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+ * Copyright 2018-2019,2020 Thomas E. Dickey *
+ * Copyright 1998-2011,2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
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- * @Id: term.7,v 1.27 2019/07/13 23:17:23 tom Exp @
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<H1 class="no-header">term 7</H1>
<PRE>
-<STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG> Miscellaneous Information Manual <STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG>
+<B><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></B> Miscellaneous Information Manual <B><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></B>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
- The environment variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> should normally contain the type name of
+ The environment variable <B>TERM</B> should normally contain the type name of
the terminal, console or display-device type you are using. This
information is critical for all screen-oriented programs, including
your editor and mailer.
- A default <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> value will be set on a per-line basis by either
- <STRONG>/etc/inittab</STRONG> (e.g., System-V-like UNIXes) or <STRONG>/etc/ttys</STRONG> (BSD UNIXes).
- This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer con-
- soles.
+ A default <B>TERM</B> value will be set on a per-line basis by either
+ <B>/etc/inittab</B> (e.g., System-V-like UNIXes) or <B>/etc/ttys</B> (BSD UNIXes).
+ This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer
+ consoles.
If you use a dialup line, the type of device attached to it may vary.
Older UNIX systems pre-set a very dumb terminal type like "dumb" or
the prevalence of DEC VT100-compatible terminals and personal-computer
emulators.
- Modern telnets pass your <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> environment variable from the local side
+ Modern telnets pass your <B>TERM</B> environment variable from the local side
to the remote one. There can be problems if the remote terminfo or
- termcap entry for your type is not compatible with yours, but this sit-
- uation is rare and can almost always be avoided by explicitly exporting
- "vt100" (assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset console, ter-
- minal, or terminal emulator.)
+ termcap entry for your type is not compatible with yours, but this
+ situation is rare and can almost always be avoided by explicitly
+ exporting "vt100" (assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset
+ console, terminal, or terminal emulator.)
- In any case, you are free to override the system <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> setting to your
- taste in your shell profile. The <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG> utility may be of assistance;
+ In any case, you are free to override the system <B>TERM</B> setting to your
+ taste in your shell profile. The <B><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></B> utility may be of assistance;
you can give it a set of rules for deducing or requesting a terminal
type based on the tty device and baud rate.
- Setting your own <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> value may also be useful if you have created a
+ Setting your own <B>TERM</B> value may also be useful if you have created a
custom entry incorporating options (such as visual bell or reverse-
video) which you wish to override the system default type for your
line.
toe | more
- from your shell. These capability files are in a binary format opti-
- mized for retrieval speed (unlike the old text-based <STRONG>termcap</STRONG> format
- they replace); to examine an entry, you must use the <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG> com-
- mand. Invoke it as follows:
+ from your shell. These capability files are in a binary format
+ optimized for retrieval speed (unlike the old text-based <B>termcap</B> format
+ they replace); to examine an entry, you must use the <B><A HREF="infocmp.1M.html">infocmp(1M)</A></B>
+ command. Invoke it as follows:
- infocmp <EM>entry</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>name</EM>
+ infocmp <I>entry</I><B>_</B><I>name</I>
- where <EM>entry</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>name</EM> is the name of the type you wish to examine (and the
+ where <I>entry</I><B>_</B><I>name</I> is the name of the type you wish to examine (and the
name of its capability file the subdirectory of /usr/share/terminfo
named for its first letter). This command dumps a capability file in
- the text format described by <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
+ the text format described by <B><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></B>.
- The first line of a <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> description gives the names by which
+ The first line of a <B><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></B> description gives the names by which
terminfo knows a terminal, separated by "|" (pipe-bar) characters with
the last name field terminated by a comma. The first name field is the
- type's <EM>primary</EM> <EM>name</EM>, and is the one to use when setting <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>. The last
+ type's <I>primary</I> <I>name</I>, and is the one to use when setting <B>TERM</B>. The last
name field (if distinct from the first) is actually a description of
the terminal type (it may contain blanks; the others must be single
words). Name fields between the first and last (if present) are
- aliases for the terminal, usually historical names retained for compat-
- ibility.
+ aliases for the terminal, usually historical names retained for
+ compatibility.
There are some conventions for how to choose terminal primary names
that help keep them informative and unique. Here is a step-by-step
guide to naming terminals that also explains how to parse them:
- First, choose a root name. The root will consist of a lower-case let-
- ter followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits. You need to
- avoid using punctuation characters in root names, because they are used
- and interpreted as filenames and shell meta-characters (such as !, $,
- *, ?, etc.) embedded in them may cause odd and unhelpful behavior. The
- slash (/), or any other character that may be interpreted by anyone's
- file system (\, $, [, ]), is especially dangerous (terminfo is plat-
- form-independent, and choosing names with special characters could
+ First, choose a root name. The root will consist of a lower-case
+ letter followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits. You need
+ to avoid using punctuation characters in root names, because they are
+ used and interpreted as filenames and shell meta-characters (such as !,
+ $, *, ?, etc.) embedded in them may cause odd and unhelpful behavior.
+ The slash (/), or any other character that may be interpreted by
+ anyone's file system (\, $, [, ]), is especially dangerous (terminfo is
+ platform-independent, and choosing names with special characters could
someday make life difficult for users of a future port). The dot (.)
character is relatively safe as long as there is at most one per root
name; some historical terminfo names use it.
The root name for a terminal or workstation console type should almost
- always begin with a vendor prefix (such as <STRONG>hp</STRONG> for Hewlett-Packard, <STRONG>wy</STRONG>
- for Wyse, or <STRONG>att</STRONG> for AT&T terminals), or a common name of the terminal
- line (<STRONG>vt</STRONG> for the VT series of terminals from DEC, or <STRONG>sun</STRONG> for Sun
- Microsystems workstation consoles, or <STRONG>regent</STRONG> for the ADDS Regent
+ always begin with a vendor prefix (such as <B>hp</B> for Hewlett-Packard, <B>wy</B>
+ for Wyse, or <B>att</B> for AT&T terminals), or a common name of the terminal
+ line (<B>vt</B> for the VT series of terminals from DEC, or <B>sun</B> for Sun
+ Microsystems workstation consoles, or <B>regent</B> for the ADDS Regent
series. You can list the terminfo tree to see what prefixes are
already in common use. The root name prefix should be followed when
- appropriate by a model number; thus <STRONG>vt100</STRONG>, <STRONG>hp2621</STRONG>, <STRONG>wy50</STRONG>.
+ appropriate by a model number; thus <B>vt100</B>, <B>hp2621</B>, <B>wy50</B>.
The root name for a PC-Unix console type should be the OS name, i.e.,
- <STRONG>linux</STRONG>, <STRONG>bsdos</STRONG>, <STRONG>freebsd</STRONG>, <STRONG>netbsd</STRONG>. It should <EM>not</EM> be <STRONG>console</STRONG> or any other
+ <B>linux</B>, <B>bsdos</B>, <B>freebsd</B>, <B>netbsd</B>. It should <I>not</I> be <B>console</B> or any other
generic that might cause confusion in a multi-platform environment! If
a model number follows, it should indicate either the OS release level
or the console driver release level.
The root name for a terminal emulator (assuming it does not fit one of
- the standard ANSI or vt100 types) should be the program name or a read-
- ily recognizable abbreviation of it (i.e., <STRONG>versaterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>ctrm</STRONG>).
+ the standard ANSI or vt100 types) should be the program name or a
+ readily recognizable abbreviation of it (i.e., <B>versaterm</B>, <B>ctrm</B>).
Following the root name, you may add any reasonable number of hyphen-
separated feature suffixes.
2p Has two pages of memory. Likewise 4p, 8p, etc.
- mc Magic-cookie. Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only sup-
- port one attribute without magic-cookie lossage. Their base entry
- is usually paired with another that has this suffix and uses magic
- cookies to support multiple attributes.
+ mc Magic-cookie. Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only
+ support one attribute without magic-cookie lossage. Their base
+ entry is usually paired with another that has this suffix and uses
+ magic cookies to support multiple attributes.
-am Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound).
Conventionally, if your terminal type is a variant intended to specify
a line height, that suffix should go first. So, for a hypothetical
FuBarCo model 2317 terminal in 30-line mode with reverse video, best
- form would be <STRONG>fubar-30-rv</STRONG> (rather than, say, "fubar-rv-30").
+ form would be <B>fubar-30-rv</B> (rather than, say, "fubar-rv-30").
Terminal types that are written not as standalone entries, but rather
- as components to be plugged into other entries via <STRONG>use</STRONG> capabilities,
+ as components to be plugged into other entries via <B>use</B> capabilities,
are distinguished by using embedded plus signs rather than dashes.
Commands which use a terminal type to control display often accept a -T
option that accepts a terminal name argument. Such programs should
- fall back on the <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> environment variable when no -T option is speci-
- fied.
+ fall back on the <B>TERM</B> environment variable when no -T option is
+ specified.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>.
+ <B><A HREF="curses.3X.html">curses(3X)</A></B>, <B><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></B>, <B><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></B>.
- <STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG>
+ <B><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></B>
</PRE>
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