- infocmp can be used to compare a binary terminfo entry with other ter-
- minfo entries, rewrite a terminfo description to take advantage of the
- use= terminfo field, or print out a terminfo description from the
- binary file (term) in a variety of formats. In all cases, the boolean
+ infocmp can be used to compare a binary terminfo entry with other
+ terminfo entries, rewrite a terminfo description to take advantage of
+ the use= terminfo field, or print out a terminfo description from the
+ binary file (term) in a variety of formats. In all cases, the boolean
fields will be printed first, followed by the numeric fields, followed
by the string fields.
- If no options are specified and zero or one termnames are specified,
- the -I option will be assumed. If more than one termname is specified,
- the -d option will be assumed.
+ If no options are specified and zero or one termnames are specified,
+ the -I option will be assumed. If more than one termname is specified,
+ the -d option will be assumed.
- infocmp compares the terminfo description of the first terminal
- termname with each of the descriptions given by the entries for the
- other terminal's termnames. If a capability is defined for only one of
- the terminals, the value returned depends on the type of the capabil-
- ity:
+ infocmp compares the terminfo description of the first terminal
+ termname with each of the descriptions given by the entries for the
+ other terminal's termnames. If a capability is defined for only one of
+ the terminals, the value returned depends on the type of the
+ capability:
- oF for missing boolean variables
+ oF for missing boolean variables
- oNULL for missing integer or string variables
+ oNULL for missing integer or string variables
- Use the -q option to show the distinction between absent and cancelled
+ Use the -q option to show the distinction between absent and cancelled
capabilities.
These options produce a list which you can use to compare two or more
terminal descriptions:
- -d produces a list of each capability that is different between two
+ -d produces a list of each capability that is different between two
entries. Each item in the list shows ":" after the capability
name, followed by the capability values, separated by a comma.
- -c produces a list of each capability that is common between two or
+ -c produces a list of each capability that is common between two or
more entries. Missing capabilities are ignored. Each item in the
- list shows "=" after the capability name, followed by the capabil-
- ity value.
+ list shows "=" after the capability name, followed by the
+ capability value.
- The -u option provides a related output, showing the first termi-
- nal description rewritten to use the second as a building block
- via the "use=" clause.
+ The -u option provides a related output, showing the first
+ terminal description rewritten to use the second as a building
+ block via the "use=" clause.
- -n produces a list of each capability that is in none of the given
+ -n produces a list of each capability that is in none of the given
entries. Each item in the list shows "!" before the capability
name.
- Normally only the conventional capabilities are shown. Use the -x
+ Normally only the conventional capabilities are shown. Use the -x
option to add the BSD-compatibility capabilities (names prefixed
with "OT").
- If no termnames are given, infocmp uses the environment variable
- TERM for each of the termnames.
+ If no termnames are given, infocmp uses the environment variable
+ TERM for each of the termnames.
- The -I, -L, and -C options will produce a source listing for each ter-
- minal named.
+ The -I, -L, and -C options will produce a source listing for each
+ terminal named.
- -I use the terminfo names
- -L use the long C variable name listed in <term.h>
- -C use the termcap names
- -r when using -C, put out all capabilities in termcap form
- -K modifies the -C option, improving BSD-compatibility.
+ -I use the terminfo names
+ -L use the long C variable name listed in <term.h>
+ -C use the termcap names
+ -r when using -C, put out all capabilities in termcap form
+ -K modifies the -C option, improving BSD-compatibility.
- If no termnames are given, the environment variable TERM will be used
+ If no termnames are given, the environment variable TERM will be used
for the terminal name.
- The source produced by the -C option may be used directly as a termcap
- entry, but not all parameterized strings can be changed to the termcap
- format. infocmp will attempt to convert most of the parameterized
+ The source produced by the -C option may be used directly as a termcap
+ entry, but not all parameterized strings can be changed to the termcap
+ format. infocmp will attempt to convert most of the parameterized
information, and anything not converted will be plainly marked in the
output and commented out. These should be edited by hand.
- For best results when converting to termcap format, you should use both
- -C and -r. Normally a termcap description is limited to 1023 bytes.
- infocmp trims away less essential parts to make it fit. If you are
+ For best results when converting to termcap format, you should use both
+ -C and -r. Normally a termcap description is limited to 1023 bytes.
+ infocmp trims away less essential parts to make it fit. If you are
converting to one of the (rare) termcap implementations which accept an
- unlimited size of termcap, you may want to add the -T option. More
+ unlimited size of termcap, you may want to add the -T option. More
often however, you must help the termcap implementation, and trim
- excess whitespace (use the -0 option for that).
+ excess whitespace (use the -0 option for that).
All padding information for strings will be collected together and
- placed at the beginning of the string where termcap expects it. Manda-
- tory padding (padding information with a trailing "/") will become
+ placed at the beginning of the string where termcap expects it.
+ Mandatory padding (padding information with a trailing "/") will become
optional.
- All termcap variables no longer supported by terminfo, but which are
- derivable from other terminfo variables, will be output. Not all ter-
- minfo capabilities will be translated; only those variables which were
- part of termcap will normally be output. Specifying the -r option will
- take off this restriction, allowing all capabilities to be output in
- termcap form. Normally you would use both the -C and -r options. The
- actual format used incorporates some improvements for escaped charac-
- ters from terminfo format. For a stricter BSD-compatible translation,
- use the -K option rather than -C.
-
- Note that because padding is collected to the beginning of the capabil-
- ity, not all capabilities are output. Mandatory padding is not sup-
- ported. Because termcap strings are not as flexible, it is not always
- possible to convert a terminfo string capability into an equivalent
- termcap format. A subsequent conversion of the termcap file back into
- terminfo format will not necessarily reproduce the original terminfo
- source.
-
- Some common terminfo parameter sequences, their termcap equivalents,
+ All termcap variables no longer supported by terminfo, but which are
+ derivable from other terminfo variables, will be output. Not all
+ terminfo capabilities will be translated; only those variables which
+ were part of termcap will normally be output. Specifying the -r option
+ will take off this restriction, allowing all capabilities to be output
+ in termcap form. Normally you would use both the -C and -r options.
+ The actual format used incorporates some improvements for escaped
+ characters from terminfo format. For a stricter BSD-compatible
+ translation, use the -K option rather than -C.
+
+ Note that because padding is collected to the beginning of the
+ capability, not all capabilities are output. Mandatory padding is not
+ supported. Because termcap strings are not as flexible, it is not
+ always possible to convert a terminfo string capability into an
+ equivalent termcap format. A subsequent conversion of the termcap file
+ back into terminfo format will not necessarily reproduce the original
+ terminfo source.
+
+ Some common terminfo parameter sequences, their termcap equivalents,
and some terminal types which commonly have such sequences, are:
- terminfotermcap Representative Terminals
+ terminfotermcap Representative Terminals
---------------------------------------------------------------
- %p1%c%. adm
- %p1%d%d hp, ANSI standard, vt100
- %p1%'x'%+%c%+x concept
- %i%iq ANSI standard, vt100
- %p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%;%>xy concept
- %p2 is printed before %p1%r hp
+ %p1%c%. adm
+ %p1%d%d hp, ANSI standard, vt100
+ %p1%'x'%+%c%+x concept
+ %i%iq ANSI standard, vt100
+ %p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%;%>xy concept
+ %p2 is printed before %p1%r hp
- The -u option produces a terminfo source description of the first ter-
- minal termname which is relative to the sum of the descriptions given
- by the entries for the other terminals termnames. It does this by ana-
- lyzing the differences between the first termname and the other
- termnames and producing a description with use= fields for the other
+ The -u option produces a terminfo source description of the first
+ terminal termname which is relative to the sum of the descriptions
+ given by the entries for the other terminals termnames. It does this
+ by analyzing the differences between the first termname and the other
+ termnames and producing a description with use= fields for the other
terminals. In this manner, it is possible to retrofit generic terminfo
entries into a terminal's description. Or, if two similar terminals
exist, but were coded at different times or by different people so that
- each description is a full description, using infocmp will show what
+ each description is a full description, using infocmp will show what
can be done to change one description to be relative to the other.
- A capability will get printed with an at-sign (@) if it no longer
- exists in the first termname, but one of the other termname entries
- contains a value for it. A capability's value gets printed if the
- value in the first termname is not found in any of the other termname
- entries, or if the first of the other termname entries that has this
- capability gives a different value for the capability than that in the
- first termname.
-
- The order of the other termname entries is significant. Since the ter-
- minfo compiler tic does a left-to-right scan of the capabilities, spec-
- ifying two use= entries that contain differing entries for the same
+ A capability will be printed with an at-sign (@) if it no longer exists
+ in the first termname, but one of the other termname entries contains a
+ value for it. A capability's value will be printed if the value in the
+ first termname is not found in any of the other termname entries, or if
+ the first of the other termname entries that has this capability gives
+ a different value for the capability than that in the first termname.
+
+ The order of the other termname entries is significant. Since the
+ terminfo compiler tic does a left-to-right scan of the capabilities,
+ specifying two use= entries that contain differing entries for the same
capabilities will produce different results depending on the order that
- the entries are given in. infocmp will flag any such inconsistencies
- between the other termname entries as they are found.
+ the entries are given in. infocmp will flag any such inconsistencies
+ between the other termname entries as they are found.
- Alternatively, specifying a capability after a use= entry that contains
- that capability will cause the second specification to be ignored.
- Using infocmp to recreate a description can be a useful check to make
- sure that everything was specified correctly in the original source
+ Alternatively, specifying a capability after a use= entry that contains
+ that capability will cause the second specification to be ignored.
+ Using infocmp to recreate a description can be a useful check to make
+ sure that everything was specified correctly in the original source
description.
- Another error that does not cause incorrect compiled files, but will
- slow down the compilation time, is specifying extra use= fields that
- are superfluous. infocmp will flag any other termnameuse= fields that
+ Another error that does not cause incorrect compiled files, but will
+ slow down the compilation time, is specifying extra use= fields that
+ are superfluous. infocmp will flag any other termnameuse= fields that
were not needed.
- ChangingDatabases[-Adirectory] [-B directory]
- Like other ncurses utilities, infocmp looks for the terminal descrip-
- tions in several places. You can use the TERMINFO and TERMINFO_DIRS
- environment variables to override the compiled-in default list of
- places to search (see curses(3x) for details).
+ ChangingDatabases[-Adirectory] [-B directory]
+ Like other ncurses utilities, infocmp looks for the terminal
+ descriptions in several places. You can use the TERMINFO and
+ TERMINFO_DIRS environment variables to override the compiled-in default
+ list of places to search (see curses(3X) for details).
- You can also use the options -A and -B to override the list of places
+ You can also use the options -A and -B to override the list of places
to search when comparing terminal descriptions:
- o The -A option sets the location for the first termname
+ o The -A option sets the location for the first termname
- o The -B option sets the location for the other termnames.
+ o The -B option sets the location for the other termnames.
- Using these options, it is possible to compare descriptions for a ter-
- minal with the same name located in two different databases. For
- instance, you can use this feature for comparing descriptions for the
+ Using these options, it is possible to compare descriptions for a
+ terminal with the same name located in two different databases. For
+ instance, you can use this feature for comparing descriptions for the
same terminal created by different people.
- -0 causes the fields to be printed on one line, without wrapping.
+ -0 causes the fields to be printed on one line, without wrapping.
- -1 causes the fields to be printed out one to a line. Otherwise, the
- fields will be printed several to a line to a maximum width of 60
+ -1 causes the fields to be printed out one to a line. Otherwise, the
+ fields will be printed several to a line to a maximum width of 60
characters.
- -a tells infocmp to retain commented-out capabilities rather than
- discarding them. Capabilities are commented by prefixing them
+ -a tells infocmp to retain commented-out capabilities rather than
+ discarding them. Capabilities are commented by prefixing them
with a period.
- -D tells infocmp to print the database locations that it knows about,
+ -D tells infocmp to print the database locations that it knows about,
and exit.
- -E Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as tables, needed in
- the C initializer for a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal capabil-
- ity structure in the <term.h>). This option is useful for prepar-
- ing versions of the curses library hardwired for a given terminal
- type. The tables are all declared static, and are named according
- to the type and the name of the corresponding terminal entry.
+ -E Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as tables, needed in
+ the C initializer for a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal
+ capability structure in the <term.h>). This option is useful for
+ preparing versions of the curses library hardwired for a given
+ terminal type. The tables are all declared static, and are named
+ according to the type and the name of the corresponding terminal
+ entry.
- Before ncurses 5.0, the split between the -e and -E options was
+ Before ncurses 5.0, the split between the -e and -E options was
not needed; but support for extended names required making the
- arrays of terminal capabilities separate from the TERMTYPE struc-
- ture.
+ arrays of terminal capabilities separate from the TERMTYPE
+ structure.
- -e Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as a C initializer for
+ -e Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as a C initializer for
a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal capability structure in the
- <term.h>). This option is useful for preparing versions of the
+ <term.h>). This option is useful for preparing versions of the
curses library hardwired for a given terminal type.
- -F compare terminfo files. This assumes that two following arguments
+ -F compare terminfo files. This assumes that two following arguments
are filenames. The files are searched for pairwise matches
between entries, with two entries considered to match if any of
their names do. The report printed to standard output lists
@@ -273,21 +274,21 @@
than one match. For entries with exactly one match it includes a
difference report. Normally, to reduce the volume of the report,
use references are not resolved before looking for differences,
- but resolution can be forced by also specifying -r.
+ but resolution can be forced by also specifying -r.
- -f Display complex terminfo strings which contain if/then/else/endif
+ -f Display complex terminfo strings which contain if/then/else/endif
expressions indented for readability.
- -G Display constant literals in decimal form rather than their char-
- acter equivalents.
+ -G Display constant literals in decimal form rather than their
+ character equivalents.
- -g Display constant character literals in quoted form rather than
+ -g Display constant character literals in quoted form rather than
their decimal equivalents.
- -i Analyze the initialization (is1, is2, is3), and reset (rs1, rs2,
- rs3), strings in the entry, as well as those used for start-
- ing/stopping cursor-positioning mode (smcup, rmcup) as well as
- starting/stopping keymap mode (smkx, rmkx).
+ -i Analyze the initialization (is1, is2, is3), and reset (rs1, rs2,
+ rs3), strings in the entry, as well as those used for
+ starting/stopping cursor-positioning mode (smcup, rmcup) as well
+ as starting/stopping keymap mode (smkx, rmkx).
For each string, the code tries to analyze it into actions in
terms of the other capabilities in the entry, certain X3.64/ISO
@@ -343,20 +344,20 @@
UNDERLINE, BLINK, and REVERSE. All but NORMAL may be prefixed
with
- o "+" (turn on) or
+ o "+" (turn on) or
- o "-" (turn off).
+ o "-" (turn off).
An SGR0 designates an empty highlight sequence (equivalent to
{SGR:NORMAL}).
- -l Set output format to terminfo.
+ -l Set output format to terminfo.
- -p Ignore padding specifications when comparing strings.
+ -p Ignore padding specifications when comparing strings.
- -Qn Rather than show source in terminfo (text) format, print the com-
- piled (binary) format in hexadecimal or base64 form, depending on
- the option's value:
+ -Qn Rather than show source in terminfo (text) format, print the
+ compiled (binary) format in hexadecimal or base64 form, depending
+ on the option's value:
1 hexadecimal
@@ -365,123 +366,155 @@
3 hexadecimal and base64
For example, this prints the compiled terminfo value as a string
- which could be assigned to the TERMINFO environment variable:
+ which could be assigned to the TERMINFO environment variable:
infocmp -0 -q -Q2
- -q This makes the output a little shorter:
+ -q This makes the output a little shorter:
- o Make the comparison listing shorter by omitting subheadings,
+ o Make the comparison listing shorter by omitting subheadings,
and using "-" for absent capabilities, "@" for canceled rather
than "NULL".
- o However, show differences between absent and cancelled capa-
- bilities.
+ o However, show differences between absent and cancelled
+ capabilities.
- o Omit the "Reconstructed from" comment for source listings.
+ o Omit the "Reconstructed from" comment for source listings.
- -Rsubset
+ -Rsubset
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 the full set of SVR4/XSI Curses terminfo; and
variants such as AIX that have their own extensions incompatible
with SVr4/XSI.
- o Available terminfo subsets are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", and
- "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for details.
+ o Available terminfo subsets are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", and
+ "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for details.
- o You can also choose the subset "BSD" which selects only capa-
- bilities with termcap equivalents recognized by 4.4BSD. The
- -C option sets the "BSD" subset as a side-effect.
+ o You can also choose the subset "BSD" which selects only
+ capabilities with termcap equivalents recognized by 4.4BSD.
+ The -C option sets the "BSD" subset as a side-effect.
- o If you select any other value for -R, it is the same as no
- subset, i.e., all capabilities are used. The -I option like-
- wise selects no subset as a side-effect.
+ o If you select any other value for -R, it is the same as no
+ subset, i.e., all capabilities are used. The -I option
+ likewise selects no subset as a side-effect.
- -s[d|i|l|c]
- The -s option sorts the fields within each type according to the
+ -s[d|i|l|c]
+ The -s option sorts the fields within each type according to the
argument below:
- d leave fields in the order that they are stored in the ter-
- minfo database.
+ d leave fields in the order that they are stored in the
+ terminfo database.
- i sort by terminfo name.
+ i sort by terminfo name.
- l sort by the long C variable name.
+ l sort by the long C variable name.
- c sort by the termcap name.
+ c sort by the termcap name.
- If the -s option is not given, the fields printed out will be
- sorted alphabetically by the terminfo name within each type,
- except in the case of the -C or the -L options, which cause the
- sorting to be done by the termcap name or the long C variable
+ If the -s option is not given, the fields printed out will be
+ sorted alphabetically by the terminfo name within each type,
+ except in the case of the -C or the -L options, which cause the
+ sorting to be done by the termcap name or the long C variable
name, respectively.
- -T eliminates size-restrictions on the generated text. This is
+ -T eliminates size-restrictions on the generated text. This is
mainly useful for testing and analysis, since the compiled
- descriptions are limited (e.g., 1023 for termcap, 4096 for ter-
- minfo).
+ descriptions are limited (e.g., 1023 for termcap, 4096 for
+ terminfo).
- -t tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities. Normally when
+ -t tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities. Normally when
translating from terminfo to termcap, untranslatable capabilities
are commented-out.
- -U tells infocmp to not post-process the data after parsing the
- source file. This feature helps when comparing the actual con-
- tents of two source files, since it excludes the inferences that
- infocmp makes to fill in missing data.
+ -U tells infocmp to not post-process the data after parsing the
+ source file. This feature helps when comparing the actual
+ contents of two source files, since it excludes the inferences
+ that infocmp makes to fill in missing data.
- -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
+ -V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
exits.
- -vn prints out tracing information on standard error as the program
+ -vn prints out tracing information on standard error as the program
runs.
- The optional parameter n is a number from 1 to 10, inclusive,
+ The optional parameter n is a number from 1 to 10, inclusive,
indicating the desired level of detail of information. If ncurses
is built without tracing support, the optional parameter is
ignored.
- -W By itself, the -w option will not force long strings to be
- wrapped. Use the -W option to do this.
+ -W By itself, the -w option will not force long strings to be
+ wrapped. Use the -W option to do this.
- -wwidth
- changes the output to width characters.
+ -wwidth
+ changes the output to width characters.
- -x print information for user-defined capabilities. These are exten-
- sions to the terminfo repertoire which can be loaded using the -x
- option of tic.
+ -x print information for user-defined capabilities (see user_caps(5).
+ These are extensions to the terminfo repertoire which can be
+ loaded using the -x option of tic.
+ 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 infocmp in early 1984, for System V Release 3.
+
+ Eric Raymond used the AT&T documentation in 1995 to provide an
+ equivalent infocmp for ncurses. In addition, he added a few new
+ features such as:
+
+ o the -e option, to support fallback (compiled-in) terminal
+ descriptions
+
+ o the -i option, to help with analysis
+
+ Later, Thomas Dickey added the -x (user-defined capabilities) option,
+ and the -E option to support fallback entries with user-defined
+ capabilities.
+
+ For a complete list, see the EXTENSIONS section.
+
+ In 2010, Roy Marples provided an infocmp 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 -x option
+ adapted from ncurses.
+
+
+
- The -0, -1, -E, -F, -G, -Q, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -i, -l, -p, -q
- and -t options are not supported in SVr4 curses.
+ The -0, -1, -E, -F, -G, -Q, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -i, -l, -p, -q
+ and -t options are not supported in SVr4 curses.
- SVr4 infocmp does not distinguish between absent and cancelled capabil-
- ities. Also, it shows missing integer capabilities as -1 (the internal
- value used to represent missing integers). This implementation shows
- those as "NULL", for consistency with missing strings.
+ SVr4 infocmp does not distinguish between absent and cancelled
+ capabilities. Also, it shows missing integer capabilities as -1 (the
+ internal value used to represent missing integers). This
+ implementation shows those as "NULL", for consistency with missing
+ strings.
- The -r option's notion of "termcap" capabilities is System V Release
+ The -r option's notion of "termcap" capabilities is System V Release
4's. Actual BSD curses versions will have a more restricted set. To
- see only the 4.4BSD set, use -r-RBSD.
+ see only the 4.4BSD set, use -r-RBSD.