+
term - conventions for naming terminal types
-DESCRIPTION
+
The environment variable TERM should normally contain the
type name of the terminal, console or display-device type
you are using. This information is critical for all
@@ -55,7 +59,7 @@
mailer.
A default TERM value will be set on a per-line basis by
- either /etc/inittab (Linux and System-V-like UNIXes) or
+ either /etc/inittab (e.g., System-V-like UNIXes) or
/etc/ttys (BSD UNIXes). This will nearly always suffice
for workstation and microcomputer consoles.
@@ -81,9 +85,9 @@
the tty device and baud rate.
Setting your own TERM 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.
+ created a custom entry incorporating options (such as vis-
+ ual bell or reverse-video) which you wish to override the
+ system default type for your line.
Terminal type descriptions are stored as files of capabil-
ity data underneath /usr/share/terminfo. To browse a list
@@ -94,12 +98,12 @@
from your shell. These capability files are in a binary
format optimized for retrieval speed (unlike the old text-
based termcap format they replace); to examine an entry,
- you must use the infocmp(1) command. Invoke it as fol-
+ you must use the infocmp(1m) command. Invoke it as fol-
lows:
- infocmp entry-name
+ infocmp entry_name
- where entry-name is the name of the type you wish to exam-
+ where entry_name is the name of the type you wish to exam-
ine (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
@@ -126,10 +130,10 @@
ters or digits. You need to avoid using punctuation char-
acters in root names, because they are used and inter-
preted 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,
+ $, *, ?, etc.) embedded in them may cause odd and unhelp-
+ ful 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
@@ -148,15 +152,16 @@
thus vt100, hp2621, wy50.
The root name for a PC-Unix console type should be the OS
- name, i.e. linux, bsdos, freebsd, netbsd. It should not
+ name, i.e., linux, bsdos, freebsd, netbsd. It should not
be console or any other generic that might cause confusion
in a multi-platform environment! If a model number fol-
lows, it should indicate either the OS release level or
the console driver release level.
- The root name for a terminal emulator (assuming it doesn't
- fit one of the standard ANSI or vt100 types) should be the
- program name or a readily recognizable abbreviation of it
- (i.e. versaterm, ctrm).
+
+ 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 readily recognizable abbreviation of
+ it (i.e., versaterm, ctrm).
Following the root name, you may add any reasonable number
of hyphen-separated feature suffixes.
@@ -169,23 +174,23 @@
another that has this suffix and uses magic cookies
to support multiple attributes.
- -am Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound)
+ -am Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound).
- -m Mono mode - suppress color support
+ -m Mono mode - suppress color support.
-na No arrow keys - termcap ignores arrow keys which are
actually there on the terminal, so the user can use
the arrow keys locally.
- -nam No auto-margin - suppress am capability
+ -nam No auto-margin - suppress am capability.
- -nl No labels - suppress soft labels
+ -nl No labels - suppress soft labels.
- -nsl No status line - suppress status line
+ -nsl No status line - suppress status line.
-pp Has a printer port which is used.
- -rv Terminal in reverse video mode (black on white)
+ -rv Terminal in reverse video mode (black on white).
-s Enable status line.
@@ -211,67 +216,40 @@
-PORTABILITY
+
For maximum compatibility with older System V UNIXes,
names and aliases should be unique within the first 14
characters.
-FILES
+
/usr/share/terminfo/?/*
compiled terminal capability data base
/etc/inittab
- tty line initialization (AT&T-like UNIXes).
+ tty line initialization (AT&T-like UNIXes)
/etc/ttys
- tty line initialization (BSD-like UNIXes).
+ tty line initialization (BSD-like UNIXes)
-SEE ALSO
+
curses(3x), terminfo(5), term(5).
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-Man(1) output converted with
-man2html
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