infocmp(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual infocmp(1)
infocmp - compare or print out terminfo descriptions
infocmp [-1CEFGILTVcdegilnpqrtux]
[-v n] [-s d| i| l| c] [-R subset]
[-w width] [-A directory] [-B directory]
[termname...]
infocmp can be used to compare a binary terminfo entry with
other terminfo entries, rewrite a terminfo description to
take advantage of the use= terminfo field, or print out a
terminfo description from the binary file (term) in a
variety of formats. In all cases, the boolean fields will
be printed first, followed by the numeric fields, followed
by the string fields.
Default Options
If no options are specified and zero or one termnames are
specified, the -I option will be assumed. If more than one
termname is specified, the -d option will be assumed.
Comparison Options [-d] [-c] [-n]
infocmp compares the terminfo description of the first ter-
minal termname with each of the descriptions given by the
entries for the other terminal's termnames. If a capability
is defined for only one of the terminals, the value returned
will depend on the type of the capability: F for boolean
variables, -1 for integer variables, and NULL for string
variables.
The -d option produces a list of each capability that is
different between two entries. This option is useful to
show the difference between two entries, created by dif-
ferent people, for the same or similar terminals.
The -c option produces a list of each capability that is
common between two entries. Capabilities that are not set
are ignored. This option can be used as a quick check to
see if the -u option is worth using.
The -n option produces a list of each capability that is in
neither entry. If no termnames are given, the environment
variable TERM will be used for both of the termnames. This
can be used as a quick check to see if anything was left out
of a description.
Source Listing Options [-I] [-L] [-C]
The -I, -L, and -C options will produce a source listing for
each terminal named.
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-I use the terminfo names
-L use the long C variable name listed in <term.h>
-C use the termcap names
-r when using -C, put out all capabilities in termcap form
If no termnames are given, the environment variable TERM
will be used for the terminal name.
The source produced by the -C option may be used directly as
a termcap entry, but not all parameterized strings can be
changed to the termcap format. infocmp will attempt to con-
vert most of the parameterized information, and anything not
converted will be plainly marked in the output and commented
out. These should be edited by hand.
All padding information for strings will be collected
together and placed at the beginning of the string where
termcap expects it. Mandatory padding (padding information
with a trailing '/') will become optional.
All termcap variables no longer supported by terminfo, but
which are derivable from other terminfo variables, will be
output. Not all terminfo capabilities will be translated;
only those variables which were part of termcap will nor-
mally be output. Specifying the -r option will take off
this restriction, allowing all capabilities to be output in
termcap form.
Note that because padding is collected to the beginning of
the capability, not all capabilities are output. Mandatory
padding is not supported. Because termcap strings are not
as flexible, it is not always possible to convert a terminfo
string capability into an equivalent termcap format. A sub-
sequent conversion of the termcap file back into terminfo
format will not necessarily reproduce the original terminfo
source.
Some common terminfo parameter sequences, their termcap
equivalents, and some terminal types which commonly have
such sequences, are:
terminfo termcap Representative Terminals
______________________________________________________________
%p1%c %. adm
%p1%d %d hp, ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%'x'%+%c %+x concept
%i %iq ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%; %>xy concept
%p2 is printed before %p1 %r hp
Use= Option [-u]
The -u option produces a terminfo source description of the
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first terminal termname which is relative to the sum of the
descriptions given by the entries for the other terminals
termnames. It does this by analyzing the differences
between the first termname and the other termnames and pro-
ducing a description with use= fields for the other termi-
nals. In this manner, it is possible to retrofit generic
terminfo entries into a terminal's description. Or, if two
similar terminals exist, but were coded at different times
or by different people so that each description is a full
description, using infocmp will show what can be done to
change one description to be relative to the other.
A capability will get printed with an at-sign (@) if it no
longer exists in the first termname, but one of the other
termname entries contains a value for it. A capability's
value gets printed if the value in the first termname is not
found in any of the other termname entries, or if the first
of the other termname entries that has this capability gives
a different value for the capability than that in the first
termname.
The order of the other termname entries is significant.
Since the terminfo compiler tic does a left-to-right scan of
the capabilities, specifying two use= entries that contain
differing entries for the same capabilities will produce
different results depending on the order that the entries
are given in. infocmp will flag any such inconsistencies
between the other termname entries as they are found.
Alternatively, specifying a capability after a use= entry
that contains that capability will cause the second specifi-
cation to be ignored. Using infocmp to recreate a descrip-
tion can be a useful check to make sure that everything was
specified correctly in the original source description.
Another error that does not cause incorrect compiled files,
but will slow down the compilation time, is specifying extra
use= fields that are superfluous. infocmp will flag any
other termname use= fields that were not needed.
Changing Databases [-A directory] [-B directory]
The location of the compiled terminfo database is taken from
the environment variable TERMINFO . If the variable is not
defined, or the terminal is not found in that location, the
system terminfo database, in /usr/share/terminfo, will be
used. The options -A and -B may be used to override this
location. The -A option will set TERMINFO for the first
termname and the -B option will set TERMINFO for the other
termnames. With this, it is possible to compare descrip-
tions for a terminal with the same name located in two dif-
ferent databases. This is useful for comparing descriptions
for the same terminal created by different people.
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Other Options
-1 causes the fields to be printed out one to a line.
Otherwise, the fields will be printed several to a line
to a maximum width of 60 characters.
-a tells infocmp to retain commented-out capabilities
rather than discarding them. Capabilities are com-
mented by prefixing them with a period.
-E Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as tables,
needed in the C initializer for a TERMTYPE structure
(the terminal capability structure in the <term.h>).
This option is useful for preparing versions of the
curses library hardwired for a given terminal type. The
tables are all declared static, and are named according
to the type and the name of the corresponding terminal
entry.
Before ncurses 5.0, the split between the -e and -E
options was not needed; but support for extended names
required making the arrays of terminal capabilities
separate from the TERMTYPE structure.
-e Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as a C ini-
tializer for a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal capa-
bility structure in the <term.h>). This option is use-
ful for preparing versions of the curses library
hardwired for a given terminal type.
-F compare terminfo files. This assumes that two follow-
ing arguments are filenames. The files are searched
for pairwise matches between entries, with two entries
considered to match if any of their names do. The
report printed to standard output lists entries with no
matches in the other file, and entries with more than
one match. For entries with exactly one match it
includes a difference report. Normally, to reduce the
volume of the report, use references are not resolved
before looking for differences, but resolution can be
forced by also specifying -r.
-f Display complex terminfo strings which contain
if/then/else/endif expressions indented for readabil-
ity.
-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.
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-i Analyze the initialization (is1, is2, is3), and reset
(rs1, rs2, rs3), strings in the entry. For each
string, the code tries to analyze it into actions in
terms of the other capabilities in the entry, certain
X3.64/ISO 6429/ECMA-48 capabilities, and certain DEC
VT-series private modes (the set of recognized special
sequences has been selected for completeness over the
existing terminfo database). Each report line consists
of the capability name, followed by a colon and space,
followed by a printable expansion of the capability
string with sections matching recognized actions
translated into {}-bracketed descriptions. Here is a
list of the DEC/ANSI special sequences recognized:
Action Meaning
________________________________________
RIS full reset
SC save cursor
RC restore cursor
LL home-down
RSR reset scroll region
DECSTR soft reset (VT320)
S7C1T 7-bit controls (VT220)
ISO DEC G0 enable DEC graphics for G0
ISO UK G0 enable UK chars for G0
ISO US G0 enable US chars for G0
ISO DEC G1 enable DEC graphics for G1
ISO UK G1 enable UK chars for G1
ISO US G1 enable US chars for G1
DECPAM application keypad mode
DECPNM normal keypad mode
DECANSI enter ANSI mode
ECMA[+-]AM keyboard action mode
ECMA[+-]IRM insert replace mode
ECMA[+-]SRM send receive mode
ECMA[+-]LNM linefeed mode
DEC[+-]CKM application cursor keys
DEC[+-]ANM set VT52 mode
DEC[+-]COLM 132-column mode
DEC[+-]SCLM smooth scroll
DEC[+-]SCNM reverse video mode
DEC[+-]OM origin mode
DEC[+-]AWM wraparound mode
DEC[+-]ARM auto-repeat mode
It also recognizes a SGR action corresponding to
ANSI/ISO 6429/ECMA Set Graphics Rendition, with the
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values NORMAL, BOLD, UNDERLINE, BLINK, and REVERSE.
All but NORMAL may be prefixed with `+' (turn on) or `-
' (turn off).
An SGR0 designates an empty highlight sequence
(equivalent to {SGR:NORMAL}).
-l Set output format to terminfo.
-p Ignore padding specifications when comparing strings.
-q Make the comparison listing shorter by omitting sub-
headings, and using "-" for absent capabilities, "@"
for canceled rather than "NULL".
-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 variants such as AIX
that have their own extensions incompatible with
SVr4/XSI. Available terminfo subsets are "SVr1",
"Ultrix", "HP", and "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for details.
You can also choose the subset "BSD" which selects only
capabilities with termcap equivalents recognized by
4.4BSD.
-s [d|i|l|c]
The -s option sorts the fields within each type accord-
ing to the argument below:
d leave fields in the order that they are stored in
the terminfo database.
i sort by terminfo name.
l sort by the long C variable name.
c sort by the termcap name.
If the -s option is not given, the fields printed out
will be sorted alphabetically by the terminfo name
within each type, except in the case of the -C or the
-L options, which cause the sorting to be done by the
termcap name or the long C variable name, respectively.
-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.
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Normally when translating from terminfo to termcap,
untranslatable capabilities are commented-out.
-V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this
program, and exits.
-v n prints out tracing information on standard error as the
program runs. Higher values of n induce greater verbos-
ity.
-w width
changes the output to width characters.
-x print information for user-defined capabilities. These
are extensions to the terminfo repertoire which can be
loaded using the -x option of tic.
/usr/share/terminfo Compiled terminal description database.
The -E, -F, -G, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -i, -l, -p, -q
and -t options are not supported in SVr4 curses.
The -r option's notion of `termcap' capabilities is System V
Release 4's. Actual BSD curses versions will have a more
restricted set. To see only the 4.4BSD set, use -r -RBSD.
The -F option of infocmp(1) should be a toe(1) mode.
infocmp(1), captoinfo(1), infotocap(1), tic(1), toe(1),
curses(3), terminfo(5).
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
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