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This 56 information is critical for all screen-oriented programs, including 57 your editor and mailer. 58 59 A default <EM>TERM</EM> value will be set on a per-line basis by either 60 <STRONG>/etc/inittab</STRONG> (e.g., System-V-like Unices) or <STRONG>/etc/ttys</STRONG> (BSD Unices). 61 This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer 62 consoles. 63 64 If you use a dialup line, the type of device attached to it may vary. 65 Older Unix systems pre-set a very dumb terminal type like "dumb" or 66 "dialup" on dialup lines. Newer ones may pre-set "vt100", reflecting 67 the prevalence of DEC VT100-compatible terminals and personal-computer 68 emulators. 69 70 Modern telnets pass your <EM>TERM</EM> environment variable from the local side 71 to the remote one. There can be problems if the remote terminfo or 72 termcap entry for your type is not compatible with yours, but this 73 situation is rare and can almost always be avoided by explicitly 74 exporting "vt100" (assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset 75 console, terminal, or terminal emulator). 76 77 In any case, you are free to override the system <EM>TERM</EM> setting to your 78 taste in your shell profile. The <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG> utility may be of assistance; 79 you can give it a set of rules for deducing or requesting a terminal 80 type based on the tty device and baud rate. 81 82 Setting your own <EM>TERM</EM> value may also be useful if you have created a 83 custom entry incorporating options (such as visual bell or reverse- 84 video) which you wish to override the system default type for your 85 line. 86 87 Terminal type descriptions are stored as files of capability data 88 underneath /usr/share/terminfo. To browse a list of all terminal names 89 recognized by the system, do 90 91 toe | more 92 93 from your shell. These capability files are in a binary format 94 optimized for retrieval speed (unlike the old text-based <STRONG>termcap</STRONG> format 95 they replace); to examine an entry, you must use the <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG> 96 command. Invoke it as follows: 97 98 infocmp <EM>entry</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>name</EM> 99 100 where <EM>entry</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>name</EM> is the name of the type you wish to examine (and the 101 name of its capability file the subdirectory of /usr/share/terminfo 102 named for its first letter). This command dumps a capability file in 103 the text format described by <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>. 104 105 The first line of a <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> description gives the names by which 106 terminfo knows a terminal, separated by "|" (pipe-bar) characters with 107 the last name field terminated by a comma. The first name field is the 108 type's <EM>primary</EM> <EM>name</EM>, and is the one to use when setting <EM>TERM</EM>. The last 109 name field (if distinct from the first) is actually a description of 110 the terminal type (it may contain blanks; the others must be single 111 words). Name fields between the first and last (if present) are 112 aliases for the terminal, usually historical names retained for 113 compatibility. 114 115 There are some conventions for how to choose terminal primary names 116 that help keep them informative and unique. Here is a step-by-step 117 guide to naming terminals that also explains how to parse them: 118 119 First, choose a root name. The root will consist of a lower-case 120 letter followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits. You need 121 to avoid using punctuation characters in root names, because they are 122 used and interpreted as filenames and shell meta-characters (such as !, 123 $, *, ?, etc.) embedded in them may cause odd and unhelpful behavior. 124 The slash (/), or any other character that may be interpreted by 125 anyone's file system (\, $, [, ]), is especially dangerous (terminfo is 126 platform-independent, and choosing names with special characters could 127 someday make life difficult for users of a future port). The dot (.) 128 character is relatively safe as long as there is at most one per root 129 name; some historical terminfo names use it. 130 131 The root name for a terminal or workstation console type should almost 132 always begin with a vendor prefix (such as <STRONG>hp</STRONG> for Hewlett-Packard, <STRONG>wy</STRONG> 133 for Wyse, or <STRONG>att</STRONG> for AT&T terminals), or a common name of the terminal 134 line (<STRONG>vt</STRONG> for the VT series of terminals from DEC, or <STRONG>sun</STRONG> for Sun 135 Microsystems workstation consoles, or <STRONG>regent</STRONG> for the ADDS Regent 136 series. You can list the terminfo tree to see what prefixes are 137 already in common use. The root name prefix should be followed when 138 appropriate by a model number; thus <STRONG>vt100</STRONG>, <STRONG>hp2621</STRONG>, <STRONG>wy50</STRONG>. 139 140 The root name for a PC-Unix console type should be the OS name, i.e., 141 <STRONG>linux</STRONG>, <STRONG>bsdos</STRONG>, <STRONG>freebsd</STRONG>, <STRONG>netbsd</STRONG>. It should <EM>not</EM> be <STRONG>console</STRONG> or any other 142 generic that might cause confusion in a multi-platform environment! If 143 a model number follows, it should indicate either the OS release level 144 or the console driver release level. 145 146 The root name for a terminal emulator (assuming it does not fit one of 147 the standard ANSI or vt100 types) should be the program name or a 148 readily recognizable abbreviation of it (i.e., <STRONG>versaterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>ctrm</STRONG>). 149 150 Following the root name, you may add any reasonable number of hyphen- 151 separated feature suffixes. 152 153 2p Has two pages of memory. Likewise 4p, 8p, etc. 154 155 mc Magic-cookie. Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only 156 support one attribute without magic-cookie lossage. Their base 157 entry is usually paired with another that has this suffix and uses 158 magic cookies to support multiple attributes. 159 160 -am Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound). 161 162 -m Mono mode - suppress color support. 163 164 -na No arrow keys - termcap ignores arrow keys which are actually 165 there on the terminal, so the user can use the arrow keys locally. 166 167 -nam No auto-margin - suppress am capability. 168 169 -nl No labels - suppress soft labels. 170 171 -nsl No status line - suppress status line. 172 173 -pp Has a printer port which is used. 174 175 -rv Terminal in reverse video mode (black on white). 176 177 -s Enable status line. 178 179 -vb Use visible bell (flash) rather than beep. 180 181 -w Wide; terminal is in 132-column mode. 182 183 Conventionally, if your terminal type is a variant intended to specify 184 a line height, that suffix should go first. So, for a hypothetical 185 FuBarCo model 2317 terminal in 30-line mode with reverse video, best 186 form would be <STRONG>fubar-30-rv</STRONG> (rather than, say, "fubar-rv-30"). 187 188 Terminal types that are written not as standalone entries, but rather 189 as components to be plugged into other entries via <STRONG>use</STRONG> capabilities, 190 are distinguished by using embedded plus signs rather than dashes. 191 192 Commands which use a terminal type to control display often accept a -T 193 option that accepts a terminal name argument. Such programs should 194 fall back on the <EM>TERM</EM> environment variable when no -T option is 195 specified. 196 197 198</PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE> 199 <EM>/usr/share/terminfo</EM> 200 compiled terminal description database 201 202 <EM>/etc/inittab</EM> 203 tty line initialization (AT&T-like Unices) 204 205 <EM>/etc/ttys</EM> 206 tty line initialization (BSD-like Unices) 207 208 209</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE> 210 For maximum compatibility with older System V Unices, names and aliases 211 should be unique within the first 14 characters. 212 213 214</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE> 215 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="term.5.html">term(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> 216 217 218 219ncurses 6.5 2024-03-16 <STRONG><A HREF="term.7.html">term(7)</A></STRONG> 220</PRE> 221<div class="nav"> 222<ul> 223<li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li> 224<li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></li> 225<li><a href="#h2-FILES">FILES</a></li> 226<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li> 227<li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li> 228</ul> 229</div> 230</BODY> 231</HTML> 232