tic(1) User commands tic(1) #
tic(1) User commands tic(1)
NNAAMMEE #
ttiicc - the _t_e_r_m_i_n_f_o entry-description compiler
SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS #
ttiicc [--0011CCDDGGIIKKLLNNTTUUVVWWaaccffggqqrrssttxx] [--ee _n_a_m_e_s] [--oo _d_i_r] [--QQ[_n]] [--RR _s_u_b_s_e_t]
[--vv[_n]] [--ww[_n]] _f_i_l_e
DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN #
The ttiicc command translates a tteerrmmiinnffoo file from source format into
compiled format. The compiled format is necessary for use with the
library routines in nnccuurrsseess(3).
As described in tteerrmm(5), the database may be either a directory tree (one
file per terminal entry) or a hashed database (one record per entry).
The ttiicc command writes only one type of entry, depending on how it was
built:
• For directory trees, the top-level directory, e.g.,
/usr/share/terminfo, specifies the location of the database.
• For hashed databases, a filename is needed. If the given file is not
found by that name, but can be found by adding the suffix ".db", then
that is used.
The default name for the hashed database is the same as the default
directory name (only adding a ".db" suffix).
In either case (directory or hashed database), ttiicc will create the
container if it does not exist. For a directory, this would be the
“terminfo” leaf, versus a "terminfo.db" file.
The results are normally placed in the system terminfo database
//uussrr//sshhaarree//tteerrmmiinnffoo. The compiled terminal description can be placed in
a different terminfo database. There are two ways to achieve this:
• First, you may override the system default either by using the --oo
option, or by setting the variable TTEERRMMIINNFFOO in your shell environment
to a valid database location.
• Secondly, if ttiicc cannot write in _/_u_s_r_/_s_h_a_r_e_/_t_e_r_m_i_n_f_o or the location
specified using your TERMINFO variable, it looks for the directory
_$_H_O_M_E_/_._t_e_r_m_i_n_f_o (or hashed database _$_H_O_M_E_/_._t_e_r_m_i_n_f_o_._d_b_); if that
location exists, the entry is placed there.
Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check in succession
• a location specified with the TERMINFO environment variable,
• _$_H_O_M_E_/_._t_e_r_m_i_n_f_o,
• directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable,
• a compiled-in list of directories (?), and
• the system terminfo database (_/_u_s_r_/_s_h_a_r_e_/_t_e_r_m_i_n_f_o).
AALLIIAASSEESS #
This is the same program as infotocap and captoinfo; usually those are
linked to, or copied from this program:
• When invoked as infotocap, tic sets the --II option.
• When invoked as captoinfo, tic sets the --CC option.
OOPPTTIIOONNSS #
--00 restricts the output to a single line
--11 restricts the output to a single column
--aa tells ttiicc to retain commented-out capabilities rather than
discarding them. Capabilities are commented by prefixing them
with a period. This sets the --xx 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.
--CC Force source translation to termcap format. Note: this differs
from the --CC option of iinnffooccmmpp(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. The actual format used incorporates some
improvements for escaped characters from terminfo format. For a
stricter BSD-compatible translation, add the --KK option.
If this is combined with --cc, ttiicc makes additional checks to report
cases where the terminfo values do not have an exact equivalent in
termcap form. For example:
• ssggrr usually will not convert, because termcap lacks the
ability to work with more than two parameters, and because
termcap lacks many of the arithmetic/logical operators used in
terminfo.
• capabilities with more than one delay or with delays before
the end of the string will not convert completely.
--cc tells ttiicc to only check _f_i_l_e for errors, including syntax problems
and bad use-links. If you specify --CC (--II) 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, as well as buggy
checking for the buffer length (and a documented limit in
terminfo), these entries may cause core dumps with other
implementations.
ttiicc checks string capabilities to ensure that those with
parameters will be valid expressions. It does this check only for
the predefined string capabilities; those which are defined with
the --xx option are ignored.
--DD tells ttiicc to print the database locations that it knows about, and
exit. The first location shown is the one to which it would write
compiled terminal descriptions. If ttiicc is not able to find a
writable database location according to the rules summarized
above, it will print a diagnostic and exit with an error rather
than printing a list of database locations.
--ee _n_a_m_e_s
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 --II or --CC.)
--ff Display complex terminfo strings which contain if/then/else/endif
expressions indented for readability.
--GG Display constant literals in decimal form rather than their
character equivalents.
--gg Display constant character literals in quoted form rather than
their decimal equivalents.
--II Force source translation to terminfo format.
--KK Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to termcap format,
e.g., "\s" for space.
--LL Force source translation to terminfo format using the long C
variable names listed in <tteerrmm..hh>
--NN Disable smart defaults. Normally, when translating from termcap
to terminfo, the compiler makes a number of assumptions about the
defaults of string capabilities rreesseett11__ssttrriinngg, ccaarrrriiaaggee__rreettuurrnn,
ccuurrssoorr__lleefftt, ccuurrssoorr__ddoowwnn, ssccrroollll__ffoorrwwaarrdd, ttaabb, nneewwlliinnee,
kkeeyy__bbaacckkssppaaccee, kkeeyy__lleefftt, and kkeeyy__ddoowwnn, then attempts to use
obsolete termcap capabilities to deduce correct values. It also
normally suppresses output of obsolete termcap capabilities such
as bbss. This option forces a more literal translation that also
preserves the obsolete capabilities.
--oo_d_i_r Write compiled entries to given database location. Overrides the
TERMINFO environment variable.
--QQ_n Rather than show source in terminfo (text) format, print the
compiled (binary) format in hexadecimal or base64 form, depending
on the option's value:
1 hexadecimal
2 base64
3 hexadecimal and base64
--qq Suppress comments and blank lines when showing translated source.
--RR_s_u_b_s_e_t
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 tteerrmmiinnffoo(5) for details.
--rr 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.
--ss Summarize the compile by showing the database location into which
entries are written, and the number of entries which are compiled.
--TT 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).
--tt tells ttiicc to discard commented-out capabilities. Normally when
translating from terminfo to termcap, untranslatable capabilities
are commented-out.
--UU tells ttiicc 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.
--VV reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
exits.
--vv_n specifies that (verbose) output be written to standard error trace
information showing ttiicc's progress.
The optional parameter _n is a number from 1 to 9, inclusive,
indicating the desired level of detail of information.
• If ncurses is built without tracing support, the optional
parameter is ignored.
• If _n is omitted, the default level is 1.
• If _n is specified and greater than 1, the level of detail is
increased, and the output is written (with tracing information)
to the “trace” file.
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
4 Details of extended capabilities
5 (unused)
6 (unused)
7 Entries into the string-table
8 List of tokens encountered by scanner
9 All values computed in construction of the hash table
--WW By itself, the --ww option will not force long strings to be wrapped.
Use the --WW option to do this.
If you specify both --ff and --WW options, the latter is ignored when --ff
has already split the line.
--ww_n specifies the width of the output. The parameter is optional. If
it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
--xx Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined (see uusseerr__ccaappss((55))). That
is, if you supply a capability name which ttiicc 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.
PPAARRAAMMEETTEERRSS #
_f_i_l_e contains one or more tteerrmmiinnffoo terminal descriptions in source
format [see tteerrmmiinnffoo(5)]. Each description in the file describes
the capabilities of a particular terminal.
If _f_i_l_e is “-”, then the data is read from the standard input.
The _f_i_l_e parameter may also be the path of a character-device.
PPRROOCCEESSSSIINNGG #
All but one of the capabilities recognized by ttiicc are documented in
tteerrmmiinnffoo(5). The exception is the uussee capability.
When a uussee=_e_n_t_r_y-_n_a_m_e field is discovered in a terminal entry currently
being compiled, ttiicc reads in the binary from //uussrr//sshhaarree//tteerrmmiinnffoo to
complete the entry. (Entries created from _f_i_l_e will be used first. ttiicc
duplicates the capabilities in _e_n_t_r_y-_n_a_m_e for the current entry, with the
exception of those capabilities that explicitly are defined in the
current entry.
When an entry, e.g., eennttrryy__nnaammee__11, contains a uussee==_e_n_t_r_y__n_a_m_e__2 field, any
canceled capabilities in _e_n_t_r_y__n_a_m_e__2 must also appear in eennttrryy__nnaammee__11
before uussee== for these capabilities to be canceled in eennttrryy__nnaammee__11.
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.
HHIISSTTOORRYY #
System V Release 2 provided a ttiicc utility. It accepted a single option:
--vv (optionally followed by a number). According to Ross Ridge's comment
in _m_y_t_i_n_f_o, this version of ttiicc was unable to represent cancelled
capabilities.
System V Release 3 provided a different ttiicc utility, written by Pavel
Curtis, (originally named “compile” in _p_c_u_r_s_e_s). This added an option --cc
to check the file for errors, with the caveat that errors in “use=” links
would not be reported. System V Release 3 documented a few warning
messages which did not appear in _p_c_u_r_s_e_s. While the program itself was
changed little as development continued with System V Release 4, the
table of capabilities grew from 180 (_p_c_u_r_s_e_s) to 464 (Solaris).
In early development of ncurses (1993), Zeyd Ben-Halim used the table
from _m_y_t_i_n_f_o to extend the _p_c_u_r_s_e_s table to 469 capabilities (456 matched
SVr4, 8 were only in SVr4, 13 were not in SVr4). Of those 13, 11 were
ultimately discarded (perhaps to match the draft of X/Open Curses). The
exceptions were mmeemmoorryy__lloocckk__aabboovvee and mmeemmoorryy__uunnlloocckk (see uusseerr__ccaappss(5)).
Eric Raymond incorporated parts of _m_y_t_i_n_f_o into ncurses to implement the
termcap-to-terminfo source conversion, and extended that to begin
development of the corresponding terminfo-to-termcap source conversion,
Thomas Dickey completed that development over the course of several
years.
In 1999, Thomas Dickey added the --xx option to support user-defined
capabilities.
In 2010, Roy Marples provided a ttiicc program and terminfo library for
NetBSD. That implementation adapts several features from ncurses,
including ttiicc's --xx option.
The --cc option tells ttiicc to check for problems in the terminfo source
file. Continued development provides additional checks:
• _p_c_u_r_s_e_s had 8 warnings
• ncurses in 1996 had 16 warnings
• Solaris (SVr4) curses has 28 warnings
• NetBSD tic in 2019 has 19 warnings.
• ncurses in 2019 has 96 warnings
The checking done in ncurses' ttiicc helps with the conversion to termcap,
as well as pointing out errors and inconsistencies. It is also used to
ensure consistency with the user-defined capabilities. There are 527
distinct capabilities in ncurses' terminal database; 128 of those are
user-defined.
PPOORRTTAABBIILLIITTYY #
X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) provides a brief description of ttiicc. It
lists one option: --cc. The omission of --vv is unexpected. The change
history states that the description is derived from True64 UNIX.
According to its manual pages, that system also supported the --vv option.
Shortly after Issue 7 was released, Tru64 was discontinued. As of 2019,
the surviving implementations of ttiicc are SVr4 (AIX, HP-UX and Solaris),
ncurses and NetBSD curses. The SVr4 ttiicc programs all support the --vv
option. The NetBSD ttiicc program follows X/Open's documentation, omitting
the --vv option.
The X/Open rationale states that some implementations of ttiicc read
terminal descriptions from the standard input if the _f_i_l_e parameter is
omitted. None of these implementations do that. Further, it comments
that some may choose to read from ”./terminfo.src” but that is
obsolescent behavior from SVr2, and is not (for example) a documented
feature of SVr3.
CCOOMMPPAATTIIBBIILLIITTYY #
There is some evidence that historic ttiicc implementations treated
description fields with no whitespace in them as additional aliases or
short names. This ttiicc does not do that, but it does warn when
description fields may be treated that way and check them for dangerous
characters.
EEXXTTEENNSSIIOONNSS #
Unlike the SVr4 ttiicc 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 tteerrmmiinnffoo(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 uussee
capabilities. This implementation of ttiicc will find uussee targets anywhere
in the source file, or anywhere in the file tree rooted at TTEERRMMIINNFFOO (if
TTEERRMMIINNFFOO is defined), or in the user's _$_H_O_M_E_/_._t_e_r_m_i_n_f_o database (if it
exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file tree of compiled
entries.
The error messages from this ttiicc have the same format as GNU C error
messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's compile facility.
Aside from --cc and --vv, options are not portable:
• Most of tic's options are not supported by SVr4 ttiicc:
--00 --11 --CC --GG --II --NN --RR --TT --VV --aa --ee --ff --gg --oo --rr --ss --tt --xx
• The NetBSD ttiicc supports a few of the ncurses options
--aa --oo --xx
and adds --SS (a feature which does the same thing as infocmp's --ee and
--EE options).
The SVr4 --cc mode does not report bad “use=” links.
System V does not compile entries to or read entries from your
_$_H_O_M_E_/_._t_e_r_m_i_n_f_o database unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.
FFIILLEESS #
//uussrr//sshhaarree//tteerrmmiinnffoo//??//**
Compiled terminal description database.
SSEEEE AALLSSOO #
ccaappttooiinnffoo(1), iinnffooccmmpp(1), iinnffoottooccaapp(1), ttooee(1), ccuurrsseess(3), tteerrmm(5).
tteerrmmiinnffoo(5). uusseerr__ccaappss(5).
This describes nnccuurrsseess version 6.4 (patch 20230826).
AAUUTTHHOORR #
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
ncurses 6.4 2023-08-19 tic(1)