TERM(5) TERM(5)
NAME
term - format of compiled term file.
SYNOPSIS
term
DESCRIPTION
Compiled terminfo descriptions are placed under the directory /etc/ter
minfo. In order to avoid a linear search of a huge UNIX system direc
tory, a two-level scheme is used: /etc/terminfo/c/name where name is
the name of the terminal, and c is the first character of name. Thus,
act4 can be found in the file /etc/terminfo/a/act4. Synonyms for the
same terminal are implemented by multiple links to the same compiled
file.
The format has been chosen so that it will be the same on all hardware.
An 8 or more bit byte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte order
ing or sign extension are made.
The compiled file is created with the tic program, and read by the rou
tine setupterm. The file is divided into six parts: the header, termi
nal names, boolean flags, numbers, strings, and string table.
The header section begins the file. This section contains six short
integers in the format described below. These integers are (1) the
magic number (octal 0432); (2) the size, in bytes, of the names sec
tion; (3) the number of bytes in the boolean section; (4) the number of
short integers in the numbers section; (5) the number of offsets (short
integers) in the strings section; (6) the size, in bytes, of the string
table.
Short integers are stored in two 8-bit bytes. The first byte contains
the least significant 8 bits of the value, and the second byte contains
the most significant 8 bits. (Thus, the value represented is 256*sec
ond+first.) The value -1 is represented by the two bytes 0377, 0377;
other negative values are illegal. This value generally means that the
corresponding capability is missing from this terminal. Note that this
format corresponds to the hardware of the VAX and PDP-11 (that is, lit
tle-endian machines). Machines where this does not correspond to the
hardware must read the integers as two bytes and compute the little-
endian value.
The terminal names section comes next. It contains the first line of
the terminfo description, listing the various names for the terminal,
separated by the | character. The section is terminated with an
ASCII NUL character.
The boolean flags have one byte for each flag. This byte is either 0
or 1 as the flag is present or absent. The capabilities are in the
same order as the file .
Between the boolean section and the number section, a null byte will be
inserted, if necessary, to ensure that the number section begins on an
even byte (this is a relic of the PDP-11s word-addressed architecture,
originally designed in to avoid IOT traps induced by addressing a word
on an odd byte boundary). All short integers are aligned on a short
word boundary.
The numbers section is similar to the flags section. Each capability
takes up two bytes, and is stored as a little-endian short integer. If
the value represented is -1, the capability is taken to be missing.
The strings section is also similar. Each capability is stored as a
short integer, in the format above. A value of -1 means the capability
is missing. Otherwise, the value is taken as an offset from the begin
ning of the string table. Special characters in ^X or \c notation are
stored in their interpreted form, not the printing representation.
Padding information $ and parameter information %x are stored
intact in uninterpreted form.
The final section is the string table. It contains all the values of
string capabilities referenced in the string section. Each string is
null terminated.
Note that it is possible for setupterm to expect a different set of
capabilities than are actually present in the file. Either the
database may have been updated since setupterm has been recompiled
(resulting in extra unrecognized entries in the file) or the program
may have been recompiled more recently than the database was updated
(resulting in missing entries). The routine setupterm must be prepared
for both possibilities - this is why the numbers and sizes are
included. Also, new capabilities must always be added at the end of
the lists of boolean, number, and string capabilities.
Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the other
wise self-describing format, it is not wise to count on portability of
binary terminfo entries between commercial UNIX versions. The problem
is that there are at least three versions of terminfo (under HP-UX,
AIX, and OSF/1) which diverged from System V terminfo after SVr1, and
have added extension capabilities to the string table that (in the
binary format) collide with System V and XSI Curses extensions. See
terminfo(5) for detailed discussion of terminfo source compatibility
issues.
As an example, here is a hex dump of the description for the Lear-
Siegler ADM-3, a popular though rather stupid early terminal:
adm3a|lsi adm3a,
am,
cols#80, lines#24,
bel=^G, clear= 32$<1>, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,
cuf1=^L, cup=\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,
home=^^, ind=^J,
0000 1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00 82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33 ........ ..1.adm3
0010 61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64 6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00 a|lsi ad m3a...P.
0020 ff ff 18 00 ff ff 00 00 02 00 ff ff ff ff 04 00 ........ ........
0030 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 0a 00 25 00 27 00 ff ff ........ ..%....
0040 29 00 ff ff ff ff 2b 00 ff ff 2d 00 ff ff ff ff ).....+. ..-.....
0050 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0060 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0070 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0080 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0090 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00a0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00b0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00c0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00d0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00e0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00f0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0100 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0110 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0120 ff ff ff ff ff ff 2f 00 07 00 0d 00 1a 24 3c 31 ....../. .....$<1
0130 3e 00 1b 3d 25 70 31 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 >..=%p1% {32}%+%c
0140 25 70 32 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 00 0a 00 1e %p2%{32} %+%c....
0150 00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a 00 ........ .
Some limitations: total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes. The
name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
FILES
/etc/terminfo/*/* compiled terminal capability data base
SEE ALSO
ncurses(3NCURSES), terminfo(5).
TERM(5)
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