# infocmp 1m

    infocmp(1m)                                                        infocmp(1m)

## NAME

           infocmp - compare or print out terminfo descriptions

## SYNOPSIS

           infocmp [-1CDEFGIKLTUVWcdegilnpqrtux]
                 [-v n] [-s d| i| l| c] [-Q n] [-R subset]
                 [-w width] [-A directory] [-B directory]
                 [termname...]

## DESCRIPTION

           infocmp  can  be  used  to  compare  a binary terminfo 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 (term) 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]

           infocmp  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  depends  on  the  type  of  the
           capability:

           o   F for missing boolean variables

           o   NULL for missing integer or string variables

           Use the -q option to show the distinction between absent and  cancelled
           capabilities.

           These  options  produce a list which you can use to compare two or more
           terminal descriptions:

           -d   produces a list of each capability that is different  between  two
                entries.   Each  item  in  the list shows ":" after the capability
                name, followed by the capability values, separated by a comma.

           -c   produces a list of each capability that is common between  two  or
                more entries.  Missing capabilities are ignored.  Each item in the
                list  shows  "="  after  the  capability  name,  followed  by  the
                capability value.

                The  -u  option  provides  a  related  output,  showing  the first
                terminal description rewritten to use the  second  as  a  building
                block via the "use=" clause.

           -n   produces  a  list  of each capability that is in none of the given
                entries.  Each item in the list shows "!"  before  the  capability
                name.

                Normally only the conventional capabilities are shown.  Use the -x
                option to add the BSD-compatibility capabilities  (names  prefixed
                with "OT").

                If  no  termnames are given, infocmp uses the environment variable
                TERM for each of the termnames.

### Source Listing Options [-I] [-L] [-C] [-r]

           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
                -K   modifies the -C option, improving BSD-compatibility.

           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 parameterized strings can be changed to the termcap
           format.  infocmp will attempt to  convert  most  of  the  parameterized
           information,  and  anything not converted will be plainly marked in the
           output and commented out.  These should be edited by hand.

           For best results when converting to termcap format, you should use both
           -C  and  -r.   Normally a termcap description is limited to 1023 bytes.
           infocmp trims away less essential parts to make it  fit.   If  you  are
           converting to one of the (rare) termcap implementations which accept an
           unlimited size of termcap, you may want to add  the  -T  option.   More
           often  however,  you  must  help  the  termcap implementation, and trim
           excess whitespace (use the -0 option for that).

           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.  Normally you would use both the -C  and  -r  options.
           The  actual  format  used  incorporates  some  improvements for escaped
           characters  from  terminfo  format.   For  a  stricter   BSD-compatible
           translation, use the -K option rather than -C.

           Note  that  because  padding  is  collected  to  the  beginning  of the
           capability, not all capabilities are output.  Mandatory padding is  not
           supported.   Because  termcap  strings  are  not as flexible, it is not
           always possible  to  convert  a  terminfo  string  capability  into  an
           equivalent termcap format.  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                          %iq       ANSI standard, vt100
               %p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%;    %>xy      concept
               %p2 is printed before %p1   %r        hp

### Use= Option [-u]

           The -u option produces 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 be 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 will be 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  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 in.  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 termname use= fields that
           were not needed.

       Changing Databases [-A directory] [-B directory]
           Like  other  ncurses  utilities,  infocmp  looks   for   the   terminal
           descriptions   in  several  places.   You  can  use  the  TERMINFO  and
           TERMINFO_DIRS environment variables to override the compiled-in default
           list of places to search (see curses(3x) for details).

           You  can  also use the options -A and -B to override the list of places
           to search when comparing terminal descriptions:

           o   The -A option sets the location for the first termname

           o   The -B option sets the location for the other termnames.

           Using these options, it is  possible  to  compare  descriptions  for  a
           terminal  with  the  same name located in two different databases.  For
           instance, you can use this feature for comparing descriptions  for  the
           same terminal created by different people.

### Other Options

           -0   causes the fields to be printed on one line, without wrapping.

           -1   causes the fields to be printed out one to a line.  Otherwise, the
                fields will be printed several to a line to a maximum width of  60
                characters.

           -a   tells  infocmp  to  retain  commented-out capabilities rather than
                discarding them.  Capabilities are  commented  by  prefixing  them
                with a period.

           -D   tells infocmp to print the database locations that it knows about,
                and exit.

           -E   Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as tables,  needed  in
                the   C   initializer  for  a  TERMTYPE  structure  (the  terminal
                capability structure in the <term.h>).  This option is useful  for
                preparing  versions  of  the  curses library hardwired for a given
                terminal type.  The tables are all declared static, and are  named
                according  to  the type and the name of the corresponding terminal
                entry.

                Before ncurses 5.0, the split between the -e and  -E  options  was
                not  needed;  but  support  for extended names required making the
                arrays  of  terminal  capabilities  separate  from  the   TERMTYPE
                structure.

           -e   Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as a C initializer for
                a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal  capability  structure  in  the
                <term.h>).   This  option  is useful for preparing versions of the
                curses library hardwired for a given terminal type.

           -F   compare terminfo files.  This assumes that two following arguments
                are  filenames.   The  files  are  searched  for  pairwise matches
                between entries, with two entries considered to match  if  any  of
                their  names  do.   The  report  printed  to standard output lists
                entries with no matches in the other file, and entries  with  more
                than  one match.  For entries with exactly one match it includes a
                difference report.  Normally, to reduce the volume of the  report,
                use  references  are  not resolved before looking for differences,
                but resolution can be forced by also specifying -r.

           -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   Analyze  the  initialization (is1, is2, is3), and reset (rs1, rs2,
                rs3),  strings  in  the  entry,  as  well  as   those   used   for
                starting/stopping  cursor-positioning  mode (smcup, rmcup) as well
                as starting/stopping keymap mode (smkx, rmkx).

                For each string, the code tries to  analyze  it  into  actions  in
                terms  of  the  other capabilities in the entry, certain X3.64/ISO
                6429/ECMA-48 capabilities, and certain DEC VT-series private modes
                (the  set  of  recognized  special sequences has been selected for
                completeness over the existing terminfo  database).   Each  report
                line  consists  of  the  capability  name, followed by a colon and
                space, followed by a printable expansion of the capability  string
                with   sections   matching   recognized  actions  translated  into
                {}-bracketed descriptions.

                Here is a list of the DEC/ANSI special sequences recognized:

                             Action        Meaning
                             -----------------------------------------
                             RIS           full reset
                             SC            save cursor
                             RC            restore cursor
                             LL            home-down
                             RSR           reset scroll region
                             -----------------------------------------
                             DECSTR        soft reset (VT320)
                             S7C1T         7-bit controls (VT220)
                             -----------------------------------------

                             ISO DEC G0    enable DEC graphics for G0
                             ISO UK G0     enable UK chars for G0
                             ISO US G0     enable US chars for G0
                             ISO DEC G1    enable DEC graphics for G1
                             ISO UK G1     enable UK chars for G1
                             ISO US G1     enable US chars for G1
                             -----------------------------------------
                             DECPAM        application keypad mode
                             DECPNM        normal keypad mode
                             DECANSI       enter ANSI mode
                             -----------------------------------------
                             ECMA[+-]AM    keyboard action mode
                             ECMA[+-]IRM   insert replace mode
                             ECMA[+-]SRM   send receive mode
                             ECMA[+-]LNM   linefeed mode
                             -----------------------------------------
                             DEC[+-]CKM    application cursor keys
                             DEC[+-]ANM    set VT52 mode
                             DEC[+-]COLM   132-column mode
                             DEC[+-]SCLM   smooth scroll
                             DEC[+-]SCNM   reverse video mode
                             DEC[+-]OM     origin mode
                             DEC[+-]AWM    wraparound mode
                             DEC[+-]ARM    auto-repeat mode

                It  also  recognizes  a  SGR  action  corresponding  to   ANSI/ISO
                6429/ECMA  Set  Graphics  Rendition, with the values NORMAL, BOLD,
                UNDERLINE, BLINK, and REVERSE.  All but  NORMAL  may  be  prefixed
                with

                o   "+" (turn on) or

                o   "-" (turn off).

                An  SGR0  designates  an  empty  highlight sequence (equivalent to
                {SGR:NORMAL}).

           -l   Set output format to terminfo.

           -p   Ignore padding specifications when comparing strings.

           -Q n Rather than show source  in  terminfo  (text)  format,  print  the
                compiled  (binary) format in hexadecimal or base64 form, depending
                on the option's value:

                   1  hexadecimal

                   2  base64

                   3  hexadecimal and base64

                For example, this prints the compiled terminfo value as  a  string
                which could be assigned to the TERMINFO environment variable:

                    infocmp -0 -q -Q2

           -q   This makes the output a little shorter:

                o   Make  the  comparison listing shorter by omitting subheadings,
                    and using "-" for absent capabilities, "@" for canceled rather
                    than "NULL".

                o   However,   show   differences  between  absent  and  cancelled
                    capabilities.

                o   Omit the "Reconstructed from" comment for source listings.

           -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
                variants  such  as AIX that have their own extensions incompatible
                with SVr4/XSI.

                o   Available terminfo subsets are  "SVr1",  "Ultrix",  "HP",  and
                    "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for details.

                o   You  can  also  choose  the  subset  "BSD"  which selects only
                    capabilities with termcap equivalents  recognized  by  4.4BSD.
                    The -C option sets the "BSD" subset as a side-effect.

                o   If  you  select  any  other value for -R, it is the same as no
                    subset, i.e.,  all  capabilities  are  used.   The  -I  option
                    likewise selects no subset as a side-effect.

           -s [d|i|l|c]
                The  -s  option sorts 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  the  -s  option  is  not 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.

           -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 infocmp to not  post-process  the  data  after  parsing  the
                source  file.   This  feature  helps  when  comparing  the  actual
                contents of two source files, since  it  excludes  the  inferences
                that infocmp makes to fill in missing data.

           -V   reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
                exits.

           -v n prints out tracing information on standard error  as  the  program
                runs.

                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  optional  parameter is
                ignored.

           -W   By itself, the -w  option  will  not  force  long  strings  to  be
                wrapped.  Use the -W option to do this.

           -w width
                changes the output to width characters.

           -x   print information for user-defined capabilities (see user_caps(5).
                These are extensions to  the  terminfo  repertoire  which  can  be
                loaded using the -x option of tic.

## FILES

           /usr/share/terminfo Compiled terminal description database.

## HISTORY

           Although  System  V  Release  2  provided a terminfo library, it had no
           documented tool for decompiling the terminal descriptions.  Tony Hansen
           (AT&T) wrote the first infocmp in early 1984, for System V Release 3.

           Eric  Raymond  used  the  AT&T  documentation  in  1995  to  provide an
           equivalent infocmp for ncurses.   In  addition,  he  added  a  few  new
           features such as:

           o   the   -e   option,   to  support  fallback  (compiled-in)  terminal
               descriptions

           o   the -i option, to help with analysis

           Later, Thomas Dickey added the -x (user-defined  capabilities)  option,
           and  the  -E  option  to  support  fallback  entries  with user-defined
           capabilities.

           For a complete list, see the EXTENSIONS section.

           In 2010, Roy Marples provided an infocmp program  for  NetBSD.   It  is
           less  capable  than  the  SVr4  or ncurses versions (e.g., it lacks the
           sorting options documented in X/Open), but does include the  -x  option
           adapted from ncurses.

## PORTABILITY

           X/Open  Curses,  Issue  7 (2009) provides a description of infocmp.  It
           does not mention the options used for converting to termcap format.

## EXTENSIONS

           The -0, -1, -E, -F, -G, -Q, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -i, -l, -p,  -q
           and -t options are not supported in SVr4 curses.

           SVr4   infocmp  does  not  distinguish  between  absent  and  cancelled
           capabilities.  Also, it shows missing integer capabilities as  -1  (the
           internal   value   used   to   represent   missing   integers).    This
           implementation shows those as  "NULL",  for  consistency  with  missing
           strings.

           The  -r  option's  notion of "termcap" capabilities is System V Release
           4's.  Actual BSD curses versions will have a more restricted  set.   To
           see only the 4.4BSD set, use -r -RBSD.

## BUGS

           The -F option of infocmp(1m) should be a toe(1m) mode.

## SEE ALSO

           captoinfo(1m),    infotocap(1m),    tic(1m),    toe(1m),    curses(3x),
           terminfo(5).  user_caps(5).

           https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html

           This describes ncurses version 6.3 (patch 20221029).

## AUTHOR

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

                                                                       infocmp(1m)