1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
|
<!--
****************************************************************************
* Copyright 2018-2020,2021 Thomas E. Dickey *
* Copyright 1998-2016,2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
* *
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
* copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
* "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including *
* without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, *
* distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell *
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is *
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: *
* *
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included *
* in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. *
* *
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS *
* OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF *
* MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. *
* IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, *
* DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR *
* OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR *
* THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. *
* *
* Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright *
* holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the *
* sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
* authorization. *
****************************************************************************
* @Id: term.5,v 1.40 2021/08/15 19:38:47 tom Exp @
-->
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="generator" content="Manpage converted by man2html - see https://invisible-island.net/scripts/readme.html#others_scripts">
<TITLE>term 5</TITLE>
<link rel="author" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1 class="no-header">term 5</H1>
<PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG> File Formats Manual <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
term - format of compiled term file.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>term</STRONG>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-STORAGE-LOCATION">STORAGE LOCATION</a></H3><PRE>
Compiled terminfo descriptions are placed under the directory
<STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG>. Two configurations are supported (when building
the <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> libraries):
<STRONG>directory</STRONG> <STRONG>tree</STRONG>
A two-level scheme is used to avoid a linear search of a huge UNIX
system directory: <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/c/name</STRONG> where <EM>name</EM> is the
name of the terminal, and <EM>c</EM> is the first character of <EM>name</EM>. Thus,
<EM>act4</EM> can be found in the file <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/a/act4</STRONG>.
Synonyms for the same terminal are implemented by multiple links
to the same compiled file.
<STRONG>hashed</STRONG> <STRONG>database</STRONG>
Using Berkeley database, two types of records are stored: the
terminfo data in the same format as stored in a directory tree
with the terminfo's primary name as a key, and records containing
only aliases pointing to the primary name.
If built to write hashed databases, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> can still read
terminfo databases organized as a directory tree, but cannot write
entries into the directory tree. It can write (or rewrite)
entries in the hashed database.
<STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> distinguishes the two cases in the TERMINFO and
TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable by assuming a directory tree
for entries that correspond to an existing directory, and hashed
database otherwise.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-LEGACY-STORAGE-FORMAT">LEGACY STORAGE FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
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 <STRONG>tic</STRONG> program, and read by the
routine <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">setupterm(3x)</A></STRONG>. The file is divided into six parts:
a) <EM>header</EM>,
b) <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM>,
c) <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM>,
d) <EM>numbers</EM>,
e) <EM>strings</EM>, and
f) <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
The <EM>header</EM> section begins the file. This section contains six short
integers in the format described below. These integers are
(1) the <EM>magic</EM> <EM>number</EM> (octal 0432);
(2) the size, in bytes, of the <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section;
(3) the number of bytes in the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section;
(4) the number of short integers in the <EM>numbers</EM> section;
(5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the <EM>strings</EM> section;
(6) the size, in bytes, of the <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
The capabilities in the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM>, <EM>numbers</EM>, and <EM>strings</EM> sections
are in the same order as the file <term.h>.
Short integers are signed, in the range -32768 to 32767. They are
stored as 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.)
This format corresponds to the hardware of the VAX and PDP-11 (that is,
little-endian machines). Machines where this does not correspond to
the hardware must read the integers as two bytes and compute the
little-endian value.
Numbers in a terminal description, whether they are entries in the
<EM>numbers</EM> or <EM>strings</EM> table, are positive integers. Boolean flags are
treated as positive one-byte integers. In each case, those positive
integers represent a terminal capability. The terminal compiler tic
uses negative integers to handle the cases where a capability is not
available:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability is absent from this terminal, tic stores a -1 in
the corresponding table.
The integer value -1 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0377.
Absent boolean values are represented by the byte 0 (false).
<STRONG>o</STRONG> If a capability has been canceled from this terminal, tic stores a
-2 in the corresponding table.
The integer value -2 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0376.
The boolean value -2 is represented by the byte 0376.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> Other negative values are illegal.
The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM> section comes after the <EM>header</EM>. It contains the
first line of the terminfo description, listing the various names for
the terminal, separated by the "|" character. The <EM>terminal</EM> <EM>names</EM>
section is terminated with an ASCII NUL character.
The <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section has one byte for each flag. Boolean
capabilities are either 1 or 0 (true or false) according to whether the
terminal supports the given capability or not.
Between the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section and the <EM>number</EM> section, a null byte
will be inserted, if necessary, to ensure that the <EM>number</EM> section
begins on an even byte This is a relic of the PDP-11's word-addressed
architecture, originally designed to avoid traps induced by addressing
a word on an odd byte boundary. All short integers are aligned on a
short word boundary.
The <EM>numbers</EM> section is similar to the <EM>boolean</EM> <EM>flags</EM> section. Each
capability takes up two bytes, and is stored as a little-endian short
integer.
The <EM>strings</EM> section is also similar. Each capability is stored as a
short integer. The capability value is an index into the <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM>.
The <EM>string</EM> <EM>table</EM> is the last section. It contains all of the values of
string capabilities referenced in the <EM>strings</EM> section. Each string is
null-terminated. 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.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
The previous section describes the conventional terminfo binary format.
With some minor variations of the offsets (see PORTABILITY), the same
binary format is used in all modern UNIX systems. Each system uses a
predefined set of boolean, number or string capabilities.
The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> libraries and applications support extended terminfo binary
format, allowing users to define capabilities which are loaded at
runtime. This extension is made possible by using the fact that the
other implementations stop reading the terminfo data when they have
reached the end of the size given in the header. <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> checks the
size, and if it exceeds that due to the predefined data, continues to
parse according to its own scheme.
First, it reads the extended header (5 short integers):
(1) count of extended boolean capabilities
(2) count of extended numeric capabilities
(3) count of extended string capabilities
(4) count of the items in extended string table
(5) size of the extended string table in bytes
The count- and size-values for the extended string table include the
extended capability <EM>names</EM> as well as extended capability <EM>values</EM>.
Using the counts and sizes, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> allocates arrays and reads data for
the extended capabilities in the same order as the header information.
The extended string table contains values for string capabilities.
After the end of these values, it contains the names for each of the
extended capabilities in order, e.g., booleans, then numbers and
finally strings.
Applications which manipulate terminal data can use the definitions
described in <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG> which associate the long capability
names with members of a <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">EXTENDED NUMBER FORMAT</a></H3><PRE>
On occasion, 16-bit signed integers are not large enough. With <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>
6.1, a new format was introduced by making a few changes to the legacy
format:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> a different magic number (octal 01036)
<STRONG>o</STRONG> changing the type for the <EM>number</EM> array from signed 16-bit integers
to signed 32-bit integers.
To maintain compatibility, the library presents the same data
structures to direct users of the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure as in previous
formats. However, that cannot provide callers with the extended
numbers. The library uses a similar but hidden data structure
<STRONG>TERMTYPE2</STRONG> to provide data for the terminfo functions.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-setupterm">setupterm</a></H3><PRE>
Note that it is possible for <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> to expect a different set of
capabilities than are actually present in the file. Either the
database may have been updated since <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> 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 <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> 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.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Binary-format">Binary format</a></H3><PRE>
X/Open Curses does not specify a format for the terminfo database.
UNIX System V curses used a directory-tree of binary files, one per
terminal description.
Despite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers and the
otherwise self-describing format, it is not wise to count on
portability of binary terminfo entries between commercial UNIX
versions. The problem is that there are at least three versions of
terminfo (under HP-UX, AIX, and OSF/1) which diverged from System V
terminfo after SVr1, and have added extension capabilities to the
string table that (in the binary format) collide with System V and XSI
Curses extensions. See <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for detailed discussion of terminfo
source compatibility issues.
This implementation is by default compatible with the binary terminfo
format used by Solaris curses, except in a few less-used details where
it was found that the latter did not match X/Open Curses. The format
used by the other Unix versions can be matched by building ncurses with
different configuration options.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Magic-codes">Magic codes</a></H3><PRE>
The magic number in a binary terminfo file is the first 16-bits (two
bytes). Besides making it more reliable for the library to check that
a file is terminfo, utilities such as <STRONG>file</STRONG> also use that to tell what
the file-format is. System V defined more than one magic number, with
0433, 0435 as screen-dumps (see <STRONG><A HREF="scr_dump.5.html">scr_dump(5)</A></STRONG>). This implementation uses
01036 as a continuation of that sequence, but with a different high-
order byte to avoid confusion.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-The-TERMTYPE-structure">The TERMTYPE structure</a></H3><PRE>
Direct access to the <STRONG>TERMTYPE</STRONG> structure is provided for legacy
applications. Portable applications should use the <STRONG>tigetflag</STRONG> and
related functions described in <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG> for reading terminal
capabilities.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Mixed-case-terminal-names">Mixed-case terminal names</a></H3><PRE>
A small number of terminal descriptions use uppercase characters in
their names. If the underlying filesystem ignores the difference
between uppercase and lowercase, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> represents the "first
character" of the terminal name used as the intermediate level of a
directory tree in (two-character) hexadecimal form.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-EXAMPLE">EXAMPLE</a></H2><PRE>
As an example, here is a description for the Lear-Siegler ADM-3, a
popular though rather stupid early terminal:
adm3a|lsi adm3a,
am,
cols#80, lines#24,
bel=^G, clear= 32$<1>, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,
cuf1=^L, cup=\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,
home=^^, ind=^J,
and a hexadecimal dump of the compiled terminal description:
0000 1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00 82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33 ........ ..1.adm3
0010 61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64 6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00 a|lsi ad m3a...P.
0020 ff ff 18 00 ff ff 00 00 02 00 ff ff ff ff 04 00 ........ ........
0030 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 0a 00 25 00 27 00 ff ff ........ ..%.'...
0040 29 00 ff ff ff ff 2b 00 ff ff 2d 00 ff ff ff ff ).....+. ..-.....
0050 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0060 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0070 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0080 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0090 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00a0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00b0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00c0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00d0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00e0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
00f0 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0100 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0110 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ ........
0120 ff ff ff ff ff ff 2f 00 07 00 0d 00 1a 24 3c 31 ....../. .....$<1
0130 3e 00 1b 3d 25 70 31 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 >..=%p1% {32}%+%c
0140 25 70 32 25 7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63 00 0a 00 1e %p2%{32} %+%c....
0150 00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a 00 ........ .
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-LIMITS">LIMITS</a></H2><PRE>
Some limitations:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy
format.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> total compiled entries cannot exceed 32768 bytes in the extended
format.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> the name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.
Compiled entries are limited to 32768 bytes because offsets into the
<EM>strings</EM> <EM>table</EM> use two-byte integers. The legacy format could have
supported 32768-byte entries, but was limited a virtual memory page's
4096 bytes.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
/usr/share/terminfo/*/* compiled terminal capability database
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></H2><PRE>
Thomas E. Dickey
extended terminfo format for ncurses 5.0
hashed database support for ncurses 5.6
extended number support for ncurses 6.1
Eric S. Raymond
documented legacy terminfo format, e.g., from pcurses.
<STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
<div class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h3-STORAGE-LOCATION">STORAGE LOCATION</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-LEGACY-STORAGE-FORMAT">LEGACY STORAGE FORMAT</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">EXTENDED NUMBER FORMAT</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h3-setupterm">setupterm</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Binary-format">Binary format</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Magic-codes">Magic codes</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-The-TERMTYPE-structure">The TERMTYPE structure</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Mixed-case-terminal-names">Mixed-case terminal names</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h2-EXAMPLE">EXAMPLE</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-LIMITS">LIMITS</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</BODY>
</HTML>
|
