tic(1M)								       tic(1M)



NAME
       tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler

SYNOPSIS
       tic  [-1CGILNTUVacfgrstx]  [-e  names]  [-o  dir]  [-R  subset] [-v[n]]
       [-w[n]] file

DESCRIPTION
       The command tic translates a terminfo file from source format into com-
       piled  format.	The  compiled  format  is  necessary  for use with the
       library routines in ncurses(3X).

       The results are	normally  placed  in  the  system  terminfo  directory
       /usr/share/terminfo.  There are two ways to change this behavior.

       First, you may override the system default by setting the variable TER-
       MINFO in your shell environment to a valid (existing) directory name.

       Secondly, if tic cannot get access to /usr/share/terminfo or your  TER-
       MINFO  directory,  it  looks for the directory $HOME/.terminfo; if that
       directory exists, the entry is placed there.

       Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check for  a  TER-
       MINFO  directory first, look at $HOME/.terminfo if TERMINFO is not set,
       and finally look in /usr/share/terminfo.

       -1     restricts the output to a single column

       -a     tells tic to retain commented-out capabilities rather than  dis-
	      carding them.  Capabilities are commented by prefixing them with
	      a period.	 This sets the -x option, because it treats  the  com-
	      mented-out  entries  as  user-defined  names.   If the source is
	      termcap, accept the 2-character names  required  by  version  6.
	      Otherwise these are ignored.

       -C     Force  source translation to termcap format.  Note: this differs
	      from the -C option of infocmp(1M) in that	 it  does  not	merely
	      translate capability names, but also translates terminfo strings
	      to termcap format.  Capabilities that are not  translatable  are
	      left  in	the entry under their terminfo names but commented out
	      with two preceding dots.

       -c     tells tic to only check file for errors, including syntax	 prob-
	      lems  and	 bad  use  links.   If	you  specify -C (-I) with this
	      option, the code will print warnings about entries which,	 after
	      use  resolution, are more than 1023 (4096) bytes long.  Due to a
	      fixed buffer length in older termcap libraries (and a documented
	      limit in terminfo), these entries may cause core dumps.

       -e names
	      Limit  writes  and translations to the following comma-separated
	      list of terminals.  If any name or alias of a  terminal  matches
	      one  of  the  names  in  the  list, the entry will be written or
	      translated as normal.  Otherwise no output will be generated for
	      it.   The	 option	 value is interpreted as a file containing the
	      list if it contains a '/'.  (Note: depending on how tic was com-
	      piled, this option may require -I or -C.)

       -f     Display	  complex     terminfo	   strings    which    contain
	      if/then/else/endif expressions indented for readability.

       -G     Display constant literals in  decimal  form  rather  than	 their
	      character equivalents.

       -g     Display  constant	 character literals in quoted form rather than
	      their decimal equivalents.

       -I     Force source translation to terminfo format.

       -L     Force source translation to terminfo format  using  the  long  C
	      variable names listed in <term.h>

       -N     Disable smart defaults.  Normally, when translating from termcap
	      to terminfo, the compiler makes a number	of  assumptions	 about
	      the   defaults   of   string  capabilities  reset1_string,  car-
	      riage_return,  cursor_left,  cursor_down,	 scroll_forward,  tab,
	      newline, key_backspace, key_left, and key_down, then attempts to
	      use obsolete termcap capabilities to deduce correct values.   It
	      also normally suppresses output of obsolete termcap capabilities
	      such as bs.  This option forces a more literal translation  that
	      also preserves the obsolete capabilities.

       -odir  Write  compiled  entries to given directory.  Overrides the TER-
	      MINFO environment variable.

       -Rsubset
	      Restrict output to a given subset.  This option is for use  with
	      archaic  versions	 of  terminfo  like  those on SVr1, Ultrix, or
	      HP/UX that do not support the full set of SVR4/XSI  Curses  ter-
	      minfo;  and  outright  broken ports like AIX 3.x that have their
	      own extensions incompatible with	SVr4/XSI.   Available  subsets
	      are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", "BSD" and "AIX"; see terminfo(5) for
	      details.

       -r     Force entry resolution (so there are no remaining	 tc  capabili-
	      ties)  even  when doing translation to termcap format.  This may
	      be needed if you are preparing a	termcap	 file  for  a  termcap
	      library  (such as GNU termcap through version 1.3 or BSD termcap
	      through 4.3BSD) that does not handle  multiple  tc  capabilities
	      per entry.

       -s     Summarize	 the  compile  by  showing  the	 directory  into which
	      entries are written, and the number of entries  which  are  com-
	      piled.

       -T     eliminates  size-restrictions  on	 the  generated text.  This is
	      mainly useful for	 testing  and  analysis,  since	 the  compiled
	      descriptions  are limited (e.g., 1023 for termcap, 4096 for ter-
	      minfo).

       -t     tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities.	Normally  when
	      translating  from	 terminfo to termcap, untranslatable capabili-
	      ties are commented-out.

       -U   tells tic to not post-process the data after  parsing  the	source
	    file.  Normally, it infers data which is commonly missing in older
	    terminfo data, or in termcaps.

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

       -vn  specifies that (verbose) output be written to standard error trace
	    information showing tic's progress.	 The optional parameter n is a
	    number  from  1  to 10, inclusive, indicating the desired level of
	    detail of information.  If n is omitted, the default level	is  1.
	    If	n  is  specified  and  greater	than 1, the level of detail is
	    increased.

       -wn  specifies the width of the output.	The parameter is optional.  If
	    it is omitted, it defaults to 60.

       -x   Treat  unknown capabilities as user-defined.  That is, if you sup-
	    ply a capability name which tic does not recognize, it will	 infer
	    its	 type  (boolean, number or string) from the syntax and make an
	    extended table entry for that.   User-defined  capability  strings
	    whose name begins with ``k'' are treated as function keys.

       file contains one or more terminfo terminal descriptions in source for-
	    mat [see terminfo(5)].  Each description in the file describes the
	    capabilities of a particular terminal.

       The debug flag levels are as follows:

       1      Names of files created and linked

       2      Information related to the ``use'' facility

       3      Statistics from the hashing algorithm

       5      String-table memory allocations

       7      Entries into the string-table

       8      List of tokens encountered by scanner

       9      All values computed in construction of the hash table

       If the debug level n is not given, it is taken to be one.

       All  but	 one  of  the capabilities recognized by tic are documented in
       terminfo(5).  The exception is the use capability.

       When a use=entry-name field is discovered in a terminal entry currently
       being  compiled,	 tic  reads  in the binary from /usr/share/terminfo to
       complete the entry.  (Entries created from file will be used first.  If
       the  environment	 variable  TERMINFO is set, that directory is searched
       instead of /usr/share/terminfo.)	 tic duplicates	 the  capabilities  in
       entry-name for the current entry, with the exception of those capabili-
       ties that explicitly are defined in the current entry.

       When an entry, e.g., entry_name_1, contains a  use=entry_name_2	field,
       any   canceled	capabilities  in  entry_name_2	must  also  appear  in
       entry_name_1 before use= for  these  capabilities  to  be  canceled  in
       entry_name_1.

       If  the	environment variable TERMINFO is set, the compiled results are
       placed there instead of /usr/share/terminfo.

       Total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes.	 The name field cannot
       exceed  512  bytes.   Terminal names exceeding the maximum alias length
       (32 characters on systems with long filenames, 14 characters otherwise)
       will  be	 truncated  to	the maximum alias length and a warning message
       will be printed.

COMPATIBILITY
       There is	 some  evidence	 that  historic	 tic  implementations  treated
       description  fields with no whitespace in them as additional aliases or
       short names.  This tic does not do that, but it does warn when descrip-
       tion  fields may be treated that way and check them for dangerous char-
       acters.

EXTENSIONS
       Unlike the stock SVr4 tic command,  this	 implementation	 can  actually
       compile termcap sources.	 In fact, entries in terminfo and termcap syn-
       tax can be mixed in a single source file.  See terminfo(5) for the list
       of termcap names taken to be equivalent to terminfo names.

       The  SVr4  manual  pages	 are not clear on the resolution rules for use
       capabilities.  This implementation of tic will find  use	 targets  any-
       where  in  the source file, or anywhere in the file tree rooted at TER-
       MINFO (if TERMINFO is defined), or in the user's $HOME/.terminfo direc-
       tory (if it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file tree of
       compiled entries.

       The error messages from this tic have the same format as	 GNU  C	 error
       messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's compile facility.

       The  -C,	 -G, -I, -N, -R, -T, -V, -a, -e, -f, -g, -o, -r, -s, -t and -x
       options are not supported under SVr4.  The SVr4 -c mode does not report
       bad use links.

       System  V  does	not  compile  entries  to  or  read  entries from your
       $HOME/.terminfo directory unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.

FILES
       /usr/share/terminfo/?/*
	    Compiled terminal description database.

SEE ALSO
       infocmp(1M), captoinfo(1M), infotocap(1M),  toe(1M),  curses(3X),  ter-
       minfo(5).

       This describes ncurses version 5.7 (patch 20090207).



								       tic(1M)