infocmp(1M) UNIX System V(Terminal Information Utilities) 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] [termname . . .]
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 terminal 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 different 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 neither entry. If
no termnames are given, the environment 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
-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
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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 converted will be plainly
marked in the output and commented 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 (padding information with a trailing '/') will become optional.
All termcap variables no longer supported by terminfo, but which are
derivable from other terminfo variables, will be output. Not all
terminfo capabilities will be translated; only those variables 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 collected to the beginning of the
capability, not all capabilities are output. Mandatory padding is not
supported. Because termcap strings are not as flexible, it is not always
possible to convert a terminfo 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= 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.
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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 contains 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 be done by the termcap name or the long C variable
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.
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-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
useful 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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