260:
database content to find the database record for the target terminal type. The terminal type name index is, effectively, the Unix/POSIX filesystem's ordinary directory structure. Originally, Unix had severe performance problems with large directories containing many files, and thus terminfo uses a two-level structure, dividing up the directory entries by first letter into a series of subdirectories. More recent filesystem formats used on Unix systems don't suffer as much from such problems (because their on-disc directory structures are no longer simple arrays of entries, but are organized into trees or hash tables) and so the necessity for this design element, that still exists in modern terminfo implementations, has since disappeared.
157:. This database consists of a series of records (each of which consists of one or more lines in the file, joined by backslash characters at the ends of each line that continues onto a following one) each of which represents the capabilities of a particular terminal. The fields of the record comprise the terminal type name, or names, followed by a sequence of capabilities, separated by colons. The capability fields themselves fall into three groups:
46:) is capable of, but that a teletypewriter is not; such as moving the terminal's cursor to positions on the screen, clearing and scrolling all or parts of the screen, turning on and off attached printer devices, programming programmable function keys, changing display colours and attributes (such as
126:
with windows, dialogue boxes, buttons, labels, input fields, menus, and so forth. The intention is that this allows applications programs to be independent of actual terminal characteristics. They don't need to hardwire any control codes or escape sequences into their code, and so don't have
259:
The use of a machine-readable format was to avoid the unnecessary overhead, in applications programs using systems such as the termcap library, of repeatedly parsing the database content to read the fields of a record. The use of multiple files was to avoid the similar overhead of parsing the
170:
These comprise the control codes and escape sequences sent to the terminal in order for it to perform some action (not necessarily a display action). An example of one of the simplest is the output sequence to clear the screen, which may be the
282:(which is, presumably, the terminal by which the function denoted by the capability is to be performed). One of the simplest operations is clearing the screen. The name of the database field that stores the output sequence for this is
333:
to look up a different terminal type in the database, with a command-line option to the command. So, for example, to issue the reset sequence appropriate for the type of terminal named "vt100" in the database (usually a
164:
These comprise such things as the (nominal) number of rows and columns the terminal's display has, whether output automatically wraps onto the next line when it reaches the end of a line, and so forth.
224:
rmation") library was developed for System V systems. It uses a database stored in multiple files within a directory, which can be variously (on different Unices and POSIX-compatible systems)
243:
Unlike the termcap database, the terminfo database is compiled, a machine-readable database that is constructed from a human-readable source file format by a utility program,
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Another operation is initializing or resetting the terminal to a known default state (of character attributes, fonts, colours, and so forth). The commands for this are:
326:
193:
These comprise the control codes and escape sequences that the terminal sends to the host to represent various actions and events, such as
106:, these capabilities are encoded in databases that are configured by a system administrator and accessed from programs via the
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that can be sent to or received from the terminal. The escape codes sent to the terminal perform various functions that a
247:. They can be decompiled from machine-readable form back to human-readable form by another utility program,
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22:
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command is used to look up a specific capability in the system's database, and output it to the command's
50:), and setting display title strings. The escape codes received from the terminal signify things such as
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251:. The command to output the human-readable form of the "vt100" terminal definition, for example, is:
103:
123:
30:, that host systems (and the programs that run on them) can make use of. They are (mainly) of
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terminal), irrespective of terminal type specified in environment variables, the command is:
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abilities") library was developed for BSD systems. It uses a database stored in the file
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libraries, by which applications programs use the terminal capabilities to provide
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are various terminal features, above and beyond what is available from a pure
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179:) character on some types of terminal but may, say, be the escape sequence
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problems being used on a range of terminals with a range of capabilities.
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controlling environment variables of the POSIX terminal interface
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616:. Addison-Wesley professional computing series. Addison-Wesley.
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library), upon which in turn are built libraries such as the
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93:
573:. A nutshell handbook (3rd ed.). O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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662:. Nutshell handbook (3rd ed.). O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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236:. (Its location isn't even uniform across different
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264:Utility programs to exercise terminal capabilities
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678:
658:Strang, John; Mui, Linda; O'Reilly, Tim (1991).
318:command uses the terminal type specified by the
167:control sequences sent as output to the terminal
633:Solaris 8 Advanced System Administrator's Guide
547:UNIX system V release 4: the complete reference
190:control sequences sent as input by the terminal
329:. This can be overridden, however, to force
526:Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible
94:Unix and POSIX: termcap, terminfo, et al.
16:In computing and telecommunications, the
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529:. Bible Series. John Wiley and Sons.
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506:UNIX unbounded: a beginning approach
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110:library (which supersedes the older
102:-compliant systems that support the
635:(3rd ed.). Prentice Hall PTR.
13:
651:
286:, so the command arguments to the
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703:
590:Encyclopaedia of Operating System
290:program to clear the screen are
592:. Anmol Publications PVT. LTD.
569:Essential system administration
508:(5th ed.). Prentice Hall.
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161:characteristics of the terminal
1:
346:
692:Telecommunications equipment
183:on a terminal that requires
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613:The art of Unix programming
205:
10:
708:
267:
209:
134:
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58:, and other special key (
544:Coffin, Stephen (1991).
490:, p. 244–245.
478:, p. 144–145.
340:
308:
300:
292:
253:
104:POSIX terminal interface
631:Winsor, Janice (2001).
550:. Osborne McGraw-Hill.
234:/usr/share/lib/terminfo
124:textual user interfaces
42:terminal (and software
588:Kumar, Sudhir (2004).
565:Frisch, Æleen (2002).
523:Blum, Richard (2008).
238:distributions of Linux
274:On Unix systems, the
268:Further information:
185:ANSI escape sequences
660:Termcap and terminfo
504:Afzal, Amir (2008).
323:environment variable
230:/usr/share/terminfo
687:Computer terminals
352:What supports what
98:In Unix and other
44:terminal emulators
669:978-0-937175-22-4
642:978-0-13-027703-9
623:978-0-13-142901-7
599:978-81-261-1792-5
580:978-0-596-00343-2
557:978-0-07-881653-6
536:978-0-470-25128-7
515:978-0-13-119449-6
342:tput-Tvt100reset
226:/usr/lib/terminfo
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608:Raymond, Eric S.
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86:, and so forth)
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652:Further reading
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280:standard output
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448:, p. 417.
438:
436:, p. 769.
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421:, p. 372.
411:
409:, p. 115.
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394:, p. 770.
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210:Main article:
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201:being pressed.
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135:Main article:
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28:teletypewriter
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314:Normally the
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255:infocmpvt100
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195:function keys
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48:reverse video
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32:control codes
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497:Sources used
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476:Raymond 2004
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155:/etc/termcap
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52:function key
36:escape codes
21:
18:capabilities
17:
15:
488:Winsor 2001
434:Frisch 2002
419:Coffin 1991
407:Coffin 1991
392:Frisch 2002
681:Categories
446:Kumar 2004
371:Afzal 2008
347:References
310:tputreset
294:tputclear
232:, or even
199:arrow keys
88:keystrokes
84:delete key
80:insert key
461:Blum 2008
336:DEC VT100
302:tputinit
173:form feed
56:arrow key
610:(2004).
212:terminfo
206:terminfo
108:terminfo
76:PgDn key
72:PgUp key
68:help key
60:home key
23:terminal
249:infocmp
175:(ASCII
143:termcap
137:termcap
131:termcap
120:ncurses
112:termcap
64:end key
666:
639:
620:
596:
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554:
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145:(for "
116:curses
284:clear
220:inal
149:inal
100:POSIX
20:of a
664:ISBN
637:ISBN
618:ISBN
594:ISBN
575:ISBN
552:ISBN
531:ISBN
510:ISBN
331:tput
320:TERM
316:tput
306:and
288:tput
276:tput
270:tput
222:info
218:term
197:and
147:term
141:The
118:and
34:and
245:tic
240:.)
181:␛2J
151:cap
40:CRT
683::
468:^
453:^
426:^
399:^
378:^
359:^
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177:FF
90:.
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74:,
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187:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.