release/src/router/libncurses/doc/html/man/term.7.html

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  39 <H1>term 7</H1>
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  41 <PRE>
  42 <!-- Manpage converted by man2html 3.0.1 -->
  43 <STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG>                                                         <STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG>
  44
  45
  46
  47
  48 </PRE>
  49 <H2>NAME</H2><PRE>
  50        term - conventions for naming terminal types
  51
  52
  53 </PRE>
  54 <H2>DESCRIPTION</H2><PRE>
  55        The  environment variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> should normally contain the
  56        type name of the terminal, console or display-device  type
  57        you  are  using.   This  information  is  critical for all
  58        screen-oriented  programs,  including  your   editor   and
  59        mailer.
  60
  61        A  default  <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>  value will be set on a per-line basis by
  62        either  <STRONG>/etc/inittab</STRONG>  (e.g.,  System-V-like   UNIXes)   or
  63        <STRONG>/etc/ttys</STRONG>  (BSD  UNIXes).  This will nearly always suffice
  64        for workstation and microcomputer consoles.
  65
  66        If you use a dialup line, the type of device  attached  to
  67        it  may vary.  Older UNIX systems pre-set a very dumb ter-
  68        minal type like `dumb' or `dialup' on dialup lines.  Newer
  69        ones may pre-set `vt100', reflecting the prevalence of DEC
  70        VT100-compatible terminals  and  personal-computer  emula-
  71        tors.
  72
  73        Modern  telnets  pass  your <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> environment variable from
  74        the local side to the remote one.  There can  be  problems
  75        if  the  remote terminfo or termcap entry for your type is
  76        not compatible with yours, but this situation is rare  and
  77        can  almost  always  be  avoided  by  explicitly exporting
  78        `vt100' (assuming you are in fact using  a  VT100-superset
  79        console, terminal, or terminal emulator.)
  80
  81        In any case, you are free to override the system <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> set-
  82        ting to your taste in your  shell  profile.   The  <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG>
  83        utility  may  be  of  assistance; you can give it a set of
  84        rules for deducing or requesting a terminal type based  on
  85        the tty device and baud rate.
  86
  87        Setting your own <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> value may also be useful if you have
  88        created a custom  entry  incorporating  options  (such  as
  89        visual  bell  or reverse-video) which you wish to override
  90        the system default type for your line.
  91
  92        Terminal type descriptions are stored as files of capabil-
  93        ity data underneath /usr/share/terminfo.  To browse a list
  94        of all terminal names recognized by the system, do
  95
  96             toe | more
  97
  98        from your shell.  These capability files are in  a  binary
  99        format optimized for retrieval speed (unlike the old text-
 100        based <STRONG>termcap</STRONG> format they replace); to examine  an  entry,
 101        you  must  use the <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG> command.  Invoke it as fol-
 102        lows:
 103
 104             infocmp <EM>entry</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>name</EM>
 105
 106        where <EM>entry</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>name</EM> is the name of the type you wish to exam-
 107        ine  (and the name of its capability file the subdirectory
 108        of /usr/share/terminfo named for its first letter).   This
 109        command  dumps  a  capability  file  in  the  text  format
 110        described by <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.
 111
 112        The first line of  a  <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>  description  gives  the
 113        names by which terminfo knows a terminal, separated by `|'
 114        (pipe-bar) characters with the last name field  terminated
 115        by  a  comma.   The first name field is the type's <EM>primary</EM>
 116        <EM>name</EM>, and is the one to use when setting <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>.   The  last
 117        name  field  (if  distinct  from  the first) is actually a
 118        description of the terminal type (it may  contain  blanks;
 119        the others must be single words).  Name fields between the
 120        first and last (if present) are aliases for the  terminal,
 121        usually historical names retained for compatibility.
 122
 123        There are some conventions for how to choose terminal pri-
 124        mary names that help keep  them  informative  and  unique.
 125        Here is a step-by-step guide to naming terminals that also
 126        explains how to parse them:
 127
 128        First, choose a root name.  The root  will  consist  of  a
 129        lower-case  letter followed by up to seven lower-case let-
 130        ters or digits.  You need to avoid using punctuation char-
 131        acters  in  root  names,  because they are used and inter-
 132        preted as filenames and shell meta-characters (such as  !,
 133        $,  *, ?, etc.) embedded in them may cause odd and unhelp-
 134        ful behavior.  The slash (/), or any other character  that
 135        may  be  interpreted by anyone's file system (\, $, [, ]),
 136        is especially dangerous (terminfo is platform-independent,
 137        and  choosing  names with special characters could someday
 138        make life difficult for users of a future port).  The  dot
 139        (.)  character  is  relatively safe as long as there is at
 140        most one per root name; some historical terminfo names use
 141        it.
 142
 143        The  root  name for a terminal or workstation console type
 144        should almost always begin with a vendor prefix  (such  as
 145        <STRONG>hp</STRONG>  for Hewlett-Packard, <STRONG>wy</STRONG> for Wyse, or <STRONG>att</STRONG> for AT&amp;T ter-
 146        minals), or a common name of the terminal line (<STRONG>vt</STRONG> for the
 147        VT  series of terminals from DEC, or <STRONG>sun</STRONG> for Sun Microsys-
 148        tems workstation consoles, or <STRONG>regent</STRONG> for the  ADDS  Regent
 149        series.   You  can list the terminfo tree to see what pre-
 150        fixes are already in common use.   The  root  name  prefix
 151        should  be  followed  when  appropriate by a model number;
 152        thus <STRONG>vt100</STRONG>, <STRONG>hp2621</STRONG>, <STRONG>wy50</STRONG>.
 153
 154        The root name for a PC-Unix console type should be the  OS
 155        name,  i.e., <STRONG>linux</STRONG>, <STRONG>bsdos</STRONG>, <STRONG>freebsd</STRONG>, <STRONG>netbsd</STRONG>.  It should <EM>not</EM>
 156        be <STRONG>console</STRONG> or any other generic that might cause confusion
 157        in  a  multi-platform environment!  If a model number fol-
 158        lows, it should indicate either the OS  release  level  or
 159        the console driver release level.
 160
 161        The  root  name  for a terminal emulator (assuming it does
 162        not fit one of the standard ANSI or vt100 types) should be
 163        the program name or a readily recognizable abbreviation of
 164        it (i.e., <STRONG>versaterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>ctrm</STRONG>).
 165
 166        Following the root name, you may add any reasonable number
 167        of hyphen-separated feature suffixes.
 168
 169        2p   Has two pages of memory.  Likewise 4p, 8p, etc.
 170
 171        mc   Magic-cookie.   Some  terminals (notably older Wyses)
 172             can only support one attribute  without  magic-cookie
 173             lossage.   Their  base  entry  is usually paired with
 174             another that has this suffix and uses  magic  cookies
 175             to support multiple attributes.
 176
 177        -am  Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound).
 178
 179        -m   Mono mode - suppress color support.
 180
 181        -na  No  arrow keys - termcap ignores arrow keys which are
 182             actually there on the terminal, so the user  can  use
 183             the arrow keys locally.
 184
 185        -nam No auto-margin - suppress am capability.
 186
 187        -nl  No labels - suppress soft labels.
 188
 189        -nsl No status line - suppress status line.
 190
 191        -pp  Has a printer port which is used.
 192
 193        -rv  Terminal in reverse video mode (black on white).
 194
 195        -s   Enable status line.
 196
 197        -vb  Use visible bell (flash) rather than beep.
 198
 199        -w   Wide; terminal is in 132 column mode.
 200
 201        Conventionally,   if  your  terminal  type  is  a  variant
 202        intended to specify a line height, that suffix  should  go
 203        first.  So, for a hypothetical FuBarCo model 2317 terminal
 204        in 30-line mode with reverse video,  best  form  would  be
 205        <STRONG>fubar-30-rv</STRONG> (rather than, say, `fubar-rv-30').
 206
 207        Terminal types that are written not as standalone entries,
 208        but rather as components to be plugged into other  entries
 209        via  <STRONG>use</STRONG> capabilities, are distinguished by using embedded
 210        plus signs rather than dashes.
 211
 212        Commands which use a  terminal  type  to  control  display
 213        often  accept  a  -T  option  that accepts a terminal name
 214        argument.  Such programs should  fall  back  on  the  <STRONG>TERM</STRONG>
 215        environment variable when no -T option is specified.
 216
 217
 218 </PRE>
 219 <H2>PORTABILITY</H2><PRE>
 220        For  maximum  compatibility  with  older  System V UNIXes,
 221        names and aliases should be unique  within  the  first  14
 222        characters.
 223
 224
 225 </PRE>
 226 <H2>FILES</H2><PRE>
 227        /usr/share/terminfo/?/*
 228             compiled terminal capability data base
 229
 230        /etc/inittab
 231             tty line initialization (AT&amp;T-like UNIXes)
 232
 233        /etc/ttys
 234             tty line initialization (BSD-like UNIXes)
 235
 236
 237 </PRE>
 238 <H2>SEE ALSO</H2><PRE>
 239        <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>.
 240
 241
 242
 243                                                                 <STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG>
 244 </PRE>
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