# tic(1) - man - phpMan [tic(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/tic/1/markdown) General Commands Manual [tic(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/tic/1/markdown) ## NAME **tic** - the _terminfo_ entry-description compiler ## SYNOPSIS **tic** [**-01CDGIKLNTUVWacfgqrstx**] [**-e** _names_] [**-o** _dir_] [**-Q**[_n_]] [**-R** _subset_] [**-v**[_n_]] [**-w**[_n_]] _file_ ## DESCRIPTION The **tic** command translates a **terminfo** file from source format into compiled format. The com‐ piled format is necessary for use with the library routines in [**ncurses**(3NCURSES)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ncurses/3NCURSES/markdown). As described in [**term**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/term/5/markdown), the database may be either a directory tree (one file per terminal entry) or a hashed database (one record per entry). The **tic** command writes only one type of entry, depending on how it was built: • For directory trees, the top-level directory, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, specifies the location of the database. • For hashed databases, a filename is needed. If the given file is not found by that name, but can be found by adding the suffix ".db", then that is used. The default name for the hashed database is the same as the default directory name (only adding a ".db" suffix). In either case (directory or hashed database), **tic** will create the container if it does not exist. For a directory, this would be the “terminfo” leaf, versus a "terminfo.db" file. The results are normally placed in the system terminfo database **/etc/terminfo**. The compiled terminal description can be placed in a different terminfo database. There are two ways to achieve this: • First, you may override the system default either by using the **-o** option, or by setting the variable **TERMINFO** in your shell environment to a valid database location. • Secondly, if **tic** cannot write in _/etc/terminfo_ or the location specified using your TER‐ MINFO variable, it looks for the directory _$HOME/.terminfo_ (or hashed database _$HOME/.terminfo.db)_; if that location exists, the entry is placed there. Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check in succession • a location specified with the TERMINFO environment variable, • _$HOME/.terminfo_, • directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable, • a compiled-in list of directories (no default value), and • the system terminfo database (_/etc/terminfo_). **ALIASES** This is the same program as infotocap and captoinfo; usually those are linked to, or copied from this program: • When invoked as infotocap, tic sets the **-I** option. • When invoked as captoinfo, tic sets the **-C** option. **OPTIONS** ### -0 ### -1 ### -a ties 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 -C [**infocmp**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/infocmp/1/markdown) 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. The actual format used incorporates some improvements for escaped characters from ter‐ minfo format. For a stricter BSD-compatible translation, add the **-K** option. If this is combined with **-c**, **tic** makes additional checks to report cases where the terminfo values do not have an exact equivalent in termcap form. For example: • **sgr** usually will not convert, because termcap lacks the ability to work with more than two parameters, and because termcap lacks many of the arithmetic/logical op‐ erators used in terminfo. • capabilities with more than one delay or with delays before the end of the string will not convert completely. ### -c 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, as well as buggy checking for the buffer length (and a documented limit in terminfo), these entries may cause core dumps with other implementations. **tic** checks string capabilities to ensure that those with parameters will be valid ex‐ pressions. It does this check only for the predefined string capabilities; those which are defined with the **-x** option are ignored. ### -D location shown is the one to which it would write compiled terminal descriptions. If **tic** is not able to find a writable database location according to the rules summarized above, it will print a diagnostic and exit with an error rather than printing a list of database locations. ### -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 for readability. ### -G ### -g lents. ### -I ### -K ### -L <**term.h**> ### -N piler makes a number of assumptions about the defaults of string capabilities **re**‐‐ **set1**___**string**, **carriage**___**return**, **cursor**___**left**, **cursor**___**down**, **scroll**___**forward**, **tab**, **newline**, **key**___**backspace**, **key**___**left**, and **key**___**down**, then attempts to use obsolete termcap capabili‐ ties 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 pre‐ serves the obsolete capabilities. ### -o variable. ### -Q in hexadecimal or base64 form, depending on the option's value: 1 hexadecimal 2 base64 3 hexadecimal and base64 ### -q ### -R 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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/terminfo/5/markdown) for details. ### -r 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 and the number of entries which are compiled. ### -T and analysis, since the compiled descriptions are limited (e.g., 1023 for termcap, 4096 for terminfo). ### -t minfo to termcap, untranslatable capabilities are commented-out. ### -U fers data which is commonly missing in older terminfo data, or in termcaps. ### -V ### -v **tic**'s progress. The optional parameter _n_ is a number from 1 to 10, inclusive, indicating the desired level of detail of information. If ncurses is built without tracing support, the op‐ tional parameter is ignored. If _n_ is omitted, the default level is 1. If _n_ is speci‐ fied and greater than 1, the level of detail is increased. 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. ### -W -w -W to do this. If you specify both **-f** and **-W** options, the latter is ignored when **-f** has already split the line. ### -w faults to 60. ### -x 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 capa‐ bility strings whose name begins with “k” are treated as function keys. **PARAMETERS** _file_ contains one or more **terminfo** terminal descriptions in source format [see **ter**‐‐ [**minfo**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/minfo/5/markdown)]. Each description in the file describes the capabilities of a particular terminal. If _file_ is “-”, then the data is read from the standard input. The _file_ parameter may also be the path of a character-device. **PROCESSING** All but one of the capabilities recognized by **tic** are documented in [**terminfo**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/terminfo/5/markdown). The excep‐ tion 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 **/etc/terminfo** to complete the entry. (Entries created from _file_ will be used first. **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 capabili‐ ties in _entry___name___2_ must also appear in **entry**___**name**___**1** before **use=** for these capabilities to be canceled in **entry**___**name**___**1**. 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 file‐ names, 14 characters otherwise) will be truncated to the maximum alias length and a warning message will be printed. ## HISTORY System V Release 2 provided a **tic** utility. It accepted a single option: **-v** (optionally fol‐ lowed by a number). According to Ross Ridge's comment in _mytinfo_, this version of **tic** was unable to represent cancelled capabilities. System V Release 3 provided a different **tic** utility, written by Pavel Curtis, (originally named “compile” in _pcurses_). This added an option **-c** to check the file for errors, with the caveat that errors in “use=” links would not be reported. System V Release 3 documented a few warning messages which did not appear in _pcurses_. While the program itself was changed little as development continued with System V Release 4, the table of capabilities grew from 180 (_pcurses_) to 464 (Solaris). In early development of ncurses (1993), Zeyd Ben-Halim used the table from _mytinfo_ to extend the _pcurses_ table to 469 capabilities (456 matched SVr4, 8 were only in SVr4, 13 were not in SVr4). Of those 13, 11 were ultimately discarded (perhaps to match the draft of X/Open Curses). The exceptions were **memory**___**lock**___**above** and **memory**___**unlock** (see **user**___**[caps**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/caps/5/markdown)). Eric Raymond incorporated parts of _mytinfo_ into ncurses to implement the termcap-to-terminfo source conversion, and extended that to begin development of the corresponding terminfo-to- termcap source conversion, Thomas Dickey completed that development over the course of sev‐ eral years. In 1999, Thomas Dickey added the **-x** option to support user-defined capabilities. In 2010, Roy Marples provided a **tic** program and terminfo library for NetBSD. That implemen‐ tation adapts several features from ncurses, including **tic**'s **-x** option. The **-c** option tells **tic** to check for problems in the terminfo source file. Continued devel‐ opment provides additional checks: • _pcurses_ had 8 warnings • ncurses in 1996 had 16 warnings • Solaris (SVr4) curses has 28 warnings • NetBSD tic in 2019 has 19 warnings. • ncurses in 2019 has 96 warnings The checking done in ncurses' **tic** helps with the conversion to termcap, as well as pointing out errors and inconsistencies. It is also used to ensure consistency with the user-defined capabilities. There are 527 distinct capabilities in ncurses' terminal database; 128 of those are user-defined. ## PORTABILITY X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) provides a brief description of **tic**. It lists one option: **-c**. The omission of **-v** is unexpected. The change history states that the description is derived from True64 UNIX. According to its manual pages, that system also supported the **-v** option. Shortly after Issue 7 was released, Tru64 was discontinued. As of 2019, the surviving imple‐ mentations of **tic** are SVr4 (AIX, HP-UX and Solaris), ncurses and NetBSD curses. The SVr4 **tic** programs all support the **-v** option. The NetBSD **tic** program follows X/Open's documentation, omitting the **-v** option. The X/Open rationale states that some implementations of **tic** read terminal descriptions from the standard input if the _file_ parameter is omitted. None of these implementations do that. Further, it comments that some may choose to read from ”./terminfo.src” but that is obsoles‐ cent behavior from SVr2, and is not (for example) a documented feature of SVr3. **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 char‐ acters. **EXTENSIONS** Unlike the 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 **ter**‐‐ [**minfo**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/minfo/5/markdown) 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 im‐ plementation 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_ data‐ base (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. Aside from **-c** and **-v**, options are not portable: • Most of tic's options are not supported by SVr4 **tic**: **-0** **-1** **-C** **-G** **-I** **-N** **-R** **-T** **-V** **-a** **-e** **-f** **-g** **-o** **-r** **-s** **-t** **-x** • The NetBSD **tic** supports a few of the ncurses options **-a** **-o** **-x** and adds **-S** (a feature which does the same thing as infocmp's **-e** and **-E** options). The SVr4 **-c** mode does not report bad “use=” links. System V does not compile entries to or read entries from your _$HOME/.terminfo_ database un‐ less TERMINFO is explicitly set to it. ## FILES **/etc/terminfo/?/*** Compiled terminal description database. ## SEE ALSO [**captoinfo**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/captoinfo/1/markdown), [**infocmp**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/infocmp/1/markdown), [**infotocap**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/infotocap/1/markdown), [**toe**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/toe/1/markdown), [**ncurses**(3NCURSES)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ncurses/3NCURSES/markdown), [**term**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/term/5/markdown). [**terminfo**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/terminfo/5/markdown). **user**___**[caps**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/caps/5/markdown). This describes **ncurses** version 6.3 (patch 20211021). ## AUTHOR Eric S. Raymond <> and Thomas E. Dickey <> [tic(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/tic/1/markdown)