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- * @Id: tic.1m,v 1.67 2018/05/19 21:07:46 tom Exp @
+ * @Id: tic.1m,v 1.74 2019/07/20 17:57:09 tom Exp @
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-<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
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<STRONG>-w</STRONG><EM>n</EM> specifies the width of the output. The parameter is optional. If
it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
- <STRONG>-x</STRONG> Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined. That is, if you sup-
- ply a capability name which <STRONG>tic</STRONG> does not recognize, it will infer
- its type (boolean, number or string) from the syntax and make an
- extended table entry for that. User-defined capability strings
- whose name begins with "k" are treated as function keys.
+ <STRONG>-x</STRONG> Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined (see <STRONG>user_caps(5)</STRONG>).
+ That is, if you supply a capability name which <STRONG>tic</STRONG> does not recog-
+ nize, it will infer its type (boolean, number or string) from the
+ syntax and make an extended table entry for that. User-defined
+ capability strings whose name begins with "k" are treated as func-
+ tion keys.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-PARAMETERS">PARAMETERS</a></H3><PRE>
- <EM>file</EM> contains one or more <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> terminal descriptions in source
- format [see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>]. Each description in the file
+ <EM>file</EM> contains one or more <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> terminal descriptions in source
+ format [see <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>]. Each description in the file
describes the capabilities of a particular terminal.
- If <EM>file</EM> is "-", then the data is read from the standard input.
+ If <EM>file</EM> is "-", then the data is read from the standard input.
The <EM>file</EM> parameter may also be the path of a character-device.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-PROCESSING">PROCESSING</a></H3><PRE>
- All but one of the capabilities recognized by <STRONG>tic</STRONG> are documented in
+ All but one of the capabilities recognized by <STRONG>tic</STRONG> are documented in
<STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>. The exception is the <STRONG>use</STRONG> capability.
When a <STRONG>use</STRONG>=<EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> field is discovered in a terminal entry currently
- being compiled, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> reads in the binary from <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG> to
- complete the entry. (Entries created from <EM>file</EM> will be used first.
- <STRONG>tic</STRONG> duplicates the capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> for the current entry,
+ being compiled, <STRONG>tic</STRONG> reads in the binary from <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG> to
+ complete the entry. (Entries created from <EM>file</EM> will be used first.
+ <STRONG>tic</STRONG> duplicates the capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>-<EM>name</EM> for the current entry,
with the exception of those capabilities that explicitly are defined in
the current entry.
- When an entry, e.g., <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>, contains a <STRONG>use=</STRONG><EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> field,
- any canceled capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> must also appear in
- <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG> before <STRONG>use=</STRONG> for these capabilities to be canceled in
+ When an entry, e.g., <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>, contains a <STRONG>use=</STRONG><EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> field,
+ any canceled capabilities in <EM>entry</EM>_<EM>name</EM>_<EM>2</EM> must also appear in
+ <STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG> before <STRONG>use=</STRONG> for these capabilities to be canceled in
<STRONG>entry_name_1</STRONG>.
Total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes. The name field cannot
- exceed 512 bytes. Terminal names exceeding the maximum alias length
+ exceed 512 bytes. Terminal names exceeding the maximum alias length
(32 characters on systems with long filenames, 14 characters otherwise)
- will be truncated to the maximum alias length and a warning message
+ will be truncated to the maximum alias length and a warning message
will be printed.
-</PRE><H2><a name="h2-COMPATIBILITY">COMPATIBILITY</a></H2><PRE>
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></H2><PRE>
+ System V Release 2 provided a <STRONG>tic</STRONG> utility. It accepted a single
+ option: <STRONG>-v</STRONG> (optionally followed by a number). According to Ross
+ Ridge's comment in <EM>mytinfo</EM>, this version of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> was unable to represent
+ cancelled capabilities.
+
+ System V Release 3 provided a different <STRONG>tic</STRONG> utility, written by Pavel
+ Curtis, (originally named "compile" in <EM>pcurses</EM>). This added an option
+ <STRONG>-c</STRONG> to check the file for errors, with the caveat that errors in "use="
+ links would not be reported. System V Release 3 documented a few warn-
+ ing messages which did not appear in <EM>pcurses</EM>. While the program itself
+ was changed little as development continued with System V Release 4,
+ the table of capabilities grew from 180 (<EM>pcurses</EM>) to 464 (Solaris).
+
+ In early development of ncurses (1993), Zeyd Ben-Halim used the table
+ from <EM>mytinfo</EM> to extend the <EM>pcurses</EM> table to 469 capabilities (456
+ matched SVr4, 8 were only in SVr4, 13 were not in SVr4). Of those 13,
+ 11 were ultimately discarded (perhaps to match the draft of X/Open
+ Curses). The exceptions were <STRONG>memory_lock_above</STRONG> and <STRONG>memory_unlock</STRONG> (see
+ <STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG>).
+
+ Eric Raymond incorporated parts of <EM>mytinfo</EM> into ncurses to implement
+ the termcap-to-terminfo source conversion, and extended that to begin
+ development of the corresponding terminfo-to-termcap source conversion,
+ Thomas Dickey completed that development over the course of several
+ years.
+
+ In 1999, Thomas Dickey added the <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option to support user-defined
+ capabilities.
+
+ In 2010, Roy Marples provided a <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program and terminfo library for
+ NetBSD. This implementation adapts several features from ncurses,
+ including <STRONG>tic</STRONG>'s <STRONG>-x</STRONG> option.
+
+ The <STRONG>-c</STRONG> option tells <STRONG>tic</STRONG> to check for problems in the terminfo source
+ file. Continued development provides additional checks:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>pcurses</EM> had 8 warnings
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses in 1996 had 16 warnings
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris (SVr4) curses has 28 warnings
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> NetBSD tic in 2019 has 19 warnings.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses in 2019 has 96 warnings
+
+ The checking done in ncurses' <STRONG>tic</STRONG> helps with the conversion to termcap,
+ as well as pointing out errors and inconsistencies. It is also used to
+ ensure consistency with the user-defined capabilities. There are 527
+ distinct capabilities in ncurses' terminal database; 128 of those are
+ user-defined.
+
+
+</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
+ X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) provides a brief description of <STRONG>tic</STRONG>. It
+ lists one option: <STRONG>-c</STRONG>. The omission of <STRONG>-v</STRONG> is unexpected. The change
+ history states that the description is derived from True64 UNIX.
+ According to its manual pages, that system also supported the <STRONG>-v</STRONG>
+ option.
+
+ Shortly after Issue 7 was released, Tru64 was discontinued. As of
+ 2019, the surviving implementations of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> are SVr4 (AIX, HP-UX and
+ Solaris), ncurses and NetBSD curses.
+
+ The X/Open rationale states that some implementations of <STRONG>tic</STRONG> read ter-
+ minal descriptions from the standard input if the <EM>file</EM> parameter is
+ omitted. None of these implementations do that. Further, it comments
+ that some may choose to read from "./terminfo.src" but that is obsoles-
+ cent behavior from SVr2, and is not (for example) a documented feature
+ of SVr3.
+
+
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-COMPATIBILITY">COMPATIBILITY</a></H3><PRE>
There is some evidence that historic <STRONG>tic</STRONG> implementations treated
description fields with no whitespace in them as additional aliases or
short names. This <STRONG>tic</STRONG> does not do that, but it does warn when descrip-
acters.
-</PRE><H
2><a name="h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></H2><PRE>
+</PRE><H
3><a name="h3-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></H3><PRE>
Unlike the SVr4 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> command, this implementation can actually compile
termcap sources. In fact, entries in terminfo and termcap syntax can
be mixed in a single source file. See <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for the list of
The <STRONG>-0</STRONG>, <STRONG>-1</STRONG>, <STRONG>-C</STRONG>, <STRONG>-G</STRONG>, <STRONG>-I</STRONG>, <STRONG>-N</STRONG>, <STRONG>-R</STRONG>, <STRONG>-T</STRONG>, <STRONG>-V</STRONG>, <STRONG>-a</STRONG>, <STRONG>-e</STRONG>, <STRONG>-f</STRONG>, <STRONG>-g</STRONG>, <STRONG>-o</STRONG>, <STRONG>-r</STRONG>, <STRONG>-s</STRONG>, <STRONG>-t</STRONG>
and <STRONG>-x</STRONG> options are not supported under SVr4. The SVr4 <STRONG>-c</STRONG> mode does not
- report bad use links.
+ report bad "use=" links.
System V does not compile entries to or read entries from your
<EM>$HOME/.terminfo</EM> database unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infotocap.1m.html">infotocap(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="toe.1m.html">toe(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>,
- <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>. <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
+ <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>. <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>. <STRONG><A HREF="user_caps.5.html">user_caps(5)</A></STRONG>.
- This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.1 (patch 20180901).
+ This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.1 (patch 20190727).
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHOR">AUTHOR</a></H2><PRE>
<li><a href="#h3-PROCESSING">PROCESSING</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
-<li><a href="#h2-COMPATIBILITY">COMPATIBILITY</a></li>
-<li><a href="#h2-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#h3-COMPATIBILITY">COMPATIBILITY</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h3-EXTENSIONS">EXTENSIONS</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
<li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-AUTHOR">AUTHOR</a></li>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff