# terminfo 5 File Formats

    terminfo(5)                      File Formats                      terminfo(5)

## NAME

           terminfo - terminal capability database

## SYNOPSIS

           /usr/share/terminfo/*/*

## DESCRIPTION

           Terminfo  is  a  database describing terminals, used by screen-oriented
           programs  such  as  nvi(1),  lynx(1),   mutt(1),   and   other   curses
           applications,  using  high-level calls to libraries such as curses(3x).
           It is also used via low-level calls by  non-curses  applications  which
           may  be  screen-oriented  (such  as  clear(1))  or  non-screen (such as
           tabs(1)).

           Terminfo describes terminals by giving a set of capabilities which they
           have, by specifying how to perform screen operations, and by specifying
           padding requirements and initialization sequences.

           This manual describes ncurses version 6.3 (patch 20221029).

### Terminfo Entry Syntax

           Entries in terminfo consist of a sequence of fields:

           o   Each field ends with a comma "," (embedded commas  may  be  escaped
               with a backslash or written as "\054").

           o   White space between fields is ignored.

           o   The first field in a terminfo entry begins in the first column.

           o   Newlines  and  leading  whitespace (spaces or tabs) may be used for
               formatting entries for readability.  These are removed from  parsed
               entries.

               The  infocmp  -f and -W options rely on this to format if-then-else
               expressions, or  to  enforce  maximum  line-width.   The  resulting
               formatted terminal description can be read by tic.

           o   The  first  field for each terminal gives the names which are known
               for the terminal, separated by "|" characters.

               The first name given  is  the  most  common  abbreviation  for  the
               terminal  (its  primary name), the last name given should be a long
               name fully identifying the terminal  (see  longname(3x)),  and  all
               others  are  treated as synonyms (aliases) for the primary terminal
               name.

               X/Open Curses advises that all names but  the  last  should  be  in
               lower  case  and  contain no blanks; the last name may well contain
               upper case and blanks for readability.

               This implementation is not so strict; it allows mixed case  in  the
               primary name and aliases.  If the last name has no embedded blanks,
               it allows that to be both an alias and a  verbose  name  (but  will
               warn about this ambiguity).

           o   Lines  beginning  with  a  "#"  in  the first column are treated as
               comments.

               While comment lines are legal at any point, the output of captoinfo
               and  infotocap  (aliases  for tic) will move comments so they occur
               only between entries.

           Terminal names (except for the last, verbose entry)  should  be  chosen
           using  the  following  conventions.   The  particular piece of hardware
           making up the terminal should have a root name,  thus  "hp2621".   This
           name should not contain hyphens.  Modes that the hardware can be in, or
           user preferences, should be indicated by appending a hyphen and a  mode
           suffix.   Thus,  a  vt100  in  132-column  mode  would be vt100-w.  The
           following suffixes should be used where possible:

                Suffix                  Meaning                   Example
                -nn      Number of lines on the screen            aaa-60
                -np      Number of pages of memory                c100-4p
                -am      With automargins (usually the default)   vt100-am
                -m       Mono mode; suppress color                ansi-m
                -mc      Magic cookie; spaces when highlighting   wy30-mc
                -na      No arrow keys (leave them in local)      c100-na
                -nam     Without automatic margins                vt100-nam
                -nl      No status line                           att4415-nl
                -ns      No status line                           hp2626-ns
                -rv      Reverse video                            c100-rv
                -s       Enable status line                       vt100-s
                -vb      Use visible bell instead of beep         wy370-vb
                -w       Wide mode (> 80 columns, usually 132)    vt100-w

           For more on terminal naming conventions, see the term(7) manual page.

### Terminfo Capabilities Syntax

           The terminfo entry consists of  several  capabilities,  i.e.,  features
           that  the  terminal  has,  or  methods  for  exercising  the terminal's
           features.

           After the first field (giving the name(s) of the terminal entry), there
           should be one or more capability fields.  These are boolean, numeric or
           string names with corresponding values:

           o   Boolean capabilities are true  when  present,  false  when  absent.
               There is no explicit value for boolean capabilities.

           o   Numeric  capabilities  have  a  "#"  following  the  name,  then an
               unsigned decimal integer value.

           o   String capabilities have a "=" following the name, then  an  string
               of characters making up the capability value.

               String  capabilities  can be split into multiple lines, just as the
               fields comprising a terminal  entry  can  be  split  into  multiple
               lines.   While  blanks  between fields are ignored, blanks embedded
               within a string value are retained, except for leading blanks on  a
               line.

           Any  capability  can  be  canceled,  i.e., suppressed from the terminal
           entry, by following its name with "@" rather than a capability value.

### Similar Terminals

           If there are two very similar  terminals,  one  (the  variant)  can  be
           defined   as  being  just  like  the  other  (the  base)  with  certain
           exceptions.  In the definition of the variant,  the  string  capability
           use can be given with the name of the base terminal:

           o   The  capabilities  given before use override those in the base type
               named by use.

           o   If there are multiple use capabilities, they are merged in  reverse
               order.   That  is,  the rightmost use reference is processed first,
               then the one to its left, and so forth.

           o   Capabilities given explicitly in the entry override  those  brought
               in by use references.

           A  capability  can  be  canceled  by placing xx@ to the left of the use
           reference that imports it, where xx is the  capability.   For  example,
           the entry

                  2621-nl, smkx@, rmkx@, use=2621,

           defines a 2621-nl that does not have the smkx or rmkx capabilities, and
           hence does not turn on the function key labels  when  in  visual  mode.
           This  is  useful  for  different modes for a terminal, or for different
           user preferences.

           An entry included via use can contain canceled capabilities, which have
           the  same  effect as if those cancels were inline in the using terminal
           entry.

### Predefined Capabilities

           The following is a complete table of the  capabilities  included  in  a
           terminfo  description  block  and available to terminfo-using code.  In
           each line of the table,

           The variable is the name by  which  the  programmer  (at  the  terminfo
           level) accesses the capability.

           The  capname is the short name used in the text of the database, and is
           used by a person updating the database.   Whenever  possible,  capnames
           are chosen to be the same as or similar to the ANSI X3.64-1979 standard
           (now superseded by  ECMA-48,  which  uses  identical  or  very  similar
           names).    Semantics   are   also   intended  to  match  those  of  the
           specification.

           The termcap code is the old termcap capability name (some  capabilities
           are new, and have names which termcap did not originate).

           Capability  names have no hard length limit, but an informal limit of 5
           characters has been adopted to keep them short and to allow the tabs in
           the source file Caps to line up nicely.

           Finally,  the description field attempts to convey the semantics of the
           capability.  You may find some codes in the description field:

           (P)    indicates that padding may be specified

           #[1-9] in the description field indicates that  the  string  is  passed
                  through tparm(3x) with parameters as given (#i).

                  If  no  parameters  are  listed  in the description, passing the
                  string through tparm(3x) may give unexpected results,  e.g.,  if
                  it contains percent (%%) signs.

           (P*)   indicates  that  padding may vary in proportion to the number of
                  lines affected

           (#i)   indicates the ith parameter.

           These are the boolean capabilities:

                      Variable            Cap-      TCap       Description
                      Booleans            name      Code

              auto_left_margin            bw        bw     cub1 wraps from
                                                           column 0 to last
                                                           column
              auto_right_margin           am        am     terminal has
                                                           automatic margins
              back_color_erase            bce       ut     screen erased with
                                                           background color
              can_change                  ccc       cc     terminal can re-
                                                           define existing
                                                           colors
              ceol_standout_glitch        xhp       xs     standout not erased
                                                           by overwriting (hp)
              col_addr_glitch             xhpa      YA     only positive motion
                                                           for hpa/mhpa caps
              cpi_changes_res             cpix      YF     changing character
                                                           pitch changes
                                                           resolution
              cr_cancels_micro_mode       crxm      YB     using cr turns off
                                                           micro mode
              dest_tabs_magic_smso        xt        xt     tabs destructive,
                                                           magic so char
                                                           (t1061)
              eat_newline_glitch          xenl      xn     newline ignored
                                                           after 80 cols
                                                           (concept)
              erase_overstrike            eo        eo     can erase
                                                           overstrikes with a
                                                           blank
              generic_type                gn        gn     generic line type
              hard_copy                   hc        hc     hardcopy terminal
              hard_cursor                 chts      HC     cursor is hard to
                                                           see
              has_meta_key                km        km     Has a meta key
                                                           (i.e., sets 8th-bit)
              has_print_wheel             daisy     YC     printer needs
                                                           operator to change
                                                           character set
              has_status_line             hs        hs     has extra status
                                                           line
              hue_lightness_saturation    hls       hl     terminal uses only
                                                           HLS color notation
                                                           (Tektronix)
              insert_null_glitch          in        in     insert mode
                                                           distinguishes nulls
              lpi_changes_res             lpix      YG     changing line pitch
                                                           changes resolution
              memory_above                da        da     display may be
                                                           retained above the
                                                           screen
              memory_below                db        db     display may be
                                                           retained below the
                                                           screen
              move_insert_mode            mir       mi     safe to move while
                                                           in insert mode
              move_standout_mode          msgr      ms     safe to move while
                                                           in standout mode
              needs_xon_xoff              nxon      nx     padding will not
                                                           work, xon/xoff
                                                           required
              no_esc_ctlc                 xsb       xb     beehive (f1=escape,
                                                           f2=ctrl C)
              no_pad_char                 npc       NP     pad character does
                                                           not exist
              non_dest_scroll_region      ndscr     ND     scrolling region is
                                                           non-destructive

              non_rev_rmcup               nrrmc     NR     smcup does not
                                                           reverse rmcup
              over_strike                 os        os     terminal can
                                                           overstrike
              prtr_silent                 mc5i      5i     printer will not
                                                           echo on screen
              row_addr_glitch             xvpa      YD     only positive motion
                                                           for vpa/mvpa caps
              semi_auto_right_margin      sam       YE     printing in last
                                                           column causes cr
              status_line_esc_ok          eslok     es     escape can be used
                                                           on the status line
              tilde_glitch                hz        hz     cannot print ~'s
                                                           (Hazeltine)
              transparent_underline       ul        ul     underline character
                                                           overstrikes
              xon_xoff                    xon       xo     terminal uses
                                                           xon/xoff handshaking

           These are the numeric capabilities:

                      Variable            Cap-      TCap       Description
                       Numeric            name      Code
              columns                     cols      co     number of columns in
                                                           a line
              init_tabs                   it        it     tabs initially every
                                                           # spaces
              label_height                lh        lh     rows in each label
              label_width                 lw        lw     columns in each
                                                           label
              lines                       lines     li     number of lines on
                                                           screen or page
              lines_of_memory             lm        lm     lines of memory if >
                                                           line. 0 means varies
              magic_cookie_glitch         xmc       sg     number of blank
                                                           characters left by
                                                           smso or rmso
              max_attributes              ma        ma     maximum combined
                                                           attributes terminal
                                                           can handle
              max_colors                  colors    Co     maximum number of
                                                           colors on screen
              max_pairs                   pairs     pa     maximum number of
                                                           color-pairs on the
                                                           screen
              maximum_windows             wnum      MW     maximum number of
                                                           definable windows
              no_color_video              ncv       NC     video attributes
                                                           that cannot be used
                                                           with colors
              num_labels                  nlab      Nl     number of labels on
                                                           screen
              padding_baud_rate           pb        pb     lowest baud rate
                                                           where padding needed
              virtual_terminal            vt        vt     virtual terminal
                                                           number (CB/unix)
              width_status_line           wsl       ws     number of columns in
                                                           status line

           The  following  numeric  capabilities  are  present  in the SVr4.0 term
           structure, but are not yet documented in the man page.   They  came  in
           with SVr4's printer support.

                      Variable            Cap-      TCap       Description
                       Numeric            name      Code
              bit_image_entwining         bitwin    Yo     number of passes for
                                                           each bit-image row
              bit_image_type              bitype    Yp     type of bit-image
                                                           device
              buffer_capacity             bufsz     Ya     numbers of bytes
                                                           buffered before
                                                           printing
              buttons                     btns      BT     number of buttons on
                                                           mouse
              dot_horz_spacing            spinh     Yc     spacing of dots
                                                           horizontally in dots
                                                           per inch
              dot_vert_spacing            spinv     Yb     spacing of pins
                                                           vertically in pins
                                                           per inch
              max_micro_address           maddr     Yd     maximum value in
                                                           micro_..._address
              max_micro_jump              mjump     Ye     maximum value in
                                                           parm_..._micro
              micro_col_size              mcs       Yf     character step size
                                                           when in micro mode
              micro_line_size             mls       Yg     line step size when
                                                           in micro mode
              number_of_pins              npins     Yh     numbers of pins in
                                                           print-head
              output_res_char             orc       Yi     horizontal
                                                           resolution in units
                                                           per line
              output_res_horz_inch        orhi      Yk     horizontal
                                                           resolution in units
                                                           per inch
              output_res_line             orl       Yj     vertical resolution
                                                           in units per line
              output_res_vert_inch        orvi      Yl     vertical resolution
                                                           in units per inch
              print_rate                  cps       Ym     print rate in
                                                           characters per
                                                           second
              wide_char_size              widcs     Yn     character step size
                                                           when in double wide
                                                           mode

           These are the string capabilities:

                      Variable            Cap-      TCap       Description
                       String             name      Code
              acs_chars                   acsc      ac     graphics charset
                                                           pairs, based on
                                                           vt100
              back_tab                    cbt       bt     back tab (P)
              bell                        bel       bl     audible signal
                                                           (bell) (P)
              carriage_return             cr        cr     carriage return (P*)
                                                           (P*)
              change_char_pitch           cpi       ZA     Change number of
                                                           characters per inch
                                                           to #1
              change_line_pitch           lpi       ZB     Change number of
                                                           lines per inch to #1
              change_res_horz             chr       ZC     Change horizontal
                                                           resolution to #1

              change_res_vert             cvr       ZD     Change vertical
                                                           resolution to #1
              change_scroll_region        csr       cs     change region to
                                                           line #1 to line #2
                                                           (P)
              char_padding                rmp       rP     like ip but when in
                                                           insert mode
              clear_all_tabs              tbc       ct     clear all tab stops
                                                           (P)
              clear_margins               mgc       MC     clear right and left
                                                           soft margins
              clear_screen                clear     cl     clear screen and
                                                           home cursor (P*)
              clr_bol                     el1       cb     Clear to beginning
                                                           of line
              clr_eol                     el        ce     clear to end of line
                                                           (P)
              clr_eos                     ed        cd     clear to end of
                                                           screen (P*)
              column_address              hpa       ch     horizontal position
                                                           #1, absolute (P)
              command_character           cmdch     CC     terminal settable
                                                           cmd character in
                                                           prototype !?
              create_window               cwin      CW     define a window #1
                                                           from #2,#3 to #4,#5
              cursor_address              cup       cm     move to row #1
                                                           columns #2
              cursor_down                 cud1      do     down one line
              cursor_home                 home      ho     home cursor (if no
                                                           cup)
              cursor_invisible            civis     vi     make cursor
                                                           invisible
              cursor_left                 cub1      le     move left one space
              cursor_mem_address          mrcup     CM     memory relative
                                                           cursor addressing,
                                                           move to row #1
                                                           columns #2
              cursor_normal               cnorm     ve     make cursor appear
                                                           normal (undo
                                                           civis/cvvis)
              cursor_right                cuf1      nd     non-destructive
                                                           space (move right
                                                           one space)
              cursor_to_ll                ll        ll     last line, first
                                                           column (if no cup)
              cursor_up                   cuu1      up     up one line
              cursor_visible              cvvis     vs     make cursor very
                                                           visible
              define_char                 defc      ZE     Define a character
                                                           #1, #2 dots wide,
                                                           descender #3
              delete_character            dch1      dc     delete character
                                                           (P*)
              delete_line                 dl1       dl     delete line (P*)
              dial_phone                  dial      DI     dial number #1
              dis_status_line             dsl       ds     disable status line
              display_clock               dclk      DK     display clock
              down_half_line              hd        hd     half a line down
              ena_acs                     enacs     eA     enable alternate
                                                           char set
              enter_alt_charset_mode      smacs     as     start alternate
                                                           character set (P)
              enter_am_mode               smam      SA     turn on automatic
                                                           margins

              enter_blink_mode            blink     mb     turn on blinking
              enter_bold_mode             bold      md     turn on bold (extra
                                                           bright) mode
              enter_ca_mode               smcup     ti     string to start
                                                           programs using cup
              enter_delete_mode           smdc      dm     enter delete mode
              enter_dim_mode              dim       mh     turn on half-bright
                                                           mode
              enter_doublewide_mode       swidm     ZF     Enter double-wide
                                                           mode
              enter_draft_quality         sdrfq     ZG     Enter draft-quality
                                                           mode
              enter_insert_mode           smir      im     enter insert mode
              enter_italics_mode          sitm      ZH     Enter italic mode
              enter_leftward_mode         slm       ZI     Start leftward
                                                           carriage motion
              enter_micro_mode            smicm     ZJ     Start micro-motion
                                                           mode
              enter_near_letter_quality   snlq      ZK     Enter NLQ mode
              enter_normal_quality        snrmq     ZL     Enter normal-quality
                                                           mode
              enter_protected_mode        prot      mp     turn on protected
                                                           mode
              enter_reverse_mode          rev       mr     turn on reverse
                                                           video mode
              enter_secure_mode           invis     mk     turn on blank mode
                                                           (characters
                                                           invisible)
              enter_shadow_mode           sshm      ZM     Enter shadow-print
                                                           mode
              enter_standout_mode         smso      so     begin standout mode
              enter_subscript_mode        ssubm     ZN     Enter subscript mode
              enter_superscript_mode      ssupm     ZO     Enter superscript
                                                           mode
              enter_underline_mode        smul      us     begin underline mode
              enter_upward_mode           sum       ZP     Start upward
                                                           carriage motion
              enter_xon_mode              smxon     SX     turn on xon/xoff
                                                           handshaking
              erase_chars                 ech       ec     erase #1 characters
                                                           (P)
              exit_alt_charset_mode       rmacs     ae     end alternate
                                                           character set (P)
              exit_am_mode                rmam      RA     turn off automatic
                                                           margins
              exit_attribute_mode         sgr0      me     turn off all
                                                           attributes
              exit_ca_mode                rmcup     te     strings to end
                                                           programs using cup
              exit_delete_mode            rmdc      ed     end delete mode
              exit_doublewide_mode        rwidm     ZQ     End double-wide mode
              exit_insert_mode            rmir      ei     exit insert mode
              exit_italics_mode           ritm      ZR     End italic mode
              exit_leftward_mode          rlm       ZS     End left-motion mode
              exit_micro_mode             rmicm     ZT     End micro-motion
                                                           mode
              exit_shadow_mode            rshm      ZU     End shadow-print
                                                           mode
              exit_standout_mode          rmso      se     exit standout mode
              exit_subscript_mode         rsubm     ZV     End subscript mode
              exit_superscript_mode       rsupm     ZW     End superscript mode
              exit_underline_mode         rmul      ue     exit underline mode
              exit_upward_mode            rum       ZX     End reverse
                                                           character motion

              exit_xon_mode               rmxon     RX     turn off xon/xoff
                                                           handshaking
              fixed_pause                 pause     PA     pause for 2-3
                                                           seconds
              flash_hook                  hook      fh     flash switch hook
              flash_screen                flash     vb     visible bell (may
                                                           not move cursor)
              form_feed                   ff        ff     hardcopy terminal
                                                           page eject (P*)
              from_status_line            fsl       fs     return from status
                                                           line
              goto_window                 wingo     WG     go to window #1
              hangup                      hup       HU     hang-up phone
              init_1string                is1       i1     initialization
                                                           string
              init_2string                is2       is     initialization
                                                           string
              init_3string                is3       i3     initialization
                                                           string
              init_file                   if        if     name of
                                                           initialization file
              init_prog                   iprog     iP     path name of program
                                                           for initialization
              initialize_color            initc     Ic     initialize color #1
                                                           to (#2,#3,#4)
              initialize_pair             initp     Ip     Initialize color
                                                           pair #1 to
                                                           fg=(#2,#3,#4),
                                                           bg=(#5,#6,#7)
              insert_character            ich1      ic     insert character (P)
              insert_line                 il1       al     insert line (P*)
              insert_padding              ip        ip     insert padding after
                                                           inserted character
              key_a1                      ka1       K1     upper left of keypad
              key_a3                      ka3       K3     upper right of
                                                           keypad
              key_b2                      kb2       K2     center of keypad
              key_backspace               kbs       kb     backspace key
              key_beg                     kbeg      @1     begin key
              key_btab                    kcbt      kB     back-tab key
              key_c1                      kc1       K4     lower left of keypad
              key_c3                      kc3       K5     lower right of
                                                           keypad
              key_cancel                  kcan      @2     cancel key
              key_catab                   ktbc      ka     clear-all-tabs key
              key_clear                   kclr      kC     clear-screen or
                                                           erase key
              key_close                   kclo      @3     close key
              key_command                 kcmd      @4     command key
              key_copy                    kcpy      @5     copy key
              key_create                  kcrt      @6     create key
              key_ctab                    kctab     kt     clear-tab key
              key_dc                      kdch1     kD     delete-character key
              key_dl                      kdl1      kL     delete-line key
              key_down                    kcud1     kd     down-arrow key
              key_eic                     krmir     kM     sent by rmir or smir
                                                           in insert mode
              key_end                     kend      @7     end key
              key_enter                   kent      @8     enter/send key
              key_eol                     kel       kE     clear-to-end-of-line
                                                           key
              key_eos                     ked       kS     clear-to-end-of-
                                                           screen key
              key_exit                    kext      @9     exit key
              key_f0                      kf0       k0     F0 function key

              key_f1                      kf1       k1     F1 function key
              key_f10                     kf10      k;     F10 function key
              key_f11                     kf11      F1     F11 function key
              key_f12                     kf12      F2     F12 function key
              key_f13                     kf13      F3     F13 function key
              key_f14                     kf14      F4     F14 function key
              key_f15                     kf15      F5     F15 function key
              key_f16                     kf16      F6     F16 function key
              key_f17                     kf17      F7     F17 function key
              key_f18                     kf18      F8     F18 function key
              key_f19                     kf19      F9     F19 function key
              key_f2                      kf2       k2     F2 function key
              key_f20                     kf20      FA     F20 function key
              key_f21                     kf21      FB     F21 function key
              key_f22                     kf22      FC     F22 function key
              key_f23                     kf23      FD     F23 function key
              key_f24                     kf24      FE     F24 function key
              key_f25                     kf25      FF     F25 function key
              key_f26                     kf26      FG     F26 function key
              key_f27                     kf27      FH     F27 function key
              key_f28                     kf28      FI     F28 function key
              key_f29                     kf29      FJ     F29 function key
              key_f3                      kf3       k3     F3 function key
              key_f30                     kf30      FK     F30 function key
              key_f31                     kf31      FL     F31 function key
              key_f32                     kf32      FM     F32 function key
              key_f33                     kf33      FN     F33 function key
              key_f34                     kf34      FO     F34 function key
              key_f35                     kf35      FP     F35 function key
              key_f36                     kf36      FQ     F36 function key
              key_f37                     kf37      FR     F37 function key
              key_f38                     kf38      FS     F38 function key
              key_f39                     kf39      FT     F39 function key
              key_f4                      kf4       k4     F4 function key
              key_f40                     kf40      FU     F40 function key
              key_f41                     kf41      FV     F41 function key
              key_f42                     kf42      FW     F42 function key
              key_f43                     kf43      FX     F43 function key
              key_f44                     kf44      FY     F44 function key
              key_f45                     kf45      FZ     F45 function key
              key_f46                     kf46      Fa     F46 function key
              key_f47                     kf47      Fb     F47 function key
              key_f48                     kf48      Fc     F48 function key
              key_f49                     kf49      Fd     F49 function key
              key_f5                      kf5       k5     F5 function key
              key_f50                     kf50      Fe     F50 function key
              key_f51                     kf51      Ff     F51 function key
              key_f52                     kf52      Fg     F52 function key
              key_f53                     kf53      Fh     F53 function key
              key_f54                     kf54      Fi     F54 function key
              key_f55                     kf55      Fj     F55 function key
              key_f56                     kf56      Fk     F56 function key
              key_f57                     kf57      Fl     F57 function key
              key_f58                     kf58      Fm     F58 function key
              key_f59                     kf59      Fn     F59 function key
              key_f6                      kf6       k6     F6 function key
              key_f60                     kf60      Fo     F60 function key
              key_f61                     kf61      Fp     F61 function key
              key_f62                     kf62      Fq     F62 function key
              key_f63                     kf63      Fr     F63 function key
              key_f7                      kf7       k7     F7 function key
              key_f8                      kf8       k8     F8 function key
              key_f9                      kf9       k9     F9 function key
              key_find                    kfnd      @0     find key
              key_help                    khlp      %1     help key

              key_home                    khome     kh     home key
              key_ic                      kich1     kI     insert-character key
              key_il                      kil1      kA     insert-line key
              key_left                    kcub1     kl     left-arrow key
              key_ll                      kll       kH     lower-left key (home
                                                           down)
              key_mark                    kmrk      %2     mark key
              key_message                 kmsg      %3     message key
              key_move                    kmov      %4     move key
              key_next                    knxt      %5     next key
              key_npage                   knp       kN     next-page key
              key_open                    kopn      %6     open key
              key_options                 kopt      %7     options key
              key_ppage                   kpp       kP     previous-page key
              key_previous                kprv      %8     previous key
              key_print                   kprt      %9     print key
              key_redo                    krdo      %0     redo key
              key_reference               kref      &1     reference key
              key_refresh                 krfr      &2     refresh key
              key_replace                 krpl      &3     replace key
              key_restart                 krst      &4     restart key
              key_resume                  kres      &5     resume key
              key_right                   kcuf1     kr     right-arrow key
              key_save                    ksav      &6     save key
              key_sbeg                    kBEG      &9     shifted begin key
              key_scancel                 kCAN      &0     shifted cancel key
              key_scommand                kCMD      *1     shifted command key
              key_scopy                   kCPY      *2     shifted copy key
              key_screate                 kCRT      *3     shifted create key
              key_sdc                     kDC       *4     shifted delete-
                                                           character key
              key_sdl                     kDL       *5     shifted delete-line
                                                           key
              key_select                  kslt      *6     select key
              key_send                    kEND      *7     shifted end key
              key_seol                    kEOL      *8     shifted clear-to-
                                                           end-of-line key
              key_sexit                   kEXT      *9     shifted exit key
              key_sf                      kind      kF     scroll-forward key
              key_sfind                   kFND      *0     shifted find key
              key_shelp                   kHLP      #1     shifted help key
              key_shome                   kHOM      #2     shifted home key
              key_sic                     kIC       #3     shifted insert-
                                                           character key
              key_sleft                   kLFT      #4     shifted left-arrow
                                                           key
              key_smessage                kMSG      %a     shifted message key
              key_smove                   kMOV      %b     shifted move key
              key_snext                   kNXT      %c     shifted next key
              key_soptions                kOPT      %d     shifted options key
              key_sprevious               kPRV      %e     shifted previous key
              key_sprint                  kPRT      %f     shifted print key
              key_sr                      kri       kR     scroll-backward key
              key_sredo                   kRDO      %g     shifted redo key
              key_sreplace                kRPL      %h     shifted replace key
              key_sright                  kRIT      %i     shifted right-arrow
                                                           key
              key_srsume                  kRES      %j     shifted resume key
              key_ssave                   kSAV      !1     shifted save key
              key_ssuspend                kSPD      !2     shifted suspend key
              key_stab                    khts      kT     set-tab key
              key_sundo                   kUND      !3     shifted undo key
              key_suspend                 kspd      &7     suspend key
              key_undo                    kund      &8     undo key
              key_up                      kcuu1     ku     up-arrow key

              keypad_local                rmkx      ke     leave
                                                           'keyboard_transmit'
                                                           mode
              keypad_xmit                 smkx      ks     enter
                                                           'keyboard_transmit'
                                                           mode
              lab_f0                      lf0       l0     label on function
                                                           key f0 if not f0
              lab_f1                      lf1       l1     label on function
                                                           key f1 if not f1
              lab_f10                     lf10      la     label on function
                                                           key f10 if not f10
              lab_f2                      lf2       l2     label on function
                                                           key f2 if not f2
              lab_f3                      lf3       l3     label on function
                                                           key f3 if not f3
              lab_f4                      lf4       l4     label on function
                                                           key f4 if not f4
              lab_f5                      lf5       l5     label on function
                                                           key f5 if not f5
              lab_f6                      lf6       l6     label on function
                                                           key f6 if not f6
              lab_f7                      lf7       l7     label on function
                                                           key f7 if not f7
              lab_f8                      lf8       l8     label on function
                                                           key f8 if not f8
              lab_f9                      lf9       l9     label on function
                                                           key f9 if not f9
              label_format                fln       Lf     label format
              label_off                   rmln      LF     turn off soft labels
              label_on                    smln      LO     turn on soft labels
              meta_off                    rmm       mo     turn off meta mode
              meta_on                     smm       mm     turn on meta mode
                                                           (8th-bit on)
              micro_column_address        mhpa      ZY     Like column_address
                                                           in micro mode
              micro_down                  mcud1     ZZ     Like cursor_down in
                                                           micro mode
              micro_left                  mcub1     Za     Like cursor_left in
                                                           micro mode
              micro_right                 mcuf1     Zb     Like cursor_right in
                                                           micro mode
              micro_row_address           mvpa      Zc     Like row_address #1
                                                           in micro mode
              micro_up                    mcuu1     Zd     Like cursor_up in
                                                           micro mode
              newline                     nel       nw     newline (behave like
                                                           cr followed by lf)
              order_of_pins               porder    Ze     Match software bits
                                                           to print-head pins
              orig_colors                 oc        oc     Set all color pairs
                                                           to the original ones
              orig_pair                   op        op     Set default pair to
                                                           its original value
              pad_char                    pad       pc     padding char
                                                           (instead of null)
              parm_dch                    dch       DC     delete #1 characters
                                                           (P*)
              parm_delete_line            dl        DL     delete #1 lines (P*)
              parm_down_cursor            cud       DO     down #1 lines (P*)
              parm_down_micro             mcud      Zf     Like
                                                           parm_down_cursor in
                                                           micro mode
              parm_ich                    ich       IC     insert #1 characters
                                                           (P*)

              parm_index                  indn      SF     scroll forward #1
                                                           lines (P)
              parm_insert_line            il        AL     insert #1 lines (P*)
              parm_left_cursor            cub       LE     move #1 characters
                                                           to the left (P)
              parm_left_micro             mcub      Zg     Like
                                                           parm_left_cursor in
                                                           micro mode
              parm_right_cursor           cuf       RI     move #1 characters
                                                           to the right (P*)
              parm_right_micro            mcuf      Zh     Like
                                                           parm_right_cursor in
                                                           micro mode
              parm_rindex                 rin       SR     scroll back #1 lines
                                                           (P)
              parm_up_cursor              cuu       UP     up #1 lines (P*)
              parm_up_micro               mcuu      Zi     Like parm_up_cursor
                                                           in micro mode
              pkey_key                    pfkey     pk     program function key
                                                           #1 to type string #2
              pkey_local                  pfloc     pl     program function key
                                                           #1 to execute string
                                                           #2
              pkey_xmit                   pfx       px     program function key
                                                           #1 to transmit
                                                           string #2
              plab_norm                   pln       pn     program label #1 to
                                                           show string #2
              print_screen                mc0       ps     print contents of
                                                           screen
              prtr_non                    mc5p      pO     turn on printer for
                                                           #1 bytes
              prtr_off                    mc4       pf     turn off printer
              prtr_on                     mc5       po     turn on printer
              pulse                       pulse     PU     select pulse dialing
              quick_dial                  qdial     QD     dial number #1
                                                           without checking
              remove_clock                rmclk     RC     remove clock
              repeat_char                 rep       rp     repeat char #1 #2
                                                           times (P*)
              req_for_input               rfi       RF     send next input char
                                                           (for ptys)
              reset_1string               rs1       r1     reset string
              reset_2string               rs2       r2     reset string
              reset_3string               rs3       r3     reset string
              reset_file                  rf        rf     name of reset file
              restore_cursor              rc        rc     restore cursor to
                                                           position of last
                                                           save_cursor
              row_address                 vpa       cv     vertical position #1
                                                           absolute (P)
              save_cursor                 sc        sc     save current cursor
                                                           position (P)
              scroll_forward              ind       sf     scroll text up (P)
              scroll_reverse              ri        sr     scroll text down (P)
              select_char_set             scs       Zj     Select character
                                                           set, #1
              set_attributes              sgr       sa     define video
                                                           attributes #1-#9
                                                           (PG9)
              set_background              setb      Sb     Set background color
                                                           #1
              set_bottom_margin           smgb      Zk     Set bottom margin at
                                                           current line

              set_bottom_margin_parm      smgbp     Zl     Set bottom margin at
                                                           line #1 or (if smgtp
                                                           is not given) #2
                                                           lines from bottom
              set_clock                   sclk      SC     set clock, #1 hrs #2
                                                           mins #3 secs
              set_color_pair              scp       sp     Set current color
                                                           pair to #1
              set_foreground              setf      Sf     Set foreground color
                                                           #1
              set_left_margin             smgl      ML     set left soft margin
                                                           at current
                                                           column.     (ML is
                                                           not in BSD termcap).
              set_left_margin_parm        smglp     Zm     Set left (right)
                                                           margin at column #1
              set_right_margin            smgr      MR     set right soft
                                                           margin at current
                                                           column
              set_right_margin_parm       smgrp     Zn     Set right margin at
                                                           column #1
              set_tab                     hts       st     set a tab in every
                                                           row, current columns
              set_top_margin              smgt      Zo     Set top margin at
                                                           current line
              set_top_margin_parm         smgtp     Zp     Set top (bottom)
                                                           margin at row #1
              set_window                  wind      wi     current window is
                                                           lines #1-#2 cols
                                                           #3-#4
              start_bit_image             sbim      Zq     Start printing bit
                                                           image graphics
              start_char_set_def          scsd      Zr     Start character set
                                                           definition #1, with
                                                           #2 characters in the
                                                           set
              stop_bit_image              rbim      Zs     Stop printing bit
                                                           image graphics
              stop_char_set_def           rcsd      Zt     End definition of
                                                           character set #1
              subscript_characters        subcs     Zu     List of
                                                           subscriptable
                                                           characters
              superscript_characters      supcs     Zv     List of
                                                           superscriptable
                                                           characters
              tab                         ht        ta     tab to next 8-space
                                                           hardware tab stop
              these_cause_cr              docr      Zw     Printing any of
                                                           these characters
                                                           causes CR
              to_status_line              tsl       ts     move to status line,
                                                           column #1
              tone                        tone      TO     select touch tone
                                                           dialing
              underline_char              uc        uc     underline char and
                                                           move past it
              up_half_line                hu        hu     half a line up
              user0                       u0        u0     User string #0
              user1                       u1        u1     User string #1
              user2                       u2        u2     User string #2
              user3                       u3        u3     User string #3
              user4                       u4        u4     User string #4
              user5                       u5        u5     User string #5
              user6                       u6        u6     User string #6

              user7                       u7        u7     User string #7
              user8                       u8        u8     User string #8
              user9                       u9        u9     User string #9
              wait_tone                   wait      WA     wait for dial-tone
              xoff_character              xoffc     XF     XOFF character
              xon_character               xonc      XN     XON character
              zero_motion                 zerom     Zx     No motion for
                                                           subsequent character

           The following string  capabilities  are  present  in  the  SVr4.0  term
           structure, but were originally not documented in the man page.

                      Variable            Cap-       TCap      Description
                       String             name       Code
              alt_scancode_esc            scesa      S8     Alternate escape
                                                            for scancode
                                                            emulation
              bit_image_carriage_return   bicr       Yv     Move to beginning
                                                            of same row
              bit_image_newline           binel      Zz     Move to next row
                                                            of the bit image
              bit_image_repeat            birep      Xy     Repeat bit image
                                                            cell #1 #2 times
              char_set_names              csnm       Zy     Produce #1'th item
                                                            from list of
                                                            character set
                                                            names
              code_set_init               csin       ci     Init sequence for
                                                            multiple codesets
              color_names                 colornm    Yw     Give name for
                                                            color #1
              define_bit_image_region     defbi      Yx     Define rectangular
                                                            bit image region
              device_type                 devt       dv     Indicate
                                                            language/codeset
                                                            support
              display_pc_char             dispc      S1     Display PC
                                                            character #1
              end_bit_image_region        endbi      Yy     End a bit-image
                                                            region
              enter_pc_charset_mode       smpch      S2     Enter PC character
                                                            display mode
              enter_scancode_mode         smsc       S4     Enter PC scancode
                                                            mode
              exit_pc_charset_mode        rmpch      S3     Exit PC character
                                                            display mode
              exit_scancode_mode          rmsc       S5     Exit PC scancode
                                                            mode
              get_mouse                   getm       Gm     Curses should get
                                                            button events,
                                                            parameter #1 not
                                                            documented.
              key_mouse                   kmous      Km     Mouse event has
                                                            occurred
              mouse_info                  minfo      Mi     Mouse status
                                                            information
              pc_term_options             pctrm      S6     PC terminal
                                                            options
              pkey_plab                   pfxl       xl     Program function
                                                            key #1 to type
                                                            string #2 and show
                                                            string #3
              req_mouse_pos               reqmp      RQ     Request mouse
                                                            position

              scancode_escape             scesc      S7     Escape for
                                                            scancode emulation
              set0_des_seq                s0ds       s0     Shift to codeset 0
                                                            (EUC set 0, ASCII)
              set1_des_seq                s1ds       s1     Shift to codeset 1
              set2_des_seq                s2ds       s2     Shift to codeset 2
              set3_des_seq                s3ds       s3     Shift to codeset 3
              set_a_background            setab      AB     Set background
                                                            color to #1, using
                                                            ANSI escape
              set_a_foreground            setaf      AF     Set foreground
                                                            color to #1, using
                                                            ANSI escape
              set_color_band              setcolor   Yz     Change to ribbon
                                                            color #1
              set_lr_margin               smglr      ML     Set both left and
                                                            right margins to
                                                            #1, #2.  (ML is
                                                            not in BSD
                                                            termcap).
              set_page_length             slines     YZ     Set page length to
                                                            #1 lines
              set_tb_margin               smgtb      MT     Sets both top and
                                                            bottom margins to
                                                            #1, #2

            The XSI Curses standard added these hardcopy capabilities.  They  were
            used  in  some post-4.1 versions of System V curses, e.g., Solaris 2.5
            and IRIX 6.x.  Except for YI, the ncurses termcap names for  them  are
            invented.   According to the XSI Curses standard, they have no termcap
            names.  If your compiled terminfo entries use these, they may  not  be
            binary-compatible with System V terminfo entries after SVr4.1; beware!

                      Variable            Cap-      TCap       Description
                       String             name      Code
              enter_horizontal_hl_mode    ehhlm     Xh     Enter horizontal
                                                           highlight mode
              enter_left_hl_mode          elhlm     Xl     Enter left highlight
                                                           mode
              enter_low_hl_mode           elohlm    Xo     Enter low highlight
                                                           mode
              enter_right_hl_mode         erhlm     Xr     Enter right
                                                           highlight mode
              enter_top_hl_mode           ethlm     Xt     Enter top highlight
                                                           mode
              enter_vertical_hl_mode      evhlm     Xv     Enter vertical
                                                           highlight mode
              set_a_attributes            sgr1      sA     Define second set of
                                                           video attributes
                                                           #1-#6
              set_pglen_inch              slength   YI     Set page length to
                                                           #1 hundredth of an
                                                           inch (some
                                                           implementations use
                                                           sL for termcap).

### User-Defined Capabilities

           The  preceding  section  listed the predefined capabilities.  They deal
           with some special features for terminals no longer (or possibly  never)
           produced.   Occasionally  there are special features of newer terminals
           which are awkward or impossible to represent by reusing the  predefined
           capabilities.

           ncurses    addresses   this   limitation   by   allowing   user-defined
           capabilities.  The tic and infocmp programs provide the -x  option  for
           this purpose.  When -x is set, tic treats unknown capabilities as user-
           defined.  That is, if tic encounters a capability name  which  it  does
           not  recognize, it infers its type (boolean, number or string) from the
           syntax and makes an extended table  entry  for  that  capability.   The
           use_extended_names(3x)  function  makes  this information conditionally
           available to applications.   The  ncurses  library  provides  the  data
           leaving most of the behavior to applications:

           o   User-defined  capability  strings  whose  name  begins with "k" are
               treated as function keys.

           o   The types (boolean,  number,  string)  determined  by  tic  can  be
               inferred by successful calls on tigetflag, etc.

           o   If the capability name happens to be two characters, the capability
               is also available through the termcap interface.

           While termcap is said to be  extensible  because  it  does  not  use  a
           predefined  set of capabilities, in practice it has been limited to the
           capabilities defined by terminfo implementations.   As  a  rule,  user-
           defined capabilities intended for use by termcap applications should be
           limited to booleans and numbers to avoid running  past  the  1023  byte
           limit  assumed  by  termcap implementations and their applications.  In
           particular, providing extended sets  of  function  keys  (past  the  60
           numbered keys and the handful of special named keys) is best done using
           the longer names available using terminfo.

### A Sample Entry

           The  following  entry,  describing  an   ANSI-standard   terminal,   is
           representative of what a terminfo entry for a modern terminal typically
           looks like.

           ansi|ansi/pc-term compatible with color,
                   am, mc5i, mir, msgr,
                   colors#8, cols#80, it#8, lines#24, ncv#3, pairs#64,
                   acsc=+\020\,\021-\030.^Y0\333`\004a\261f\370g\361h\260
                        j\331k\277l\332m\300n\305o~p\304q\304r\304s_t\303
                        u\264v\301w\302x\263y\363z\362{\343|\330}\234~\376,
                   bel=^G, blink=\E[5m, bold=\E[1m, cbt=\E[Z, clear=\E[H\E[J,
                   cr=^M, cub=\E[%p1%dD, cub1=\E[D, cud=\E[%p1%dB, cud1=\E[B,
                   cuf=\E[%p1%dC, cuf1=\E[C, cup=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dH,
                   cuu=\E[%p1%dA, cuu1=\E[A, dch=\E[%p1%dP, dch1=\E[P,
                   dl=\E[%p1%dM, dl1=\E[M, ech=\E[%p1%dX, ed=\E[J, el=\E[K,
                   el1=\E[1K, home=\E[H, hpa=\E[%i%p1%dG, ht=\E[I, hts=\EH,
                   ich=\E[%p1%d@, il=\E[%p1%dL, il1=\E[L, ind=^J,
                   indn=\E[%p1%dS, invis=\E[8m, kbs=^H, kcbt=\E[Z, kcub1=\E[D,
                   kcud1=\E[B, kcuf1=\E[C, kcuu1=\E[A, khome=\E[H, kich1=\E[L,
                   mc4=\E[4i, mc5=\E[5i, nel=\r\E[S, op=\E[39;49m,
                   rep=%p1%c\E[%p2%{1}%-%db, rev=\E[7m, rin=\E[%p1%dT,
                   rmacs=\E[10m, rmpch=\E[10m, rmso=\E[m, rmul=\E[m,
                   s0ds=\E(B, s1ds=\E)B, s2ds=\E*B, s3ds=\E+B,
                   setab=\E[4%p1%dm, setaf=\E[3%p1%dm,
                   sgr=\E[0;10%?%p1%t;7%;
                              %?%p2%t;4%;
                              %?%p3%t;7%;
                              %?%p4%t;5%;
                              %?%p6%t;1%;
                              %?%p7%t;8%;
                              %?%p9%t;11%;m,
                   sgr0=\E[0;10m, smacs=\E[11m, smpch=\E[11m, smso=\E[7m,
                   smul=\E[4m, tbc=\E[3g, u6=\E[%i%d;%dR, u7=\E[6n,
                   u8=\E[?%[;0123456789]c, u9=\E[c, vpa=\E[%i%p1%dd,

           Entries may continue onto multiple lines by placing white space at  the
           beginning  of  each line except the first.  Comments may be included on
           lines beginning with "#".  Capabilities in terminfo are of three types:

           o   Boolean capabilities which indicate  that  the  terminal  has  some
               particular feature,

           o   numeric capabilities giving the size of the terminal or the size of
               particular delays, and

           o   string capabilities, which give a sequence which  can  be  used  to
               perform particular terminal operations.

### Types of Capabilities

           All capabilities have names.  For instance, the fact that ANSI-standard
           terminals have automatic margins (i.e., an automatic return  and  line-
           feed  when the end of a line is reached) is indicated by the capability
           am.  Hence the description of ansi includes am.   Numeric  capabilities
           are  followed  by  the  character  "#" and then a positive value.  Thus
           cols, which indicates the number of columns the terminal has, gives the
           value  "80" for ansi.  Values for numeric capabilities may be specified
           in decimal, octal or hexadecimal,  using  the  C  programming  language
           conventions (e.g., 255, 0377 and 0xff or 0xFF).

           Finally,  string  valued capabilities, such as el (clear to end of line
           sequence) are given by the two-character  code,  an  "=",  and  then  a
           string ending at the next following ",".

           A  number  of  escape  sequences  are  provided  in  the  string valued
           capabilities for easy encoding of characters there:

           o   Both \E and \e map to an ESCAPE character,

           o   ^x maps to a control-x for any appropriate x, and

           o   the sequences

                 \n, \l, \r, \t, \b, \f, and \s

               produce

                 newline, line-feed, return, tab, backspace, form-feed, and space,

               respectively.

           X/Open Curses does not say what "appropriate x" might be.  In practice,
           that  is a printable ASCII graphic character.  The special case "^?" is
           interpreted as DEL (127).  In all other cases, the character  value  is
           AND'd  with 0x1f, mapping to ASCII control codes in the range 0 through
           31.

           Other escapes include

           o   \^ for ^,

           o   \\ for \,

           o   \, for comma,

           o   \: for :,

           o   and \0 for null.

               \0 will produce \200, which does not terminate a string but behaves
               as  a null character on most terminals, providing CS7 is specified.
               See stty(1).

               The reason for this quirk is to maintain  binary  compatibility  of
               the  compiled  terminfo files with other implementations, e.g., the
               SVr4 systems, which document this.   Compiled  terminfo  files  use
               null-terminated  strings,  with  no  lengths.  Modifying this would
               require a new binary  format,  which  would  not  work  with  other
               implementations.

           Finally, characters may be given as three octal digits after a \.

           A  delay  in  milliseconds  may appear anywhere in a string capability,
           enclosed in $<..> brackets, as in el=\EK$<5>,  and  padding  characters
           are supplied by tputs(3x) to provide this delay.

           o   The  delay  must  be  a  number  with  at most one decimal place of
               precision; it may be followed by suffixes "*" or "/" or both.

           o   A "*" indicates that the padding required is  proportional  to  the
               number  of lines affected by the operation, and the amount given is
               the per-affected-unit padding required.  (In  the  case  of  insert
               character, the factor is still the number of lines affected.)

               Normally, padding is advisory if the device has the xon capability;
               it is used for cost computation but does not trigger delays.

           o   A "/" suffix indicates that the padding is mandatory and  forces  a
               delay of the given number of milliseconds even on devices for which
               xon is present to indicate flow control.

           Sometimes individual capabilities must be commented out.  To  do  this,
           put  a  period before the capability name.  For example, see the second
           ind in the example above.

### Fetching Compiled Descriptions

           The ncurses library  searches  for  terminal  descriptions  in  several
           places.   It  uses only the first description found.  The library has a
           compiled-in list of  places  to  search  which  can  be  overridden  by
           environment  variables.   Before starting to search, ncurses eliminates
           duplicates in its search list.

           o   If the environment variable TERMINFO is set, it is  interpreted  as
               the pathname of a directory containing the compiled description you
               are working on.  Only that directory is searched.

           o   If TERMINFO is not set, ncurses will instead look in the  directory
               $HOME/.terminfo for a compiled description.

           o   Next,  if  the  environment  variable TERMINFO_DIRS is set, ncurses
               will interpret the contents of that variable as a  list  of  colon-
               separated directories (or database files) to be searched.

               An  empty directory name (i.e., if the variable begins or ends with
               a colon, or contains adjacent colons) is interpreted as the  system
               location /usr/share/terminfo.

           o   Finally, ncurses searches these compiled-in locations:

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

               o   the   system   terminfo   directory,  /usr/share/terminfo  (the
                   compiled-in default).

### Preparing Descriptions

           We now outline how to prepare  descriptions  of  terminals.   The  most
           effective  way  to  prepare  a terminal description is by imitating the
           description of a similar  terminal  in  terminfo  and  to  build  up  a
           description gradually, using partial descriptions with vi or some other
           screen-oriented program to check that they are correct.  Be aware  that
           a  very  unusual terminal may expose deficiencies in the ability of the
           terminfo file to describe it or bugs in the screen-handling code of the
           test program.

           To  get the padding for insert line right (if the terminal manufacturer
           did not document it) a severe test is to edit  a  large  file  at  9600
           baud, delete 16 or so lines from the middle of the screen, then hit the
           "u" key several times quickly.  If the terminal messes up, more padding
           is usually needed.  A similar test can be used for insert character.

### Basic Capabilities

           The  number  of  columns  on each line for the terminal is given by the
           cols numeric capability.  If the terminal is a CRT, then the number  of
           lines  on the screen is given by the lines capability.  If the terminal
           wraps around to the beginning of the next  line  when  it  reaches  the
           right  margin,  then it should have the am capability.  If the terminal
           can clear its screen, leaving the cursor in  the  home  position,  then
           this  is  given  by  the  clear  string  capability.   If  the terminal
           overstrikes (rather than clearing a position when a character is struck
           over)  then  it  should  have  the os capability.  If the terminal is a
           printing terminal, with no soft copy unit, give it both hc and os.  (os
           applies  to  storage scope terminals, such as TEKTRONIX 4010 series, as
           well as hard copy and APL terminals.)  If there is a code to  move  the
           cursor to the left edge of the current row, give this as cr.  (Normally
           this will be carriage return,  control/M.)   If  there  is  a  code  to
           produce an audible signal (bell, beep, etc) give this as bel.

           If there is a code to move the cursor one position to the left (such as
           backspace) that capability should be given as cub1.   Similarly,  codes
           to  move  to the right, up, and down should be given as cuf1, cuu1, and
           cud1.  These local cursor motions should not alter the text  they  pass
           over,  for  example,  you  would  not normally use "cuf1= " because the
           space would erase the character moved over.

           A very important point here is that the local cursor motions encoded in
           terminfo  are  undefined  at  the left and top edges of a CRT terminal.
           Programs should never attempt to backspace around the left edge, unless
           bw  is given, and never attempt to go up locally off the top.  In order
           to scroll text up, a program will go to the bottom left corner  of  the
           screen and send the ind (index) string.

           To  scroll  text  down,  a  program  goes to the top left corner of the
           screen and sends the ri (reverse index) string.  The strings ind and ri
           are undefined when not on their respective corners of the screen.

           Parameterized  versions  of  the  scrolling  sequences are indn and rin
           which have the same semantics as ind and ri except that they  take  one
           parameter,  and scroll that many lines.  They are also undefined except
           at the appropriate edge of the screen.

           The am capability tells whether the cursor sticks at the right edge  of
           the  screen when text is output, but this does not necessarily apply to
           a cuf1 from the last column.  The only local motion  which  is  defined
           from  the  left  edge is if bw is given, then a cub1 from the left edge
           will move to the right edge of the previous row.  If bw is  not  given,
           the  effect  is undefined.  This is useful for drawing a box around the
           edge of the screen, for example.  If the terminal has switch selectable
           automatic  margins,  the terminfo file usually assumes that this is on;
           i.e., am.  If the terminal has a  command  which  moves  to  the  first
           column  of  the  next line, that command can be given as nel (newline).
           It does not matter if the command clears the remainder of  the  current
           line,  so  if the terminal has no cr and lf it may still be possible to
           craft a working nel out of one or both of them.

           These  capabilities  suffice  to  describe  hard-copy  and  "glass-tty"
           terminals.  Thus the model 33 teletype is described as

           33|tty33|tty|model 33 teletype,
                   bel=^G, cols#72, cr=^M, cud1=^J, hc, ind=^J, os,

           while the Lear Siegler ADM-3 is described as

           adm3|3|lsi adm3,
                   am, bel=^G, clear=^Z, cols#80, cr=^M, cub1=^H, cud1=^J,
                   ind=^J, lines#24,

### Parameterized Strings

           Cursor  addressing  and  other  strings  requiring  parameters  in  the
           terminal are described  by  a  parameterized  string  capability,  with
           printf-like  escapes  such  as  %x  in it.  For example, to address the
           cursor, the cup capability is given, using two parameters: the row  and
           column  to  address  to.   (Rows and columns are numbered from zero and
           refer to the physical screen visible to the user,  not  to  any  unseen
           memory.)   If  the terminal has memory relative cursor addressing, that
           can be indicated by mrcup.

           The parameter mechanism uses a stack and special % codes to  manipulate
           it.   Typically  a  sequence  will  push one of the parameters onto the
           stack and then print it in  some  format.   Print  (e.g.,  "%d")  is  a
           special  case.  Other operations, including "%t" pop their operand from
           the stack.   It  is  noted  that  more  complex  operations  are  often
           necessary, e.g., in the sgr string.

           The % encodings have the following meanings:

           %%   outputs "%"

           %[[:]flags][width[.precision]][doxXs]
                as  in  printf(3),  flags are [-+#] and space.  Use a ":" to allow
                the next character to be a "-" flag, avoiding interpreting "%-" as
                an operator.

           %c   print pop() like %c in printf

           %s   print pop() like %s in printf

           %p[1-9]
                push i'th parameter

           %P[a-z]
                set dynamic variable [a-z] to pop()

           %g[a-z]/
                get dynamic variable [a-z] and push it

           %P[A-Z]
                set static variable [a-z] to pop()

           %g[A-Z]
                get static variable [a-z] and push it

                The  terms  "static"  and "dynamic" are misleading.  Historically,
                these are simply two different sets of variables, whose values are
                not  reset  between calls to tparm(3x).  However, that fact is not
                documented in other implementations.  Relying on it will adversely
                impact portability to other implementations:

                o   SVr2  curses  supported dynamic variables.  Those are set only
                    by a %P operator.  A %g for a  given  variable  without  first
                    setting  it  with  %P will give unpredictable results, because
                    dynamic variables are an  uninitialized  local  array  on  the
                    stack in the tparm function.

                o   SVr3.2  curses supported static variables.  Those are an array
                    in the TERMINAL structure (declared in term.h), and are zeroed
                    automatically when the setupterm function allocates the data.

                o   SVr4 curses made no further improvements to the dynamic/static
                    variable feature.

                o   Solaris XPG4 curses does not distinguish between  dynamic  and
                    static  variables.  They are the same.  Like SVr4 curses, XPG4
                    curses does not initialize these explicitly.

                o   Before version 6.3, ncurses stores  both  dynamic  and  static
                    variables in persistent storage, initialized to zeros.

                o   Beginning  with version 6.3, ncurses stores static and dynamic
                    variables  in  the  same  manner  as   SVr4.    Unlike   other
                    implementations,  ncurses  zeros  dynamic variables before the
                    first %g or %P operator.

           %'c' char constant c

           %{nn}
                integer constant nn

           %l   push strlen(pop)

           %+, %-, %*, %/, %m
                arithmetic (%m is mod): push(pop() op pop())

           %&, %|, %^
                bit operations (AND, OR and exclusive-OR): push(pop() op pop())

           %=, %>, %<
                logical operations: push(pop() op pop())

           %A, %O
                logical AND and OR operations (for conditionals)

           %!, %~
                unary operations (logical and bit complement): push(op pop())

           %i   add 1 to first two parameters (for ANSI terminals)

           %? expr %t thenpart %e elsepart %;
                This forms an if-then-else.  The %e elsepart is optional.  Usually
                the  %?  expr  part  pushes a value onto the stack, and %t pops it
                from the stack, testing if it is nonzero (true).  If  it  is  zero
                (false), control passes to the %e (else) part.

                It is possible to form else-if's a la Algol 68:
                %? c1 %t b1 %e c2 %t b2 %e c3 %t b3 %e c4 %t b4 %e %;

                where ci are conditions, bi are bodies.

                Use  the  -f  option of tic or infocmp to see the structure of if-
                then-else's.  Some strings, e.g., sgr can be very complicated when
                written  on  one line.  The -f option splits the string into lines
                with the parts indented.

           Binary operations are in postfix form with the operands  in  the  usual
           order.   That  is,  to  get  x-5  one would use "%gx%{5}%-".  %P and %g
           variables are persistent across escape-string evaluations.

           Consider the HP2645, which, to get to row 3 and column 12, needs to  be
           sent  \E&a12c03Y padded for 6 milliseconds.  Note that the order of the
           rows and columns is inverted here, and that  the  row  and  column  are
           printed    as    two    digits.     Thus    its   cup   capability   is
           "cup=6\E&%p2%2dc%p1%2dY".

           The Microterm ACT-IV needs the current row and column sent preceded  by
           a   ^T,   with   the   row   and   column  simply  encoded  in  binary,
           "cup=^T%p1%c%p2%c".  Terminals which  use  "%c"  need  to  be  able  to
           backspace  the cursor (cub1), and to move the cursor up one line on the
           screen (cuu1).  This is necessary because it  is  not  always  safe  to
           transmit  \n ^D and \r, as the system may change or discard them.  (The
           library routines dealing with terminfo set tty modes so that  tabs  are
           never  expanded, so \t is safe to send.  This turns out to be essential
           for the Ann Arbor 4080.)

           A final example is the LSI ADM-3a, which uses row and column offset  by
           a blank character, thus "cup=\E=%p1%' '%+%c%p2%' '%+%c".  After sending
           "\E=", this pushes the first parameter, pushes the ASCII  value  for  a
           space (32), adds them (pushing the sum on the stack in place of the two
           previous values) and outputs that value as a character.  Then the  same
           is  done for the second parameter.  More complex arithmetic is possible
           using the stack.

### Cursor Motions

           If the terminal has a fast way to home the cursor (to very  upper  left
           corner  of screen) then this can be given as home; similarly a fast way
           of getting to the lower left-hand corner can be given as ll;  this  may
           involve going up with cuu1 from the home position, but a program should
           never do this itself (unless ll does) because it can make no assumption
           about  the  effect  of moving up from the home position.  Note that the
           home position is the same as addressing  to  (0,0):  to  the  top  left
           corner  of  the  screen,  not of memory.  (Thus, the \EH sequence on HP
           terminals cannot be used for home.)

           If the terminal has row or column absolute cursor addressing, these can
           be  given  as  single  parameter  capabilities hpa (horizontal position
           absolute) and vpa (vertical position absolute).   Sometimes  these  are
           shorter  than  the  more  general  two  parameter sequence (as with the
           hp2645)  and  can  be  used  in  preference  to  cup.   If  there   are
           parameterized  local  motions  (e.g., move n spaces to the right) these
           can be given as  cud,  cub,  cuf,  and  cuu  with  a  single  parameter
           indicating  how many spaces to move.  These are primarily useful if the
           terminal does not have cup, such as the TEKTRONIX 4025.

           If the terminal needs to be in a special mode when  running  a  program
           that uses these capabilities, the codes to enter and exit this mode can
           be given as smcup and rmcup.  This arises, for example, from  terminals
           like  the  Concept  with more than one page of memory.  If the terminal
           has only memory relative cursor  addressing  and  not  screen  relative
           cursor  addressing,  a  one  screen-sized window must be fixed into the
           terminal for cursor addressing to work properly.  This is also used for
           the  TEKTRONIX  4025,  where smcup sets the command character to be the
           one used by terminfo.  If the  smcup  sequence  will  not  restore  the
           screen  after  an  rmcup  sequence  is  output  (to  the state prior to
           outputting rmcup), specify nrrmc.

### Margins

           SVr4 (and X/Open Curses) list several string capabilities  for  setting
           margins.   Two  were  intended  for use with terminals, and another six
           were intended for use with printers.

           o   The two terminal capabilities assume that the terminal may have the
               capability  of  setting the left and/or right margin at the current
               cursor column position.

           o   The printer capabilities assume that the printer may have two types
               of capability:

               o   the ability to set a top and/or bottom margin using the current
                   line position, and

               o   parameterized capabilities for setting the top,  bottom,  left,
                   right margins given the number of rows or columns.

           In  practice,  the  categorization into "terminal" and "printer" is not
           suitable:

           o   The AT&T SVr4 terminal database uses  smgl  four  times,  for  AT&T
               hardware.

               Three  of  the  four  are  printers.   They lack the ability to set
               left/right margins by specifying the column.

           o   Other (non-AT&T) terminals may support margins but using  different
               assumptions from AT&T.

               For  instance,  the DEC VT420 supports left/right margins, but only
               using a column parameter.  As an added complication, the VT420 uses
               two  settings to fully enable left/right margins (left/right margin
               mode, and origin mode).  The  former  enables  the  margins,  which
               causes  printed  text  to  wrap  within  margins, but the latter is
               needed to prevent cursor-addressing outside those margins.

           o   Both DEC VT420 left/right margins are set  with  a  single  control
               sequence.  If either is omitted, the corresponding margin is set to
               the left or right edge of the  display  (rather  than  leaving  the
               margin unmodified).

           These are the margin-related capabilities:

                    Name       Description
                    ------------------------------------------------------
                    smgl       Set left margin at current column
                    smgr       Set right margin at current column
                    smgb       Set bottom margin at current line
                    smgt       Set top margin at current line
                    smgbp      Set bottom margin at line N
                    smglp      Set left margin at column N
                    smgrp      Set right margin at column N
                    smgtp      Set top margin at line N
                    smglr      Set both left and right margins to L and R
                    smgtb      Set both top and bottom margins to T and B

           When  writing  an  application that uses these string capabilities, the
           pairs should be first checked to see if each capability in the pair  is
           set or only one is set:

           o   If  both  smglp  and  smgrp  are  set,  each  is used with a single
               argument, N, that gives the column number of  the  left  and  right
               margin, respectively.

           o   If  both  smgtp  and smgbp are set, each is used to set the top and
               bottom margin, respectively:

               o   smgtp is used with a single argument, N, the line number of the
                   top margin.

               o   smgbp  is  used with two arguments, N and M, that give the line
                   number of the bottom margin, the first counting from the top of
                   the  page  and  the  second  counting  from  the  bottom.  This
                   accommodates the two styles of specifying the bottom margin  in
                   different manufacturers' printers.

               When  designing  a terminfo entry for a printer that has a settable
               bottom margin, only the first or second argument  should  be  used,
               depending on the printer.  When developing an application that uses
               smgbp to set the bottom margin, both arguments must be given.

           Conversely, when only one capability in the pair is set:

           o   If only one of smglp and smgrp is set, then it  is  used  with  two
               arguments, the column number of the left and right margins, in that
               order.

           o   Likewise, if only one of smgtp and smgbp is set, then  it  is  used
               with  two  arguments  that give the top and bottom margins, in that
               order, counting from the top of the page.

               When designing a terminfo entry for a printer that requires setting
               both  left and right or top and bottom margins simultaneously, only
               one capability in the pairs smglp and  smgrp  or  smgtp  and  smgbp
               should be defined, leaving the other unset.

           Except  for  very  old terminal descriptions, e.g., those developed for
           SVr4, the scheme just described  should  be  considered  obsolete.   An
           improved set of capabilities was added late in the SVr4 releases (smglr
           and smgtb),  which  explicitly  use  two  parameters  for  setting  the
           left/right or top/bottom margins.

           When setting margins, the line- and column-values are zero-based.

           The  mgc  string  capability  should  be defined.  Applications such as
           tabs(1) rely upon this to reset all margins.

### Area Clears

           If the terminal can clear from the current position to the end  of  the
           line,  leaving  the cursor where it is, this should be given as el.  If
           the terminal can clear from the beginning of the line  to  the  current
           position  inclusive,  leaving  the  cursor  where it is, this should be
           given as el1.  If the terminal can clear from the current  position  to
           the  end  of  the display, then this should be given as ed.  Ed is only
           defined from the first column of a line.  (Thus, it can be simulated by
           a  request  to  delete  a  large  number  of lines, if a true ed is not
           available.)

### Insert/delete line and vertical motions

           If the terminal can open a new blank line before  the  line  where  the
           cursor  is,  this  should  be  given as il1; this is done only from the
           first position of a line.  The cursor must then  appear  on  the  newly
           blank  line.   If  the terminal can delete the line which the cursor is
           on, then this should be given as dl1; this is done only from the  first
           position on the line to be deleted.  Versions of il1 and dl1 which take
           a single parameter and insert or delete that many lines can be given as
           il and dl.

           If  the  terminal  has a settable scrolling region (like the vt100) the
           command to set this can be described with  the  csr  capability,  which
           takes two parameters: the top and bottom lines of the scrolling region.
           The cursor position is, alas, undefined after using this command.

           It is possible to get the effect of insert or delete line using csr  on
           a  properly  chosen  region;  the  sc  and rc (save and restore cursor)
           commands may be useful for ensuring that your synthesized insert/delete
           string  does  not  move the cursor.  (Note that the ncurses(3x) library
           does  this  synthesis  automatically,   so   you   need   not   compose
           insert/delete strings for an entry with csr).

           Yet  another  way  to  construct  insert  and  delete might be to use a
           combination of  index  with  the  memory-lock  feature  found  on  some
           terminals   (like   the   HP-700/90  series,  which  however  also  has
           insert/delete).

           Inserting lines at the top or bottom of the screen  can  also  be  done
           using  ri  or  ind on many terminals without a true insert/delete line,
           and is often faster even on terminals with those features.

           The boolean non_dest_scroll_region should  be  set  if  each  scrolling
           window  is  effectively  a view port on a screen-sized canvas.  To test
           for this capability, create a scrolling region in  the  middle  of  the
           screen,  write something to the bottom line, move the cursor to the top
           of the region, and do ri followed by dl1 or ind.  If the data  scrolled
           off  the  bottom  of the region by the ri re-appears, then scrolling is
           non-destructive.  System V and XSI Curses expect that  ind,  ri,  indn,
           and  rin  will  simulate  destructive  scrolling;  their  documentation
           cautions you not to define  csr  unless  this  is  true.   This  curses
           implementation  is  more  liberal  and  will  do  explicit erases after
           scrolling if ndsrc is defined.

           If the terminal has the ability to define a window as part  of  memory,
           which  all  commands  affect,  it  should be given as the parameterized
           string wind.  The four parameters are the starting and ending lines  in
           memory and the starting and ending columns in memory, in that order.

           If the terminal can retain display memory above, then the da capability
           should be given; if display memory  can  be  retained  below,  then  db
           should  be given.  These indicate that deleting a line or scrolling may
           bring non-blank lines up from below or that scrolling back with ri  may
           bring down non-blank lines.

### Insert/Delete Character

           There  are  two  basic  kinds  of intelligent terminals with respect to
           insert/delete character which can be  described  using  terminfo.   The
           most   common   insert/delete  character  operations  affect  only  the
           characters on the current line and shift characters off the end of  the
           line  rigidly.  Other terminals, such as the Concept 100 and the Perkin
           Elmer Owl, make a distinction between typed and untyped blanks  on  the
           screen,  shifting  upon an insert or delete only to an untyped blank on
           the screen which is either  eliminated,  or  expanded  to  two  untyped
           blanks.

           You  can determine the kind of terminal you have by clearing the screen
           and then typing text separated by cursor  motions.   Type  "abc    def"
           using  local  cursor  motions  (not  spaces)  between the "abc" and the
           "def".  Then position the cursor before the "abc" and put the  terminal
           in  insert  mode.   If typing characters causes the rest of the line to
           shift rigidly and characters to fall off the end,  then  your  terminal
           does  not  distinguish  between  blanks  and untyped positions.  If the
           "abc" shifts over to the "def" which then move together around the  end
           of  the  current  line  and  onto  the next as you insert, you have the
           second type of terminal, and  should  give  the  capability  in,  which
           stands for "insert null".

           While  these  are  two  logically  separate attributes (one line versus
           multi-line insert mode, and special treatment  of  untyped  spaces)  we
           have  seen  no terminals whose insert mode cannot be described with the
           single attribute.

           Terminfo can describe both terminals which have  an  insert  mode,  and
           terminals  which send a simple sequence to open a blank position on the
           current line.  Give as smir the sequence to get into insert mode.  Give
           as  rmir  the  sequence  to  leave  insert  mode.  Now give as ich1 any
           sequence needed to be sent just before  sending  the  character  to  be
           inserted.   Most  terminals with a true insert mode will not give ich1;
           terminals which send a sequence to open a screen position  should  give
           it here.

           If  your  terminal has both, insert mode is usually preferable to ich1.
           Technically, you should not give  both  unless  the  terminal  actually
           requires  both to be used in combination.  Accordingly, some non-curses
           applications get confused if both are present; the symptom  is  doubled
           characters  in  an  update using insert.  This requirement is now rare;
           most ich sequences do not require previous smir, and most  smir  insert
           modes  do  not  require ich1 before each character.  Therefore, the new
           curses actually assumes this is the case and uses either  rmir/smir  or
           ich/ich1  as appropriate (but not both).  If you have to write an entry
           to be used under new curses for a terminal old  enough  to  need  both,
           include the rmir/smir sequences in ich1.

           If post insert padding is needed, give this as a number of milliseconds
           in ip (a string option).  Any other sequence which may need to be  sent
           after an insert of a single character may also be given in ip.  If your
           terminal needs both to be placed into an "insert mode"  and  a  special
           code  to  precede each inserted character, then both smir/rmir and ich1
           can be given, and both will be used.   The  ich  capability,  with  one
           parameter, n, will repeat the effects of ich1 n times.

           If  padding  is  necessary between characters typed while not in insert
           mode, give this as a number of milliseconds padding in rmp.

           It is occasionally necessary to move around while  in  insert  mode  to
           delete  characters  on the same line (e.g., if there is a tab after the
           insertion position).  If your terminal allows motion  while  in  insert
           mode  you  can  give  the  capability mir to speed up inserting in this
           case.  Omitting mir will affect only speed.   Some  terminals  (notably
           Datamedia's)  must  not  have  mir because of the way their insert mode
           works.

           Finally, you can specify dch1 to delete a single  character,  dch  with
           one  parameter,  n,  to  delete n characters, and delete mode by giving
           smdc and rmdc to enter and exit delete  mode  (any  mode  the  terminal
           needs to be placed in for dch1 to work).

           A  command  to  erase  n  characters (equivalent to outputting n blanks
           without moving the cursor) can be given as ech with one parameter.

### Highlighting, Underlining, and Visible Bells

           If your terminal has one or more kinds of display attributes, these can
           be  represented  in  a number of different ways.  You should choose one
           display form as standout mode,  representing  a  good,  high  contrast,
           easy-on-the-eyes,  format  for  highlighting  error  messages and other
           attention getters.  (If you have a choice,  reverse  video  plus  half-
           bright  is  good,  or reverse video alone.)  The sequences to enter and
           exit standout mode are given as smso and rmso,  respectively.   If  the
           code  to  change  into  or  out of standout mode leaves one or even two
           blank spaces on the screen, as the TVI 912 and Teleray  1061  do,  then
           xmc should be given to tell how many spaces are left.

           Codes to begin underlining and end underlining can be given as smul and
           rmul respectively.  If the terminal has a code to underline the current
           character  and  move  the  cursor  one  space to the right, such as the
           Microterm Mime, this can be given as uc.

           Other capabilities to enter various highlighting  modes  include  blink
           (blinking)  bold  (bold or extra bright) dim (dim or half-bright) invis
           (blanking or invisible text) prot (protected) rev (reverse video)  sgr0
           (turn  off  all  attribute  modes) smacs (enter alternate character set
           mode) and rmacs (exit alternate character set mode).  Turning on any of
           these modes singly may or may not turn off other modes.

           If  there  is  a  sequence to set arbitrary combinations of modes, this
           should be given as sgr (set attributes),  taking  9  parameters.   Each
           parameter  is either 0 or nonzero, as the corresponding attribute is on
           or off.  The 9 parameters are, in order: standout, underline,  reverse,
           blink,  dim,  bold,  blank,  protect, alternate character set.  Not all
           modes need be supported by sgr,  only  those  for  which  corresponding
           separate attribute commands exist.

           For example, the DEC vt220 supports most of the modes:

                   tparm parameter      attribute        escape sequence

                   none                 none             \E[0m
                   p1                   standout         \E[0;1;7m
                   p2                   underline        \E[0;4m
                   p3                   reverse          \E[0;7m
                   p4                   blink            \E[0;5m
                   p5                   dim              not available
                   p6                   bold             \E[0;1m
                   p7                   invis            \E[0;8m
                   p8                   protect          not used
                   p9                   altcharset       ^O (off) ^N (on)

           We  begin each escape sequence by turning off any existing modes, since
           there is no quick way to determine whether they are  active.   Standout
           is  set  up  to  be  the  combination  of  reverse and bold.  The vt220
           terminal has a protect mode, though it is  not  commonly  used  in  sgr
           because  it protects characters on the screen from the host's erasures.
           The altcharset mode also is different in that it is either  ^O  or  ^N,
           depending  on whether it is off or on.  If all modes are turned on, the
           resulting sequence is \E[0;1;4;5;7;8m^N.

           Some sequences are common to  different  modes.   For  example,  ;7  is
           output  when  either  p1  or p3 is true, that is, if either standout or
           reverse modes are turned on.

           Writing out the above sequences, along with their dependencies yields

                sequence             when to output      terminfo translation

                \E[0                 always              \E[0
                ;1                   if p1 or p6         %?%p1%p6%|%t;1%;
                ;4                   if p2               %?%p2%|%t;4%;
                ;5                   if p4               %?%p4%|%t;5%;
                ;7                   if p1 or p3         %?%p1%p3%|%t;7%;
                ;8                   if p7               %?%p7%|%t;8%;
                m                    always              m
                ^N or ^O             if p9 ^N, else ^O   %?%p9%t^N%e^O%;

           Putting this all together into the sgr sequence gives:

               sgr=\E[0%?%p1%p6%|%t;1%;%?%p2%t;4%;%?%p4%t;5%;
                   %?%p1%p3%|%t;7%;%?%p7%t;8%;m%?%p9%t\016%e\017%;,

           Remember that if you specify sgr, you must also  specify  sgr0.   Also,
           some  implementations  rely  on  sgr  being  given  if sgr0 is, Not all
           terminfo  entries  necessarily  have  an  sgr  string,  however.   Many
           terminfo  entries  are  derived  from termcap entries which have no sgr
           string.  The only drawback to adding an sgr string is that termcap also
           assumes that sgr0 does not exit alternate character set mode.

           Terminals   with  the  "magic  cookie"  glitch  (xmc)  deposit  special
           "cookies" when they receive mode-setting sequences,  which  affect  the
           display  algorithm  rather  than  having extra bits for each character.
           Some terminals, such as the HP 2621, automatically leave standout  mode
           when  they  move  to  a  new line or the cursor is addressed.  Programs
           using standout mode should exit standout mode before moving the  cursor
           or  sending a newline, unless the msgr capability, asserting that it is
           safe to move in standout mode, is present.

           If the terminal has a way of flashing the screen to indicate  an  error
           quietly  (a  bell replacement) then this can be given as flash; it must
           not move the cursor.

           If the cursor needs to be made more visible than normal when it is  not
           on the bottom line (to make, for example, a non-blinking underline into
           an easier to find block or blinking underline) give  this  sequence  as
           cvvis.  If there is a way to make the cursor completely invisible, give
           that as civis.  The capability cnorm should be given which  undoes  the
           effects of both of these modes.

           If  your  terminal  correctly  generates underlined characters (with no
           special codes needed) even though it  does  not  overstrike,  then  you
           should  give  the  capability  ul.  If a character overstriking another
           leaves both characters on the screen, specify the  capability  os.   If
           overstrikes are erasable with a blank, then this should be indicated by
           giving eo.

### Keypad and Function Keys

           If the terminal has a keypad that transmits codes  when  the  keys  are
           pressed,  this  information can be given.  Note that it is not possible
           to handle terminals where the keypad only works in local (this applies,
           for  example, to the unshifted HP 2621 keys).  If the keypad can be set
           to transmit or not  transmit,  give  these  codes  as  smkx  and  rmkx.
           Otherwise the keypad is assumed to always transmit.

           The  codes  sent  by the left arrow, right arrow, up arrow, down arrow,
           and home keys can be given as kcub1, kcuf1,  kcuu1,  kcud1,  and  khome
           respectively.  If there are function keys such as f0, f1, ..., f10, the
           codes they send can be given as kf0, kf1, ...,  kf10.   If  these  keys
           have  labels  other  than the default f0 through f10, the labels can be
           given as lf0, lf1, ..., lf10.

           The codes transmitted by certain other special keys can be given:

           o   kll (home down),

           o   kbs (backspace),

           o   ktbc (clear all tabs),

           o   kctab (clear the tab stop in this column),

           o   kclr (clear screen or erase key),

           o   kdch1 (delete character),

           o   kdl1 (delete line),

           o   krmir (exit insert mode),

           o   kel (clear to end of line),

           o   ked (clear to end of screen),

           o   kich1 (insert character or enter insert mode),

           o   kil1 (insert line),

           o   knp (next page),

           o   kpp (previous page),

           o   kind (scroll forward/down),

           o   kri (scroll backward/up),

           o   khts (set a tab stop in this column).

           In addition, if the keypad has a 3 by 3 array  of  keys  including  the
           four  arrow  keys,  the  other five keys can be given as ka1, ka3, kb2,
           kc1, and kc3.  These keys are useful when the  effects  of  a  3  by  3
           directional pad are needed.

           Strings to program function keys can be given as pfkey, pfloc, and pfx.
           A string to program screen labels should be specified as pln.  Each  of
           these  strings takes two parameters: the function key number to program
           (from 0 to 10) and the string to program it with.  Function key numbers
           out  of  this  range may program undefined keys in a terminal dependent
           manner.  The difference between the capabilities is that  pfkey  causes
           pressing  the  given  key  to  be the same as the user typing the given
           string; pfloc causes the string to  be  executed  by  the  terminal  in
           local; and pfx causes the string to be transmitted to the computer.

           The  capabilities  nlab,  lw  and  lh define the number of programmable
           screen labels and their width and height.  If  there  are  commands  to
           turn  the  labels  on  and  off,  give  them in smln and rmln.  smln is
           normally output after one or more pln sequences to make sure  that  the
           change becomes visible.

### Tabs and Initialization

           A few capabilities are used only for tabs:

           o   If  the  terminal  has hardware tabs, the command to advance to the
               next tab stop can be given as ht (usually control/I).

           o   A "back-tab" command which moves leftward to the preceding tab stop
               can be given as cbt.

               By  convention,  if the teletype modes indicate that tabs are being
               expanded by the computer rather than being sent  to  the  terminal,
               programs  should  not use ht or cbt even if they are present, since
               the user may not have the tab stops properly set.

           o   If the terminal has hardware tabs which are initially set  every  n
               spaces when the terminal is powered up, the numeric parameter it is
               given, showing the number of spaces the tabs are set to.

               The it capability is normally used by the tset command to determine
               whether  to set the mode for hardware tab expansion, and whether to
               set the tab stops.  If the terminal has tab stops that can be saved
               in  non-volatile  memory,  the terminfo description can assume that
               they are properly set.

           Other capabilities include

           o   is1, is2, and is3, initialization strings for the terminal,

           o   iprog, the path name of a program  to  be  run  to  initialize  the
               terminal,

           o   and if, the name of a file containing long initialization strings.

           These  strings  are  expected to set the terminal into modes consistent
           with the rest of the terminfo description.  They are normally  sent  to
           the  terminal,  by  the  init option of the tput program, each time the
           user logs in.  They will be printed in the following order:

                  run the program
                         iprog

                  output
                         is1 and
                         is2

                  set the margins using
                         mgc or
                         smglp and smgrp or
                         smgl and smgr

                  set tabs using
                         tbc and hts

                  print the file
                         if

                  and finally output
                         is3.

           Most initialization is done with is2.  Special terminal  modes  can  be
           set  up  without duplicating strings by putting the common sequences in
           is2 and special cases in is1 and is3.

           A set of sequences that does a harder  reset  from  a  totally  unknown
           state can be given as rs1, rs2, rf and rs3, analogous to is1 , is2 , if
           and is3 respectively.  These strings are  output  by  reset  option  of
           tput,  or  by  the reset program (an alias of tset), which is used when
           the terminal gets into a wedged state.  Commands are normally placed in
           rs1, rs2 rs3 and rf only if they produce annoying effects on the screen
           and are not necessary when logging in.  For example, the command to set
           the  vt100  into  80-column  mode would normally be part of is2, but it
           causes an annoying glitch of the screen  and  is  not  normally  needed
           since the terminal is usually already in 80-column mode.

           The  reset  program  writes  strings including iprog, etc., in the same
           order as the init program, using rs1, etc., instead of  is1,  etc.   If
           any  of  rs1, rs2, rs3, or rf reset capability strings are missing, the
           reset  program  falls  back  upon  the   corresponding   initialization
           capability string.

           If  there are commands to set and clear tab stops, they can be given as
           tbc (clear all tab stops) and hts (set a tab stop in the current column
           of  every  row).   If a more complex sequence is needed to set the tabs
           than can be described by this, the sequence can be placed in is2 or if.

           The tput reset command uses the same capability strings  as  the  reset
           command,  although  the two programs (tput and reset) provide different
           command-line options.

           In  practice,  these  terminfo  capabilities  are  not  often  used  in
           initialization of tabs (though they are required for the tabs program):

           o   Almost all hardware terminals (at least those which supported tabs)
               initialized those to every eight columns:

               The only exception was the AT&T 2300  series,  which  set  tabs  to
               every five columns.

           o   In  particular,  developers  of  the  hardware  terminals which are
               commonly used as models  for  modern  terminal  emulators  provided
               documentation demonstrating that eight columns were the standard.

           o   Because of this, the terminal initialization programs tput and tset
               use  the  tbc  (clear_all_tabs)  and  hts  (set_tab)   capabilities
               directly  only when the it (init_tabs) capability is set to a value
               other than eight.

### Delays and Padding

           Many older and slower terminals do not support either XON/XOFF  or  DTR
           handshaking,  including  hard copy terminals and some very archaic CRTs
           (including, for  example,  DEC  VT100s).   These  may  require  padding
           characters after certain cursor motions and screen changes.

           If the terminal uses xon/xoff handshaking for flow control (that is, it
           automatically emits ^S back to the host  when  its  input  buffers  are
           close  to  full),  set xon.  This capability suppresses the emission of
           padding.  You  can  also  set  it  for  memory-mapped  console  devices
           effectively that do not have a speed limit.  Padding information should
           still be included so that routines  can  make  better  decisions  about
           relative costs, but actual pad characters will not be transmitted.

           If pb (padding baud rate) is given, padding is suppressed at baud rates
           below the value of pb.  If the entry has no  padding  baud  rate,  then
           whether padding is emitted or not is completely controlled by xon.

           If  the  terminal requires other than a null (zero) character as a pad,
           then this can be given as pad.  Only the first  character  of  the  pad
           string is used.

### Status Lines

           Some  terminals  have an extra "status line" which is not normally used
           by software (and thus not counted in the terminal's lines capability).

           The simplest case is a status line which is cursor-addressable but  not
           part of the main scrolling region on the screen; the Heathkit H19 has a
           status line of this kind, as would  a  24-line  VT100  with  a  23-line
           scrolling region set up on initialization.  This situation is indicated
           by the hs capability.

           Some terminals with status lines need special sequences to  access  the
           status  line.  These may be expressed as a string with single parameter
           tsl which takes the cursor to a given zero-origin column on the  status
           line.   The  capability  fsl  must  return  to  the  main-screen cursor
           positions before the last tsl.  You may need to embed the string values
           of  sc  (save  cursor)  and  rc  (restore  cursor)  in  tsl  and fsl to
           accomplish this.

           The status line is normally assumed to be the same width as  the  width
           of  the  terminal.   If  this  is  untrue,  you can specify it with the
           numeric capability wsl.

           A command to erase or blank the status line may be specified as dsl.

           The boolean capability eslok specifies  that  escape  sequences,  tabs,
           etc., work ordinarily in the status line.

           The  ncurses implementation does not yet use any of these capabilities.
           They are documented here in case they ever become important.

### Line Graphics

           Many terminals have alternate character sets useful for  forms-drawing.
           Terminfo  and  curses  have  built-in  support  for most of the drawing
           characters supported by the VT100, with some characters from  the  AT&T
           4410v1  added.   This  alternate  character set may be specified by the
           acsc capability.

             Glyph                       ACS            Ascii     acsc     acsc
             Name                        Name           Default   Char     Value
             --------------------------------------------------------------------
             arrow pointing right        ACS_RARROW     >         +        0x2b
             arrow pointing left         ACS_LARROW     <         ,        0x2c
             arrow pointing up           ACS_UARROW     ^         -        0x2d
             arrow pointing down         ACS_DARROW     v         .        0x2e
             solid square block          ACS_BLOCK      #         0        0x30
             diamond                     ACS_DIAMOND    +         `        0x60
             checker board (stipple)     ACS_CKBOARD    :         a        0x61
             degree symbol               ACS_DEGREE     \         f        0x66
             plus/minus                  ACS_PLMINUS    #         g        0x67
             board of squares            ACS_BOARD      #         h        0x68
             lantern symbol              ACS_LANTERN    #         i        0x69
             lower right corner          ACS_LRCORNER   +         j        0x6a

             upper right corner          ACS_URCORNER   +         k        0x6b
             upper left corner           ACS_ULCORNER   +         l        0x6c
             lower left corner           ACS_LLCORNER   +         m        0x6d
             large plus or crossover     ACS_PLUS       +         n        0x6e
             scan line 1                 ACS_S1         ~         o        0x6f
             scan line 3                 ACS_S3         -         p        0x70
             horizontal line             ACS_HLINE      -         q        0x71
             scan line 7                 ACS_S7         -         r        0x72
             scan line 9                 ACS_S9         _         s        0x73
             tee pointing right          ACS_LTEE       +         t        0x74
             tee pointing left           ACS_RTEE       +         u        0x75
             tee pointing up             ACS_BTEE       +         v        0x76
             tee pointing down           ACS_TTEE       +         w        0x77
             vertical line               ACS_VLINE      |         x        0x78
             less-than-or-equal-to       ACS_LEQUAL     <         y        0x79
             greater-than-or-equal-to    ACS_GEQUAL     >         z        0x7a
             greek pi                    ACS_PI         *         {        0x7b
             not-equal                   ACS_NEQUAL     !         |        0x7c
             UK pound sign               ACS_STERLING   f         }        0x7d
             bullet                      ACS_BULLET     o         ~        0x7e

           A few notes apply to the table itself:

           o   X/Open Curses incorrectly states that the mapping  for  lantern  is
               uppercase  "I"  although Unix implementations use the lowercase "i"
               mapping.

           o   The DEC VT100 implemented graphics using  the  alternate  character
               set  feature, temporarily switching modes and sending characters in
               the range 0x60 (96) to 0x7e (126) (the acsc  Value  column  in  the
               table).

           o   The AT&T terminal added graphics characters outside that range.

               Some  of  the  characters  within the range do not match the VT100;
               presumably they were used in the AT&T terminal:  board  of  squares
               replaces  the  VT100  newline symbol, while lantern symbol replaces
               the VT100 vertical tab symbol.  The other VT100 symbols for control
               characters  (horizontal tab, carriage return and line-feed) are not
               (re)used in curses.

           The best way to define a new device's graphics set is to add  a  column
           to  a  copy of this table for your terminal, giving the character which
           (when emitted between smacs/rmacs switches) will  be  rendered  as  the
           corresponding graphic.  Then read off the VT100/your terminal character
           pairs right to left in sequence; these become the ACSC string.

### Color Handling

           The curses library functions init_pair and  init_color  manipulate  the
           color   pairs   and   color  values  discussed  in  this  section  (see
           curs_color(3x) for details on these and related functions).

           Most color terminals are either "Tektronix-like" or "HP-like":

           o   Tektronix-like terminals have a predefined set of N colors (where N
               is usually 8), and can set character-cell foreground and background
               characters independently, mixing them into N * N color-pairs.

           o   On HP-like  terminals,  the  user  must  set  each  color  pair  up
               separately   (foreground   and  background  are  not  independently
               settable).  Up to M color-pairs may be set up  from  2*M  different
               colors.  ANSI-compatible terminals are Tektronix-like.

           Some basic color capabilities are independent of the color method.  The
           numeric capabilities colors and pairs specify the  maximum  numbers  of
           colors  and  color-pairs  that can be displayed simultaneously.  The op
           (original pair) string resets foreground and background colors to their
           default  values  for  the terminal.  The oc string resets all colors or
           color-pairs to their default values for the terminal.   Some  terminals
           (including  many  PC  terminal  emulators)  erase screen areas with the
           current background color rather than the power-up  default  background;
           these should have the boolean capability bce.

           While  the  curses  library  works  with  color  pairs  (reflecting the
           inability of some devices  to  set  foreground  and  background  colors
           independently),  there  are  separate  capabilities  for  setting these
           features:

           o   To  change  the  current  foreground  or  background  color  on   a
               Tektronix-type  terminal, use setaf (set ANSI foreground) and setab
               (set ANSI background)  or  setf  (set  foreground)  and  setb  (set
               background).  These take one parameter, the color number.  The SVr4
               documentation describes only setaf/setab; the XPG4 draft says  that
               "If  the  terminal supports ANSI escape sequences to set background
               and  foreground,  they  should  be  coded  as  setaf   and   setab,
               respectively.

           o   If  the  terminal supports other escape sequences to set background
               and  foreground,  they  should  be  coded   as   setf   and   setb,
               respectively.   The  vidputs  and the refresh(3x) functions use the
               setaf and setab capabilities if they are defined.

           The setaf/setab  and  setf/setb  capabilities  take  a  single  numeric
           argument each.  Argument values 0-7 of setaf/setab are portably defined
           as follows (the middle column is the symbolic #define available in  the
           header  for the curses or ncurses libraries).  The terminal hardware is
           free to map these as it likes,  but  the  RGB  values  indicate  normal
           locations in color space.

                        Color       #define       Value       RGB
                        black     COLOR_BLACK       0     0, 0, 0
                        red       COLOR_RED         1     max,0,0
                        green     COLOR_GREEN       2     0,max,0
                        yellow    COLOR_YELLOW      3     max,max,0
                        blue      COLOR_BLUE        4     0,0,max
                        magenta   COLOR_MAGENTA     5     max,0,max
                        cyan      COLOR_CYAN        6     0,max,max
                        white     COLOR_WHITE       7     max,max,max

           The argument values of setf/setb historically correspond to a different
           mapping, i.e.,

                        Color       #define       Value       RGB
                        black     COLOR_BLACK       0     0, 0, 0
                        blue      COLOR_BLUE        1     0,0,max
                        green     COLOR_GREEN       2     0,max,0
                        cyan      COLOR_CYAN        3     0,max,max
                        red       COLOR_RED         4     max,0,0
                        magenta   COLOR_MAGENTA     5     max,0,max
                        yellow    COLOR_YELLOW      6     max,max,0
                        white     COLOR_WHITE       7     max,max,max

           It is important to not confuse the  two  sets  of  color  capabilities;
           otherwise red/blue will be interchanged on the display.

           On  an  HP-like terminal, use scp with a color-pair number parameter to
           set which color pair is current.

           Some terminals allow the color values to be modified:

           o   On a Tektronix-like terminal, the capability ccc may be present  to
               indicate  that colors can be modified.  If so, the initc capability
               will take a color number (0 to colors - 1)and three more parameters
               which  describe the color.  These three parameters default to being
               interpreted as RGB (Red,  Green,  Blue)  values.   If  the  boolean
               capability hls is present, they are instead as HLS (Hue, Lightness,
               Saturation) indices.  The ranges are terminal-dependent.

           o   On an HP-like terminal, initp may give a capability for changing  a
               color-pair  value.   It  will  take  seven parameters; a color-pair
               number (0 to max_pairs -  1),  and  two  triples  describing  first
               background  and  then  foreground colors.  These parameters must be
               (Red, Green, Blue) or (Hue,  Lightness,  Saturation)  depending  on
               hls.

           On  some  color  terminals,  colors  collide  with highlights.  You can
           register these collisions with the ncv capability.  This is a  bit-mask
           of   attributes   not   to  be  used  when  colors  are  enabled.   The
           correspondence with the attributes understood by curses is as follows:

                      Attribute              Bit   Decimal      Set by
                      A_STANDOUT             0     1            sgr
                      A_UNDERLINE            1     2            sgr
                      A_REVERSE              2     4            sgr
                      A_BLINK                3     8            sgr
                      A_DIM                  4     16           sgr
                      A_BOLD                 5     32           sgr
                      A_INVIS                6     64           sgr
                      A_PROTECT              7     128          sgr
                      A_ALTCHARSET           8     256          sgr
                      A_HORIZONTAL           9     512          sgr1
                      A_LEFT                 10    1024         sgr1
                      A_LOW                  11    2048         sgr1
                      A_RIGHT                12    4096         sgr1
                      A_TOP                  13    8192         sgr1
                      A_VERTICAL             14    16384        sgr1
                      A_ITALIC               15    32768        sitm

           For example, on many IBM PC consoles, the underline attribute  collides
           with  the  foreground  color  blue  and is not available in color mode.
           These should have an ncv capability of 2.

           SVr4 curses does nothing with ncv, ncurses recognizes it and  optimizes
           the output in favor of colors.

### Miscellaneous

           If  the  terminal requires other than a null (zero) character as a pad,
           then this can be given as pad.  Only the first  character  of  the  pad
           string is used.  If the terminal does not have a pad character, specify
           npc.  Note that ncurses implements the termcap-compatible PC  variable;
           though  the  application  may  set this value to something other than a
           null, ncurses will test npc first and use napms if the terminal has  no
           pad character.

           If  the terminal can move up or down half a line, this can be indicated
           with hu (half-line up) and hd  (half-line  down).   This  is  primarily
           useful  for  superscripts  and subscripts on hard-copy terminals.  If a
           hard-copy terminal can eject to the next page (form feed), give this as
           ff (usually control/L).

           If  there  is  a  command to repeat a given character a given number of
           times  (to  save  time  transmitting  a  large  number   of   identical
           characters)  this  can  be indicated with the parameterized string rep.
           The first parameter is the character to be repeated and the  second  is
           the number of times to repeat it.  Thus, tparm(repeat_char, 'x', 10) is
           the same as "xxxxxxxxxx".

           If the terminal has a settable command character, such as the TEKTRONIX
           4025,  this can be indicated with cmdch.  A prototype command character
           is chosen which is used in all capabilities.  This character  is  given
           in  the  cmdch  capability to identify it.  The following convention is
           supported on some UNIX systems: The environment is to be searched for a
           CC  variable,  and if found, all occurrences of the prototype character
           are replaced with the character in the environment variable.

           Terminal descriptions that do not represent a specific  kind  of  known
           terminal,  such  as  switch, dialup, patch, and network, should include
           the gn (generic) capability so that programs can complain that they  do
           not  know how to talk to the terminal.  (This capability does not apply
           to virtual terminal descriptions for which  the  escape  sequences  are
           known.)

           If the terminal has a "meta key" which acts as a shift key, setting the
           8th bit of any character transmitted, this fact can be  indicated  with
           km.   Otherwise, software will assume that the 8th bit is parity and it
           will usually be cleared.  If strings exist to turn this "meta mode"  on
           and off, they can be given as smm and rmm.

           If the terminal has more lines of memory than will fit on the screen at
           once, the number of lines of memory can be indicated with lm.  A  value
           of lm#0 indicates that the number of lines is not fixed, but that there
           is still more memory than fits on the screen.

           If the terminal is one of those supported by the UNIX virtual  terminal
           protocol, the terminal number can be given as vt.

           Media  copy strings which control an auxiliary printer connected to the
           terminal can be given as mc0: print the contents of  the  screen,  mc4:
           turn  off  the printer, and mc5: turn on the printer.  When the printer
           is on, all text sent to the terminal will be sent to the  printer.   It
           is  undefined whether the text is also displayed on the terminal screen
           when the printer is on.  A variation  mc5p  takes  one  parameter,  and
           leaves  the  printer  on  for  as  many  characters as the value of the
           parameter, then turns the printer off.  The parameter should not exceed
           255.   All  text, including mc4, is transparently passed to the printer
           while an mc5p is in effect.

### Glitches and Braindamage

           Hazeltine terminals, which do not allow "~" characters to be  displayed
           should indicate hz.

           Terminals  which  ignore a line-feed immediately after an am wrap, such
           as the Concept and vt100, should indicate xenl.

           If el is required to get rid of standout  (instead  of  merely  writing
           normal text on top of it), xhp should be given.

           Teleray terminals, where tabs turn all characters moved over to blanks,
           should indicate xt (destructive tabs).  Note: the  variable  indicating
           this   is   now  "dest_tabs_magic_smso";  in  older  versions,  it  was
           teleray_glitch.  This glitch is also taken  to  mean  that  it  is  not
           possible  to  position  the  cursor on top of a "magic cookie", that to
           erase standout mode it is instead necessary to use  delete  and  insert
           line.  The ncurses implementation ignores this glitch.

           The  Beehive Superbee, which is unable to correctly transmit the escape
           or control/C characters, has xsb, indicating that the f1  key  is  used
           for  escape  and  f2  for control/C.  (Only certain Superbees have this
           problem, depending on the ROM.)  Note that in older terminfo  versions,
           this capability was called "beehive_glitch"; it is now "no_esc_ctl_c".

           Other  specific  terminal  problems  may  be  corrected  by adding more
           capabilities of the form xx.

### Pitfalls of Long Entries

           Long terminfo entries are unlikely to be a problem; to date,  no  entry
           has   even   approached   terminfo's  4096-byte  string-table  maximum.
           Unfortunately, the termcap translations are much more strictly  limited
           (to 1023 bytes), thus termcap translations of long terminfo entries can
           cause problems.

           The man pages for 4.3BSD and older versions  of  tgetent  instruct  the
           user  to  allocate a 1024-byte buffer for the termcap entry.  The entry
           gets null-terminated by the termcap library, so that makes the  maximum
           safe  length  for a termcap entry 1k-1 (1023) bytes.  Depending on what
           the application and the termcap library being used does, and  where  in
           the  termcap  file  the terminal type that tgetent is searching for is,
           several bad things can happen.

           Some termcap libraries print a warning message or exit if they find  an
           entry that's longer than 1023 bytes; others do not; others truncate the
           entries to 1023 bytes.  Some application programs  allocate  more  than
           the recommended 1K for the termcap entry; others do not.

           Each  termcap  entry has two important sizes associated with it: before
           "tc" expansion, and after "tc" expansion.  "tc" is the capability  that
           tacks on another termcap entry to the end of the current one, to add on
           its capabilities.  If a termcap entry does not use the "tc" capability,
           then of course the two lengths are the same.

           The  "before tc expansion" length is the most important one, because it
           affects more than just users of that particular terminal.  This is  the
           length  of the entry as it exists in /etc/termcap, minus the backslash-
           newline pairs, which tgetent strips out while reading it.  Some termcap
           libraries strip off the final newline, too (GNU termcap does not).  Now
           suppose:

           o   a termcap entry before expansion is more than 1023 bytes long,

           o   and the application has only allocated a 1k buffer,

           o   and the termcap library (like the one in BSD/OS 1.1 and GNU)  reads
               the  whole entry into the buffer, no matter what its length, to see
               if it is the entry it wants,

           o   and tgetent is searching for a terminal type  that  either  is  the
               long  entry,  appears  in the termcap file after the long entry, or
               does not appear in the file at all (so that tgetent has  to  search
               the whole termcap file).

           Then  tgetent  will  overwrite  memory, perhaps its stack, and probably
           core  dump  the  program.   Programs  like  telnet   are   particularly
           vulnerable;  modern  telnets  pass  along values like the terminal type
           automatically.  The results are almost as undesirable  with  a  termcap
           library,  like SunOS 4.1.3 and Ultrix 4.4, that prints warning messages
           when it reads an overly long  termcap  entry.   If  a  termcap  library
           truncates  long entries, like OSF/1 3.0, it is immune to dying here but
           will return incorrect data for the terminal.

           The "after tc expansion" length will  have  a  similar  effect  to  the
           above, but only for people who actually set TERM to that terminal type,
           since tgetent only does "tc" expansion once it is  found  the  terminal
           type it was looking for, not while searching.

           In  summary,  a termcap entry that is longer than 1023 bytes can cause,
           on various combinations of termcap libraries and applications,  a  core
           dump,  warnings, or incorrect operation.  If it is too long even before
           "tc" expansion, it will have this effect even for users of  some  other
           terminal  types  and  users whose TERM variable does not have a termcap
           entry.

           When in -C (translate to termcap) mode, the ncurses  implementation  of
           tic(1m)  issues  warning  messages  when the pre-tc length of a termcap
           translation is too long.  The -c (check) option  also  checks  resolved
           (after tc expansion) lengths.

### Binary Compatibility

           It  is  not  wise  to  count  on portability of binary terminfo entries
           between commercial UNIX versions.  The problem is  that  there  are  at
           least  two  versions  of  terminfo (under HP-UX and AIX) which diverged
           from  System  V  terminfo  after  SVr1,  and   have   added   extension
           capabilities  to  the  string table that (in the binary format) collide
           with System V and XSI Curses extensions.

## EXTENSIONS

           Searching   for   terminal   descriptions   in   $HOME/.terminfo    and
           TERMINFO_DIRS is not supported by older implementations.

           Some  SVr4  curses  implementations,  and  all previous to SVr4, do not
           interpret the %A and %O operators in parameter strings.

           SVr4/XPG4 do not specify whether msgr licenses  movement  while  in  an
           alternate-character-set  mode  (such modes may, among other things, map
           CR and NL to characters  that  do  not  trigger  local  motions).   The
           ncurses  implementation  ignores  msgr in ALTCHARSET mode.  This raises
           the  possibility  that  an  XPG4  implementation  making  the  opposite
           interpretation  may need terminfo entries made for ncurses to have msgr
           turned off.

           The ncurses library handles insert-character and insert-character modes
           in  a  slightly  non-standard way to get better update efficiency.  See
           the Insert/Delete Character subsection above.

           The parameter substitutions for set_clock  and  display_clock  are  not
           documented  in  SVr4 or the XSI Curses standard.  They are deduced from
           the documentation for the AT&T 505 terminal.

           Be careful assigning the kmous capability.  The ncurses  library  wants
           to  interpret  it as KEY_MOUSE, for use by terminals and emulators like
           xterm that can return mouse-tracking information in the  keyboard-input
           stream.

           X/Open  Curses  does  not  mention italics.  Portable applications must
           assume that  numeric  capabilities  are  signed  16-bit  values.   This
           includes  the  no_color_video  (ncv)  capability.  The 32768 mask value
           used for italics with ncv can be confused with an absent  or  cancelled
           ncv.   If  italics  should work with colors, then the ncv value must be
           specified, even if it is zero.

           Different commercial ports of terminfo  and  curses  support  different
           subsets  of  the  XSI  Curses  standard  and  (in some cases) different
           extension sets.  Here is a summary, accurate as of October 1995:

           o   SVR4, Solaris, ncurses -- These support all SVr4 capabilities.

           o   SGI -- Supports the SVr4 set, adds one undocumented extended string
               capability (set_pglen).

           o   SVr1,  Ultrix  --  These  support  a  restricted subset of terminfo
               capabilities.  The booleans end with xon_xoff;  the  numerics  with
               width_status_line; and the strings with prtr_non.

           o   HP/UX  --  Supports  the  SVr1  subset,  plus the SVr[234] numerics
               num_labels,  label_height,  label_width,  plus  function  keys   11
               through  63,  plus  plab_norm,  label_on,  and label_off, plus some
               incompatible extensions in the string table.

           o   AIX -- Supports the SVr1 subset, plus function keys 11 through  63,
               plus a number of incompatible string table extensions.

           o   OSF -- Supports both the SVr4 set and the AIX extensions.

## FILES

           /usr/share/terminfo/?/*  files containing terminal descriptions

## SEE ALSO

           infocmp(1m),     tabs(1),    tic(1m),    curses(3x),    curs_color(3x),
           curs_variables(3x),    printf(3),     term_variables(3x).      term(5).
           user_caps(5).

## AUTHORS

           Zeyd M. Ben-Halim, Eric S. Raymond, Thomas E. Dickey.  Based on pcurses
           by Pavel Curtis.

                                                                       terminfo(5)