tic(1)                      General Commands Manual                     tic(1)



NAME
       tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler

SYNOPSIS
       tic  [-01CDGIKLNTUVacfgrstx]  [-e  names]  [-o dir] [-R subset] [-v[n]]
       [-w[n]] file

DESCRIPTION
       The tic command translates a terminfo file from source format into com-
       piled  format.   The  compiled  format  is  necessary  for use with the
       library routines in ncurses(3NCURSES).

       As described in term(5), 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:

       o   For directory trees, the top-level directory, e.g., /usr/share/ter-
           minfo, specifies the location of the database.

       o   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 con-
       tainer if it does not exist.  For a directory, this would be the  "ter-
       minfo" 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:

       o   First,  you  may override the system default either by using the -o
           option, or by setting the variable TERMINFO in your shell  environ-
           ment to a valid database location.

       o   Secondly,  if  tic  cannot  write  in /etc/terminfo or the location
           specified using your TERMINFO 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  succes-
       sion

       o   a location specified with the TERMINFO environment variable,

       o   $HOME/.terminfo,

       o   directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable,

       o   a compiled-in list of directories (no default value), and

       o   the system terminfo database (/etc/terminfo).

   OPTIONS
       -0     restricts the output to a single line

       -1     restricts the output to a single column

       -a     tells  tic to retain commented-out capabilities rather than dis-
              carding them.  Capabilities are commented by prefixing them with
              a  period.   This sets the -x option, because it treats the com-
              mented-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.  The actual format used incorporates
              some improvements for escaped characters from  terminfo  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:

              o   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 operators used
                  in terminfo.

              o   capabilities with more than one delay or with delays  before
                  the end of the string will not convert completely.

       -c     tells  tic to only check file for errors, including syntax prob-
              lems 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, as well as buggy
              checking for the buffer length (and a documented limit  in  ter-
              minfo),  these entries may cause core dumps with other implemen-
              tations.

              tic checks string capabilities to ensure that those with parame-
              ters will be valid expressions.  It does this check only for the
              predefined string capabilities; those which are defined with the
              -x option are ignored.

       -D     tells  tic  to print the database locations that it knows about,
              and exit.  The first 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  summa-
              rized  above,  it will print a diagnostic and exit with an error
              rather than printing a list of database locations.

       -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 com-
              piled, 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.

       -K     Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to termcap format,
              e.g., "\s" for space.

       -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.

       -odir  Write  compiled  entries  to given database location.  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  ter-
              minfo;  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  capabili-
              ties)  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 database location 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 ter-
              minfo).

       -t     tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities.  Normally  when
              translating  from  terminfo to termcap, untranslatable capabili-
              ties 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.

            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.

       -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 sup-
            ply 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.

   PARAMETERS
       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.

              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).  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 /etc/terminfo to  complete
       the  entry.  (Entries created from file will be used first.  tic dupli-
       cates the capabilities in entry-name for the current  entry,  with  the
       exception of those capabilities that explicitly are defined in the cur-
       rent 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.

       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 descrip-
       tion 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 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 any-
       where 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 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.

       The -0, -1, -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 database unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.

FILES
       /etc/terminfo/?/*
            Compiled terminal description database.

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

       This describes ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20140913).

AUTHOR
       Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
       Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>



                                                                        tic(1)
