tic - the terminfo entry-description compiler
tic [-1CINRTcfrs] [-e names] [-o dir] [-v[n]] [-w[n]] file
The command tic translates a terminfo file from source format into compiled format. The compiled format is necessary for use with the library routines in ncurses(3X) .
The results are normally placed in the system terminfo directory @DATADIR@/terminfo. There are two ways to change this behavior.
First, you may override the system default by setting the variable TERMINFO in your shell environment to a valid (existing) directory name.
Secondly, if tic cannot get access to @DATADIR@/terminfo or your TERMINFO directory, it looks for the directory $HOME/.terminfo; if that directory exists, the entry is placed there.
Libraries that read terminfo entries are expected to check for a TERMINFO directory first, look at $HOME/.terminfo if TERMINFO is not set, and finally look in @DATADIR@/terminfo.
this differs from the -C option of infocmp(1M) in that it does not merely translate capability names, but also translates terminfo strings to termcap format. Capabilities that are not translatable are left in the entry under their terminfo names but commented out with two preceding dots.
The debug flag levels are as follows:
If n is not given, it is taken to be one.
All but one of the capabilities recognized by tic are documented in terminfo(5) . The exception is the use capability.
When a use=entry-name field is discovered in a terminal entry currently being compiled, tic reads in the binary from @DATADIR@/terminfo to complete the entry. (Entries created from file will be used first. If the environment variable TERMINFO is set, that directory is searched instead of @DATADIR@/terminfo.) tic duplicates the capabilities in entry-name for the current entry, with the exception of those capabilities that explicitly are defined in the current entry.
When an entry, e.g., entry_name_1, contains a use=entry_name_2 field, any canceled capabilities in entry_name_2 must also appear in entry_name_1 before use= for these capabilities to be canceled in entry_name_1.
If the environment variable TERMINFO is set, the compiled results are placed there instead of @DATADIR@/terminfo.
Total compiled entries cannot exceed 4096 bytes. The name field cannot exceed 128 bytes. Terminal names exceeding 14 characters will be truncated to 14 characters and a warning message will be printed.
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.
Unlike the stock 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. This implementation of tic will find use targets anywhere in the source file, or anywhere in the file tree rooted at TERMINFO (if TERMINFO is defined), or in the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory (if it exists), or (finally) anywhere in the system's file tree 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.
The -o, -I, -C, -N, -R, -e, -f, -T, -r and -s options are not supported under SVr4. The SVr4 -c mode does not report bad use links.
System V does not compile entries to or read entries from your $HOME/.terminfo directory unless TERMINFO is explicitly set to it.
@DATADIR@/terminfo/?/*
Compiled terminal description database.
infocmp(1M) , captoinfo(1M) , infotocap(1M) , toe(1M) , curses(3X) , terminfo(5) .