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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/local/ncurses/lib/terminfo</STRONG>. Two configurations are supported
62 (when building 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/local/ncurses/lib/terminfo/c/name</STRONG> where
67 <EM>name</EM> is the name of the terminal, and <EM>c</EM> is the first character of
68 <EM>name</EM>. Thus, <EM>act4</EM> can be found in the file
69 <STRONG>/usr/local/ncurses/lib/terminfo/a/act4</STRONG>. Synonyms for the same
70 terminal are implemented by multiple links to the same compiled
73 <STRONG>hashed</STRONG> <STRONG>database</STRONG>
74 Using Berkeley database, two types of records are stored: the ter-
75 minfo data in the same format as stored in a directory tree with
76 the terminfo's primary name as a key, and records containing only
77 aliases pointing to the primary name.
79 If built to write hashed databases, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> can still read ter-
80 minfo databases organized as a directory tree, but cannot write
81 entries into the directory tree. It can write (or rewrite)
82 entries in the hashed database.
84 <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> distinguishes the two cases in the TERMINFO and TER-
85 MINFO_DIRS environment variable by assuming a directory tree for
86 entries that correspond to an existing directory, and hashed data-
90 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-LEGACY-STORAGE-FORMAT">LEGACY STORAGE FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
91 The format has been chosen so that it will be the same on all hardware.
92 An 8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte order-
93 ing or sign extension are made.
95 The compiled file is created with the <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program, and read by the rou-
96 tine <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG>. The file is divided into six parts:
100 b) <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM>,
102 c) <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM>,
106 e) <EM>strings</EM>, and
108 f) <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
110 The <EM>header</EM> section begins the file. This section contains six short
111 integers in the format described below. These integers are
113 (1) the <EM>magic</EM> <EM>number</EM> (octal 0432);
115 (2) the size, in bytes, of the <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section;
117 (3) the number of bytes in the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section;
119 (4) the number of short integers in the <EM>numbers</EM> section;
121 (5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the <EM>strings</EM> section;
123 (6) the size, in bytes, of the <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
125 The capabilities in the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM>, <EM>numbers</EM>, and <EM>strings</EM> sections
126 are in the same order as the file <term.h>.
128 Short integers are signed, in the range -32768 to 32767. They are
129 stored as two 8-bit bytes. The first byte contains the least signifi-
130 cant 8 bits of the value, and the second byte contains the most signif-
131 icant 8 bits. (Thus, the value represented is 256*second+first.) This
132 format corresponds to the hardware of the VAX and PDP-11 (that is, lit-
133 tle-endian machines). Machines where this does not correspond to the
134 hardware must read the integers as two bytes and compute the little-
137 Numbers in a terminal description, whether they are entries in the <EM>num-</EM>
138 <EM>bers</EM> or <EM>strings</EM> table, are positive integers. Boolean flags are
139 treated as positive one-byte integers. In each case, those positive
140 integers represent a terminal capability. The terminal compiler tic
141 uses negative integers to handle the cases where a capability is not
144 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability is absent from this terminal, tic stores a -1 in
145 the corresponding table.
147 The integer value -1 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0377.
148 Absent boolean values are represented by the byte 0 (false).
150 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability has been canceled from this terminal, tic stores a
151 -2 in the corresponding table.
153 The integer value -2 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0376.
154 The boolean value -2 is represented by the byte 0376.
156 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Other negative values are illegal.
158 The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section comes after the <EM>header</EM>. It contains the
159 first line of the terminfo description, listing the various names for
160 the terminal, separated by the "|" character. The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> sec-
161 tion is terminated with an ASCII NUL character.
163 The <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section has one byte for each flag. Boolean capabil-
164 ities are either 1 or 0 (true or false) according to whether the termi-
165 nal supports the given capability or not.
167 Between the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section and the <EM>number</EM> section, a null byte
168 will be inserted, if necessary, to ensure that the <EM>number</EM> section
169 begins on an even byte This is a relic of the PDP-11's word-addressed
170 architecture, originally designed to avoid traps induced by addressing
171 a word on an odd byte boundary. All short integers are aligned on a
174 The <EM>numbers</EM> section is similar to the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section. Each
175 capability takes up two bytes, and is stored as a little-endian short
178 The <EM>strings</EM> section is also similar. Each capability is stored as a
179 short integer. The capability value is an index into the <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
181 The <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM> is the last section. It contains all of the values of
182 string capabilities referenced in the <EM>strings</EM> section. Each string is
183 null-terminated. Special characters in ^X or \c notation are stored in
184 their interpreted form, not the printing representation. Padding
185 information $<nn> and parameter information %x are stored intact in
189 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
190 The previous section describes the conventional terminfo binary format.
191 With some minor variations of the offsets (see PORTABILITY), the same
192 binary format is used in all modern UNIX systems. Each system uses a
193 predefined set of boolean, number or string capabilities.
195 The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> libraries and applications support extended terminfo binary
196 format, allowing users to define capabilities which are loaded at run-
197 time. This extension is made possible by using the fact that the other
198 implementations stop reading the terminfo data when they have reached
199 the end of the size given in the header. <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> checks the size, and
200 if it exceeds that due to the predefined data, continues to parse
201 according to its own scheme.
203 First, it reads the extended header (5 short integers):
205 (1) count of extended boolean capabilities
207 (2) count of extended numeric capabilities
209 (3) count of extended string capabilities
211 (4) count of the items in extended string table
213 (5) size of the extended string table in bytes
215 The count- and size-values for the extended string table include the
216 extended capability <EM>names</EM> as well as extended capability <EM>values</EM>.
218 Using the counts and sizes, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> allocates arrays and reads data for
219 the extended capabilities in the same order as the header information.
221 The extended string table contains values for string capabilities.
222 After the end of these values, it contains the names for each of the
223 extended capabilities in order, e.g., booleans, then numbers and
226 Applications which manipulate terminal data can use the definitions
227 described in <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG> which associate the long capability
228 names with members of a <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure.
231 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">EXTENDED NUMBER FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
232 On occasion, 16-bit signed integers are not large enough. With <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>
233 6.1, a new format was introduced by making a few changes to the legacy
236 <STRONG>o</STRONG> a different magic number (octal 01036)
238 <STRONG>o</STRONG> changing the type for the <EM>number</EM> array from signed 16-bit integers
239 to signed 32-bit integers.
241 To maintain compatibility, the library presents the same data struc-
242 tures to direct users of the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure as in previous formats.
243 However, that cannot provide callers with the extended numbers. The
244 library uses a similar but hidden data structure <STRONG>TERMTYPE2</STRONG> to provide
245 data for the terminfo functions.
248 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
250 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-setupterm">setupterm</a></H3><PRE>
251 Note that it is possible for <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> to expect a different set of
252 capabilities than are actually present in the file. Either the data-
253 base may have been updated since <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> has been recompiled (result-
254 ing in extra unrecognized entries in the file) or the program may have
255 been recompiled more recently than the database was updated (resulting
256 in missing entries). The routine <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> must be prepared for both
257 possibilities - this is why the numbers and sizes are included. Also,
258 new capabilities must always be added at the end of the lists of bool-
259 ean, number, and string capabilities.
262 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Binary-format">Binary format</a></H3><PRE>
263 X/Open Curses does not specify a format for the terminfo database.
264 UNIX System V curses used a directory-tree of binary files, one per
265 terminal description.
267 Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the other-
268 wise self-describing format, it is not wise to count on portability of
269 binary terminfo entries between commercial UNIX versions. The problem
270 is that there are at least three versions of terminfo (under HP-UX,
271 AIX, and OSF/1) which diverged from System V terminfo after SVr1, and
272 have added extension capabilities to the string table that (in the
273 binary format) collide with System V and XSI Curses extensions. See
274 <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for detailed discussion of terminfo source compatibility
277 This implementation is by default compatible with the binary terminfo
278 format used by Solaris curses, except in a few less-used details where
279 it was found that the latter did not match X/Open Curses. The format
280 used by the other Unix versions can be matched by building ncurses with
281 different configuration options.
284 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Magic-codes">Magic codes</a></H3><PRE>
285 The magic number in a binary terminfo file is the first 16-bits (two
286 bytes). Besides making it more reliable for the library to check that
287 a file is terminfo, utilities such as <STRONG>file</STRONG> also use that to tell what
288 the file-format is. System V defined more than one magic number, with
289 0433, 0435 as screen-dumps (see <STRONG><A HREF="scr_dump.5.html">scr_dump(5)</A></STRONG>). This implementation uses
290 01036 as a continuation of that sequence, but with a different high-
291 order byte to avoid confusion.
294 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-The-TERMTYPE-structure">The TERMTYPE structure</a></H3><PRE>
295 Direct access to the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure is provided for legacy applica-
296 tions. Portable applications should use the <STRONG>tigetflag</STRONG> and related
297 functions described in <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG> for reading terminal capabili-
301 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Mixed-case-terminal-names">Mixed-case terminal names</a></H3><PRE>
302 A small number of terminal descriptions use uppercase characters in
303 their names. If the underlying filesystem ignores the difference
304 between uppercase and lowercase, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> represents the "first charac-
305 ter" of the terminal name used as the intermediate level of a directory
306 tree in (two-character) hexadecimal form.
309 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLE">EXAMPLE</a></H2><PRE>
310 As an example, here is a description for the Lear-Siegler ADM-3, a pop-
311 ular though rather stupid early terminal:
316 bel=^G, clear= 32$<1>, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,
317 cuf1=^L, cup=\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,
321 and a hexadecimal dump of the compiled terminal description:
323 0000 1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00 82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33 ........ ..1.adm3
324 0010 61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64 6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00 a|lsi ad m3a...P.
325 0020 ff ff 18 00 ff ff 00 00 02 00 ff ff ff ff 04 00 ........ ........
326 0030 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 0a 00 25 00 27 00 ff ff ........ ..%.'...
327 0040 29 00 ff ff ff ff 2b 00 ff ff 2d 00 ff ff ff ff ).....+. ..-.....
328 0050 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
329 0060 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
330 0070 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
331 0080 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
332 0090 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
333 00a0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
334 00b0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
335 00c0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
336 00d0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
337 00e0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
338 00f0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
339 0100 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
340 0110 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
341 0120 ff ff ff ff ff ff 2f 00 07 00 0d 00 1a 24 3c 31 ....../. .....$<1
342 0130 3e 00 1b 3d 25 70 31 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 >..=%p1% {32}%+%c
343 0140 25 70 32 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 00 0a 00 1e %p2%{32} %+%c....
344 0150 00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a 00 ........ .
348 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-LIMITS">LIMITS</a></H2><PRE>
351 <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy for-
354 <STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 32768 bytes in the extended
357 <STRONG>o</STRONG> the name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
359 Compiled entries are limited to 32768 bytes because offsets into the
360 <EM>strings</EM> <EM>table</EM> use two-byte integers. The legacy format could have sup-
361 ported 32768-byte entries, but was limited a virtual memory page's 4096
365 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
366 /usr/local/ncurses/lib/terminfo/*/* compiled terminal capability
370 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
371 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
374 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></H2><PRE>
376 extended terminfo format for ncurses 5.0
377 hashed database support for ncurses 5.6
378 extended number support for ncurses 6.1
381 documented legacy terminfo format, e.g., from pcurses.
385 <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>
389 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
390 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
391 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
393 <li><a href="#h3-STORAGE-LOCATION">STORAGE LOCATION</a></li>
394 <li><a href="#h3-LEGACY-STORAGE-FORMAT">LEGACY STORAGE FORMAT</a></li>
395 <li><a href="#h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT</a></li>
396 <li><a href="#h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">EXTENDED NUMBER FORMAT</a></li>
399 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a>
401 <li><a href="#h3-setupterm">setupterm</a></li>
402 <li><a href="#h3-Binary-format">Binary format</a></li>
403 <li><a href="#h3-Magic-codes">Magic codes</a></li>
404 <li><a href="#h3-The-TERMTYPE-structure">The TERMTYPE structure</a></li>
405 <li><a href="#h3-Mixed-case-terminal-names">Mixed-case terminal names</a></li>
408 <li><a href="#h2-EXAMPLE">EXAMPLE</a></li>
409 <li><a href="#h2-LIMITS">LIMITS</a></li>
410 <li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
411 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
412 <li><a href="#h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></li>