terminfo.tail

ncurses-5.4

not on the bottom line (to make, for example, a non-blinking underline into an
easier to find block or blinking underline)
give this sequence as
.BR cvvis .
If there is a way to make the cursor completely invisible, give that as
.BR civis .
The capability
.BR cnorm
should be given which undoes the effects of both of these modes.
.PP
If your terminal correctly generates underlined characters
(with no special codes needed)
even though it does not overstrike,
then you should give the capability \fBul\fR.
If a character overstriking another leaves both characters on the screen,
specify the capability \fBos\fP.
If overstrikes are erasable with a blank,
then this should be indicated by giving \fBeo\fR.
.PP
.SS Keypad and Function Keys
.PP
If the terminal has a keypad that transmits codes when the keys are pressed,
this information can be given.
Note that it is not possible to handle
terminals where the keypad only works in local (this applies, for example,
to the unshifted HP 2621 keys).
If the keypad can be set to transmit or not transmit,
give these codes as \fBsmkx\fR and \fBrmkx\fR.
Otherwise the keypad is assumed to always transmit.
The codes sent by the left arrow, right arrow, up arrow, down arrow,
and home keys can be given as
\fBkcub1, kcuf1, kcuu1, kcud1, \fRand\fB khome\fR respectively.
If there are function keys such as f0, f1, ..., f10, the codes they send
can be given as \fBkf0, kf1, ..., kf10\fR.
If these keys have labels other than the default f0 through f10, the labels
can be given as \fBlf0, lf1, ..., lf10\fR.
The codes transmitted by certain other special keys can be given:
.B kll
(home down),
.B kbs
(backspace),
.B ktbc
(clear all tabs),
.B kctab
(clear the tab stop in this column),
.B kclr
(clear screen or erase key),
.B kdch1
(delete character),
.B kdl1
(delete line),
.B krmir
(exit insert mode),
.B kel
(clear to end of line),
.B ked
(clear to end of screen),
.B kich1
(insert character or enter insert mode),
.B kil1
(insert line),
.B knp
(next page),
.B kpp
(previous page),
.B kind
(scroll forward/down),
.B kri
(scroll backward/up),
.B khts
(set a tab stop in this column).
In addition, if the keypad has a 3 by 3 array of keys including the four
arrow keys, the other five keys can be given as
.BR ka1 ,
.BR ka3 ,
.BR kb2 ,
.BR kc1 ,
and
.BR kc3 .
These keys are useful when the effects of a 3 by 3 directional pad are needed.
.PP
Strings to program function keys can be given as
.BR pfkey ,
.BR pfloc ,
and
.BR pfx .
A string to program screen labels should be specified as \fBpln\fP.
Each of these strings takes two parameters: the function key number to
program (from 0 to 10) and the string to program it with.
Function key numbers out of this range may program undefined keys in
a terminal dependent manner.
The difference between the capabilities is that
.B pfkey
causes pressing the given key to be the same as the user typing the
given string;
.B pfloc
causes the string to be executed by the terminal in local; and
.B pfx
causes the string to be transmitted to the computer.
.PP
The capabilities \fBnlab\fP, \fBlw\fP and \fBlh\fP
define the number of programmable
screen labels and their width and height.
If there are commands to turn the labels on and off,
give them in \fBsmln\fP and \fBrmln\fP.
\fBsmln\fP is normally output after one or more pln
sequences to make sure that the change becomes visible.
.PP
.SS Tabs and Initialization
.PP
If the terminal has hardware tabs, the command to advance to the next
tab stop can be given as
.B ht
(usually control I).
A ``back-tab'' command which moves leftward to the preceding tab stop can
be given as
.BR cbt .
By convention, if the teletype modes indicate that tabs are being
expanded by the computer rather than being sent to the terminal,
programs should not use
.B ht
or
.B cbt
even if they are present, since the user may not have the tab stops
properly set.
If the terminal has hardware tabs which are initially set every
.I n
spaces when the terminal is powered up,
the numeric parameter
.B it
is given, showing the number of spaces the tabs are set to.
This is normally used by the
.IR tset
command to determine whether to set the mode for hardware tab expansion,
and whether to set the tab stops.
If the terminal has tab stops that can be saved in non-volatile memory,
the terminfo description can assume that they are properly set.
.PP
Other capabilities
include
.BR is1 ,
.BR is2 ,
and
.BR is3 ,
initialization strings for the terminal,
.BR iprog ,
the path name of a program to be run to initialize the terminal,
and \fBif\fR, the name of a file containing long initialization strings.
These strings are expected to set the terminal into modes consistent
with the rest of the terminfo description.
They are normally sent to the terminal, by the
.I init
option of the
.IR tput
program, each time the user logs in.
They will be printed in the following order:
run the program
.BR iprog ;
output
.BR is1 ;
.BR is2 ;
set the margins using
.BR mgc ,
.BR smgl
and
.BR smgr ;
set tabs using
.B tbc
and
.BR hts ;
print the file
.BR if ;
and finally
output
.BR is3 .
.PP
Most initialization is done with
.BR is2 .
Special terminal modes can be set up without duplicating strings
by putting the common sequences in
.B is2
and special cases in
.B is1
and
.BR is3 .
A pair of sequences that does a harder reset from a totally unknown state
can be analogously given as
.BR rs1 ,
.BR rs2 ,
.BR rf ,
and
.BR rs3 ,
analogous to
.B is2
and
.BR if .
These strings are output by the
.IR reset
program, which is used when the terminal gets into a wedged state.
Commands are normally placed in
.BR rs1 ,
.BR rs2
.B rs3
and
.B rf
only if they produce annoying effects on the screen and are not
necessary when logging in.
For example, the command to set the vt100 into 80-column mode would
normally be part of
.BR is2 ,
but it causes an annoying glitch of the screen and is not normally
needed since the terminal is usually already in 80 column mode.
.PP
If there are commands to set and clear tab stops, they can be given as
.B tbc
(clear all tab stops)
and
.B hts
(set a tab stop in the current column of every row).
If a more complex sequence is needed to set the tabs than can be
described by this, the sequence can be placed in
.B is2
or
.BR if .
.SS Delays and Padding
.PP
Many older and slower terminals don't support either XON/XOFF or DTR
handshaking, including hard copy terminals and some very archaic CRTs
(including, for example, DEC VT100s).
These may require padding characters
after certain cursor motions and screen changes.
.PP
If the terminal uses xon/xoff handshaking for flow control (that is,
it automatically emits ^S back to the host when its input buffers are
close to full), set
.BR xon .
This capability suppresses the emission of padding.
You can also set it
for memory-mapped console devices effectively that don't have a speed limit.
Padding information should still be included so that routines can
make better decisions about relative costs, but actual pad characters will
not be transmitted.
.PP
If \fBpb\fR (padding baud rate) is given, padding is suppressed at baud rates
below the value of \fBpb\fR.
If the entry has no padding baud rate, then
whether padding is emitted or not is completely controlled by \fBxon\fR.
.PP
If the terminal requires other than a null (zero) character as a pad,
then this can be given as \fBpad\fR.
Only the first character of the
.B pad
string is used.
.PP
.SS Status Lines
Some terminals have an extra `status line' which is not normally used by
software (and thus not counted in the terminal's \fBlines\fR capability).
.PP
The simplest case is a status line which is cursor-addressable but not
part of the main scrolling region on the screen; the Heathkit H19 has
a status line of this kind, as would a 24-line VT100 with a 23-line
scrolling region set up on initialization.
This situation is indicated
by the \fBhs\fR capability.
.PP
Some terminals with status lines need special sequences to access the
status line.
These may be expressed as a string with single parameter
\fBtsl\fR which takes the cursor to a given zero-origin column on the
status line.
The capability \fBfsl\fR must return to the main-screen
cursor positions before the last \fBtsl\fR.
You may need to embed the
string values of \fBsc\fR (save cursor) and \fBrc\fR (restore cursor)
in \fBtsl\fR and \fBfsl\fR to accomplish this.
.PP
The status line is normally assumed to be the same width as the width
of the terminal.
If this is untrue, you can specify it with the numeric
capability \fBwsl\fR.
.PP
A command to erase or blank the status line may be specified as \fBdsl\fR.
.PP
The boolean capability \fBeslok\fR specifies that escape sequences, tabs,
etc., work ordinarily in the status line.
.PP
The \fBncurses\fR implementation does not yet use any of these capabilities.
They are documented here in case they ever become important.
.PP
.SS Line Graphics
.PP
Many terminals have alternate character sets useful for forms-drawing.
Terminfo and \fBcurses\fR build in support for the drawing characters
supported by the VT100, with some characters from the AT&T 4410v1 added.
This alternate character set may be specified by the \fBacsc\fR capability.
.PP
.TS H
center expand;
c l l c
c l l c
lw28 lw6 lw2 lw20.
.\".TH
\fBGlyph	ACS	Ascii	VT100\fR
\fBName	Name	Default	Name\fR
UK pound sign        	ACS_STERLING	f	}
arrow pointing down	ACS_DARROW	v	.
arrow pointing left	ACS_LARROW	<	,
arrow pointing right	ACS_RARROW	>	+
arrow pointing up	ACS_UARROW	^	-
board of squares	ACS_BOARD	#	h
bullet          	ACS_BULLET	o	~
checker board (stipple)	ACS_CKBOARD	:	a
degree symbol   	ACS_DEGREE	\e	f
diamond         	ACS_DIAMOND	+	`
greater-than-or-equal-to	ACS_GEQUAL	>	z
greek pi        	ACS_PI	*	{
horizontal line 	ACS_HLINE	-	q
lantern symbol  	ACS_LANTERN	#	i
large plus or crossover	ACS_PLUS	+	n
less-than-or-equal-to	ACS_LEQUAL	<	y
lower left corner	ACS_LLCORNER	+	m
lower right corner	ACS_LRCORNER	+	j
not-equal       	ACS_NEQUAL	!	|
plus/minus      	ACS_PLMINUS	#	g
scan line 1     	ACS_S1  	~	o
scan line 3     	ACS_S3  	-	p
scan line 7     	ACS_S7  	-	r
scan line 9     	ACS_S9  	\&_	s
solid square block	ACS_BLOCK	#	0
tee pointing down	ACS_TTEE	+	w
tee pointing left	ACS_RTEE	+	u
tee pointing right	ACS_LTEE	+	t
tee pointing up 	ACS_BTEE	+	v
upper left corner	ACS_ULCORNER	+	l
upper right corner	ACS_URCORNER	+	k
vertical line   	ACS_VLINE	|	x
.TE
.PP
The best way to define a new device's graphics set is to add a column
to a copy of this table for your terminal, giving the character which
(when emitted between \fBsmacs\fR/\fBrmacs\fR switches) will be rendered
as the corresponding graphic.
Then read off the VT100/your terminal
character pairs right to left in sequence; these become the ACSC string.
.PP
.SS Color Handling
.PP
Most color terminals are either `Tektronix-like' or `HP-like'.
Tektronix-like
terminals have a predefined set of N colors (where N usually 8), and can set
character-cell foreground and background characters independently, mixing them
into N * N color-pairs.
On HP-like terminals, the use must set each color
pair up separately (foreground and background are not independently settable).
Up to M color-pairs may be set up from 2*M different colors.
ANSI-compatible
terminals are Tektronix-like.
.PP
Some basic color capabilities are independent of the color method.
The numeric
capabilities \fBcolors\fR and \fBpairs\fR specify the maximum numbers of colors
and color-pairs that can be displayed simultaneously.
The \fBop\fR (original
pair) string resets foreground and background colors to their default values
for the terminal.
The \fBoc\fR string resets all colors or color-pairs to
their default values for the terminal.
Some terminals (including many PC
terminal emulators) erase screen areas with the current background color rather
than the power-up default background; these should have the boolean capability
\fBbce\fR.
.PP
To change the current foreground or background color on a Tektronix-type
terminal, use \fBsetaf\fR (set ANSI foreground) and \fBsetab\fR (set ANSI
background) or \fBsetf\fR (set foreground) and \fBsetb\fR (set background).
These take one parameter, the color number.
The SVr4 documentation describes
only \fBsetaf\fR/\fBsetab\fR; the XPG4 draft says that "If the terminal
supports ANSI escape sequences to set background and foreground, they should
be coded as \fBsetaf\fR and \fBsetab\fR, respectively.
If the terminal
supports other escape sequences to set background and foreground, they should
be coded as \fBsetf\fR and \fBsetb\fR, respectively.
The \fIvidputs()\fR
function and the refresh functions use \fBsetaf\fR and \fBsetab\fR if they are
defined."
.PP
The \fBsetaf\fR/\fBsetab\fR and \fBsetf\fR/\fBsetb\fR capabilities take a
single numeric argument each.
Argument values 0-7 of \fBsetaf\fR/\fBsetab\fR are portably defined as
follows (the middle column is the symbolic #define available in the header for
the \fBcurses\fR or \fBncurses\fR libraries).
The terminal hardware is free to
map these as it likes, but the RGB values indicate normal locations in color
space.
.PP
.TS H
center;
l c c c
l l n l.
\fBColor	#define 	Value	RGB\fR
black	\fBCOLOR_BLACK\fR	0	0, 0, 0
red	\fBCOLOR_RED\ \fR	1	max,0,0
green	\fBCOLOR_GREEN\fR	2	0,max,0
yellow	\fBCOLOR_YELLOW\fR	3	max,max,0
blue	\fBCOLOR_BLUE\fR	4	0,0,max
magenta	\fBCOLOR_MAGENTA\fR	5	max,0,max
cyan	\fBCOLOR_CYAN\fR	6	0,max,max
white	\fBCOLOR_WHITE\fR	7	max,max,max
.TE
.PP