TERMINFO(F) UNIX System V
Name
terminfo - format of compiled terminfo file
Description
Compiled terminfo descriptions are placed under the
directory /usr/lib/terminfo. In order to avoid a linear
search of a huge UNIX 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- or more-bit byte is assumed, but no
assumptions about byte ordering or sign extension are made.
The compiled file is created with the tic(C) program, and
read by the routine setupterm in terminfo(S). 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.
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; other negative values are
illegal. The -1 generally means that a capability is
missing from this terminal. Note that this format
corresponds to the hardware of the VAX and PDP-11. Machines
in which this does not correspond to the hardware read the
integers as two bytes and compute the result.
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 <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 flags section. Each
capability takes up two bytes, and is stored as a 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 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
was 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
Microterm ACT 4 is included:
microterm|act4|microterm act iv,
cr=^M, cud1=^J, ind=^J, bel=^G, am, cub1=^H,
ed=^_, el=^^, clear=^L, cup=^T%p1%c%p2%c,
cols#80, lines#24, cuf1=^X, cuu1=^Z, home=^],
3000 032 001 \0 025 \0 \b \0 212 \0 " \0 m i c r
020 o t e r m | a c t 4 | m i c r o
040 t e r m a c t i v \0 \0 001 \0 \0
060 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0
100 \0 \0 P \0 377 377 030 \0 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377
120 377 377 377 377 \0 \0 002 \0 377 377 377 377 004 \0 006 \0
140 \b \0 377 377 377 377 \n \0 026 \0 030 \0 377 377 032 \0
160 377 377 377 377 034 \0 377 377 036 \0 377 377 377 377 377 377
200 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377
*
520 377 377 377 377 \0 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377
540 377 377 377 377 377 377 007 \0 \r \0 \f \0 036 \0 037 \0
560 024 % p 1 % c % p 2 % c \0 \n \0 035 \0
600 \b \0 030 \0 032 \0 \n \0
Some limitations: the total size of a compiled description
cannot exceed 4096 bytes; the name field cannot exceed 128
bytes.
Files
/usr/lib/terminfo/*/* compiled terminal capability data
base
See Also
terminfo(M), terminfo(S), tic(C)
(printed 8/23/89) TERMINFO(F)