tic(1) tic(1)
NAME
tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler
SYNOPSIS
tic [-1CGILNTUVacfgrstx] [-e names] [-o dir] [-R subset] [-v[n]]
[-w[n]] file
DESCRIPTION
The command tic translates a terminfo file from source format into com
piled format. The compiled format is necessary for use with the
library routines in ncurses(3NCURSES).
The results are normally placed in the system terminfo directory
/etc/terminfo. There are two ways to change this behavior.
First, you may override the system default by setting the variable TER
MINFO in your shell environment to a valid (existing) directory name.
Secondly, if tic cannot get access to /etc/terminfo or your TERMINFO
directory, it looks for the directory $HOME/.terminfo; if that direc
tory exists, the entry is placed there.
Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check for a TER
MINFO directory first, look at $HOME/.terminfo if TERMINFO is not set,
and finally look in /etc/terminfo.
-1 restricts the output to a single column
-a tells tic to retain commented-out capabilities rather than dis
carding them. Capabilities are commented by prefixing them with
a period. This sets the -x option, because it treats the com
mented-out entries as user-defined names. If the source is
termcap, accept the 2-character names required by version 6.
Otherwise these are ignored.
-C Force source translation to termcap format. Note: this differs
from the -C option of infocmp(1M) in that it does not merely
translate capability names, but also translates terminfo strings
to termcap format. Capabilities that are not translatable are
left in the entry under their terminfo names but commented out
with two preceding dots.
-c tells tic to only check file for errors, including syntax prob
lems and bad use links. If you specify -C (-I) with this
option, the code will print warnings about entries which, after
use resolution, are more than 1023 (4096) bytes long. Due to a
fixed buffer length in older termcap libraries (and a documented
limit in terminfo), these entries may cause core dumps.
-e names
Limit writes and translations to the following comma-separated
list of terminals. If any name or alias of a terminal matches
one of the names in the list, the entry will be written or
translated as normal. Otherwise no output will be generated for
it. The option value is interpreted as a file containing the
list if it contains a /. (Note: depending on how tic was com
piled, this option may require -I or -C.)
-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
character equivalents.
-g Display constant character literals in quoted form rather than
their decimal equivalents.
-I Force source translation to terminfo format.
-L Force source translation to terminfo format using the long C
variable names listed in
-N Disable smart defaults. Normally, when translating from termcap
to terminfo, the compiler makes a number of assumptions about
the defaults of string capabilities reset1_string, car
riage_return, cursor_left, cursor_down, scroll_forward, tab,
newline, key_backspace, key_left, and key_down, then attempts to
use obsolete termcap capabilities to deduce correct values. It
also normally suppresses output of obsolete termcap capabilities
such as bs. This option forces a more literal translation that
also preserves the obsolete capabilities.
-odir Write compiled entries to given directory. Overrides the TER
MINFO environment variable.
-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 ter
minfo; and outright broken ports like AIX 3.x that have their
own extensions incompatible with SVr4/XSI. Available subsets
are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", "BSD" and "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for
details.
-r Force entry resolution (so there are no remaining tc capabili
ties) even when doing translation to termcap format. This may
be needed if you are preparing a termcap file for a termcap
library (such as GNU termcap through version 1.3 or BSD termcap
through 4.3BSD) that does not handle multiple tc capabilities
per entry.
-s Summarize the compile by showing the directory into which
entries are written, and the number of entries which are com
piled.
-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).
-t tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities. Normally when
translating from terminfo to termcap, untranslatable capabili
ties are commented-out.
-U tells tic to not post-process the data after parsing the source
file. Normally, it infers data which is commonly missing in older
terminfo data, or in termcaps.
-V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
exits.
-vn specifies that (verbose) output be written to standard error trace
information showing tics progress. The optional parameter n is a
number from 1 to 10, inclusive, indicating the desired level of
detail of information. If n is omitted, the default level is 1.
If n is specified and greater than 1, the level of detail is
increased.
-wn specifies the width of the output. The parameter is optional. If
it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
-x Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined. That is, if you sup
ply a capability name which tic does not recognize, it will infer
its type (boolean, number or string) from the syntax and make an
extended table entry for that. User-defined capability strings
whose name begins with k are treated as function keys.
file contains one or more terminfo terminal descriptions in source for
mat [see terminfo(5)]. Each description in the file describes the
capabilities of a particular terminal.
The debug flag levels are as follows:
1 Names of files created and linked
2 Information related to the use facility
3 Statistics from the hashing algorithm
5 String-table memory allocations
7 Entries into the string-table
8 List of tokens encountered by scanner
9 All values computed in construction of the hash table
If the debug level n is not given, it is taken to be one.
All but one of the capabilities recognized by tic are documented in
terminfo(5). The exception is the use capability.
When a use=entry-name field is discovered in a terminal entry currently
being compiled, tic reads in the binary from /etc/terminfo to complete
the entry. (Entries created from file will be used first. If the
environment variable TERMINFO is set, that directory is searched
instead of /etc/terminfo.) tic duplicates the capabilities in entry-
name for the current entry, with the exception of those capabilities
that explicitly are defined in the current entry.
When an entry, e.g., entry_name_1, contains a use=entry_name_2 field,
any canceled capabilities in entry_name_2 must also appear in
entry_name_1 before use= for these capabilities to be canceled in
entry_name_1.
If the environment variable TERMINFO is set, the compiled results are
placed there instead of /etc/terminfo.
Total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes. The name field cannot
exceed 512 bytes. Terminal names exceeding the maximum alias length
(32 characters on systems with long filenames, 14 characters otherwise)
will be truncated to the maximum alias length and a warning message
will be printed.
COMPATIBILITY
There is some evidence that historic tic implementations treated
description fields with no whitespace in them as additional aliases or
short names. This tic does not do that, but it does warn when descrip
tion fields may be treated that way and check them for dangerous char
acters.
EXTENSIONS
Unlike the stock SVr4 tic command, this implementation can actually
compile termcap sources. In fact, entries in terminfo and termcap syn
tax can be mixed in a single source file. See terminfo(5) for the list
of termcap names taken to be equivalent to terminfo names.
The SVr4 manual pages are not clear on the resolution rules for use
capabilities. This implementation of tic will find use targets any
where in the source file, or anywhere in the file tree rooted at TER
MINFO (if TERMINFO is defined), or in the users $HOME/.terminfo direc
tory (if it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the systems file tree of
compiled entries.
The error messages from this tic have the same format as GNU C error
messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacss compile facility.
The -C, -G, -I, -N, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -o, -r, -s, -t and -x
options are not supported under SVr4. The SVr4 -c mode does not report
bad use links.
System V does not compile entries to or read entries from your
$HOME/.terminfo directory unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.
FILES
/etc/terminfo/?/*
Compiled terminal description database.
SEE ALSO
infocmp(1), captoinfo(1), infotocap(1), toe(1), ncurses(3NCURSES), ter
minfo(5).
tic(1)
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