.\"***************************************************************************
-.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2004,2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
+.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2016,2017 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 *
.\" authorization. *
.\"***************************************************************************
.\"
-.\" $Id: term.5,v 1.19 2006/12/24 18:12:38 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: term.5,v 1.26 2017/02/18 16:58:21 tom Exp $
.TH term 5
+.ie \n(.g .ds `` \(lq
+.el .ds `` ``
+.ie \n(.g .ds '' \(rq
+.el .ds '' ''
.ds n 5
.ds d @TERMINFO@
.SH NAME
An 8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte ordering
or sign extension are made.
.PP
-The compiled file is created with the
-.B @TIC@
-program, and read by the routine
-.IR setupterm .
+The compiled file is created with the \fB@TIC@\fP program,
+and read by the routine \fBsetupterm\fP(3X).
The file is divided into six parts:
the header,
terminal names,
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
+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 hardware of the \s-1VAX\s+1
The terminal names section comes next.
It contains the first line of the terminfo description,
listing the various names for the terminal,
-separated by the `|' character.
+separated by the \*(``|\*('' character.
The section is terminated with an \s-1ASCII NUL\s+1 character.
.PP
The boolean flags have one byte for each flag.
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
+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-endian short integer.
-If the value represented is -1, the capability is taken to be missing.
+If the value represented is \-1, the capability is taken to be missing.
.PP
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.
+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 \ec notation are stored in their
.RE
.PP
Using the counts and sizes, ncurses allocates arrays and reads data
-for the extended capabilties in the same order as the header information.
+for the extended capabilities in the same order as the header information.
.PP
The extended string table contains values for string capabilities.
After the end of these values, it contains the names for each of
.
.SH PORTABILITY
Note that it is possible for
-.I setupterm
+.B setupterm
to expect a different set of capabilities
than are actually present in the file.
Either the database may have been updated since
-.I setupterm
+.B setupterm
has been recompiled
(resulting in extra unrecognized entries in the file)
or the program may have been recompiled more recently
than the database was updated
(resulting in missing entries).
The routine
-.I setupterm
+.B setupterm
must be prepared for both possibilities \-
this is why the numbers and sizes are included.
Also, new capabilities must always be added at the end of the lists
Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the otherwise
self-describing format, it is not wise to count on portability of binary
terminfo entries between commercial UNIX versions. The problem is that there
-are at least three versions of terminfo (under HP-UX, AIX, and OSF/1) which
+are at least three versions of terminfo (under HP\-UX, AIX, and OSF/1) which
diverged from System V terminfo after SVr1, and have added extension
capabilities to the string table that (in the binary format) collide with
System V and XSI Curses extensions. See \fBterminfo\fR(\*n) for detailed
discussion of terminfo source compatibility issues.
.SH EXAMPLE
As an example, here is a hex dump of the description for the Lear-Siegler
-ADM-3, a popular though rather stupid early terminal:
+ADM\-3, a popular though rather stupid early terminal:
.nf
.sp
adm3a|lsi adm3a,
hashed database support for ncurses 5.6
.sp
Eric S. Raymond
-.\"#
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