Manual: toe
toe(1) User commands toe(1)
NAME
toe - list table of entries of terminfo terminal types
SYNOPSIS
toe [-ahs] [-v [n]] [directory ...]
toe [-u|-U] file
toe -V
DESCRIPTION
toe reports to the standard output stream the (primary) names and descriptions of the terminal types available to the
terminfo library. Each directory is scanned; if none are given, toe scans the default terminfo directory.
OPTIONS
The -h option can be helpful to observe where toe is looking for terminal descriptions. Other options support main‐
tainers of terminfo terminal descriptions.
-a lists entries from all terminal database directories that terminfo would search, instead of only the first
that it finds.
If -s is also given, toe additionally reports, like conflict(1), which entries correspond to a given termi‐
nal database. An “*” marks entries that differ, and “+” marks equivalent entries.
Without the -s option, toe does not attempt to merge duplicates in its report.
-h writes a heading naming each directory as it is accessed.
-s sorts the output by the entry names.
-u file lists terminal type dependencies in file, a terminfo entry source or termcap database file. The report sum‐
marizes the “use” (terminfo) and tc (termcap) relations: each line comprises the primary name of a terminal
type employing use/tc capabilities, a colon, a space- and tab-separated list of primary names of terminal
types thus named, and a newline.
-U file lists terminal type reverse dependencies in file, a terminfo entry source or termcap database file. The re‐
port summarizes the “use” (terminfo) and tc (termcap) reverse relations: each line comprises the primary
name of a terminal type occurring in use/tc capabilities, a colon, a space- and tab-separated list of pri‐
mary names of terminal types naming them thus, and a newline.
-v [n] reports verbose status information to the standard error stream, showing toe's progress.
The optional parameter n is an integer between 1 and 10 inclusive, interpreted as for tic(1). If ncurses is
built without tracing support, n is ignored.
-V reports the version of ncurses associated with this program and exits with a successful status.
FILES
/etc/terminfo
compiled terminal description database
PORTABILITY
toe is not provided by other implementations. There is no applicable X/Open or POSIX standard for it.
HISTORY
toe replaces a -T option that was briefly supported by the ncurses infocmp utility in 1995.
The -a and -s options were added in 2006 and 2011, respectively.
The program's name originates with a developer's pun:
• tic,
• tac (now tack),
• toe.
EXAMPLES
When not sorting with the -s option, the -a option reports all of the names found in all of the terminal database di‐
rectories named in the TERMINFO and TERMINFO_DIRS environment variables.
xterm-color generic color xterm
xterm-xfree86 xterm terminal emulator (XFree86)
xterm-vt220 xterm emulating vt220
xterm-256color xterm with 256 colors
xterm-r6 xterm X11R6 version
xterm-r5 xterm R5 version
xterm-mono monochrome xterm
xterm xterm terminal emulator (X Window System)
vt220 dec vt220
vt102 dec vt102
vt100 dec vt100 (w/advanced video)
vt52 dec vt52
...
Use the -a and -s options together to show where each terminal description was found.
--> /etc/terminfo
----> /lib/terminfo
------> /usr/share/terminfo
--*---: vt100 dec vt100 (w/advanced video)
--*---: vt102 dec vt102
--*---: vt220 dec vt220
--*---: vt52 dec vt52
--*---: xterm xterm terminal emulator (X Window System)
--*---: xterm-256color xterm with 256 colors
--*---: xterm-color generic color xterm
--*---: xterm-mono monochrome xterm
--*---: xterm-r5 xterm R5 version
--*---: xterm-r6 xterm X11R6 version
--*---: xterm-vt220 xterm emulating vt220
--*---: xterm-xfree86 xterm terminal emulator (XFree86)
...
SEE ALSO
captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), infotocap(1), tic(1), ncurses(3NCURSES), terminfo(5)
ncurses 6.6 2025-11-11 toe(1)