# tic 1m 2025-08-16 ncurses 6.5 User commands

    tic(1m)                          User commands                         tic(1m)

## NAME

           tic - compile terminal descriptions for terminfo or termcap

## SYNOPSIS

           tic  [-01acCDfgGIKLNqrstTUVWx] [-e terminal-type-list] [-o dir] [-Q[n]]
           [-R subset] [-v[n]] [-w[n]] file

## DESCRIPTION

           tic translates a terminfo file from source  format  into  the  compiled
           format used by the ncurses(3x) library.

           As  described  in  term(5), the database may be either a directory tree
           (one file per terminal entry) or a  hashed  database  (one  record  per
           entry).   The  tic  command writes only one type of entry, depending on
           how it was built.

           o   For   directory   trees,   the   top-level   directory,   such   as
               /usr/share/terminfo, specifies the location of the database.

           o   For  hashed  databases, a filename is needed.  If the given file is
               not found by that name, but can  be  found  by  adding  the  suffix
               ".db", then that is used.

               The default name for the hashed database is the same as the default
               directory name (only adding a ".db" suffix).

           In either case (directory or hashed  database),  tic  will  create  the
           container  if  it  does  not exist.  For a directory, this would be the
           "terminfo" leaf, versus a terminfo.db file.

           The results  are  normally  placed  in  the  system  terminfo  database
           /usr/share/terminfo.   The  compiled terminal description can be placed
           in a different terminfo database.  There are two ways to achieve this:

           o   First, you may override the system default either by using  the  -o
               option,  or  by  setting  the  variable  TERMINFO  in  the  process
               environment to a valid database location.

           o   Secondly,  if  tic  cannot  write  in  /usr/share/terminfo  or  the
               location  specified  using your TERMINFO variable, it looks for the
               directory $HOME/.terminfo (or hashed database  $HOME/.terminfo.db);
               if that location exists, the entry is placed there.

           Libraries   that  read  terminfo  entries  are  expected  to  check  in
           succession

           o   a location specified by the TERMINFO environment variable,

           o   $HOME/.terminfo,

           o   directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable,

           o   a compiled-in list of directories (/usr/share/terminfo), and

           o   the system terminfo database (/usr/share/terminfo).

           Section "Fetching  Compiled  Descriptions"  in  terminfo(5)  goes  into
           further detail.

### Aliases

           tic  is  the same program as infotocap and captoinfo; usually those are
           linked to, or copied from, this program.

           o   When invoked as infotocap, tic sets the -I option.

           o   When invoked as captoinfo, tic sets the -C option.

## OPTIONS

           -0     restricts the output to a single line.

           -1     restricts the output to a single column.

           -a     tells tic  to  retain  commented-out  capabilities  rather  than
                  discarding  them.   Capabilities are commented by prefixing them
                  with a period.  -a implies -x, because tic treats the commented-
                  out  entries as user-defined names.  If the source is in termcap
                  format, tic accepts the two-character names required by  ncurses
                  ABI 6.  Otherwise these are ignored.

           -C     Force  source  translation to termcap format.  Note: this option
                  differs from the -C option of infocmp(1m) in that  it  does  not
                  merely  translate capability names, but also translates terminfo
                  string  capability  values  to  termcap  format.    tic   leaves
                  capabilities  that are not translatable in the entry under their
                  terminfo names, but commented out with two preceding dots.   The
                  actual  format  used  incorporates some improvements for escaped
                  characters from terminfo format.  For a stricter  BSD-compatible
                  translation, specify -K as well.

                  If  -C  is  combined  with  -c,  tic  makes  additional  checks,
                  reporting cases where terminfo capability values do not have  an
                  exact equivalent in termcap syntax.  For example:

                  o   sgr  usually  does not convert, because termcap is unable to
                      work with more than two parameters, and because  termcap  's
                      language  for encoding parameterized capabilities lacks many
                      of terminfo's arithmetic and logical operators.

           -c     tells tic to perform only validation of file , including  syntax
                  problems  and  invalid  "use" references; no output is produced.
                  If you specify -C (-I) with this option, tic warns about entries
                  that,  after "use" resolution, exceed 1023 (4096) bytes.  Due to
                  a fixed buffer length in older termcap  libraries,  as  well  as
                  buggy  checking  of the buffer length (and a documented limit in
                  terminfo),  these  entries  may  cause  core  dumps  with  other
                  implementations.

                  tic  checks  string  capabilities  to  ensure  that  those  with
                  parameters are valid expressions.  It  validates  only  standard
                  string capabilities, ignoring those defined with the -x option.

           -D     tells  tic  to print the database locations that it knows about,
                  and exit.  The first location shown is the one to which it would
                  write  compiled  terminal  descriptions.   If tic is not able to
                  find  a  writable  database  location  according  to  the  rules
                  summarized  above,  it  will print a diagnostic and exit with an
                  error rather than printing a list of database locations.

           -e list
                  Limit writes and translations to  the  comma-separated  list  of
                  terminal  types.  If any name or alias of a terminal matches one
                  of the  names  in  the  list,  the  entry  will  be  written  or
                  translated as normal.  Otherwise no output will be generated for
                  it.  The option value is interpreted as a  file  containing  the
                  list  if  it  contains  a  '/'.  (Note: depending on how tic was
                  compiled, this option may require -I or -C.)

           -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     Force source translation to terminfo format.

           -K     Suppress some longstanding ncurses extensions to termcap format,
                  e.g., "\s" for space.

           -L     Force source translation to terminfo format  using  the  long  C
                  variable names listed in <term.h>

           -N     Disable smart defaults.  Normally, when translating from termcap
                  to terminfo, the compiler makes a number  of  assumptions  about
                  the    defaults    of    string    capabilities   reset1_string,
                  carriage_return, cursor_left, cursor_down, scroll_forward,  tab,
                  newline, key_backspace, key_left, and key_down, then attempts to
                  use obsolete termcap capabilities to deduce correct values.   It
                  also normally suppresses output of obsolete termcap capabilities
                  such as bs.  This option forces a more literal translation  that
                  also preserves the obsolete capabilities.

           -odir  Write  compiled  entries  to given database location.  Overrides
                  the TERMINFO environment variable.

           -Qn    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

           -q     Suppress  comments  and  blank  lines  when  showing  translated
                  source.

           -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 outright broken ports like  AIX  3.x  that  have  their  own
                  extensions incompatible with SVr4/XSI.

                  Available subsets are
                  "SVr1", "Ultrix", "HP", "BSD", and "AIX"

                  See terminfo(5) for details.

           -r     Force   entry   resolution   (so   there  are  no  remaining  tc
                  capabilities) even when doing  translation  to  termcap  format.
                  This  may  be  needed  if you are preparing a termcap file for a
                  termcap library (such as GNU termcap through version 1.3 or  BSD
                  termcap  through  4.3BSD)  that  does  not  handle  multiple  tc
                  capabilities per entry.

           -s     Summarize the compile by  showing  the  database  location  into
                  which  entries  are written, and the number of entries which are
                  compiled.

           -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  tic to not post-process the data after parsing the source
                  file.  Normally, it infers data which  is  commonly  missing  in
                  older terminfo data, or in termcaps.

           -V     reports  the  version of ncurses which was used in this program,
                  and exits.

           -vn    specifies that (verbose) output be  written  to  standard  error
                  trace information showing tic's progress.

                  The  optional  parameter  n  is a number from 1 to 9, inclusive,
                  indicating the desired level of detail of information.

                  o   If ncurses is built without tracing  support,  the  optional
                      parameter is ignored.

                  o   If n is omitted, the default level is 1.

                  o   If n is specified and greater than 1, the level of detail is
                      increased,  and  the  output  is   written   (with   tracing
                      information) to the "trace" file.

                  The debug flag levels are as follows:

                  1   Names of files created and linked

                  2   Information related to the "use" facility

                  3   Statistics from the hashing algorithm

                  4   Details of extended capabilities

                  5   (unused)

                  6   (unused)

                  7   Entries into the string-table

                  8   List of tokens encountered by scanner

                  9   All values computed in construction of the hash table

           -W     By  itself,  the  -w  option  will  not force long strings to be
                  wrapped.  Use the -W option to do this.

                  If you specify both -f and -W options,  the  latter  is  ignored
                  when -f has already split the line.

           -wn    specifies  the  width of the output.  The parameter is optional.
                  If it is omitted, it defaults to 60.

           -x     Treat unknown capabilities as user-defined  (see  user_caps(5)).
                  That  is,  if  you  supply  a capability name which tic does not
                  recognize, it will infer its type (Boolean,  number  or  string)
                  from  the  syntax  and  make  an  extended table entry for that.
                  User-defined capability strings whose name begins with  "k"  are
                  treated as function keys.

### Parameters

           file   contains  one  or  more terminfo terminal descriptions in source
                  format; see terminfo(5).  Each description in the file describes
                  the capabilities of a particular terminal type.

                  If  file  is  "-",  the  data  are  read from the standard input
                  stream.  The file parameter may also be the path of a  character
                  device.

### Processing

           terminfo(5)  documents  all  but  one of the capabilities recognized by
           tic.  The exception is the use capability,  which  enables  a  terminal
           type description to incorporate others by reference.

           tic  serially  reads  and  compiles  terminal type descriptions; at any
           given time, the program compiles at most one current entry.   When  tic
           encounters  a  use=entry-name  field in the current entry, it reads the
           compiled description of entry-name from /usr/share/terminfo to complete
           the current entry.  If tic has already compiled a description of entry-
           name preceding the current entry in file, tic uses  it  preferentially.
           tic  duplicates  the  capabilities in entry-name for the current entry,
           excepting  those  that  the  current  entry  explicitly  defines.   The
           foregoing  has  implications for capability cancellation.  When entry-1
           declares "use=entry-2", any canceled capabilities in entry-2 must  also
           appear  in  entry-1 prior to "use=entry-2" for these capabilities to be
           canceled in entry-1.

           Compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes in the legacy storage format,
           or  32768  using  the  extended  number  format.  The name field cannot
           exceed 512 bytes.  Terminal names exceeding the  maximum  alias  length
           (32 characters on systems with long filenames, 14 characters otherwise)
           will be truncated to the maximum alias length  and  a  warning  message
           will be printed.

## FILES

           /usr/share/terminfo
                  compiled terminal description database

## NOTES

           There  is  some  evidence  that  historic  tic  implementations treated
           description fields with no whitespace in them as additional aliases  or
           short  names.   This  tic  does  not  do  that,  but  it does warn when
           description fields may be treated that way and check them for dangerous
           characters.

## EXTENSIONS

           Unlike  the  SVr4 tic command, this implementation can actually compile
           termcap sources.  In fact, entries in terminfo and termcap  syntax  can
           be  mixed  in  a  single  source file.  See terminfo(5) for the list of
           termcap names taken to be equivalent to terminfo names.

           The SVr4 manual pages are not clear on the  resolution  rules  for  use
           capabilities.   ncurses's  tic finds use targets anywhere in the source
           file, or anywhere in the file  tree  rooted  at  the  location  in  the
           TERMINFO  environment  variable  (if  TERMINFO  is  defined), or in the
           user's $HOME/.terminfo database (if it exists), or  (finally)  anywhere
           in the system's collection of compiled entries.

           The  error  messages  from this tic have the same format as GNU C error
           messages, and can be parsed by GNU Emacs's compile facility.

           Aside from -c and -v, options are not portable:

           o   Most of tic's options are not supported by SVr4 tic:

               -0 -1 -C -G -I -N -R -T -V -a -e -f -g -o -r -s -t -x

           o   The NetBSD tic supports a few of the ncurses options

               -a -o -x

               and adds -S (a feature which does the same thing  as  infocmp's  -e
               and -E options).

           The SVr4 -c mode does not report bad "use=" links.

           System  V  does  not  compile  entries  to  or  read  entries from your
           $HOME/.terminfo database unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.

## PORTABILITY

           X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) provides a brief description of  tic.   It
           lists  one  option:  -c.  The omission of -v is unexpected.  The change
           history states that the description is derived from  Tru64.   According
           to its manual pages, that system also supported the -v option.

           Shortly  after  Issue 7  was  released,  Tru64 was discontinued.  As of
           2019, the surviving implementations of tic are  SVr4  (AIX,  HP-UX  and
           Solaris), ncurses and NetBSD curses.  The SVr4 tic programs all support
           the -v option.  The NetBSD tic program follows X/Open's  documentation,
           omitting the -v option.

           The  X/Open  rationale  states  that  some  implementations of tic read
           terminal descriptions from the standard input if the file parameter  is
           omitted.   None of these implementations do that.  Further, it comments
           that some  may  choose  to  read  from  "./terminfo.src"  but  that  is
           obsolescent  behavior  from SVr2, and is not (for example) a documented
           feature of SVr3.

## HISTORY

           System V Release 2 provided  a  tic  utility.   It  accepted  a  single
           option:  -v  (optionally  followed  by  a  number).   According to Ross
           Ridge's comment in mytinfo, this version of tic was unable to represent
           canceled capabilities.

           System  V  Release 3 provided a different tic utility, written by Pavel
           Curtis, (originally named "compile" in pcurses).  This added an  option
           -c  to check the file for errors, with the caveat that errors in "use="
           links would not be reported.  System  V  Release  3  documented  a  few
           warning  messages  which  did not appear in pcurses.  While the program
           itself was changed  little  as  development  continued  with  System  V
           Release  4,  the  table  of capabilities grew from 180 (pcurses) to 464
           (Solaris).

           In early development of ncurses (1993), Zeyd Ben-Halim used  the  table
           from  mytinfo  to  extend  the  pcurses  table to 469 capabilities (456
           matched SVr4, 8 were only in SVr4, 13 were not in SVr4).  Of those  13,
           11  were  ultimately  discarded  (perhaps  to match the draft of X/Open
           Curses).  The exceptions were memory_lock_above and memory_unlock  (see
           user_caps(5)).

           Eric  Raymond  incorporated  parts of mytinfo into ncurses to implement
           the termcap-to-terminfo source conversion, and extended that  to  begin
           development of the corresponding terminfo-to-termcap source conversion,
           Thomas Dickey completed that development over  the  course  of  several
           years.

           In  1999,  Thomas  Dickey  added  the -x option to support user-defined
           capabilities.

           In 2010, Roy Marples provided a tic program and  terminfo  library  for
           NetBSD.   That  implementation  adapts  several  features from ncurses,
           including tic's -x option.

           The -c option tells tic to check for problems in  the  terminfo  source
           file.  Continued development provides additional checks:

           o   pcurses had 8 warnings.

           o   ncurses in 1996 had 16 warnings.

           o   Solaris (SVr4) curses has 28 warnings.

           o   NetBSD tic in 2019 has 19 warnings.

           o   ncurses in 2019 has 96 warnings.

           The  checking  done  in  ncurses's  tic  helps  with  the conversion to
           termcap, as well as pointing out errors  and  inconsistencies.   It  is
           also  used  to  ensure  consistency with the user-defined capabilities.
           There are 527 distinct capabilities in ncurses's terminal database; 128
           of those are user-defined.

## AUTHORS

           Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> and
           Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>

## SEE ALSO

           captoinfo(1m),   infocmp(1m),   infotocap(1m),   toe(1m),   curses(3x),
           term(5), terminfo(5), user_caps(5)

    ncurses 6.5                       2025-08-16                           tic(1m)