{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "term",
    "section": "5",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/term/5/json",
    "generated": "2026-10-08T09:12:00Z",
    "synopsis": "",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "term - compiled terminfo terminal description\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "term",
                    "content": ""
                }
            ]
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "Storage Location",
                    "content": "Compiled  terminfo descriptions are placed under the directory /etc/terminfo.  Two configura‐\ntions are supported (when building the ncurses libraries):\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "directory tree",
                    "content": "A two-level scheme is used to avoid a linear search of a  huge  Unix  system  directory:\n/etc/terminfo/c/name  where name is the name of the terminal, and c is the first charac‐\nter of name.  Thus, act4 can be found in the file  /etc/terminfo/a/act4.   Synonyms  for\nthe same terminal are implemented by multiple links to the same compiled file.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "hashed database",
                    "content": "Using  Berkeley database, two types of records are stored: the terminfo data in the same\nformat as stored in a directory tree with the terminfo's primary  name  as  a  key,  and\nrecords containing only aliases pointing to the primary name.\n\nIf  built to write hashed databases, ncurses can still read terminfo databases organized\nas a directory tree, but cannot write entries into the directory tree.  It can write (or\nrewrite) entries in the hashed database.\n\nncurses distinguishes the two cases in the TERMINFO and TERMINFODIRS environment  vari‐\nable  by assuming a directory tree for entries that correspond to an existing directory,\nand hashed database otherwise.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Legacy Storage Format",
                    "content": "The format has been chosen so that it will be the same on all hardware.  An  8  or  more  bit\nbyte is assumed, but no assumptions about byte ordering or sign extension are made.\n\nThe   compiled   file   is   created   with   the  tic  program,  and  read  by  the  routine\nsetupterm(3NCURSES).  The file is divided into six parts:\n\na) header,\n\nb) terminal names,\n\nc) Boolean flags,\n\nd) numbers,\n\ne) strings, and\n\nf) string table.\n\nThe header section begins the file.  This section contains six short integers in  the  format\ndescribed below.  These integers are\n\n(1) the magic number (octal 0432);\n\n(2) the size, in bytes, of the terminal names section;\n\n(3) the number of bytes in the Boolean flags section;\n\n(4) the number of short integers in the numbers section;\n\n(5) the number of offsets (short integers) in the strings section;\n\n(6) the size, in bytes, of the string table.\n\nThe capabilities in the Boolean flags, numbers, and strings sections are in the same order as\nthe file <term.h>.\n\nShort integers are signed, in the range -32768 to 32767.  They are stored as two 8-bit bytes.\nThe  first  byte contains the least significant 8 bits of the value, and the second byte con‐\ntains the most significant 8 bits.  (Thus, the value represented is 256*second+first.)   This\nformat  corresponds  to the hardware of the VAX and PDP-11 (that is, little-endian machines).\nMachines where this does not correspond to the hardware must read the integers as  two  bytes\nand compute the little-endian value.\n\nNumbers  in a terminal description, whether they are entries in the numbers or strings table,\nare positive integers.  Boolean flags are treated as positive  one-byte  integers.   In  each\ncase,  those  positive  integers  represent a terminal capability.  The terminal compiler tic\nuses negative integers to handle the cases where a capability is not available:\n\n•   If a capability is absent from this terminal, tic stores a -1 in the corresponding table.\n\nThe integer value -1 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0377.\nAbsent Boolean values are represented by the byte 0 (false).\n\n•   If a capability has been canceled from this terminal, tic stores a -2 in the  correspond‐\ning table.\n\nThe integer value -2 is represented by two bytes 0377, 0376.\nThe Boolean value -2 is represented by the byte 0376.\n\n•   Other negative values are illegal.\n\nThe  terminal  names  section comes after the header.  It contains the first line of the ter‐\nminfo description, listing the various names for the terminal, separated by the  “|”  charac‐\nter.  The terminal names section is terminated with an ASCII NUL character.\n\nThe Boolean flags section has one byte for each flag.  Boolean capabilities are either 1 or 0\n(true or false) according to whether the terminal supports the given capability or not.\n\nBetween  the  Boolean  flags section and the number section, a null byte will be inserted, if\nnecessary, to ensure that the number section begins on an even byte This is a  relic  of  the\nPDP-11's  word-addressed architecture, originally designed to avoid traps induced by address‐\ning a word on an odd byte boundary.  All short integers are aligned on a short word boundary.\n\nThe numbers section is similar to the Boolean flags section.  Each capability  takes  up  two\nbytes, and is stored as a little-endian short integer.\n\nThe  strings section is also similar.  Each capability is stored as a short integer.  The ca‐\npability value is an index into the string table.\n\nThe string table is the last section.  It contains all of the values of  string  capabilities\nreferenced in the strings section.  Each string is null-terminated.  Special characters in ^X\nor  \\c  notation  are  stored  in  their  interpreted  form, not the printing representation.\nPadding information $<nn> and parameter information %x are  stored  intact  in  uninterpreted\nform.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Extended Storage Format",
                    "content": "The  previous  section  describes  the  conventional terminfo binary format.  With some minor\nvariations of the offsets (see PORTABILITY), the same binary format is  used  in  all  modern\nUnix systems.  Each system uses a predefined set of Boolean, number or string capabilities.\n\nThe  ncurses  libraries  and  applications  support extended terminfo binary format, allowing\nusers to define capabilities which are loaded at runtime.  This extension is made possible by\nusing the fact that the other implementations stop reading the terminfo data when  they  have\nreached  the end of the size given in the header.  ncurses checks the size, and if it exceeds\nthat due to the predefined data, continues to parse according to its own scheme.\n\nFirst, it reads the extended header (5 short integers):\n\n(1)  count of extended Boolean capabilities\n\n(2)  count of extended numeric capabilities\n\n(3)  count of extended string capabilities\n\n(4)  count of the items in extended string table\n\n(5)  size of the extended string table in bytes\n\nThe count- and size-values for the extended string  table  include  the  extended  capability\nnames as well as extended capability values.\n\nUsing the counts and sizes, ncurses allocates arrays and reads data for the extended capabil‐\nities in the same order as the header information.\n\nThe  extended  string  table contains values for string capabilities.  After the end of these\nvalues, it contains the names for each of the extended capabilities in order, e.g., Booleans,\nthen numbers and finally strings.\n\nBy storing terminal descriptions in this way, ncurses is able to provide  a  database  useful\nwith legacy applications, as well as providing data for applications which need more than the\npredefined  capabilities.   See usercaps(5) for an overview of the way ncurses uses this ex‐\ntended information.\n\nApplications  which  manipulate  terminal  data  can  use  the   definitions   described   in\nterminfovariables(3NCURSES)  which  associate  the  long  capability names with members of a\nTERMTYPE structure.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Extended Number Format",
                    "content": "On occasion, 16-bit signed integers are not large enough.  With ncurses 6.1, a new format was\nintroduced by making a few changes to the legacy format:\n\n•   a different magic number (octal 01036)\n\n•   changing the type for the number array from signed 16-bit integers to signed 32-bit inte‐\ngers.\n\nTo maintain compatibility, the library presents the same data structures to direct  users  of\nthe TERMTYPE structure as in previous formats.  However, that cannot provide callers with the\nextended  numbers.  The library uses a similar but hidden data structure TERMTYPE2 to provide\ndata for the terminfo functions.\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "FILES": {
            "content": "/etc/terminfo\ncompiled terminal description database\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "PORTABILITY": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "setupterm",
                    "content": "Note that it is possible for setupterm to expect a different set of capabilities than are ac‐\ntually present in the file.  Either the database may have been updated  since  setupterm  was\nrecompiled (resulting in extra unrecognized entries in the file) or the program may have been\nrecompiled  more  recently than the database was updated (resulting in missing entries).  The\nroutine setupterm must be prepared for both possibilities - this is why the numbers and sizes\nare included.  Also, new capabilities must always be  added  at  the  end  of  the  lists  of\nBoolean, number, and string capabilities.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Binary Format",
                    "content": "X/Open  Curses  does  not specify a format for the terminfo database.  System V curses used a\ndirectory-tree of binary files, one per terminal description.\n\nDespite the consistent use of little-endian for numbers  and  the  otherwise  self-describing\nformat,  it is not wise to count on portability of binary terminfo entries between commercial\nUnix versions.  The problem is that there are at least  three  versions  of  terminfo  (under\nHP-UX,  AIX,  and OSF/1) which diverged from System V terminfo after SVr1, and have added ex‐\ntension capabilities to the string table that (in the binary format) collide  with  System  V\nand  XSI  Curses extensions.  See terminfo(5) for detailed discussion of terminfo source com‐\npatibility issues.\n\nThis implementation is by default compatible with the binary terminfo format used by  Solaris\ncurses,  except  in  a few less-used details where it was found that the latter did not match\nX/Open Curses.  The format used by the other Unix versions can be matched by building ncurses\nwith different configuration options.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Magic Codes",
                    "content": "The magic number in a binary terminfo file is the first 16-bits (two bytes).  Besides  making\nit  more reliable for the library to check that a file is terminfo, utilities such as file(1)\nalso use that to tell what the file-format is.  System V defined more than one magic  number,\nwith  0433, 0435 as screen-dumps (see scrdump(5)).  This implementation uses 01036 as a con‐\ntinuation of that sequence, but with a different high-order byte to avoid confusion.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "The _TERMTYPE_ Structure",
                    "content": "Direct access to the TERMTYPE structure is provided for legacy applications.  Portable appli‐\ncations should use the tigetflag and related functions described  in  terminfo(3NCURSES)  for\nreading terminal capabilities.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Mixed-case Terminal Names",
                    "content": "A  small number of terminal descriptions use uppercase characters in their names.  If the un‐\nderlying filesystem ignores the difference between uppercase and  lowercase,  ncurses  repre‐\nsents  the  “first character” of the terminal name used as the intermediate level of a direc‐\ntory tree in (two-character) hexadecimal form.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Limits",
                    "content": "ncurses stores compiled terminal descriptions in three related formats, described in the sec‐\ntions\n\n•   LEGACY STORAGE FORMAT, and\n\n•   EXTENDED STORAGE FORMAT, and\n\n•   EXTENDED NUMBER FORMAT.\n\nThe legacy storage format and the extended number format differ by the types of numeric capa‐\nbility which they can store (i.e., 16-bit versus 32-bit integers).  The extended storage for‐\nmat introduced by ncurses 5.0 adds data to either of these formats.\n\nSome limitations apply:\n\n•   total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy format.\n\n•   total compiled entries cannot exceed 32768 bytes in the extended format.\n\n•   the name field cannot exceed 128 bytes.\n\nCompiled entries are limited to 32768 bytes because offsets into the strings table  use  two-\nbyte integers.  The legacy format could have supported 32768-byte entries, but was limited to\na virtual memory page's 4096 bytes.\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "EXAMPLES": {
            "content": "As an example, here is a description for the Lear-Siegler ADM-3, a popular though rather stu‐\npid early terminal:\n\nadm3a|lsi adm3a,\nam,\ncols#80, lines#24,\nbel=^G, clear=\\032$<1>, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,\ncuf1=^L, cup=\\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,\nhome=^^, ind=^J,\n\nand a hexadecimal dump of the compiled terminal description:\n\n0000  1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00  82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33  ........ ..1.adm3\n0010  61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64  6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00  a|lsi ad m3a...P.\n0020  ff ff 18 00 ff ff 00 00  02 00 ff ff ff ff 04 00  ........ ........\n0030  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  0a 00 25 00 27 00 ff ff  ........ ..%.'...\n0040  29 00 ff ff ff ff 2b 00  ff ff 2d 00 ff ff ff ff  ).....+. ..-.....\n0050  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n0060  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n0070  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n0080  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n0090  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n00a0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n00b0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n00c0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n00d0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n00e0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n00f0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n0100  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n0110  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........\n0120  ff ff ff ff ff ff 2f 00  07 00 0d 00 1a 24 3c 31  ....../. .....$<1\n0130  3e 00 1b 3d 25 70 31 25  7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63  >..=%p1% {32}%+%c\n0140  25 70 32 25 7b 33 32 7d  25 2b 25 63 00 0a 00 1e  %p2%{32} %+%c....\n0150  00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a  00                       ........ .\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "AUTHORS": {
            "content": "Thomas E. Dickey\nextended terminfo format for ncurses 5.0\nhashed database support for ncurses 5.6\nextended number support for ncurses 6.1\n\nEric S. Raymond\ndocumented legacy terminfo format, e.g., from pcurses.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "ncurses(3NCURSES), terminfo(3NCURSES), terminfo(5), usercaps(5)\n\nncurses 6.4                                  2024-01-13                                      term(5)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "term - compiled terminfo terminal description",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [
        "As an example, here is a description for the Lear-Siegler ADM-3, a popular though rather stu‐",
        "pid early terminal:",
        "adm3a|lsi adm3a,",
        "am,",
        "cols#80, lines#24,",
        "bel=^G, clear=\\032$<1>, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,",
        "cuf1=^L, cup=\\E=%p1%{32}%+%c%p2%{32}%+%c, cuu1=^K,",
        "home=^^, ind=^J,",
        "and a hexadecimal dump of the compiled terminal description:",
        "0000  1a 01 10 00 02 00 03 00  82 00 31 00 61 64 6d 33  ........ ..1.adm3",
        "0010  61 7c 6c 73 69 20 61 64  6d 33 61 00 00 01 50 00  a|lsi ad m3a...P.",
        "0020  ff ff 18 00 ff ff 00 00  02 00 ff ff ff ff 04 00  ........ ........",
        "0030  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  0a 00 25 00 27 00 ff ff  ........ ..%.'...",
        "0040  29 00 ff ff ff ff 2b 00  ff ff 2d 00 ff ff ff ff  ).....+. ..-.....",
        "0050  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "0060  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "0070  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "0080  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "0090  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "00a0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "00b0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "00c0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "00d0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "00e0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "00f0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "0100  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "0110  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ........ ........",
        "0120  ff ff ff ff ff ff 2f 00  07 00 0d 00 1a 24 3c 31  ....../. .....$<1",
        "0130  3e 00 1b 3d 25 70 31 25  7b 33 32 7d 25 2b 25 63  >..=%p1% {32}%+%c",
        "0140  25 70 32 25 7b 33 32 7d  25 2b 25 63 00 0a 00 1e  %p2%{32} %+%c....",
        "0150  00 08 00 0c 00 0b 00 0a  00                       ........ ."
    ],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "ncurses",
            "section": "3NCURSES",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ncurses/3NCURSES/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "terminfo",
            "section": "3NCURSES",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/terminfo/3NCURSES/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "terminfo",
            "section": "5",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/terminfo/5/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "usercaps",
            "section": "5",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/usercaps/5/json"
        }
    ]
}