-term(7)term(7)
+term(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual term(7)
@@ -57,8 +58,8 @@
A default TERM value will be set on a per-line basis by either
/etc/inittab (e.g., System-V-like UNIXes) or /etc/ttys (BSD UNIXes).
- This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer con-
- soles.
+ This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer
+ consoles.
If you use a dialup line, the type of device attached to it may vary.
Older UNIX systems pre-set a very dumb terminal type like "dumb" or
@@ -68,10 +69,10 @@
Modern telnets pass your TERM environment variable from the local side
to the remote one. There can be problems if the remote terminfo or
- termcap entry for your type is not compatible with yours, but this sit-
- uation is rare and can almost always be avoided by explicitly exporting
- "vt100" (assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset console, ter-
- minal, or terminal emulator.)
+ termcap entry for your type is not compatible with yours, but this
+ situation is rare and can almost always be avoided by explicitly
+ exporting "vt100" (assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset
+ console, terminal, or terminal emulator.)
In any case, you are free to override the system TERM setting to your
taste in your shell profile. The tset(1) utility may be of assistance;
@@ -89,10 +90,10 @@
toe | more
- from your shell. These capability files are in a binary format opti-
- mized for retrieval speed (unlike the old text-based termcap format
- they replace); to examine an entry, you must use the infocmp(1m) com-
- mand. Invoke it as follows:
+ 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(1m)
+ command. Invoke it as follows:
infocmp entry_name
@@ -108,21 +109,21 @@
name field (if distinct from the first) is actually a description of
the terminal type (it may contain blanks; the others must be single
words). Name fields between the first and last (if present) are
- aliases for the terminal, usually historical names retained for compat-
- ibility.
+ aliases for the terminal, usually historical names retained for
+ compatibility.
There are some conventions for how to choose terminal primary names
that help keep them informative and unique. Here is a step-by-step
guide to naming terminals that also explains how to parse them:
- First, choose a root name. The root will consist of a lower-case let-
- ter followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits. You need to
- avoid using punctuation characters in root names, because they are used
- and interpreted 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 plat-
- form-independent, and choosing names with special characters could
+ First, choose a root name. The root will consist of a lower-case
+ letter followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits. You need
+ to avoid using punctuation characters in root names, because they are
+ used and interpreted 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, 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 most one per root
name; some historical terminfo names use it.
@@ -143,18 +144,18 @@
or the console driver release level.
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 read-
- ily recognizable abbreviation of it (i.e., versaterm, ctrm).
+ 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.
2p Has two pages of memory. Likewise 4p, 8p, etc.
- mc Magic-cookie. Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only sup-
- port one attribute without magic-cookie lossage. Their base entry
- is usually paired with another that has this suffix and uses magic
- cookies to support multiple attributes.
+ mc Magic-cookie. Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only
+ support one attribute without magic-cookie lossage. Their base
+ entry is usually paired with another that has this suffix and uses
+ magic cookies to support multiple attributes.
-am Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound).
@@ -177,7 +178,7 @@
-vb Use visible bell (flash) rather than beep.
- -w Wide; terminal is in 132 column mode.
+ -w Wide; terminal is in 132-column mode.
Conventionally, if your terminal type is a variant intended to specify
a line height, that suffix should go first. So, for a hypothetical
@@ -190,8 +191,8 @@
Commands which use a terminal type to control display often accept a -T
option that accepts a terminal name argument. Such programs should
- fall back on the TERM environment variable when no -T option is speci-
- fied.
+ fall back on the TERM environment variable when no -T option is
+ specified.