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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> writes only one
68 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 The results are normally placed in the system terminfo
83 database <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>. The compiled terminal
84 description can be placed in a different terminfo
85 database. There are two ways to achieve this:
87 <STRONG>o</STRONG> First, you may override the system default by setting
88 the variable <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> in your shell environment to a
89 valid database location, e.g., an existing directory
90 (for directory trees) or valid location for a hashed
93 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Secondly, if <STRONG>tic</STRONG> cannot write in <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>
94 or the location specified using your TERMINFO vari-
95 able, it looks for the directory <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> (or
96 hashed database <EM>$HOME/.terminfo.db)</EM>; if that location
97 exists, the entry is placed there.
99 Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check
100 for a location specified with the TERMINFO variable first,
101 look at <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> if TERMINFO is not set, and
102 finally look in <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM>.
104 <STRONG>-0</STRONG> restricts the output to a single line
106 <STRONG>-1</STRONG> restricts the output to a single column
108 <STRONG>-a</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to retain commented-out capabilities
109 rather than discarding them. Capabilities are com-
110 mented by prefixing them with a period. This sets
111 the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option, because it treats the commented-out
112 entries as user-defined names. If the source is
113 termcap, accept the 2-character names required by
114 version 6. Otherwise these are ignored.
116 <STRONG>-C</STRONG> Force source translation to termcap format. Note:
117 this differs from the <STRONG>-C</STRONG> option of <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG> in
118 that it does not merely translate capability names,
119 but also translates terminfo strings to termcap
120 format. Capabilities that are not translatable are
121 left in the entry under their terminfo names but
122 commented out with two preceding dots. The actual
123 format used incorporates some improvements for
124 escaped characters from terminfo format. For a
125 stricter BSD-compatible translation, add the <STRONG>-K</STRONG>
128 <STRONG>-c</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to only check <EM>file</EM> for errors, including
129 syntax problems and bad use links. If you specify
130 <STRONG>-C</STRONG> (<STRONG>-I</STRONG>) with this option, the code will print warn-
131 ings about entries which, after use resolution, are
132 more than 1023 (4096) bytes long. Due to a fixed
133 buffer length in older termcap libraries, as well
134 as buggy checking for the buffer length (and a doc-
135 umented limit in terminfo), these entries may cause
136 core dumps with other implementations.
138 <STRONG>-D</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to print the database locations that it
139 knows about, and exit. The first location shown is
140 the one to which it would write compiled terminal
141 descriptions. If <STRONG>tic</STRONG> is not able to find a
142 writable database location according to the rules
143 summarized above, it will print a diagnostic and
144 exit with an error rather than printing a list of
147 <STRONG>-e</STRONG> <EM>names</EM>
148 Limit writes and translations to the following
149 comma-separated list of terminals. If any name or
150 alias of a terminal matches one of the names in the
151 list, the entry will be written or translated as
152 normal. Otherwise no output will be generated for
153 it. The option value is interpreted as a file con-
154 taining the list if it contains a '/'. (Note:
155 depending on how tic was compiled, this option may
156 require <STRONG>-I</STRONG> or <STRONG>-C</STRONG>.)
158 <STRONG>-f</STRONG> Display complex terminfo strings which contain
159 if/then/else/endif expressions indented for read-
162 <STRONG>-G</STRONG> Display constant literals in decimal form rather
163 than their character equivalents.
165 <STRONG>-g</STRONG> Display constant character literals in quoted form
166 rather than their decimal equivalents.
168 <STRONG>-I</STRONG> Force source translation to terminfo format.
170 <STRONG>-K</STRONG> Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to
171 termcap format, e.g., "\s" for space.
173 <STRONG>-L</STRONG> Force source translation to terminfo format using
174 the long C variable names listed in <<STRONG>term.h</STRONG>>
176 <STRONG>-N</STRONG> Disable smart defaults. Normally, when translating
177 from termcap to terminfo, the compiler makes a num-
178 ber of assumptions about the defaults of string
179 capabilities <STRONG>reset1_string</STRONG>, <STRONG>carriage_return</STRONG>, <STRONG>cur-</STRONG>
180 <STRONG>sor_left</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_down</STRONG>, <STRONG>scroll_forward</STRONG>, <STRONG>tab</STRONG>,
181 <STRONG>newline</STRONG>, <STRONG>key_backspace</STRONG>, <STRONG>key_left</STRONG>, and <STRONG>key_down</STRONG>,
182 then attempts to use obsolete termcap capabilities
183 to deduce correct values. It also normally sup-
184 presses output of obsolete termcap capabilities
185 such as <STRONG>bs</STRONG>. This option forces a more literal
186 translation that also preserves the obsolete capa-
189 <STRONG>-o</STRONG><EM>dir</EM> Write compiled entries to given database location.
190 Overrides the TERMINFO environment variable.
192 <STRONG>-R</STRONG><EM>subset</EM>
193 Restrict output to a given subset. This option is
194 for use with archaic versions of terminfo like
195 those on SVr1, Ultrix, or HP/UX that do not support
196 the full set of SVR4/XSI Curses terminfo; and out-
197 right broken ports like AIX 3.x that have their own
198 extensions incompatible with SVr4/XSI. Available
199 subsets are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", "BSD" and
200 "AIX"; see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for details.
202 <STRONG>-r</STRONG> Force entry resolution (so there are no remaining
203 tc capabilities) even when doing translation to
204 termcap format. This may be needed if you are
205 preparing a termcap file for a termcap library
206 (such as GNU termcap through version 1.3 or BSD
207 termcap through 4.3BSD) that does not handle multi-
208 ple tc capabilities per entry.
210 <STRONG>-s</STRONG> Summarize the compile by showing the database loca-
211 tion into which entries are written, and the number
212 of entries which are compiled.
214 <STRONG>-T</STRONG> eliminates size-restrictions on the generated text.
215 This is mainly useful for testing and analysis,
216 since the compiled descriptions are limited (e.g.,
217 1023 for termcap, 4096 for terminfo).
219 <STRONG>-t</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to discard commented-out capabilities.
220 Normally when translating from terminfo to termcap,
221 untranslatable capabilities are commented-out.
223 <STRONG>-U</STRONG> tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to not post-process the data after parsing
224 the source file. Normally, it infers data which is
225 commonly missing in older terminfo data, or in term-
228 <STRONG>-V</STRONG> reports the version of ncurses which was used in this
231 <STRONG>-v</STRONG><EM>n</EM> specifies that (verbose) output be written to stan-
232 dard error trace information showing <STRONG>tic</STRONG>'s progress.
233 The optional parameter <EM>n</EM> is a number from 1 to 10,
234 inclusive, indicating the desired level of detail of
235 information. If <EM>n</EM> is omitted, the default level is
236 1. If <EM>n</EM> is specified and greater than 1, the level
237 of detail is increased.
239 <STRONG>-w</STRONG><EM>n</EM> specifies the width of the output. The parameter is
240 optional. If it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
242 <STRONG>-x</STRONG> Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined. That is,
243 if you supply a capability name which <STRONG>tic</STRONG> does not
244 recognize, it will infer its type (boolean, number or
245 string) from the syntax and make an extended table
246 entry for that. User-defined capability strings
247 whose name begins with ``k'' are treated as function
250 <EM>file</EM> contains one or more <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> terminal descriptions
251 in source format [see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>]. Each description
252 in the file describes the capabilities of a particu-
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 hash ta-
272 If the debug level <EM>n</EM> is not given, it is taken to be one.
274 All but one of the capabilities recognized by <STRONG>tic</STRONG> are doc-
275 umented in <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>. The exception is the <STRONG>use</STRONG> capabil-
278 When a <STRONG>use</STRONG>=<EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> field is discovered in a terminal
279 entry currently being compiled, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> reads in the binary
280 from <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG> to complete the entry. (Entries
281 created from <EM>file</EM> will be used first. If the environment
282 variable <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> is set, that database location is
283 searched instead of <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>.) <STRONG>tic</STRONG> duplicates
284 the capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> for the current entry, with
285 the exception of those capabilities that explicitly are
286 defined in the current entry.
288 When an entry, e.g., <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>, contains a
289 <STRONG>use=</STRONG><EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> field, any canceled capabilities in
290 <EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> must also appear in <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG> before <STRONG>use=</STRONG>
291 for these capabilities to be canceled in <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>.
293 If the environment variable <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> is set, the compiled
294 results are placed there instead of <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>.
296 Total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes. The name
297 field cannot exceed 512 bytes. Terminal names exceeding
298 the maximum alias length (32 characters on systems with
299 long filenames, 14 characters otherwise) will be truncated
300 to the maximum alias length and a warning message will be
305 <H2>COMPATIBILITY</H2><PRE>
306 There is some evidence that historic <STRONG>tic</STRONG> implementations
307 treated description fields with no whitespace in them as
308 additional aliases or short names. This <STRONG>tic</STRONG> does not do
309 that, but it does warn when description fields may be
310 treated that way and check them for dangerous characters.
314 <H2>EXTENSIONS</H2><PRE>
315 Unlike the stock SVr4 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> command, this implementation can
316 actually compile termcap sources. In fact, entries in
317 terminfo and termcap syntax can be mixed in a single
318 source file. See <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for the list of termcap
319 names taken to be equivalent to terminfo names.
321 The SVr4 manual pages are not clear on the resolution
322 rules for <STRONG>use</STRONG> capabilities. This implementation of <STRONG>tic</STRONG>
323 will find <STRONG>use</STRONG> targets anywhere in the source file, or any-
324 where in the file tree rooted at <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> (if <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> is
325 defined), or in the user's <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> database (if it
326 exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file tree
329 The error messages from this <STRONG>tic</STRONG> have the same format as
330 GNU C error messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's
333 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>,
334 <STRONG>-o</STRONG>, <STRONG>-r</STRONG>, <STRONG>-s</STRONG>, <STRONG>-t</STRONG> and <STRONG>-x</STRONG> options are not supported under
335 SVr4. The SVr4 <STRONG>-c</STRONG> mode does not report bad use links.
337 System V does not compile entries to or read entries from
338 your <EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> database unless TERMINFO is explic-
344 <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/?/*</STRONG>
345 Compiled terminal description database.
349 <H2>SEE ALSO</H2><PRE>
350 <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>,
351 <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>.
353 This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 5.9 (patch 20120107).
358 Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
359 Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
363 <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1m)</A></STRONG>
367 Man(1) output converted with
368 <a href="http://www.oac.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/man2html.html">man2html</a>