TERM values for different displays and terminals

Information about terminal capabilities is stored in the terminfo database.

The value of the TERM environment variable identifies the specific terminal description in the terminfo database. This provides all information that a program needs for communicating effectively with the current tty device.

Table 1. TERM values for various terminals
Display/Terminal	Value
3161 ASCII Terminal	ibm3161
3163 ASCII Terminal	ibm3161
DEC VT100 (terminal)	vt100
DECVT220	vt220
3151 ASCII Display Station with Cartridge or 3161 ASCII Display Station with Cartridge	ibm3161-C
3162 ASCII Display Station	ibm3161
3162 ASCII Display Station with Cartridge	ibm3162
6091 Display	lft
AIXwindows	aixterm

For information about the entries in the terminfo database, see the terminfo file format. To convert termcap entries into terminfo entries, see the captoinfo command. (The termcap file contains the terminal descriptions for older Berkeley systems.)