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29 .\" $Id: term.5,v 1.24 2016/10/22 19:55:01 tom Exp $
34 term \- format of compiled term file.
39 Compiled terminfo descriptions are placed under the directory \fB\*d\fP.
40 Two configurations are supported (when building the ncurses libraries):
43 A two-level scheme is used to avoid a linear search
44 of a huge \s-1UNIX\s+1 system directory: \fB\*d/c/name\fP where
46 is the name of the terminal, and
48 is the first character of
52 can be found in the file \fB\*d/a/act4\fP.
53 Synonyms for the same terminal are implemented by multiple
54 links to the same compiled file.
57 Using Berkeley database, two types of records are stored:
58 the terminfo data in the same format as stored in a directory tree with
59 the terminfo's primary name as a key,
60 and records containing only aliases pointing to the primary name.
62 If built to write hashed databases,
63 ncurses can still read terminfo databases organized as a directory tree,
64 but cannot write entries into the directory tree.
65 It can write (or rewrite) entries in the hashed database.
67 ncurses distinguishes the two cases in the TERMINFO and TERMINFO_DIRS
68 environment variable by assuming a directory tree for entries that
69 correspond to an existing directory,
70 and hashed database otherwise.
72 The format has been chosen so that it will be the same on all hardware.
73 An 8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte ordering
74 or sign extension are made.
76 The compiled file is created with the \fB@TIC@\fP program,
77 and read by the routine \fBsetupterm\fP.
78 The file is divided into six parts:
87 The header section begins the file.
88 This section contains six short integers in the format
93 (1) the magic number (octal 0432);
95 (2) the size, in bytes, of the names section;
97 (3) the number of bytes in the boolean section;
99 (4) the number of short integers in the numbers section;
101 (5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the strings section;
103 (6) the size, in bytes, of the string table.
106 Short integers are stored in two 8-bit bytes.
107 The first byte contains the least significant 8 bits of the value,
108 and the second byte contains the most significant 8 bits.
109 (Thus, the value represented is 256*second+first.)
110 The value \-1 is represented by the two bytes 0377, 0377; other negative
111 values are illegal. This value generally
112 means that the corresponding capability is missing from this terminal.
113 Note that this format corresponds to the hardware of the \s-1VAX\s+1
114 and \s-1PDP\s+1-11 (that is, little-endian machines).
115 Machines where this does not correspond to the hardware must read the
116 integers as two bytes and compute the little-endian value.
118 The terminal names section comes next.
119 It contains the first line of the terminfo description,
120 listing the various names for the terminal,
121 separated by the `|' character.
122 The section is terminated with an \s-1ASCII NUL\s+1 character.
124 The boolean flags have one byte for each flag.
125 This byte is either 0 or 1 as the flag is present or absent.
126 The capabilities are in the same order as the file <term.h>.
128 Between the boolean section and the number section,
129 a null byte will be inserted, if necessary,
130 to ensure that the number section begins on an even byte (this is a
131 relic of the PDP\-11's word-addressed architecture, originally
132 designed in to avoid IOT traps induced by addressing a word on an
134 All short integers are aligned on a short word boundary.
136 The numbers section is similar to the flags section.
137 Each capability takes up two bytes,
138 and is stored as a little-endian short integer.
139 If the value represented is \-1, the capability is taken to be missing.
141 The strings section is also similar.
142 Each capability is stored as a short integer, in the format above.
143 A value of \-1 means the capability is missing.
144 Otherwise, the value is taken as an offset from the beginning
146 Special characters in ^X or \ec notation are stored in their
147 interpreted form, not the printing representation.
148 Padding information $<nn> and parameter information %x are
149 stored intact in uninterpreted form.
151 The final section is the string table.
152 It contains all the values of string capabilities referenced in
154 Each string is null terminated.
155 .SS EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT
156 The previous section describes the conventional terminfo binary format.
157 With some minor variations of the offsets (see PORTABILITY),
158 the same binary format is used in all modern UNIX systems.
159 Each system uses a predefined set of boolean, number or string capabilities.
161 The ncurses libraries and applications support extended terminfo binary format,
162 allowing users to define capabilities which are loaded at runtime. This
163 extension is made possible by using the fact that the other implementations
164 stop reading the terminfo data when they have reached the end of the size given
166 ncurses checks the size, and if it exceeds that due to the predefined data,
167 continues to parse according to its own scheme.
169 First, it reads the extended header (5 short integers):
173 count of extended boolean capabilities
176 count of extended numeric capabilities
179 count of extended string capabilities
182 size of the extended string table in bytes.
185 last offset of the extended string table in bytes.
188 Using the counts and sizes, ncurses allocates arrays and reads data
189 for the extended capabilities in the same order as the header information.
191 The extended string table contains values for string capabilities.
192 After the end of these values, it contains the names for each of
193 the extended capabilities in order, e.g., booleans, then numbers and
197 Note that it is possible for
199 to expect a different set of capabilities
200 than are actually present in the file.
201 Either the database may have been updated since
204 (resulting in extra unrecognized entries in the file)
205 or the program may have been recompiled more recently
206 than the database was updated
207 (resulting in missing entries).
210 must be prepared for both possibilities \-
211 this is why the numbers and sizes are included.
212 Also, new capabilities must always be added at the end of the lists
213 of boolean, number, and string capabilities.
215 Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the otherwise
216 self-describing format, it is not wise to count on portability of binary
217 terminfo entries between commercial UNIX versions. The problem is that there
218 are at least three versions of terminfo (under HP\-UX, AIX, and OSF/1) which
219 diverged from System V terminfo after SVr1, and have added extension
220 capabilities to the string table that (in the binary format) collide with
221 System V and XSI Curses extensions. See \fBterminfo\fR(\*n) for detailed
222 discussion of terminfo source compatibility issues.
224 As an example, here is a hex dump of the description for the Lear-Siegler
225 ADM\-3, a popular though rather stupid early terminal:
231 bel=^G, clear=\032$<1>, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,
232 cuf1=^L, cup=\\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,
236 \s-20000 1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00 82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33 ........ ..1.adm3
237 0010 61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64 6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00 a|lsi ad m3a...P.
238 0020 ff ff 18 00 ff ff 00 00 02 00 ff ff ff ff 04 00 ........ ........
239 0030 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 0a 00 25 00 27 00 ff ff ........ ..%.'...
240 0040 29 00 ff ff ff ff 2b 00 ff ff 2d 00 ff ff ff ff ).....+. ..-.....
241 0050 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
242 0060 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
243 0070 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
244 0080 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
245 0090 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
246 00a0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
247 00b0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
248 00c0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
249 00d0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
250 00e0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
251 00f0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
252 0100 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
253 0110 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
254 0120 ff ff ff ff ff ff 2f 00 07 00 0d 00 1a 24 3c 31 ....../. .....$<1
255 0130 3e 00 1b 3d 25 70 31 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 >..=%p1% {32}%+%c
256 0140 25 70 32 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 00 0a 00 1e %p2%{32} %+%c....
257 0150 00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a 00 ........ .\s+2
262 Some limitations: total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes.
263 The name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
265 \*d/*/* compiled terminal capability data base
267 \fBcurses\fR(3X), \fBterminfo\fR(\*n).
271 extended terminfo format for ncurses 5.0
273 hashed database support for ncurses 5.6