- 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
- screen-oriented programs, including your editor and
- mailer.
-
- A default TERM value will be set on a per-line basis by
- either /etc/inittab (Linux and System-V-like UNIXes) or
- /etc/ttys (BSD UNIXes). 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 ter-
- minal type like `dumb' or `dialup' on dialup lines. Newer
- ones may pre-set `vt100', reflecting the prevalence of DEC
- VT100-compatible terminals and personal-computer emula-
- tors.
-
- 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 situation is rare and
- can almost always be avoided by explicitly exporting
- `vt100' (assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset
+
+ 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 screen-oriented programs, including
+ your editor and mailer.
+
+ 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
+ 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
+ "dialup" on dialup lines. Newer ones may pre-set "vt100", reflecting
+ the prevalence of DEC VT100-compatible terminals and personal-computer
+ emulators.
+
+ 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
+ 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 set-
- ting to your taste in your shell profile. The tset(1)
- utility may be of assistance; you can give it a set of
- rules for deducing or requesting a terminal type based on
- the tty device and baud rate.
+ 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;
+ you can give it a set of rules for deducing or requesting a terminal
+ type based on 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.
+ 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.
- Terminal type descriptions are stored as files of capabil-
- ity data underneath /usr/share/terminfo. To browse a list
- of all terminal names recognized by the system, do
+ Terminal type descriptions are stored as files of capability data
+ underneath /usr/share/terminfo. To browse a list of all terminal names
+ recognized by the system, do
toe | more
- 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-
- lows:
-
- infocmp entry-name
-
- 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
- described by terminfo(5).
-
- The first line of a terminfo(5) description gives the
- names by which terminfo knows a terminal, separated by `|'
- (pipe-bar) characters with the last name field terminated
- by a comma. The first name field is the type's primary
- name, and is the one to use when setting TERM. The last
- 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 compatibility.
-
- There are some conventions for how to choose terminal pri-
- mary 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 letter followed by up to seven lower-case let-
- 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,
- 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.
-
- The root name for a terminal or workstation console type
- should almost always begin with a vendor prefix (such as
- hp for Hewlett-Packard, wy for Wyse, or att for AT&T ter-
- minals), or a common name of the terminal line (vt for the
- VT series of terminals from DEC, or sun for Sun Microsys-
- tems workstation consoles, or regent for the ADDS Regent
- series. You can list the terminfo tree to see what pre-
- fixes are already in common use. The root name prefix
- should be followed when appropriate by a model number;
- 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
- 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).
-
- Following the root name, you may add any reasonable number
- of hyphen-separated feature suffixes.
+ 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
+
+ where entry_name is the name of the type you wish to examine (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 described by terminfo(5).
+
+ The first line of a terminfo(5) description gives the names by which
+ terminfo knows a terminal, separated by "|" (pipe-bar) characters with
+ the last name field terminated by a comma. The first name field is the
+ type's primaryname, and is the one to use when setting TERM. The last
+ 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
+ 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
+ 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.
+
+ The root name for a terminal or workstation console type should almost
+ always begin with a vendor prefix (such as hp for Hewlett-Packard, wy
+ for Wyse, or att for AT&T terminals), or a common name of the terminal
+ line (vt for the VT series of terminals from DEC, or sun for Sun
+ Microsystems workstation consoles, or regent for the ADDS Regent
+ series. You can list the terminfo tree to see what prefixes are
+ already in common use. The root name prefix should be followed when
+ appropriate by a model number; 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 be console or any other
+ generic that might cause confusion in a multi-platform environment! If
+ a model number follows, it should indicate either the OS release level
+ 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
+ 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 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.
+ 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)
+ -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.
+ -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.
-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 FuBarCo model 2317 terminal
- in 30-line mode with reverse video, best form would be
- fubar-30-rv (rather than, say, `fubar-rv-30').
+ Conventionally, if your terminal type is a variant intended to specify
+ a line height, that suffix should go first. So, for a hypothetical
+ FuBarCo model 2317 terminal in 30-line mode with reverse video, best
+ form would be fubar-30-rv (rather than, say, "fubar-rv-30").
- Terminal types that are written not as standalone entries,
- but rather as components to be plugged into other entries
- via use capabilities, are distinguished by using embedded
- plus signs rather than dashes.
+ Terminal types that are written not as standalone entries, but rather
+ as components to be plugged into other entries via use capabilities,
+ are distinguished by using embedded plus signs rather than dashes.
- 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 specified.
+ 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
+ specified.
-
-
PORTABILITY
- For maximum compatibility with older System V UNIXes,
- names and aliases should be unique within the first 14
- characters.
+