infocmp
can be used to compare a binary
terminfo
entry with other terminfo entries, rewrite a
terminfo
description to take advantage of the
use= terminfo field, or print out a
terminfo
description from the binary file
(term)
in a variety of formats.
In all cases, the boolean fields will be printed first, followed by the
numeric fields, followed by the string fields.
Default options
If no options are specified and zero or one
termnames
are specified, the
-I
option will be assumed.
If more than one
termname
is specified, the
-d
option will be assumed.
Comparison options
infocmp
compares the
terminfo
description of the first terminal
termname
with each of the descriptions given by the entries for the other terminal's
termnames.
If a capability is defined for only one of the terminals,
the value returned will depend on the type of the capability:
``F''
for boolean variables,
-1
for integer variables,
and
null
for string variables.
-d
produces a list of each capability that is different between two entries.
This option is useful to show the difference between two entries,
created by different people,
for the same or similar terminals.
-c
produces a list of each capability that is common between two
entries.
Capabilities that are not set are ignored.
This option can be used as a quick check to see if the
-u
option is worth using.
-n
produces a list of each capability that is in neither entry.
If no
termnames
are given, the environment variable
TERM
will be used for both of the
termnames.
This can be used as a quick check to see if anything was left out
of a description.
Source listing options
The
-I,
-L,
and
-C
options will produce a source listing for each terminal named.
-I
use the terminfo names
-L
use the long C variable name listed in
<term.h>
-C
use the termcap names
-r
when using -C, put out all
capabilities in termcap form
If no
termnames
are given, the environment variable
TERM
will be used for the terminal name.
The source produced by the
-C
option may be used directly as a termcap entry, but not all of the
parameterized strings may be changed to the termcap format.
infocmp
will attempt to convert most of the parameterized information, but anything
not converted will be plainly marked in the output and commented out.
These should be edited by hand.
All padding information for strings will be collected together and placed at
the beginning of the string where termcap expects it.
Mandatory padding (padding information with a trailing ``/'') will become
optional.
All termcap variables no longer supported by terminfo,
but which are
derivable from other terminfo variables, will be output.
Not all terminfo capabilities will be translated;
only those variables which
were part of termcap will normally be output.
Specifying the
-r
option will take off this restriction, allowing all capabilities to be output
in termcap form.
Note that because padding is collected to the beginning of the capability,
not all capabilities are output.
Mandatory padding is not supported.
Because termcap strings are not as flexible,
it is not always possible to convert a terminfo
string capability into an
equivalent termcap format.
A subsequent conversion of the termcap file back into
terminfo format will not
necessarily reproduce the original terminfo source.
Some common terminfo parameter sequences,
their termcap equivalents, and some
terminal types which commonly have such sequences, are:
terminfo
termcap
Representative Terminals
%p1%c
%.
adm
%p1%d
%d
hp, ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%'x'%+%c
%+x
concept
%i
%i
ANSI standard, vt100
%p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%;
%>xy
concept
%p2 is printed before %p1
%r
hp
Use= option
-u
produces a terminfo
source description of the first terminal
termname
which is relative to the sum of the descriptions given by the entries for the
other terminals
termnames.
It does this by analyzing the differences between the first
termname
and the other
termnames
and producing a description with
use=
fields for the other terminals.
In this manner, it is possible to retrofit generic terminfo entries into a
terminal's description.
Or, if two similar terminals exist, but were coded at different times or by
different people so that each description is a full description, using
infocmp
will show what can be done to change one description to be relative to the
other.
A capability will get printed with an at-sign (@) if it no longer exists in
the first
termname,
but one of the other
termname
entries contains a value for it.
A capability's value gets printed if the value in the first
termname
is not found in any of the other
termname
entries, or if the first of the other
termname
entries
that has this capability gives a different value for the capability
than that in the first
termname.
The order of the other
termname
entries is significant.
Since the terminfo compiler
tic
does a left-to-right scan of the capabilities, specifying two
use=
entries that contain differing entries for the same capabilities will
produce different results
depending on the order that the entries are given in.
infocmp
will flag any such inconsistencies between the other
termname
entries as they are found.
Alternatively, specifying a capability
after
a
use=
entry that contains that capability will cause the second specification to
be ignored.
Using
infocmp
to recreate a description can be a useful check to make sure that everything
was specified correctly in the original source description.
Another error that does not cause incorrect compiled files, but will slow
down the compilation time, is specifying extra
use=
fields that are superfluous.
infocmp
will flag any other
termnameuse
fields that were not needed.
Other options
-s
sorts the fields within each type according to
the argument below:
d
leave fields in the order that they are
stored in the terminfo database.
i
sort by terminfo name.
l
sort by the long C variable name.
c
sort by the termcap name.
If the -s option is not given,
the fields printed out will be sorted alphabetically by the terminfo
name within each type, except in the case of the
-C
or the
-L
options, which cause the sorting to be done by the
termcap name or the long
C variable name, respectively.
-v
prints out tracing information on standard error as the program runs.
-V
prints out the version of the program in use on standard error and exit.
-1
causes the fields to be printed out one to a line.
Otherwise, the fields will be printed several to a line to a maximum width
of 60 characters.
-w
changes the output to width characters.
Changing databases
The location of the compiled terminfo database
is taken from the environment
variable
TERMINFO.
If the variable is not defined, or the terminal is not found in that
location, the system terminfo database, usually in
/usr/share/lib/terminfo,
will be used.
The options
-A
and
-B
may be used to override this location.
The
-A
option will set
TERMINFO
for the first
termname
and the
-B
option will set
TERMINFO
for the other
termnames.
With this, it is possible to compare descriptions for a terminal with the
same name located in two different databases.
This is useful for comparing descriptions for the same terminal created by
different people.
Compatibility
This command works with descriptions in the enhanced terminfo
format specified by The Single UNIX Specification, Version 2; see
terminfo(4).
Earlier versions of this command worked only with the older terminfo format
described on
oldterminfo(4).