tic
the terminfo entry-description compiler
see also :
infocmp - captoinfo - infotocap - toe
Synopsis
tic
[-1CGILNTUVacfgrstx] [-e
names] [-o dir] [-R
subset] [-v[n]]
[-w[n]] file
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description
The command
tic translates a terminfo file from source
format into compiled format. The compiled format is
necessary for use with the library routines in
ncurses(3NCURSES).
The results are
normally placed in the system terminfo directory
/etc/terminfo. There are two ways to change this
behavior.
First, you may
override the system default by setting the variable
TERMINFO in your shell environment to a valid
(existing) directory name.
Secondly, if
tic cannot get access to /etc/terminfo or your
TERMINFO directory, it looks for the directory
$HOME/.terminfo; if that directory exists, the entry
is placed there.
Libraries that
read terminfo entries are expected to check for a TERMINFO
directory first, look at $HOME/.terminfo if TERMINFO
is not set, and finally look in /etc/terminfo.
-1
restricts the output to a single column
-a
tells tic to retain commented-out capabilities
rather than discarding them. Capabilities are commented by
prefixing them with a period. This sets the -x
option, because it treats the commented-out entries as
user-defined names. If the source is termcap, accept the
2-character names required by version 6. Otherwise these are
ignored.
-C
Force source translation to termcap format. Note: this
differs from the -C option of infocmp(1)
in that it does not merely translate capability names, but
also translates terminfo strings to termcap format.
Capabilities that are not translatable are left in the entry
under their terminfo names but commented out with two
preceding dots.
-c
tells tic to only check file for errors,
including syntax problems and bad use links. If you specify
-C (-I) with this option, the code
will print warnings about entries which, after use
resolution, are more than 1023 (4096) bytes long. Due to a
fixed buffer length in older termcap libraries (and a
documented limit in terminfo), these entries may cause core
dumps.
-e
names
Limit writes and translations
to the following comma-separated list of terminals. If any
name or alias of a terminal matches one of the names in the
list, the entry will be written or translated as normal.
Otherwise no output will be generated for it. The option
value is interpreted as a file containing the list if it
contains a ’/’. (Note: depending on how tic was
compiled, this option may require -I or
-C.)
-f
Display complex terminfo strings which contain
if/then/else/endif expressions indented for readability.
-G
Display constant literals in decimal form rather than
their character equivalents.
-g
Display constant character literals in quoted form
rather than their decimal equivalents.
-I
Force source translation to terminfo format.
-L
Force source translation to terminfo format using the
long C variable names listed in <term.h>
-N
Disable smart defaults. Normally, when translating from
termcap to terminfo, the compiler makes a number of
assumptions about the defaults of string capabilities
reset1_string, carriage_return,
cursor_left, cursor_down,
scroll_forward, tab, newline,
key_backspace, key_left, and key_down,
then attempts to use obsolete termcap capabilities to deduce
correct values. It also normally suppresses output of
obsolete termcap capabilities such as bs. This option
forces a more literal translation that also preserves the
obsolete capabilities.
-odir
Write compiled entries to given directory. Overrides the
TERMINFO environment variable.
-Rsubset
Restrict output to a given
subset. This option is for use with archaic versions of
terminfo like those on SVr1, Ultrix, or HP/UX that do not
support the full set of SVR4/XSI Curses terminfo; and
outright broken ports like AIX 3.x that have their own
extensions incompatible with SVr4/XSI. Available subsets are
"SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP",
"BSD" and "AIX"; see terminfo(5)
for details.
-r
Force entry resolution (so there are no remaining tc
capabilities) even when doing translation to termcap format.
This may be needed if you are preparing a termcap file for a
termcap library (such as GNU termcap through version 1.3 or
BSD termcap through 4.3BSD) that does not handle multiple tc
capabilities per entry.
-s
Summarize the compile by showing the directory into
which entries are written, and the number of entries which
are compiled.
-T
eliminates size-restrictions on the generated text. This
is mainly useful for testing and analysis, since the
compiled descriptions are limited (e.g., 1023 for termcap,
4096 for terminfo).
-t
tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities.
Normally when translating from terminfo to termcap,
untranslatable capabilities are commented-out.
-U
tells tic to not post-process the data after
parsing the source file. Normally, it infers data which is
commonly missing in older terminfo data, or in termcaps.
-V
reports the version of ncurses which was used in this
program, and exits.
-vn
specifies that (verbose) output be written to standard
error trace information showing tic’s progress.
The optional parameter n is a number from 1 to 10,
inclusive, indicating the desired level of detail of
information. If n is omitted, the default level is 1.
If n is specified and greater than 1, the level of
detail is increased.
-wn
specifies the width of the output. The parameter is
optional. If it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
-x
Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined. That is, if
you supply a capability name which tic does not
recognize, it will infer its type (boolean, number or
string) from the syntax and make an extended table entry for
that. User-defined capability strings whose name begins with
’’k’’ are treated as function
keys.
file
contains one or more terminfo terminal
descriptions in source format [see terminfo(5)]. Each
description in the file describes the capabilities of a
particular terminal.
The debug flag
levels are as follows:
1
Names of files created and
linked
2
Information related to the
’’use’’ facility
3
Statistics from the hashing algorithm
5
String-table memory allocations
7
Entries into the string-table
8
List of tokens encountered by scanner
9
All values computed in construction of the hash
table
If the debug
level n is not given, it is taken to be one.
All but one of
the capabilities recognized by tic are documented in
terminfo(5). The exception is the use
capability.
When a
use=entry-name field is
discovered in a terminal entry currently being compiled,
tic reads in the binary from /etc/terminfo to
complete the entry. (Entries created from file will
be used first. If the environment variable TERMINFO
is set, that directory is searched instead of
/etc/terminfo.) tic duplicates the
capabilities in entry-name for the
current entry, with the exception of those capabilities that
explicitly are defined in the current entry.
When an entry,
e.g., entry_name_1, contains a
use=entry_name_2 field, any
canceled capabilities in entry_name_2
must also appear in entry_name_1 before use=
for these capabilities to be canceled in
entry_name_1.
If the
environment variable TERMINFO is set, the compiled
results are placed there instead of
/etc/terminfo.
Total compiled
entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes. The name field cannot
exceed 512 bytes. Terminal names exceeding the maximum alias
length (32 characters on systems with long filenames, 14
characters otherwise) will be truncated to the maximum alias
length and a warning message will be printed.
compatibility
There is some evidence that historic tic implementations
treated description fields with no whitespace in them as
additional aliases or short names. This tic does not do
that, but it does warn when description fields may be treated
that way and check them for dangerous characters.
extensions
Unlike the stock SVr4 tic command, this implementation can
actually compile termcap sources. In fact, entries in terminfo
and termcap syntax can be mixed in a single source file. See
terminfo(5) for the list of termcap names taken to be
equivalent to terminfo names.
The SVr4 manual pages are not clear on the resolution rules for
use capabilities. This implementation of tic will
find use targets anywhere in the source file, or anywhere
in the file tree rooted at TERMINFO (if TERMINFO is
defined), or in the user’s $HOME/.terminfo directory (if
it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system’s file tree of
compiled entries.
The error messages from this tic have the same format as
GNU C error messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs’s compile
facility.
The -C, -G, -I, -N, -R,
-T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g,
-o, -r, -s, -t and -x options
are not supported under SVr4. The SVr4 -c mode does not
report bad use links.
System V does not compile entries to or read entries from your
$HOME/.terminfo directory unless TERMINFO is explicitly
set to it.
files
/etc/terminfo/?/*
Compiled terminal description database.
see also
infocmp ,
captoinfo , infotocap , toe ,
ncurses(3NCURSES), terminfo.
This describes
ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20110404).
author
Eric S. Raymond
<esr[:at:]snark.thyrsus[:dot:]com> and
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>