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tic(1M)

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NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

       tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

       tic [-1CINRTVacfrsx] [-e names] [-o dir] [-v[n]] [-w[n]] file

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

       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(3X).

       The  results  are  normally  placed  in	the  system terminfo directory
       /usr/share/terminfo.  There are two ways to change this behavior.

       First, you may override the system default by setting the variable TER-
       MINFO in your shell environment to a valid (existing) directory name.

       Secondly,  if tic cannot get access to /usr/share/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 /usr/share/terminfo.

       -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.

       -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.

       -vn    specifies  that  (verbose)  output  be written to standard error
	      trace information showing tic's progress.  The optional  integer
	      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.

       -odir  Write compiled entries to given directory.  Overrides  the  TERMINFO
 environment variable.

       -wn    specifies the width of the output.

       -1     restricts the output to a single column

       -C     Force  source translation to termcap format.  Note: this differs
	      from the -C option of infocmp(1M) 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.

       -G     Display constant literals in  decimal  form  rather  than  their
	      character 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,   car-
	      riage_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.

       -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 don't 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.

       -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).


       -V     reports  the  version of ncurses which was used in this program,
	      and exits.

       -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 up to version 1.3 or BSD termcap up
	      to 4.3BSD) that doesn't  handle  multiple  tc  capabilities  per
	      entry.

       -e     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 character literals in quoted form  rather  than
	      their decimal equivalents.

       -s     Summarize  the  compile  by  showing  the  directory  into which
	      entries are written, and the number of entries  which  are  compiled.


       -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.

       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 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  /usr/share/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  /usr/share/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 /usr/share/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    [Toc]    [Back]

       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    [Toc]    [Back]

       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  TER-
       MINFO (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  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    [Toc]    [Back]

       /usr/share/terminfo/?/*
	    Compiled terminal description database.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

      
      
       infocmp(1M),  captoinfo(1M),  infotocap(1M),  toe(1M), curses(3X), ter-
       minfo(5).



								       tic(1M)
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