NAME

term − conventional names for terminals

DESCRIPTION

The environment variable TERM is used by certain commands (e.g., tabs(1), and is maintained as part of the shell environment (see profile(4), and environ(5)) The tset(1) command can be used to set the TERM variable.  The name to which TERM is set usually exists as a compiled terminfo data base (see terminfo(4)).  The following names are always available in the terminfo data base

hp Minimal subset of the capabilities of all Hewlett-Packard terminals and terminal emulators supported on HP-UX systems.  Note that entries for specific models of terminals are generally available, and that they often provide better use of the features of those terminals. 

dumb Generic name for terminals that lack reverse line-feed and other special escape sequences. 

dialup Generic name for dial-in ports connected to unknown terminals. 

The TERM variable is also used by certain commands (e.g. nroff(1), man(1), tabs(1)), some of which use terminal and printer description files from the /usr/lib/terms directory.  One TERM name which has a file in this directory is

lp Generic name for a line printer. 

A basic terminal name can be up to eight characters chosen from A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and −.  Terminal sub-models and operational modes are distinguished by suffixes beginning with a −.  Names should generally be based on original vendors, rather than local distributors.  A terminal acquired from one vendor should not have more than one distinct basic name. 

Commands whose behavior depends on the type of terminal should accept arguments of the form −Tterm where term is one of the names given above; if no such argument is present, such commands should obtain the terminal type from the environment variable $TERM, which, in turn, should contain term.

NOTES

The inclusion of other names in the terminfo data base or the /usr/lib/terms directory does not imply support of these devices. 

AUTHOR

Term was developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories and the University of California, Berkeley California, Computer Science Division, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. 

SEE ALSO

man(1), mm(1), nroff(1), sh(1), stty(1), tabs(1), tplot(1), tset(1), ul(1), curses(3X), profile(4), terminfo(4), ttytype(4), environ(5). 

BUGS

The TERM variable is used differently by commands which originated from UCB code (such as vi(1) and more(1)) and commands which originated from Bell System III code (such as nroff(1) and tabs(1)).  These different usages of TERM can be confusing. 

Hewlett-Packard Company  —  Version B.1,  May 11, 2021