infocmp(1M) User commands infocmp(1M)
NAME
infocmp - compare or print out terminfo descriptions
SYNOPSIS
infocmp [-1cCdDeEFgGiIKlLnpqrtTuUVWx] [-A directory] [-B directory]
[-Q encoding] [-R subset] [-s key] [-v level] [-w width]
[terminal-type ... ]
DESCRIPTION
infocmp reports a human-readable terminal type description from a
compiled entry in the terminfo database in a variety of selectable
formats, compares such entries to each other, and rewrites an entry to
replace "use" expressions with the content of other entries by reference.
A terminfo entry comprises a list of one or more terminal type
identifiers, a human-readable description of the terminal type, and a
list of terminal capabilities that characterize its programming
interface. In all cases, the program reports Boolean-valued capabilities
first, followed by numeric ones, and then string-valued capabilities.
Default Options
If no options are specified and zero or one terminal-types is specified,
infocmp assumes the -I option. If more than one is specified, the
program assumes the -d option.
Source Listing Options [-I] [-L] [-C] [-r]
The -I, -L, and -C options will produce a source listing for each
terminal named.
-I use terminfo capability codes
-L use "long" capability names
-C use termcap capability codes
-r with -C, include nonstandard capabilities
-K with -C, improve BSD compatibility
If no terminal-types 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 parameterized strings can be changed to the termcap
format. infocmp will attempt to convert most of the parameterized
information, and anything not converted will be plainly marked in the
output and commented out. These should be edited by hand.
For best results when converting to termcap format, you should use both
-C and -r. Normally a termcap description is limited to 1023 bytes.
infocmp trims away less essential parts to make it fit. If you are
converting to one of the (rare) termcap implementations which accept an
unlimited size of termcap, you may want to add the -T option. More often
however, you must help the termcap implementation, and trim excess
whitespace (use the -0 option for that).
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. Normally you would use both the -C and -r options. The
actual format used incorporates some improvements for escaped characters
from terminfo format. For a stricter BSD-compatible translation, use the
-K option rather than -C.
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 Terminal Types
----------------------------------------------------
%p1%c %. ansi-m
%p1%d %d ansi, vt100
%p1%' '%+%c %+x vt52
%i %iq ansi, vt100
%p1%?%'x'%>%t%p1%'y'%+%; %>xy annarbor4080
%p2...%p1 %r hpgeneric
Entry Comparison Options [-d] [-c] [-n]
Given -c, -d, or -n, infocmp compares the terminfo description of the
first specified terminal-type with those of each of the subsequent
operands. If fewer terminal-types than required are specified, infocmp
uses the environment variable TERM in their place.
If a capability is defined for only one terminal type, the value reported
depends on the capability's type:
o F for missing Boolean variables
o NULL for missing integer or string variables
The -c and -d options report string capability values between "'"
characters. Use the -q option to distinguish absent and canceled
capabilities; see terminfo(5).
The comparison option selects the form of report.
-d lists each capability that differs between two entries. Each
capability name is followed by ":" and comma-separated capability
values, then a period.
-c lists each capability that two entries have in common. infocmp
ignores capabilities missing from either entry. Each capability
name is followed by "=", a space, and the capability value, then a
period.
If the -u option is further specified, infocmp rewrites the
description of the first type employing "use=" syntax to use the
second as a building block.
-n lists capabilities that are in none of the given entries. Each
capability name is preceded by "!" and followed by a period.
Normally only conventional capabilities are shown. Use the -x
option to add BSD-compatibility capabilities (names prefixed with
"OT").
Use= Option [-u]
The -u option produces a terminfo source description of the first
terminal terminal-type which is relative to the sum of the descriptions
given by the entries for the other terminal-types. It does this by
analyzing the differences between the first terminal-types and the other
terminal-types 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 be printed with an at-sign (@) if it no longer exists
in the first terminal-type, but one of the other terminal-type entries
contains a value for it. A capability's value will be printed if the
value in the first terminal-type is not found in any of the other
terminal-type entries, or if the first of the other terminal-type entries
that has this capability gives a different value for the capability than
that in the first terminal-type.
The order of the other terminal-type 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 terminal-type 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 terminal-type use= fields that
were not needed.
Changing Databases [-A directory] [-B directory]
Like other ncurses utilities, infocmp looks for the terminal descriptions
in several places. You can use the TERMINFO and TERMINFO_DIRS
environment variables to override the compiled-in default list of places
to search. See curses(3X), as well as the Fetching Compiled Descriptions
section in terminfo(5).
You can also use the options -A and -B to override the list of places to
search when comparing terminal descriptions:
o The -A option sets the location for the first terminal-type
o The -B option sets the location for the other terminal-types.
Using these options, it is possible to compare descriptions for a
terminal with the same name located in two different databases. For
instance, you can use this feature for comparing descriptions for the
same terminal created by different people.
Other Options
-0 causes the fields to be printed on one line, without wrapping.
-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.
-a tells infocmp to retain commented-out capabilities rather than
discarding them. Capabilities are commented by prefixing them with
a period.
-D tells infocmp to print the database locations that it knows about,
and exit.
-E Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as tables, needed in the
C initializer for a TERMTYPE structure (the terminal capability
structure in the <term.h>). This option is useful for preparing
versions of the curses library hardwired for a given terminal type.
The tables are all declared static, and are named according to the
type and the name of the corresponding terminal entry.
Before ncurses 5.0, the split between the -e and -E options was not
needed; but support for extended names required making the arrays of
terminal capabilities separate from the TERMTYPE structure.
-e Dump the capabilities of the given terminal as a C initializer for a
TERMTYPE structure (the terminal capability structure in the
<term.h>). This option is useful for preparing versions of the
curses library hardwired for a given terminal type.
-F compare terminfo files. This assumes that two following arguments
are filenames. The files are searched for pairwise matches between
entries, with two entries considered to match if any of their names
do. The report printed to standard output lists entries with no
matches in the other file, and entries with more than one match.
For entries with exactly one match it includes a difference report.
Normally, to reduce the volume of the report, use references are not
resolved before looking for differences, but resolution can be
forced by also specifying -r.
-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 Analyze the initialization (is1, is2, is3), and reset (rs1, rs2,
rs3), strings in the entry, as well as those used for
starting/stopping cursor-positioning mode (smcup, rmcup) as well as
starting/stopping keymap mode (smkx, rmkx).
For each string, the code tries to analyze it into actions in terms
of the other capabilities in the entry, certain X3.64/ISO
6429/ECMA-48 capabilities, and certain DEC VT-series private modes
(the set of recognized special sequences has been selected for
completeness over the existing terminfo database). Each report line
consists of the capability name, followed by a colon and space,
followed by a printable expansion of the capability string with
sections matching recognized actions translated into {}-bracketed
descriptions.
Here is a list of the DEC/ANSI special sequences recognized:
Action Meaning
-----------------------------------------
RIS full reset
SC save cursor
RC restore cursor
LL home-down
RSR reset scroll region
-----------------------------------------
DECSTR soft reset (VT320)
S7C1T 7-bit controls (VT220)
-----------------------------------------
ISO DEC G0 enable DEC graphics for G0
ISO UK G0 enable UK chars for G0
ISO US G0 enable US chars for G0
ISO DEC G1 enable DEC graphics for G1
ISO UK G1 enable UK chars for G1
ISO US G1 enable US chars for G1
-----------------------------------------
DECPAM application keypad mode
DECPNM normal keypad mode
DECANSI enter ANSI mode
-----------------------------------------
ECMA[+-]AM keyboard action mode
ECMA[+-]IRM insert replace mode
ECMA[+-]SRM send receive mode
ECMA[+-]LNM linefeed mode
-----------------------------------------
DEC[+-]CKM application cursor keys
DEC[+-]ANM set VT52 mode
DEC[+-]COLM 132-column mode
DEC[+-]SCLM smooth scroll
DEC[+-]SCNM reverse video mode
DEC[+-]OM origin mode
DEC[+-]AWM wraparound mode
DEC[+-]ARM auto-repeat mode
It also recognizes a SGR action corresponding to ANSI/ISO 6429/ECMA Set
Graphics Rendition, with the values NORMAL, BOLD, UNDERLINE, BLINK, and
REVERSE. All but NORMAL may be prefixed with
o "+" (turn on) or
o "-" (turn off).
An SGR0 designates an empty highlight sequence (equivalent to
{SGR:NORMAL}).
-l Set output format to terminfo.
-p Ignore padding specifications when comparing strings.
-Q n Rather than show source in terminfo (text) format, print the
compiled (binary) format in hexadecimal or base64 form, depending on
the option's value:
1 hexadecimal
2 base64
3 hexadecimal and base64
For example, this prints the compiled terminfo value as a string
which could be assigned to the TERMINFO environment variable:
infocmp -0 -q -Q2
-q This makes the output a little shorter:
o Make the comparison listing shorter by omitting subheadings, and
using "-" for absent capabilities, "@" for canceled rather than
"NULL".
o However, show differences between absent and canceled
capabilities.
o Omit the "Reconstructed from" comment for source listings.
-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 terminfo; and
variants such as AIX that have their own extensions incompatible
with SVr4/XSI.
o Available terminfo subsets are "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", and
"AIX"; see terminfo(5) for details.
o You can also choose the subset "BSD" which selects only
capabilities with termcap equivalents recognized by 4.4BSD.
o If you select any other value for -R, it is the same as no
subset, i.e., all capabilities are used.
A few options override the subset selected with -R, if they are
processed later in the command parameters:
-C sets the "BSD" subset as a side effect.
-I sets the subset to all capabilities.
-r sets the subset to all capabilities.
-s [d|i|l|c]
The -s option 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.
-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 terminfo).
-t tells tic to discard commented-out capabilities. Normally when
translating from terminfo to termcap, untranslatable capabilities
are commented-out.
-U tells infocmp to not post-process the data after parsing the source
file. This feature helps when comparing the actual contents of two
source files, since it excludes the inferences that infocmp makes to
fill in missing data.
-V reports the version of ncurses which was used in this program, and
exits.
-v n prints out tracing information on standard error as the program
runs.
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.
-W By itself, the -w option will not force long strings to be wrapped.
Use the -W option to do this.
-w width
changes the output to width characters.
-x print information for user-defined capabilities (see user_caps(5).
These are extensions to the terminfo repertoire which can be loaded
using the -x option of tic.
FILES
/usr/share/misc/terminfo
compiled terminal description database
EXTENSIONS
The -0, -1, -a, -e, -E, -f, -F, -g, -G, -i, -l, -p, -q, -Q, -R, -t, -T,
and -V options are ncurses extensions.
PORTABILITY
X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) specifies infocmp. It does not mention
options for producing descriptions in termcap format.
SVr4 infocmp does not distinguish between absent and canceled
capabilities. It furthermore reports missing integer capabilities as -1
(its internal representation). ncurses shows these as "NULL" for
consistency with missing string capabilities.
The -r option of ncurses infocmp uses SVr4's notion of "termcap"
capabilities. BSD curses had a more restricted set. To see only those
present in 4.4BSD, use "-r -RBSD".
HISTORY
Although System V Release 2 provided a terminfo library, it had no
documented tool for decompiling the terminal descriptions. Tony Hansen
(AT&T) wrote the first infocmp in early 1984, for System V Release 3.
Eric Raymond used the AT&T documentation in 1995 to provide an equivalent
infocmp for ncurses. In addition, he added a few new features such as:
o the -e option, to support fallback (compiled-in) terminal
descriptions
o the -i option, to help with analysis
Later, Thomas Dickey added the -x (user-defined capabilities) option, and
the -E option to support fallback entries with user-defined capabilities.
For a complete list, see the EXTENSIONS section.
In 2010, Roy Marples provided an infocmp program for NetBSD. It is less
capable than the SVr4 or ncurses versions (e.g., it lacks the sorting
options documented in X/Open), but does include the -x option adapted
from ncurses.
BUGS
The -F option of infocmp(1M) should be a toe(1M) mode.
AUTHORS
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
SEE ALSO
captoinfo(1M), infotocap(1M), tic(1M), toe(1M), curses(3X), terminfo(5),
user_caps(5)
https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
ncurses 6.5 2025-11-11 infocmp(1M)