The infocmp command can be used to compare a binary
terminfo(F)
entry with other terminfo entries, rewrite a terminfo
description to take advantage of the use=terminfo field, or print out a terminfo
description from the binary file
in a variety of formats.
In all cases, the Boolean fields will be printed first, followed by the
numeric fields, followed by the string fields.
Default options
If no options are specified and zero or one
termnames are specified, the -I
option will be assumed.
If more than one termname
is specified, the -d
option will be assumed.
Comparison options [ -d ] [ -c ] [ -n ]
The infocmp command compares the
terminfo description of the first terminal
termname with each of the descriptions given by
the entries for the other terminal's termnames.
If a capability is defined for only one of the terminals,
the value returned will depend on the type of the capability:
F for boolean variables,
-1 for integer variables,
and NULL for string variables.
-d
produce a list of each capability that is different.
In this manner, if one has two entries for the same terminal or similar
terminals, using infocmp will show what is different between
the two entries.
This is sometimes necessary when more than one person produces an entry for
the same terminal and one wants to see what is different between the two.
-c
produce a list of each capability that is common between the two entries.
Capabilities that are not set are ignored.
This option can be used as a quick check to see if the -u
option is worth using.
-n
produce a list of each capability that is in neither entry.
If no termnames are given, the environment variable
TERM will be used for both of the termnames.
This can be used as a quick check to see if anything was left out
of the description.
The -I, -L, and -C
options will produce a source listing for each terminal named.
-I
use the terminfo names
-L
use the long C variable name listed in <term.h>
-C
use the termcap names
-r
when using -C, put out all
capabilities in termcap form
If no termnames are given, the environment variable
TERM will be used for the terminal name.
The source produced by the -C option may be used directly
as a termcap entry, but not all of the parameterized strings
may be changed to the termcap format.
infocmp will attempt to convert most of the parameterized
information, but that which it doesn't will be plainly marked in the
output and commented out. These should be edited by hand.
All padding information for strings will be collected together and placed at
the beginning of the string where termcap expects it.
Mandatory padding (padding information with a trailing ``/'')
will become optional.
All termcap variables no longer supported by terminfo,
but which are derivable from other terminfo variables, will be output.
Not all terminfo capabilities will be translated;
only those variables which were part of termcap
will normally be output.
Specifying the -r option will take off this restriction,
allowing all capabilities to be output in termcap form.
Note that because padding is collected to the beginning of the capability,
not all capabilities are output,
mandatory padding is not supported,
and termcap strings were not as flexible;
it is not always possible to convert a terminfo
string capability into an
equivalent termcap format.
Not all of these strings will be able to be converted.
A subsequent conversion of the termcap file back into
terminfo format will not
necessarily reproduce the original terminfo source.
Some common terminfo parameter sequences,
their termcap equivalents, and some
terminal types which commonly have such sequences are:
Terminfo
Termcap
Representative terminals
%p1%c
%.
adm
%p1%d
%d
hp, ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%'x'%+%c
%+x
concept
%i
%i
ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%;
%>xy
concept
%p2 is printed before %p1
%r
hp
Use= option [ -u ]
-u
produce a terminfo
source description of the first terminal termname
which is relative to the sum of the descriptions given by the entries for the
other terminals' termnames.
It does this by analyzing the differences between the first
termname and the other termnames
and producing a description with use=
fields for the other terminals.
In this manner, it is possible to retrofit generic terminfo entries into a
terminal's description.
Or, if two similar terminals exist, but were coded at different times or by
different people so that each description is a full description, using
infocmp will show what can be done to change one description
to be relative to the other.
A capability will get printed with an at-sign (@) if it no longer exists in
the first termname, but one of the other termname
entries contains a value for it.
A capability's value gets printed if the value in the first
termname is not found in any of the other termname
entries, or if the first of the other termname
entries that has this capability gives a different value for the capability
than that in the first termname.
The order of the other termname entries is significant.
Since the terminfo compiler
tic(C)
does a left-to-right scan of the capabilities, specifying two use=
entries that contain differing entries for the same capabilities will
produce different results depending on the order that the entries are given.
infocmp will flag any such inconsistencies between the other
termname entries as they are found.
Alternatively, specifying a capability
after a use=
entry that contains that capability will cause the second specification to
be ignored.
Using infocmp
to recreate a description can be a useful check to make sure that everything
was specified correctly in the original source description.
Another error that does not cause incorrect compiled files, but will slow
down the compilation time, is specifying extra
use= fields that are superfluous.
infocmp will flag any other termnameuse= fields that were not needed.
Other options [-s d|i|l|c] [-v] [-V] [-1] [-wwidth]
-s
sort the fields within each type according to
the argument below:
d
leave fields in the order that they are
stored in the terminfo database
i
sort by terminfo name
l
sort by the long C variable name
c
sort by the termcap name
If no -s option is given,
the fields printed out will be sorted alphabetically by the terminfo
name within each type, except in the case of the
-C or the -L
options, which cause the sorting to be done by the
termcap name or the long C variable name, respectively.
-v
print out tracing information on standard error as the program runs.
-V
print out the version of the program in use on standard error and exit.
-1
cause the fields to print out one to a line.
Otherwise, the fields will be printed several to a line to a maximum width
of 60 characters.
-w
change the output to width characters.
Changing data bases [ -A directory ] [ -B directory ]
The location of the compiled terminfo database
is taken from the environment variable TERMINFO.
If the variable is not defined or the terminal is not found in that
location, the system terminfo database, usually in
/usr/lib/terminfo, will be used.
The options -A and -B
may be used to override this location.
The -A option will set TERMINFO
for the first termname and the -B
option will set TERMINFO for the other
termnames.
With this, it is possible to compare descriptions for a terminal with the
same name located in two different databases.
This is useful for comparing descriptions for the same terminal created by
different people.
Otherwise the terminals would have to be named differently in the
terminfo
database for a comparison to be made.
Diagnostics
malloc is out of space!
There was not enough memory available to process
all the terminal descriptions requested.
Run infocmp several times,
each time including a subset of the desired
termnames.
use= order dependency found:
A value specified in one relative terminal specification was different from
that in another relative terminal specification.
'use=term' did not add anything to the description.
A relative terminal name did not contribute anything to the final
description.
must have at least two terminal names for a comparison to be done.
The -u, -d, and -c
options require at least two terminal names.
compiled terminal description database