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+ * @Id: term.5,v 1.17 2006/12/03 01:08:16 tom Exp @
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<!-- Manpage converted by man2html 3.0.1 -->
+<STRONG><A HREF="TERM.5.html">TERM(5)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="TERM.5.html">TERM(5)</A></STRONG>
+
+
+
</PRE>
<H2>NAME</H2><PRE>
</PRE>
<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2><PRE>
+ <STRONG>STORAGE</STRONG> <STRONG>LOCATION</STRONG>
Compiled terminfo descriptions are placed under the direc-
- tory <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>. In order to avoid a linear
- search of a huge UNIX system directory, a two-level scheme
- is used: <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/c/name</STRONG> where <EM>name</EM> is the name
- of the terminal, and <EM>c</EM> is the first character of <EM>name</EM>.
- Thus, <EM>act4</EM> can be found in the file <STRONG>/usr/share/ter-</STRONG>
- <STRONG>minfo/a/act4</STRONG>. Synonyms for the same terminal are imple-
- mented by multiple links to the same compiled file.
-
+ tory <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>. Two configurations are sup-
+ ported (when building the ncurses libraries):
+
+ <STRONG>directory</STRONG> <STRONG>tree</STRONG>
+ A two-level scheme is used to avoid a linear search
+ of a huge UNIX system directory: <STRONG>/usr/share/ter-</STRONG>
+ <STRONG>minfo/c/name</STRONG> where <EM>name</EM> is the name of the terminal,
+ and <EM>c</EM> is the first character of <EM>name</EM>. Thus, <EM>act4</EM> can
+ be found in the file <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/a/act4</STRONG>.
+ Synonyms for the same terminal are implemented by
+ multiple links to the same compiled file.
+
+ <STRONG>hashed</STRONG> <STRONG>database</STRONG>
+ Using Berkeley database, two types of records are
+ stored: the terminfo data in the same format as
+ stored in a directory tree with the terminfo's pri-
+ mary name as a key, and records containing only
+ aliases pointing to the primary name.
+
+ If built to write hashed databases, ncurses can still
+ read terminfo databases organized as a directory
+ tree, but cannot write entries into the directory
+ tree. It can write (or rewrite) entries in the
+ hashed database.
+
+ ncurses distinguishes the two cases in the TERMINFO
+ and TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable by assuming a
+ directory tree for entries that correspond to an
+ existing directory, and hashed database otherwise.
+
+ <STRONG>STORAGE</STRONG> <STRONG>FORMAT</STRONG>
The format has been chosen so that it will be the same on
all hardware. An 8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no
assumptions about byte ordering or sign extension are
The header section begins the file. This section contains
six short integers in the format described below. These
- integers are (1) the magic number (octal 0432); (2) the
- size, in bytes, of the names section; (3) the number of
- bytes in the boolean section; (4) the number of short
- integers in the numbers section; (5) the number of offsets
- (short integers) in the strings section; (6) the size, in
- bytes, of the string table.
-
- Short integers are stored in two 8-bit bytes. The first
- byte contains the least significant 8 bits of the value,
- and the second byte contains the most significant 8 bits.
- (Thus, the value represented is 256*second+first.) The
+ integers are
+
+ (1) the magic number (octal 0432);
+
+ (2) the size, in bytes, of the names section;
+
+ (3) the number of bytes in the boolean section;
+
+ (4) the number of short integers in the numbers sec-
+ tion;
+
+ (5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the
+ strings section;
+
+ (6) the size, in bytes, of the string table.
+
+ Short integers are stored in two 8-bit bytes. The first
+ byte contains the least significant 8 bits of the value,
+ and the second byte contains the most significant 8 bits.
+ (Thus, the value represented is 256*second+first.) The
value -1 is represented by the two bytes 0377, 0377; other
- negative values are illegal. This value generally means
- that the corresponding capability is missing from this
- terminal. Note that this format corresponds to the hard-
+ negative values are illegal. This value generally means
+ that the corresponding capability is missing from this
+ terminal. Note that this format corresponds to the hard-
ware of the VAX and PDP-11 (that is, little-endian
machines). Machines where this does not correspond to the
- hardware must read the integers as two bytes and compute
+ hardware must read the integers as two bytes and compute
the little-endian value.
- The terminal names section comes next. It contains the
- first line of the terminfo description, listing the vari-
- ous names for the terminal, separated by the `|' charac-
- ter. The section is terminated with an ASCII NUL charac-
+ The terminal names section comes next. It contains the
+ first line of the terminfo description, listing the vari-
+ ous names for the terminal, separated by the `|' charac-
+ ter. The section is terminated with an ASCII NUL charac-
ter.
- The boolean flags have one byte for each flag. This byte
- is either 0 or 1 as the flag is present or absent. The
+ The boolean flags have one byte for each flag. This byte
+ is either 0 or 1 as the flag is present or absent. The
capabilities are in the same order as the file <term.h>.
Between the boolean section and the number section, a null
- byte will be inserted, if necessary, to ensure that the
- number section begins on an even byte (this is a relic of
- the PDP-11's word-addressed architecture, originally
- designed in to avoid IOT traps induced by addressing a
- word on an odd byte boundary). All short integers are
+ byte will be inserted, if necessary, to ensure that the
+ number section begins on an even byte (this is a relic of
+ the PDP-11's word-addressed architecture, originally
+ designed in to avoid IOT traps induced by addressing a
+ word on an odd byte boundary). All short integers are
aligned on a short word boundary.
The numbers section is similar to the flags section. Each
- capability takes up two bytes, and is stored as a little-
+ capability takes up two bytes, and is stored as a little-
endian short integer. If the value represented is -1, the
capability is taken to be missing.
- The strings section is also similar. Each capability is
- stored as a short integer, in the format above. A value
- of -1 means the capability is missing. Otherwise, the
- value is taken as an offset from the beginning of the
+ The strings section is also similar. Each capability is
+ stored as a short integer, in the format above. A value
+ of -1 means the capability is missing. Otherwise, the
+ value is taken as an offset from the beginning of the
string table. Special characters in ^X or \c notation are
- stored in their interpreted form, not the printing repre-
+ stored in their interpreted form, not the printing repre-
sentation. Padding information $<nn> and parameter infor-
mation %x are stored intact in uninterpreted form.
- The final section is the string table. It contains all
+ The final section is the string table. It contains all
the values of string capabilities referenced in the string
section. Each string is null terminated.
+ <STRONG>EXTENDED</STRONG> <STRONG>STORAGE</STRONG> <STRONG>FORMAT</STRONG>
+ The previous section describes the conventional terminfo
+ binary format. With some minor variations of the offsets
+ (see PORTABILITY), the same binary format is used in all
+ modern UNIX systems. Each system uses a predefined set of
+ boolean, number or string capabilities.
+
+ The ncurses libraries and applications support extended
+ terminfo binary format, allowing users to define capabili-
+ ties which are loaded at runtime. This extension is made
+ possible by using the fact that the other implementations
+ stop reading the terminfo data when they have reached the
+ end of the size given in the header. ncurses checks the
+ size, and if it exceeds that due to the predefined data,
+ continues to parse according to its own scheme.
+
+ First, it reads the extended header (5 short integers):
+
+ (1) count of extended boolean capabilities
+
+ (2) count of extended numeric capabilities
+
+ (3) count of extended string capabilities
+
+ (4) size of the extended string table in bytes.
+
+ (5) last offset of the extended string table in
+ bytes.
+
+ Using the counts and sizes, ncurses allocates arrays and
+ reads data for the extended capabilties in the same order
+ as the header information.
+
+ The extended string table contains values for string capa-
+ bilities. After the end of these values, it contains the
+ names for each of the extended capabilities in order,
+ e.g., booleans, then numbers and finally strings.
+
+
+</PRE>
+<H2>PORTABILITY</H2><PRE>
Note that it is possible for <EM>setupterm</EM> to expect a differ-
ent set of capabilities than are actually present in the
file. Either the database may have been updated since
Curses extensions. See <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for detailed discus-
sion of terminfo source compatibility issues.
+
+</PRE>
+<H2>EXAMPLE</H2><PRE>
As an example, here is a hex dump of the description for
the Lear-Siegler ADM-3, a popular though rather stupid
early terminal:
0150 00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a 00 ........ .
+
+</PRE>
+<H2>LIMITS</H2><PRE>
Some limitations: total compiled entries cannot exceed
4096 bytes. The name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
<STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
+</PRE>
+<H2>AUTHORS</H2><PRE>
+ Thomas E. Dickey
+ extended terminfo format for ncurses 5.0
+ hashed database support for ncurses 5.6
+ Eric S. Raymond
-
-
-
-
-
+ <STRONG><A HREF="TERM.5.html">TERM(5)</A></STRONG>
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