199 lines
9.3 KiB
Groff
199 lines
9.3 KiB
Groff
.\"***************************************************************************
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.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2010,2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
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.\" *
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.\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
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.\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
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.\" "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including *
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.\" without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, *
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.\" distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell *
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.\" copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is *
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.\" furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: *
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.\" *
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.\" The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included *
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.\" in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. *
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.\" *
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.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS *
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.\" OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF *
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.\" MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. *
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.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, *
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.\" DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR *
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.\" OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR *
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.\" THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. *
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.\" *
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.\" Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright *
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.\" holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the *
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.\" sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
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.\" authorization. *
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.\"***************************************************************************
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.\"
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.\" $Id: term.7,v 1.23 2011/12/17 23:32:17 tom Exp $
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.TH term 7
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.ds n 5
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.ds d @TERMINFO@
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.SH NAME
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term \- conventions for naming terminal types
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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.PP
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The environment variable \fBTERM\fR should normally contain the type name of
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the terminal, console or display-device type you are using. This information
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is critical for all screen-oriented programs, including your editor and mailer.
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.PP
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A default \fBTERM\fR value will be set on a per-line basis by either
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\fB/etc/inittab\fR (e.g., System\-V-like UNIXes)
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or \fB/etc/ttys\fR (BSD UNIXes).
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This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer consoles.
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.PP
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If you use a dialup line, the type of device attached to it may vary. Older
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UNIX systems pre-set a very dumb terminal type like `dumb' or `dialup' on
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dialup lines. Newer ones may pre-set `vt100', reflecting the prevalence of DEC
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VT100-compatible terminals and personal-computer emulators.
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.PP
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Modern telnets pass your \fBTERM\fR environment variable from the local side to
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the remote one. There can be problems if the remote terminfo or termcap entry
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for your type is not compatible with yours, but this situation is rare and
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can almost always be avoided by explicitly exporting `vt100' (assuming you
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are in fact using a VT100-superset console, terminal, or terminal emulator.)
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.PP
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In any case, you are free to override the system \fBTERM\fR setting to your
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taste in your shell profile. The \fB@TSET@\fP(1) utility may be of assistance;
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you can give it a set of rules for deducing or requesting a terminal type based
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on the tty device and baud rate.
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.PP
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Setting your own \fBTERM\fR value may also be useful if you have created a
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custom entry incorporating options (such as visual bell or reverse-video)
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which you wish to override the system default type for your line.
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.PP
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Terminal type descriptions are stored as files of capability data underneath
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\*d. To browse a list of all terminal names recognized by the system, do
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.sp
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@TOE@ | more
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.sp
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from your shell. These capability files are in a binary format optimized for
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retrieval speed (unlike the old text-based \fBtermcap\fR format they replace);
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to examine an entry, you must use the \fB@INFOCMP@\fR(1M) command.
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Invoke it as follows:
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.sp
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@INFOCMP@ \fIentry_name\fR
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.sp
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where \fIentry_name\fR is the name of the type you wish to examine (and the
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name of its capability file the subdirectory of \*d named for its first
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letter). This command dumps a capability file in the text format described by
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\fBterminfo\fR(\*n).
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.PP
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The first line of a \fBterminfo\fR(\*n) description gives the names by which
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terminfo knows a terminal, separated by `|' (pipe-bar) characters with the last
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name field terminated by a comma. The first name field is the type's
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\fIprimary name\fR, and is the one to use when setting \fBTERM\fR. The last
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name field (if distinct from the first) is actually a description of the
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terminal type (it may contain blanks; the others must be single words). Name
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fields between the first and last (if present) are aliases for the terminal,
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usually historical names retained for compatibility.
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.PP
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There are some conventions for how to choose terminal primary names that help
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keep them informative and unique. Here is a step-by-step guide to naming
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terminals that also explains how to parse them:
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.PP
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First, choose a root name. The root will consist of a lower-case letter
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followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits. You need to avoid using
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punctuation characters in root names, because they are used and interpreted as
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filenames and shell meta-characters (such as !, $, *, ?, etc.) embedded in them
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may cause odd and unhelpful behavior. The slash (/), or any other character
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that may be interpreted by anyone's file system (\e, $, [, ]), is especially
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dangerous (terminfo is platform-independent, and choosing names with special
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characters could someday make life difficult for users of a future port). The
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dot (.) character is relatively safe as long as there is at most one per root
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name; some historical terminfo names use it.
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.PP
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The root name for a terminal or workstation console type should almost always
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begin with a vendor prefix (such as \fBhp\fR for Hewlett-Packard, \fBwy\fR for
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Wyse, or \fBatt\fR for AT&T terminals), or a common name of the terminal line
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(\fBvt\fR for the VT series of terminals from DEC, or \fBsun\fR for Sun
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Microsystems workstation consoles, or \fBregent\fR for the ADDS Regent series.
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You can list the terminfo tree to see what prefixes are already in common use.
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The root name prefix should be followed when appropriate by a model number;
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thus \fBvt100\fR, \fBhp2621\fR, \fBwy50\fR.
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.PP
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The root name for a PC-Unix console type should be the OS name,
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i.e., \fBlinux\fR, \fBbsdos\fR, \fBfreebsd\fR, \fBnetbsd\fR. It should
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\fInot\fR be \fBconsole\fR or any other generic that might cause confusion in a
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multi-platform environment! If a model number follows, it should indicate
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either the OS release level or the console driver release level.
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.PP
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The root name for a terminal emulator (assuming it does not fit one of the
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standard ANSI or vt100 types) should be the program name or a readily
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recognizable abbreviation of it (i.e., \fBversaterm\fR, \fBctrm\fR).
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.PP
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Following the root name, you may add any reasonable number of hyphen-separated
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feature suffixes.
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.TP 5
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2p
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Has two pages of memory. Likewise 4p, 8p, etc.
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.TP 5
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mc
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Magic-cookie. Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only support one
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attribute without magic-cookie lossage. Their base entry is usually paired
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with another that has this suffix and uses magic cookies to support multiple
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attributes.
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.TP 5
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\-am
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Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound).
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.TP 5
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\-m
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Mono mode \- suppress color support.
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.TP 5
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\-na
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No arrow keys \- termcap ignores arrow keys which are actually there on the
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terminal, so the user can use the arrow keys locally.
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.TP 5
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\-nam
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No auto-margin \- suppress am capability.
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.TP 5
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\-nl
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No labels \- suppress soft labels.
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.TP 5
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\-nsl
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No status line \- suppress status line.
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.TP 5
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\-pp
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Has a printer port which is used.
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.TP 5
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\-rv
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Terminal in reverse video mode (black on white).
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.TP 5
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\-s
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Enable status line.
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.TP 5
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\-vb
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Use visible bell (flash) rather than beep.
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.TP 5
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\-w
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Wide; terminal is in 132 column mode.
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.PP
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Conventionally, if your terminal type is a variant intended to specify a
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line height, that suffix should go first. So, for a hypothetical FuBarCo
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model 2317 terminal in 30-line mode with reverse video, best form would be
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\fBfubar\-30\-rv\fR (rather than, say, `fubar\-rv\-30').
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.PP
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Terminal types that are written not as standalone entries, but rather as
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components to be plugged into other entries via \fBuse\fP capabilities,
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are distinguished by using embedded plus signs rather than dashes.
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.PP
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Commands which use a terminal type to control display often accept a \-T
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option that accepts a terminal name argument. Such programs should fall back
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on the \fBTERM\fR environment variable when no \-T option is specified.
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.SH PORTABILITY
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For maximum compatibility with older System V UNIXes, names and aliases
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should be unique within the first 14 characters.
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.SH FILES
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.TP 5
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\*d/?/*
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compiled terminal capability data base
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.TP 5
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/etc/inittab
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tty line initialization (AT&T-like UNIXes)
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.TP 5
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/etc/ttys
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tty line initialization (BSD-like UNIXes)
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.SH SEE ALSO
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\fBcurses\fR(3X), \fBterminfo\fR(\*n), \fBterm\fR(\*n).
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