1 .\"***************************************************************************
2 .\" Copyright (c) 1998 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
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29 .\" $Id: term.5,v 1.10 2000/08/13 01:56:45 tom Exp $
34 term \- format of compiled term file.
39 Compiled terminfo descriptions are placed under the directory \fB\*d\fP.
40 In order to avoid a linear search of a huge \s-1UNIX\s+1 system directory, a
41 two-level scheme is used: \fB\*b/c/name\fP
44 is the name of the terminal, and
46 is the first character of
50 can be found in the file \fB\*d/a/act4\fP.
51 Synonyms for the same terminal are implemented by multiple
52 links to the same compiled file.
54 The format has been chosen so that it will be the same on all hardware.
55 An 8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte ordering
56 or sign extension are made.
58 The compiled file is created with the
60 program, and read by the routine
62 The file is divided into six parts:
71 The header section begins the file.
72 This section contains six short integers in the format
75 (1) the magic number (octal 0432);
76 (2) the size, in bytes, of the names section;
77 (3) the number of bytes in the boolean section;
78 (4) the number of short integers in the numbers section;
79 (5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the strings section;
80 (6) the size, in bytes, of the string table.
82 Short integers are stored in two 8-bit bytes.
83 The first byte contains the least significant 8 bits of the value,
84 and the second byte contains the most significant 8 bits.
85 (Thus, the value represented is 256*second+first.)
86 The value \-1 is represented by the two bytes 0377, 0377; other negative
87 values are illegal. This value generally
88 means that the corresponding capability is missing from this terminal.
89 Note that this format corresponds to the hardware of the \s-1VAX\s+1
90 and \s-1PDP\s+1-11 (that is, little-endian machines).
91 Machines where this does not correspond to the hardware must read the
92 integers as two bytes and compute the little-endian value.
94 The terminal names section comes next.
95 It contains the first line of the terminfo description,
96 listing the various names for the terminal,
97 separated by the `|' character.
98 The section is terminated with an \s-1ASCII NUL\s+1 character.
100 The boolean flags have one byte for each flag.
101 This byte is either 0 or 1 as the flag is present or absent.
102 The capabilities are in the same order as the file <term.h>.
104 Between the boolean section and the number section,
105 a null byte will be inserted, if necessary,
106 to ensure that the number section begins on an even byte (this is a
107 relic of the PDP-11's word-addressed architecture, originally
108 designed in to avoid IOT traps induced by addressing a word on an
110 All short integers are aligned on a short word boundary.
112 The numbers section is similar to the flags section.
113 Each capability takes up two bytes,
114 and is stored as a little-endian short integer.
115 If the value represented is \-1, the capability is taken to be missing.
117 The strings section is also similar.
118 Each capability is stored as a short integer, in the format above.
119 A value of \-1 means the capability is missing.
120 Otherwise, the value is taken as an offset from the beginning
122 Special characters in ^X or \ec notation are stored in their
123 interpreted form, not the printing representation.
124 Padding information $<nn> and parameter information %x are
125 stored intact in uninterpreted form.
127 The final section is the string table.
128 It contains all the values of string capabilities referenced in
130 Each string is null terminated.
132 Note that it is possible for
134 to expect a different set of capabilities
135 than are actually present in the file.
136 Either the database may have been updated since
139 (resulting in extra unrecognized entries in the file)
140 or the program may have been recompiled more recently
141 than the database was updated
142 (resulting in missing entries).
145 must be prepared for both possibilities \-
146 this is why the numbers and sizes are included.
147 Also, new capabilities must always be added at the end of the lists
148 of boolean, number, and string capabilities.
150 Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the otherwise
151 self-describing format, it is not wise to count on portability of binary
152 terminfo entries between commercial UNIX versions. The problem is that there
153 are at least three versions of terminfo (under HP-UX, AIX, and OSF/1) which
154 diverged from System V terminfo after SVr1, and have added extension
155 capabilities to the string table that (in the binary format) collide with
156 System V and XSI Curses extensions. See \fBterminfo\fR(\*n) for detailed
157 discussion of terminfo source compatibility issues.
159 As an example, here is a hex dump of the description for the Lear-Siegler
160 ADM-3, a popular though rather stupid early terminal:
166 bel=^G, clear=\032$<1>, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,
167 cuf1=^L, cup=\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,
171 \s-20000 1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00 82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33 ........ ..1.adm3
172 0010 61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64 6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00 a|lsi ad m3a...P.
173 0020 ff ff 18 00 ff ff 00 00 02 00 ff ff ff ff 04 00 ........ ........
174 0030 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 0a 00 25 00 27 00 ff ff ........ ..%.'...
175 0040 29 00 ff ff ff ff 2b 00 ff ff 2d 00 ff ff ff ff ).....+. ..-.....
176 0050 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
177 0060 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
178 0070 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
179 0080 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
180 0090 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
181 00a0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
182 00b0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
183 00c0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
184 00d0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
185 00e0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
186 00f0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
187 0100 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
188 0110 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
189 0120 ff ff ff ff ff ff 2f 00 07 00 0d 00 1a 24 3c 31 ....../. .....$<1
190 0130 3e 00 1b 3d 25 70 31 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 >..=%p1% {32}%+%c
191 0140 25 70 32 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 00 0a 00 1e %p2%{32} %+%c....
192 0150 00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a 00 ........ .\s+2
197 Some limitations: total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes.
198 The name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
200 \*d/*/* compiled terminal capability data base
202 \fBcurses\fR(3X), \fBterminfo\fR(\*n).
204 .\"# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
205 .\"# Local Variables: