Open System Services System Calls Reference Manual (G06.29+, H06.08+, J06.03+)

Files termcap(4)
NAME
termcap - Describes the terminal capability database
SYNOPSIS
/etc/termcap
DESCRIPTION
The termcap database describes terminals. It is used, for example, by the libtermcap library.
Terminals are described in termcap by giving a set of capabilities that they have and by describ-
ing how operations are performed. Padding requirements and initialization sequences are also
included in termcap.
Entries in termcap consist of fields separated by colons (:). The first field for each terminal
gives the names that are known for the terminal, separated by vertical bar (|) characters. The first
name is always two characters long and is used by older systems that store the terminal name as a
type in a 16-bit word in a system-wide database. The second name given is the most common
abbreviation for the terminal. The last name given should be a long name fully identifying the
terminal; all other names given are understood to be synonyms for the terminal name. All names
but the first and last should be all lowercase letters and should contain no spaces; the last name
can be in uppercase letters and can contain spaces for readability.
Terminal names (except for the last, long entry) should be chosen using the following conven-
tions:
• The particular piece of hardware making up the terminal should have a root name
chosen: for example, hp2621. This name should not contain dashes.
• Modes that the hardware can be in or user preferences should be indicated by appending
a - (dash) and an indicator of the mode. Therefore, a DEC VT100 terminal in 132-
column mode would be vt100-w.
• The suffixes in the following table should be used where possible.
Table 11−10. Terminal Name Suffixes
Suffix Meaning Example
_________________________________________________________
-w Wide mode (more than 80 columns) vt100-w
-am With automatic margins (usually default) vt100-am
-nam Without automatic margins vt100-nam
-n Number of lines on the screen aaa-60
-na No arrow keys (leave them in local) concept100-na
-np Number of pages of memory concept100-4p
-rv Reverse video concept100-rv
Terminal Types Supported
When using TELNET to connect to Open System Services, only the terminal type vt100 is sup-
ported. Other terminal types described in this reference page are not supported.
Types of Capabilities
All capabilities have 2-letter name codes, such as cm.
Capabilities in termcap are of three types:
bool Boolean capabilities, which indicate particular features that the terminal has.
num Numeric capabilities, which give the size of the display or the size of other attri-
butes.
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