Manual: infocmp
infocmp(1) User commands infocmp(1)
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 vari‐
ety 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 iden‐
tifiers, 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 any‐
thing 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 term‐
cap 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 nor‐
mally 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 improve‐
ments 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. Manda‐
tory 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:
• F for missing Boolean variables
• NULL for missing integer or string variables
The -c and -d options report string capability values between “'” characters. Use the -q option to distinguish ab‐
sent 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-sepa‐
rated 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=” syn‐
tax 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 be‐
tween 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 en‐
tries 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 inconsis‐
tencies 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 speci‐
fication 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
ncurses(3NCURSES), 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:
• The -A option sets the location for the first terminal-type
• 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 differ‐
ent 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 ). This option is useful for preparing versions of the curses li‐
brary 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 re‐
quired 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 ). 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, cer‐
tain 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
• “+” (turn on) or
• “-” (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 envi‐
ronment variable:
infocmp -0 -q -Q2
-q This makes the output a little shorter:
• Make the comparison listing shorter by omitting subheadings, and using “-” for absent capabilities, “@” for
canceled rather than “NULL”.
• However, show differences between absent and canceled capabilities.
• 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.
• Available terminfo subsets are “SVr1”, “Ultrix”, “HP”, and “AIX”; see terminfo(5) for details.
• You can also choose the subset “BSD” which selects only capabilities with termcap equivalents recognized by
4.4BSD.
• 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, untrans‐
latable 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 informa‐
tion. 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 reper‐
toire which can be loaded using the -x option of tic.
FILES
/etc/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 de‐
scriptions. 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:
• the -e option, to support fallback (compiled-in) terminal descriptions
• 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(1) should be a toe(1) mode.
AUTHORS
Eric S. Raymond and
Thomas E. Dickey
SEE ALSO
captoinfo(1), infotocap(1), tic(1), toe(1), ncurses(3NCURSES), terminfo(5), user_caps(5)
https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
ncurses 6.6 2025-11-11 infocmp(1)