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1 perry 1 TERMCAP
2 !!!TERMCAP
3 NAME
4 DESCRIPTION
5 SEE ALSO
6 ----
7 !!NAME
8
9
10 termcap - terminal capability database
11 !!DESCRIPTION
12
13
14 The termcap database is an obsolete facility for describing
15 the capabilities of character-cell terminals and printers.
16 It is retained only for capability with old programs; new
17 ones should use the terminfo(5) database and
18 associated libraries.
19
20
21 __/etc/termcap__ is an ASCII file (the database master)
22 that lists the capabilities of many different types of
23 terminal. Programs can read termcap to find the particular
24 escape codes needed to control the visual attributes of the
25 terminal actually in use. (Other aspects of the terminal are
26 handled by stty.) The termcap database is indexed on the
27 TERM environment variable.
28
29
30 Termcap entries must be defined on a single logical line,
31 with `' used to suppress the newline. Fields are separated
32 by `:'. The first field of each entry starts at the
33 left-hand margin, and contains a list of names for the
34 terminal, separated by '|'.
35
36
37 The first subfield may (in BSD termcap entries from versions
38 4.3 and prior) contain a short name consisting of two
39 characters. This short name may consist of capital or small
40 letters. In 4.4BSD termcap entries this field is
41 omitted.
42
43
44 The second subfield (first, in the newer 4.4BSD format)
45 contains the name used by the environment variable TERM. It
46 should be spelled in lowercase letters. Selectable hardware
47 capabilities should be marked by appending a hyphen and a
48 suffix to this name. See below for an example. Usual
49 suffixes are w (more than 80 characters wide), am (automatic
50 margins), nam (no automatic margins) and rv (reverse video
51 display). The third subfield contains a long and descriptive
52 name for this termcap entry.
53
54
55 Subsequent fields contain the terminal capabilities; any
56 continued capability lines must be indented one tab from the
57 left margin.
58
59
60 Although there is no defined order, it is suggested to write
61 first boolean, then numeric and at last string capabilities,
62 each sorted alphabetically without looking at lower or upper
63 spelling. Capabilities of similar functions can be written
64 in one line.
65
66
67 Example for:
68 Head line: vt|vt101|DEC VT 101 terminal in 80 character mode:\
69 Head line: Vt|vt101-w|DEC VT 101 terminal in (wide) 132 character mode:\
70 Boolean: :bs:\
71 Numeric: :co#80:\
72 String: :sr=E[[H:\
73
74
75 __Boolean Capabilities__
76
77
78 5i Printer will not echo on screen
79 am Automatic margins which means automatic line wrap
80 bs Control-H (8 dec.) performs a backspace
81 bw Backspace on left margin wraps to previous line and right margin
82 da Display retained above screen
83 db Display retained below screen
84 eo A space erases all characters at cursor position
85 es Escape sequences and special characters work in status line
86 gn Generic device
87 hc This is a hardcopy terminal
88 HC The cursor is hard to see when not on bottom line
89 hs Has a status line
90 hz Hazeltine bug, the terminal can not print tilde characters
91 in Terminal inserts nulls, not spaces, to fill whitespace
92 km Terminal has a meta key
93 mi Cursor movement works in insert mode
94 ms Cursor movement works in standout/underline mode
95 NP No pad character
96 NR ti does not reverse te
97 nx No padding, must use XON/XOFF
98 os Terminal can overstrike
99 ul Terminal underlines although it can not overstrike
100 xb Beehive glitch, f1 sends ESCAPE, f2 sends ^C
101 xn Newline/wraparound glitch
102 xo Terminal uses xon/xoff protocol
103 xs Text typed over standout text will be displayed in standout
104 xt Teleray glitch, destructive tabs and odd standout mode
105
106
107 __Numeric Capabilities__
108
109
110 co Number of columns
111 dB Delay in milliseconds for backspace on hardcopy terminals
112 dC Delay in milliseconds for carriage return on hardcopy terminals
113 dF Delay in milliseconds for form feed on hardcopy terminals
114 dN Delay in milliseconds for new line on hardcopy terminals
115 dT Delay in milliseconds for tabulator stop on hardcopy terminals
116 dV Delay in milliseconds for vertical tabulator stop on hardcopy terminals
117 it Difference between tab positions
118 lh Height of soft labels
119 lm Lines of memory
120 lw Width of soft labels
121 li Number of lines
122 Nl Number of soft labels
123 pb Lowest baud rate which needs padding
124 sg Standout glitch
125 ug Underline glitch
126 vt virtual terminal number
127 ws Width of status line if different from screen width
128
129
130 __String Capabilities__
131
132
133 !1 shifted save key
134 !2 shifted suspend key
135 !3 shifted undo key
136 #1 shifted help key
137 #2 shifted home key
138 #3 shifted input key
139 #4 shifted cursor left key
140 %0 redo key
141 %1 help key
142 %2 mark key
143 %3 message key
144 %4 move key
145 %5 next-object key
146 %6 open key
147 %7 options key
148 %8 previous-object key
149 %9 print key
150 %a shifted message key
151 %b shifted move key
152 %c shifted next key
153 %d shifted options key
154 %e shifted previous key
155 %f shifted print key
156 %g shifted redo key
157 %h shifted replace key
158 %i shifted cusor right key
159 %j shifted resume key
160 There are several ways of defining the control codes for string capabilities:
161
162
163 Normal Characters except '^','' and '%' repesent
164 themself.
165
166
167 A '^x' means Control-x. Control-A equals 1
168 decimal.
169
170
171 x means a special code. x can be one of the following
172 charaters:
173
174
175 E Escape (27)
176 n Linefeed (10)
177 r Carriage return (13)
178 t Tabulation (9)
179 b Backspace (8)
180 f Form feed (12)
181 0 Null character. A xxx specifies the octal character
182 xxx.
183
184
185 i
186
187
188 Increments paramters by one.
189
190
191 r
192
193
194 Single parameter capability
195
196
197 +
198
199
200 Add value of next character to this parameter and do binary
201 output
202
203
204 2
205
206
207 Do ASCII output of this parameter with a field with of
208 2
209
210
211 d
212
213
214 Do ASCII output of this parameter with a field with of
215 3
216
217
218 %
219
220
221 Print a '%'
222
223
224 If you use binary output, then you should avoid the null
225 character because it terminates the string. You should reset
226 tabulator expansion if a tabulator can be the binary output
227 of a parameter.
228
229
230 Warning:
231
232
233 The above metacharacters for parameters may be wrong, they
234 document Minix termcap which may not be compatible with
235 Linux termcap.
236
237
238 The block grafic characters can be specified by three string
239 capabilities:
240
241
242 as
243
244
245 start the alternative charset
246
247
248 ae
249
250
251 end it
252
253
254 ac
255
256
257 pairs of characters. The first character is the name of the
258 block grafic symbol and the second characters is its
259 definition.
260
261
262 The following names are available:
263
264
265 + right arrow (
266 The values in parentheses are suggested defaults which are used by curses, if the capabilities are missing.
267 !!SEE ALSO
268
269
270 termcap(3), curses(3),
271 terminfo(5)
272 ----
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