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NAME

       tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler

SYNOPSIS

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

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
       /usr/share/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 /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.

       -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 /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

       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

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

SEE ALSO

       infocmp(1),  captoinfo(1),  infotocap(1),  toe(1),   ncurses(3NCURSES),
       terminfo(5).

       This describes ncurses version 5.7 (patch 20100626).

                                                                        tic(1)