infocmp(1M) MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES infocmp(1M)
NAME
infocmp - compare or print out terminfo descriptions
SYNOPSIS
infocmp [-d] [-c] [-n] [-I] [-L] [-C] [-r] [-u] [-s d|i|l|c]
[-v] [-V]
[-1] [-w width] [-A directory] [-B directory] [term-
name ...]
DESCRIPTION
infocmp can be used to compare a binary terminfo entry with
other terminfo entries, rewrite a terminfo description to
take advantage of the use= terminfo field, or print out a
terminfo description from the binary file (term) in a
variety of formats. In all cases, the boolean fields will
be printed first, followed by the numeric fields, followed
by the string fields.
Default Options
If no options are specified and zero or one termnames are
specified, the -I option will be assumed. If more than one
termname is specified, the -d option will be assumed.
Comparison Options [-d] [-c] [-n]
infocmp compares the terminfo description of the first ter-
minal termname with each of the descriptions given by the
entries for the other terminal's termnames. If a capability
is defined for only one of the terminals, the value returned
will depend on the type of the capability: F for boolean
variables, -1 for integer variables, and NULL for string
variables.
-d produces a list of each capability that is different
between two entries. This option is useful to show
the difference between two entries, created by dif-
ferent people, for the same or similar terminals.
-c produces a list of each capability that is common
between two entries. Capabilities that are not set
are ignored. This option can be used as a quick
check to see if the -u option is worth using.
-n produces a list of each capability that is in nei-
ther entry. If no termnames are given, the environ-
ment variable TERM will be used for both of the
termnames. This can be used as a quick check to see
if anything was left out of a description.
Source Listing Options [-I] [-L] [-C] [-r]
The -I, -L, and -C options will produce a source listing for
each terminal named.
-I use the terminfo names
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-L use the long C variable name listed in <term.h>
-C use the termcap names
-r when using -C, put out all capabilities in termcap
form If no termnames are given, the environment
variable TERM will be used for the terminal name.
The source produced by the -C option may be used
directly as a termcap entry, but not all of the
parameterized strings may be changed to the termcap
format. infocmp will attempt to convert most of the
parameterized information, but anything not con-
verted will be plainly marked in the output and com-
mented out. These should be edited by hand. All
padding information for strings will be collected
together and placed at the beginning of the string
where termcap expects it. Mandatory padding (pad-
ding information with a trailing '/') will become
optional. All termcap variables no longer supported
by terminfo, but which are derivable from other ter-
minfo variables, will be output. Not all terminfo
capabilities will be translated; only those vari-
ables which were part of termcap will normally be
output. Specifying the -r option will take off this
restriction, allowing all capabilities to be output
in termcap form. Note that because padding is col-
lected to the beginning of the capability, not all
capabilities are output. Mandatory padding is not
supported. Because termcap strings are not as flex-
ible, it is not always possible to convert a ter-
minfo string capability into an equivalent termcap
format. A subsequent conversion of the termcap file
back into terminfo format will not necessarily
reproduce the original terminfo source. Some common
terminfo parameter sequences, their termcap
equivalents, and some terminal types which commonly
have such sequences, are:
terminfo termcap Representative Terminals
%p1%c %. adm
%p1%d %d hp, ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%'x'%+%c %+x concept
%i %i ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%; %>xy concept
%p2 is printed before %p1 %r hp
Use= Option [-u]
-u produces a terminfo source description of the first
terminal termname which is relative to the sum of
the descriptions given by the entries for the other
terminals termnames. It does this by analyzing the
differences between the first termname and the other
termnames and producing a description with use=
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fields for the other terminals. In this manner, it
is possible to retrofit generic terminfo entries
into a terminal's description. Or, if two similar
terminals exist, but were coded at different times
or by different people so that each description is a
full description, using infocmp will show what can
be done to change one description to be relative to
the other. A capability will get printed with an
at-sign (@) if it no longer exists in the first
termname, but one of the other termname entries con-
tains a value for it. A capability's value gets
printed if the value in the first termname is not
found in any of the other termname entries, or if
the first of the other termname entries
that has this capability gives a different value for
the capability than that in the first termname. The
order of the other termname entries is significant.
Since the terminfo compiler tic does a left-to-right
scan of the capabilities, specifying two use=
entries that contain differing entries for the same
capabilities will produce different results
depending on the order that the entries are given
in. infocmp will flag any such inconsistencies
between the other termname entries as they are
found. Alternatively, specifying a capability after
a use= entry that contains that capability will
cause the second specification to be ignored. Using
infocmp to recreate a description can be a useful
check to make sure that everything was specified
correctly in the original source description.
Another error that does not cause incorrect compiled
files, but will slow down the compilation time, is
specifying extra use= fields that are superfluous.
infocmp will flag any other termname use= fields
that were not needed.
Other Options [-s d|i|l|c] [-v] [-V] [-1] [-w width]
-s sorts the fields within each type according to the
argument below:
d leave fields in the order that they are stored
in the terminfo database.
i sort by terminfo name.
l sort by the long C variable name.
c sort by the termcap name. If the -s option is
not given, the fields printed out will be
sorted alphabetically by the terminfo name
within each type, except in the case of the -C
or the -L options, which cause the sorting to
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be done by the termcap name or the long C vari-
able name, respectively.
-v prints out tracing information on standard error as
the program runs.
-V prints out the version of the program in use on
standard error and exit.
-1 causes the fields to be printed out one to a line.
Otherwise, the fields will be printed several to a
line to a maximum width of 60 characters.
-w changes the output to width characters.
Changing Databases [-A directory] [-B directory]
The location of the compiled terminfo database is taken from
the environment variable TERMINFO . If the variable is not
defined, or the terminal is not found in that location, the
system terminfo database, usually in
/usr/share/lib/terminfo, will be used. The options -A and
-B may be used to override this location. The -A option
will set TERMINFO for the first termname and the -B option
will set TERMINFO for the other termnames. With this, it is
possible to compare descriptions for a terminal with the
same name located in two different databases. This is use-
ful for comparing descriptions for the same terminal created
by different people.
FILES
/usr/share/lib/terminfo/?/* Compiled terminal description
database.
SEE ALSO
curses(3X), captoinfo(1M), terminfo(4), tic(1M).
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