# tic 1m

    tic(1m)                                                                tic(1m)

## NAME

           tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler

## SYNOPSIS

           tic  [-01CDGIKLNTUVWacfgqrstx]  [-e names] [-o dir] [-Q[n]] [-R subset]
           [-v[n]] [-w[n]] file

## DESCRIPTION

           The tic command 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).

           As described in term(5), the database may be either  a  directory  tree
           (one  file  per  terminal  entry)  or a hashed database (one record per
           entry).  The tic command writes only one type of  entry,  depending  on
           how it was built:

           o   For directory trees, the top-level directory, e.g., /usr/share/ter-
               minfo, specifies the location of the database.

           o   For hashed databases, a filename is needed.  If the given  file  is
               not  found  by  that  name,  but  can be found by adding the suffix
               ".db", then that is used.

               The default name for the hashed database is the same as the default
               directory name (only adding a ".db" suffix).

           In either case (directory or hashed database), tic will create the con-
           tainer if it does not exist.  For a directory, this would be the  "ter-
           minfo" leaf, versus a "terminfo.db" file.

           The  results  are  normally  placed  in  the  system  terminfo database
           /usr/share/terminfo.  The compiled terminal description can  be  placed
           in a different terminfo database.  There are two ways to achieve this:

           o   First,  you  may override the system default either by using the -o
               option, or by setting the variable TERMINFO in your shell  environ-
               ment to a valid database location.

           o   Secondly,  if  tic cannot write in /usr/share/terminfo or the loca-
               tion specified using your  TERMINFO  variable,  it  looks  for  the
               directory  $HOME/.terminfo (or hashed database $HOME/.terminfo.db);
               if that location exists, the entry is placed there.

           Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check  in  succes-
           sion

           o   a location specified with the TERMINFO environment variable,

           o   $HOME/.terminfo,

           o   directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable,

           o   a  compiled-in  list  of directories (/usr/local/ncurses/share/ter-
               minfo:/usr/share/terminfo), and

           o   the system terminfo database (/usr/share/terminfo).

### OPTIONS

           -0     restricts the output to a single line

           -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.  The actual  format  used  incorporates
                  some  improvements  for escaped characters from terminfo format.
                  For a stricter BSD-compatible translation, add the -K option.

                  If this is combined with -c,  tic  makes  additional  checks  to
                  report  cases  where  the  terminfo  values do not have an exact
                  equivalent in termcap form.  For example:

                  o   sgr usually will not  convert,  because  termcap  lacks  the
                      ability  to  work with more than two parameters, and because
                      termcap lacks many of the arithmetic/logical operators  used
                      in terminfo.

                  o   capabilities  with more than one delay or with delays before
                      the end of the string will not convert completely.

           -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, as well as buggy
                  checking  for  the buffer length (and a documented limit in ter-
                  minfo), these entries may cause core dumps with other  implemen-
                  tations.

                  tic checks string capabilities to ensure that those with parame-
                  ters will be valid expressions.  It does this check only for the
                  predefined string capabilities; those which are defined with the
                  -x option are ignored.

           -D     tells tic to print the database locations that it  knows  about,
                  and exit.  The first location shown is the one to which it would
                  write compiled terminal descriptions.  If tic  is  not  able  to
                  find  a writable database location according to the rules summa-
                  rized above, it will print a diagnostic and exit with  an  error
                  rather than printing a list of database locations.

           -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.

           -K     Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to termcap format,
                  e.g., "\s" for space.

           -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  database  location.   Overrides
                  the TERMINFO environment variable.

           -Qn    Rather  than  show  source  in terminfo (text) format, print the
                  compiled (binary) format in hexadecimal or base64 form,  depend-
                  ing on the option's value:

                   1  hexadecimal

                   2  base64

                   3  hexadecimal and base64

           -q     Suppress  comments  and  blank  lines  when  showing  translated
                  source.

           -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 database location into
                  which entries are written, and the number of entries  which  are
                  compiled.

           -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 ncurses
                is built  without  tracing  support,  the  optional  parameter  is
                ignored.  If n is omitted, the default level is 1.  If n is speci-
                fied and greater than 1, the level of detail is increased.

                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.

           -W   By itself, the -w  option  will  not  force  long  strings  to  be
                wrapped.  Use the -W option to do this.

                If  you specify both -f and -W options, the latter is ignored when
                -f has already split the line.

           -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.

### PARAMETERS

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

                  If  file  is "-", then the data is read from the standard input.
                  The file parameter may also be the path of a character-device.

### PROCESSING

           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.
           tic duplicates the capabilities in entry-name for  the  current  entry,
           with the exception of those capabilities 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.

           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  SVr4 tic command, this implementation can actually compile
           termcap sources.  In fact, entries in terminfo and termcap  syntax  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 data-
           base (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 -0, -1, -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 database 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),
           term(5).  terminfo(5).

           This describes ncurses version 6.1 (patch 20180203).

## AUTHOR

           Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
           Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>

                                                                           tic(1m)