ncurses 6.2 - patch 20210821

[ncurses.git] / man / infocmp.1m

diff --git a/man/infocmp.1m b/man/infocmp.1m
index 9b187e29f2cd3412d3c701c5edc5345e922d0d61..087796f17fbadec22deb8c5f2f1f656601a95ba6 100644 (file)
--- a/man/infocmp.1m
+++ b/man/infocmp.1m
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 '\" t
 .\"***************************************************************************
-.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2017,2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.              *
+.\" Copyright 2018-2020,2021 Thomas E. Dickey                                *
+.\" Copyright 1998-2017,2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.                  *
 .\"                                                                          *
 .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a  *
 .\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the            *
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@
 .\" authorization.                                                           *
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"
-.\" $Id: infocmp.1m,v 1.73 2018/07/28 22:08:59 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: infocmp.1m,v 1.79 2021/08/15 20:01:31 tom Exp $
 .TH @INFOCMP@ 1M ""
 .ie \n(.g .ds `` \(lq
 .el       .ds `` ``
@@ -244,10 +245,10 @@ is a full description, using \fB@INFOCMP@\fR
 will show what can be done to change
 one description to be relative to the other.
 .PP
-A capability will get printed with an at-sign (@) if it no longer exists in the
+A capability will be printed with an at-sign (@) if it no longer exists in the
 first \fItermname\fR, but one of the other \fItermname\fR entries contains a
 value for it.
-A capability's value gets printed if the value in the first
+A capability's value will be printed if the value in the first
 \fItermname\fR is not found in any of the other \fItermname\fR entries, or if
 the first of the other \fItermname\fR entries that has this capability gives a
 different value for the capability than that in the first \fItermname\fR.
@@ -475,7 +476,7 @@ Omit the \*(``Reconstructed from\*('' comment for source listings.
 \fB\-R\fR\fIsubset\fR
 Restrict output to a given subset.
 This option is for use with archaic
-versions of terminfo like those on SVr1, Ultrix, or HP/UX that do not support
+versions of terminfo like those on SVr1, Ultrix, or HP-UX that do not support
 the full set of SVR4/XSI Curses terminfo; and variants such as AIX
 that have their own extensions incompatible with SVr4/XSI.
 .RS
@@ -553,13 +554,41 @@ Use the \fB\-W\fP option to do this.
 changes the output to \fIwidth\fR characters.
 .TP
 \fB\-x\fR
-print information for user-defined capabilities.
+print information for user-defined capabilities (see \fBuser_caps(\*n)\fP.
 These are extensions to the terminfo repertoire which can be loaded
 using the \fB\-x\fR option of \fB@TIC@\fP.
 .SH FILES
 .TP 20
 \*d
 Compiled terminal description database.
+.SH HISTORY
+Although System V Release 2 provided a terminfo library,
+it had no documented tool for decompiling the terminal descriptions.
+Tony Hansen (AT&T) wrote the first \fBinfocmp\fP in early 1984,
+for System V Release 3.
+.PP
+Eric Raymond used the AT&T documentation in 1995 to provide an equivalent
+\fB@INFOCMP@\fP for ncurses.
+In addition, he added a few new features such as:
+.bP
+the \fB\-e\fP option, to support \fIfallback\fP
+(compiled-in) terminal descriptions
+.bP
+the \fB\-i\fP option, to help with analysis
+.PP
+Later, Thomas Dickey added the \fB\-x\fP (user-defined capabilities)
+option, and the \fB\-E\fP option to support fallback entries with
+user-defined capabilities.
+.PP
+For a complete list, see the \fIEXTENSIONS\fP section.
+.PP
+In 2010, Roy Marples provided an \fBinfocmp\fP program for NetBSD.
+It is less capable than the SVr4 or ncurses versions
+(e.g., it lacks the sorting options documented in X/Open),
+but does include the \fB\-x\fP option adapted from ncurses.
+.SH PORTABILITY
+X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) provides a description of \fBinfocmp\fP.
+It does not mention the options used for converting to termcap format.
 .SH EXTENSIONS
 The
 \fB\-0\fR,
@@ -602,6 +631,7 @@ The \fB\-F\fR option of \fB@INFOCMP@\fR(1M) should be a \fB@TOE@\fR(1M) mode.
 \fB@TOE@\fR(1M),
 \fBcurses\fR(3X),
 \fBterminfo\fR(\*n).
+\fBuser_caps\fR(\*n).
 .sp
 https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
 .PP