1tic(1M)                                                                tic(1M)
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NAME

6       tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler
7

SYNOPSIS

9       tic  [-1CGILNTUVacfgrstx]  [-e  names]  [-o  dir]  [-R  subset] [-v[n]]
10       [-w[n]] file
11

DESCRIPTION

13       The command tic translates a terminfo file from source format into com‐
14       piled  format.   The  compiled  format  is  necessary  for use with the
15       library routines in ncurses(3X).
16
17       The results are  normally  placed  in  the  system  terminfo  directory
18       /usr/share/terminfo.  There are two ways to change this behavior.
19
20       First, you may override the system default by setting the variable TER‐
21       MINFO in your shell environment to a valid (existing) directory name.
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23       Secondly, if tic cannot get access to /usr/share/terminfo or your  TER‐
24       MINFO  directory,  it  looks for the directory $HOME/.terminfo; if that
25       directory exists, the entry is placed there.
26
27       Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check for  a  TER‐
28       MINFO  directory first, look at $HOME/.terminfo if TERMINFO is not set,
29       and finally look in /usr/share/terminfo.
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31       -1     restricts the output to a single column
32
33       -a     tells tic to retain commented-out capabilities rather than  dis‐
34              carding them.  Capabilities are commented by prefixing them with
35              a period.  This sets the -x option, because it treats  the  com‐
36              mented-out  entries  as  user-defined  names.   If the source is
37              termcap, accept the 2-character names  required  by  version  6.
38              Otherwise these are ignored.
39
40       -C     Force  source translation to termcap format.  Note: this differs
41              from the -C option of infocmp(1M) in that  it  does  not  merely
42              translate capability names, but also translates terminfo strings
43              to termcap format.  Capabilities that are not  translatable  are
44              left  in  the entry under their terminfo names but commented out
45              with two preceding dots.
46
47       -c     tells tic to only check file for errors, including syntax  prob‐
48              lems  and  bad  use  links.   If  you  specify -C (-I) with this
49              option, the code will print warnings about entries which,  after
50              use  resolution, are more than 1023 (4096) bytes long.  Due to a
51              fixed buffer length in older termcap libraries (and a documented
52              limit in terminfo), these entries may cause core dumps.
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54       -e names
55              Limit  writes  and translations to the following comma-separated
56              list of terminals.  If any name or alias of a  terminal  matches
57              one  of  the  names  in  the  list, the entry will be written or
58              translated as normal.  Otherwise no output will be generated for
59              it.   The  option  value is interpreted as a file containing the
60              list if it contains a '/'.  (Note: depending on how tic was com‐
61              piled, this option may require -I or -C.)
62
63       -f     Display     complex     terminfo     strings    which    contain
64              if/then/else/endif expressions indented for readability.
65
66       -G     Display constant literals in  decimal  form  rather  than  their
67              character equivalents.
68
69       -g     Display  constant  character literals in quoted form rather than
70              their decimal equivalents.
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72       -I     Force source translation to terminfo format.
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74       -L     Force source translation to terminfo format  using  the  long  C
75              variable names listed in <term.h>
76
77       -N     Disable smart defaults.  Normally, when translating from termcap
78              to terminfo, the compiler makes a number  of  assumptions  about
79              the   defaults   of   string  capabilities  reset1_string,  car‐
80              riage_return,  cursor_left,  cursor_down,  scroll_forward,  tab,
81              newline, key_backspace, key_left, and key_down, then attempts to
82              use obsolete termcap capabilities to deduce correct values.   It
83              also normally suppresses output of obsolete termcap capabilities
84              such as bs.  This option forces a more literal translation  that
85              also preserves the obsolete capabilities.
86
87       -odir  Write  compiled  entries to given directory.  Overrides the TER‐
88              MINFO environment variable.
89
90       -Rsubset
91              Restrict output to a given subset.  This option is for use  with
92              archaic  versions  of  terminfo  like  those on SVr1, Ultrix, or
93              HP/UX that do not support the full set of SVR4/XSI  Curses  ter‐
94              minfo;  and  outright  broken ports like AIX 3.x that have their
95              own extensions incompatible with  SVr4/XSI.   Available  subsets
96              are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", "BSD" and "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for
97              details.
98
99       -r     Force entry resolution (so there are no remaining  tc  capabili‐
100              ties)  even  when doing translation to termcap format.  This may
101              be needed if you are preparing a  termcap  file  for  a  termcap
102              library  (such as GNU termcap through version 1.3 or BSD termcap
103              through 4.3BSD) that does not handle  multiple  tc  capabilities
104              per entry.
105
106       -s     Summarize  the  compile  by  showing  the  directory  into which
107              entries are written, and the number of entries  which  are  com‐
108              piled.
109
110       -T     eliminates  size-restrictions  on  the  generated text.  This is
111              mainly useful for  testing  and  analysis,  since  the  compiled
112              descriptions  are limited (e.g., 1023 for termcap, 4096 for ter‐
113              minfo).
114
115       -t     tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities.  Normally  when
116              translating  from  terminfo to termcap, untranslatable capabili‐
117              ties are commented-out.
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119       -U   tells tic to not post-process the data after  parsing  the  source
120            file.  Normally, it infers data which is commonly missing in older
121            terminfo data, or in termcaps.
122
123       -V   reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
124            exits.
125
126       -vn  specifies that (verbose) output be written to standard error trace
127            information showing tic's progress.  The optional parameter n is a
128            number  from  1  to 10, inclusive, indicating the desired level of
129            detail of information.  If n is omitted, the default level  is  1.
130            If  n  is  specified  and  greater  than 1, the level of detail is
131            increased.
132
133       -wn  specifies the width of the output.  The parameter is optional.  If
134            it is omitted, it defaults to 60.
135
136       -x   Treat  unknown capabilities as user-defined.  That is, if you sup‐
137            ply a capability name which tic does not recognize, it will  infer
138            its  type  (boolean, number or string) from the syntax and make an
139            extended table entry for that.   User-defined  capability  strings
140            whose name begins with ``k'' are treated as function keys.
141
142       file contains one or more terminfo terminal descriptions in source for‐
143            mat [see terminfo(5)].  Each description in the file describes the
144            capabilities of a particular terminal.
145
146       The debug flag levels are as follows:
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148       1      Names of files created and linked
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150       2      Information related to the ``use'' facility
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152       3      Statistics from the hashing algorithm
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154       5      String-table memory allocations
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156       7      Entries into the string-table
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158       8      List of tokens encountered by scanner
159
160       9      All values computed in construction of the hash table
161
162       If the debug level n is not given, it is taken to be one.
163
164       All  but  one  of  the capabilities recognized by tic are documented in
165       terminfo(5).  The exception is the use capability.
166
167       When a use=entry-name field is discovered in a terminal entry currently
168       being  compiled,  tic  reads  in the binary from /usr/share/terminfo to
169       complete the entry.  (Entries created from file will be used first.  If
170       the  environment  variable  TERMINFO is set, that directory is searched
171       instead of /usr/share/terminfo.)  tic duplicates  the  capabilities  in
172       entry-name for the current entry, with the exception of those capabili‐
173       ties that explicitly are defined in the current entry.
174
175       When an entry, e.g., entry_name_1, contains a  use=entry_name_2  field,
176       any   canceled   capabilities  in  entry_name_2  must  also  appear  in
177       entry_name_1 before use= for  these  capabilities  to  be  canceled  in
178       entry_name_1.
179
180       If  the  environment variable TERMINFO is set, the compiled results are
181       placed there instead of /usr/share/terminfo.
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183       Total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes.  The name field cannot
184       exceed  512  bytes.   Terminal names exceeding the maximum alias length
185       (32 characters on systems with long filenames, 14 characters otherwise)
186       will  be  truncated  to  the maximum alias length and a warning message
187       will be printed.
188

COMPATIBILITY

190       There is  some  evidence  that  historic  tic  implementations  treated
191       description  fields with no whitespace in them as additional aliases or
192       short names.  This tic does not do that, but it does warn when descrip‐
193       tion  fields may be treated that way and check them for dangerous char‐
194       acters.
195

EXTENSIONS

197       Unlike the stock SVr4 tic command,  this  implementation  can  actually
198       compile termcap sources.  In fact, entries in terminfo and termcap syn‐
199       tax can be mixed in a single source file.  See terminfo(5) for the list
200       of termcap names taken to be equivalent to terminfo names.
201
202       The  SVr4  manual  pages  are not clear on the resolution rules for use
203       capabilities.  This implementation of tic will find  use  targets  any‐
204       where  in  the source file, or anywhere in the file tree rooted at TER‐
205       MINFO (if TERMINFO is defined), or in the user's $HOME/.terminfo direc‐
206       tory (if it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file tree of
207       compiled entries.
208
209       The error messages from this tic have the same format as  GNU  C  error
210       messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's compile facility.
211
212       The  -C,  -G, -I, -N, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -o, -r, -s, -t and -x
213       options are not supported under SVr4.  The SVr4 -c mode does not report
214       bad use links.
215
216       System  V  does  not  compile  entries  to  or  read  entries from your
217       $HOME/.terminfo directory unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.
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FILES

220       /usr/share/terminfo/?/*
221            Compiled terminal description database.
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SEE ALSO

224       infocmp(1M), captoinfo(1M), infotocap(1M),  toe(1M),  curses(3X),  ter‐
225       minfo(5).
226
227       This describes ncurses version 5.7 (patch 20100703).
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231                                                                       tic(1M)
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