TERM(4) SysV TERM(4)
NAME
term - format of compiled term file.
SYNOPSIS
/usr/lib/terminfo/?/*
DESCRIPTION
Compiled terminfo(4) descriptions are placed under the directory
/usr/lib/terminfo. In order to avoid a linear search of a huge SysV
system directory, a two-level scheme is used: /usr/lib/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 /usr/lib/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-bit byte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte ordering or sign
extension are made. Thus, these binary terminfo(4) files can be
transported to other hardware with 8-bit bytes.
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*second+first.) The value -1 is represented by 0377,0377, and the
value -2 is represented by 0376,0377; other negative values are illegal.
Computers where this does not correspond to the hardware read the
integers as two bytes and compute the result, making the compiled entries
portable between machine types. The -1 generally means that a capability
is missing from this terminal. The -2 means that the capability has been
cancelled in the terminfo(4) source and also is to be considered missing.
The compiled file is created from the source file descriptions of the
terminals (see the -I option of infocmp(1M)) by using the terminfo(4)
compiler, tic(1M), and read by the routine setupterm(). (See
curses(3X).) The file is divided into six parts: the header, terminal
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 section; (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.
The terminal names section comes next. It contains the first line of the
terminfo(4) description, listing the various names for the terminal,
separated by the bar ( | ) character (see term(5)). 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 value of 2 means that the flag
has been cancelled. The capabilities are in the same order as the file
<term.h>.
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. All short integers are aligned on a short word boundary.
The numbers section is similar to the Boolean flags section. Each
capability takes up two bytes, and is stored as a short integer. If the
value represented is -1 or -2, 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 or -2 means the
capability is missing. Otherwise, the value is taken as an offset from
the beginning of the string table. Special characters in ^X or \c
notation are stored in their interpreted form, not the printing
representation. Padding information ($<nn>) 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.
As an example, an octal dump of the description for the AT&T Model 37 KSR
is included:
37|tty37|AT&T model 37 teletype,
hc, os, xon,
bel=^G, cr=\r, cub1=\b, cud1=\n, cuu1=\E7, hd=\E9,
hu=\E8, ind=\n,
0000000 032 001 \0 032 \0 013 \0 021 001 3 \0 3 7 | t
0000020 t y 3 7 | A T & T m o d e l
0000040 3 7 t e l e t y p e \0 \0 \0 \0 \0
0000060 \0 \0 \0 001 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 001 \0 \0 \0 \0
0000100 001 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377
0000120 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 & \0
0000140 \0 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377
0000160 377 377 " \0 377 377 377 377 ( \0 377 377 377 377 377 377
0000200 377 377 0 \0 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 - \0 377 377
0000220 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377
*
0000520 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 $ \0
0000540 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 * \0
0000560 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377
*
0001160 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 3 7
0001200 | t t y 3 7 | A T & T m o d e
0001220 l 3 7 t e l e t y p e \0 \r \0
0001240 \n \0 \n \0 007 \0 \b \0 033 8 \0 033 9 \0 033 7
0001260 \0 \0
0001261
Some limitations: total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes; all
entries in the name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
FILES
/usr/lib/terminfo/?/* compiled terminal description database
/usr/include/term.h terminfo(4) header file
SEE ALSO
curses(3X), terminfo(4), term(5).
infocmp(1M) in Managing SysV System Software.