indented for read-
179 <STRONG>-G</STRONG> Display constant literals in decimal form rather
180 than their character equivalents.
182 <STRONG>-g</STRONG> Display constant character literals in quoted form
183 rather than their decimal equivalents.
185 <STRONG>-I</STRONG> Force source translation to terminfo format.
187 <STRONG>-K</STRONG> Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to
188 termcap format, e.g., "\s" for space.
190 <STRONG>-L</STRONG> Force source translation to terminfo format using
191 the long C variable names listed in <<STRONG>term.h</STRONG>>
193 <STRONG>-N</STRONG> Disable smart defaults. Normally, when translating
194 from termcap to terminfo, the compiler makes a num-
195 ber of assumptions about the defaults of string
196 capabilities <STRONG>reset1_string</STRONG>, <STRONG>carriage_return</STRONG>, <STRONG>cur-</STRONG>
197 <STRONG>sor_left</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_down</STRONG>, <STRONG>scroll_forward</STRONG>, <STRONG>tab</STRONG>, <STRONG>new-</STRONG>
198 <STRONG>line</STRONG>, <STRONG>key_backspace</STRONG>, <STRONG>key_left</STRONG>, and <STRONG>key_down</STRONG>, then
199 attempts to use obsolete termcap capabilities to
200 deduce correct values. It also normally suppresses
201 output of obsolete termcap capabilities such as <STRONG>bs</STRONG>.
202 This option forces a more literal translation that
203 also preserves the obsolete capabilities.
205 <STRONG>-o</STRONG><EM>dir</EM> Write compiled entries to given database location.
206 Overrides the TERMINFO environment variable.
208 <STRONG>-R</STRONG><EM>subset</EM>
209 Restrict output to a given subset. This option is
210 for use with archaic versions of terminfo like
211 those on SVr1, Ultrix, or HP/UX that do not support
212 the full set of SVR4/XSI Curses terminfo; and out-
213 right broken ports like AIX 3.x that have their own
214 extensions incompatible with SVr4/XSI. Available
215 subsets are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", "BSD" and
216 "AIX"; see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for details.
218 <STRONG>-r</STRONG> Force entry resolution (so there are no remaining
219 tc capabilities) even when doing translation to
220 termcap format. This may be needed if you are pre-
221 paring a termcap file for a termcap library (such
222 as GNU termcap through version 1.3 or BSD termcap
223 through 4.3BSD) that does not handle multiple tc
224 capabilities per entry.
226 <STRONG>-s</STRONG> Summarize the compile by showing the database loca-
227 tion into which entries are written, and the number
228 of entries which are compiled.
230 <STRONG>-T</STRONG> eliminates size-restrictions on the generated text.
231 This is mainly useful for testing and analysis,
232 since the compiled descriptions are limited (e.g.,
233 1023 for termcap, 4096 for terminfo).
235 <STRONG>-t</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to discard commented-out capabilities.
236 Normally when translating from terminfo to termcap,
237 untranslatable capabilities are commented-out.
239 <STRONG>-U</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to not post-process the data after parsing
240 the source file. Normally, it infers data which is
241 commonly missing in older terminfo data, or in term-
244 <STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of ncurses which was used in this
247 <STRONG>-v</STRONG><EM>n</EM> specifies that (verbose) output be written to stan-
248 dard error trace information showing <STRONG>tic</STRONG>'s progress.
249 The optional parameter <EM>n</EM> is a number from 1 to 10,
250 inclusive, indicating the desired level of detail of
251 information. If <EM>n</EM> is omitted, the default level is
252 1. If <EM>n</EM> is specified and greater than 1, the level
253 of detail is increased.
255 The debug flag levels are as follows:
257 1 Names of files created and linked
259 2 Information related to the "use" facility
261 3 Statistics from the hashing algorithm
263 5 String-table memory allocations
265 7 Entries into the string-table
267 8 List of tokens encountered by scanner
269 9 All values computed in construction of the
272 If the debug level <EM>n</EM> is not given, it is taken to be
275 <STRONG>-w</STRONG><EM>n</EM> specifies the width of the output. The parameter is
276 optional. If it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
278 <STRONG>-x</STRONG> Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined. That is,
279 if you supply a capability name which <STRONG>tic</STRONG> does not
280 recognize, it will infer its type (boolean, number or
281 string) from the syntax and make an extended table
282 entry for that. User-defined capability strings
283 whose name begins with "k" are treated as function
286 <STRONG>PARAMETERS</STRONG>
287 <EM>file</EM> contains one or more <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> terminal descriptions
288 in source format [see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>]. Each descrip-
289 tion in the file describes the capabilities of a
292 If <EM>file</EM> is "-", then the data is read from the
293 standard input. The <EM>file</EM> parameter may also be the
294 path of a character-device.
296 <STRONG>PROCESSING</STRONG>
297 All but one of the capabilities recognized by <STRONG>tic</STRONG> are doc-
298 umented in <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>. The exception is the <STRONG>use</STRONG> capabil-
301 When a <STRONG>use</STRONG>=<EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> field is discovered in a terminal
302 entry currently being compiled, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> reads in the binary
303 from <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG> to complete the entry. (Entries
304 created from <EM>file</EM> will be used first. <STRONG>tic</STRONG> duplicates the
305 capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> for the current entry, with the
306 exception of those capabilities that explicitly are
307 defined in the current entry.
309 When an entry, e.g., <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>, contains a
310 <STRONG>use=</STRONG><EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> field, any canceled capabilities in
311 <EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> must also appear in <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG> before <STRONG>use=</STRONG>
312 for these capabilities to be canceled in <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>.
314 Total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes. The name
315 field cannot exceed 512 bytes. Terminal names exceeding
316 the maximum alias length (32 characters on systems with
317 long filenames, 14 characters otherwise) will be truncated
318 to the maximum alias length and a warning message will be
323 <H2>COMPATIBILITY</H2><PRE>
324 There is some evidence that historic <STRONG>tic</STRONG> implementations
325 treated description fields with no whitespace in them as
326 additional aliases or short names. This <STRONG>tic</STRONG> does not do
327 that, but it does warn when description fields may be
328 treated that way and check them for dangerous characters.
332 <H2>EXTENSIONS</H2><PRE>
333 Unlike the SVr4 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> command, this implementation can actu-
334 ally compile termcap sources. In fact, entries in ter-
335 minfo and termcap syntax can be mixed in a single source
336 file. See <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for the list of termcap names taken
337 to be equivalent to terminfo names.
339 The SVr4 manual pages are not clear on the resolution
340 rules for <STRONG>use</STRONG> capabilities. This implementation of <STRONG>tic</STRONG>
341 will find <STRONG>use</STRONG> targets anywhere in the source file, or any-
342 where in the file tree rooted at <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> (if <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> is
343 defined), or in the user's <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> database (if it
344 exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file tree
347 The error messages from this <STRONG>tic</STRONG> have the same format as
348 GNU C error messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's
351 The <STRONG>-0</STRONG>, <STRONG>-1</STRONG>, <STRONG>-C</STRONG>, <STRONG>-G</STRONG>, <STRONG>-I</STRONG>, <STRONG>-N</STRONG>, <STRONG>-R</STRONG>, <STRONG>-T</STRONG>, <STRONG>-V</STRONG>, <STRONG>-a</STRONG>, <STRONG>-e</STRONG>, <STRONG>-f</STRONG>, <STRONG>-g</STRONG>,
352 <STRONG>-o</STRONG>, <STRONG>-r</STRONG>, <STRONG>-s</STRONG>, <STRONG>-t</STRONG> and <STRONG>-x</STRONG> options are not supported under
353 SVr4. The SVr4 <STRONG>-c</STRONG> mode does not report bad use links.
355 System V does not compile entries to or read entries from
356 your <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> database unless TERMINFO is explic-
362 <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/?/*</STRONG>
363 Compiled terminal description database.
367 <H2>SEE ALSO</H2><PRE>
368 <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infotocap.1m.html">infotocap(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="toe.1m.html">toe(1m)</A></STRONG>,
369 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>. <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
371 This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 5.9 (patch 20131221).
376 Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
377 Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
381 <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
385 Man(1) output converted with
386 <a href="http://www.oac.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/man2html.html">man2html</a>