Terminfo Source Format (ENHANCED CURSES)

The terminfo database contains a description of the capabilities of a variety of devices, such as terminals and printers. Devices are described by specifying a set of capabilities, by quantifying certain aspects of the device, and by specifying character sequences that effect particular results.

This chapter specifies the format of terminfo source files.

X/Open-compliant implementations provide a facility that accepts source files in the format specified in this chapter as a means of entering information into the terminfo database. The facility for installing this information into the database is implementation-specific. A valid terminfo entry describing a given model of terminal can be added to terminfo on any X/Open-compliant implementation to permit use of the same terminal model.

The terminfo database is often used by screen-oriented applications such as vi and Curses programs, as well as by some utilities such as ls and more. This usage allows them to work with a variety of devices without changes to the programs.