237 lines
8.6 KiB
HTML
237 lines
8.6 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Man page of term</TITLE>
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</HEAD><BODY>
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<H1>term</H1>
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Section: Environments, Tables, and Troff Macros (7)<BR><A HREF="#index">Index</A>
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<A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html">Return to Main Contents</A><HR>
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<A NAME="lbAB"> </A>
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<H2>NAME</H2>
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term - conventions for naming terminal types
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<A NAME="lbAC"> </A>
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<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2>
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<P>
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The environment variable <B>TERM</B> should normally contain the type name of
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the terminal, console or display-device type you are using.
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This information
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is critical for all screen-oriented programs, including your editor and mailer.
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<P>
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A default <B>TERM</B> value will be set on a per-line basis by either
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<B>/etc/inittab</B> (e.g., System-V-like UNIXes)
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or <B>/etc/ttys</B> (BSD UNIXes).
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This will nearly always suffice for workstation and microcomputer consoles.
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<P>
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If you use a dialup line, the type of device attached to it may vary.
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Older UNIX systems pre-set a very dumb terminal type
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like ``dumb'' or ``dialup'' on dialup lines.
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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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<P>
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Modern telnets pass your <B>TERM</B> environment variable from the local side to
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the remote one.
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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''
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(assuming you are in fact using a VT100-superset console,
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terminal, or terminal emulator.)
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<P>
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In any case, you are free to override the system <B>TERM</B> setting to your
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taste in your shell profile.
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The <B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?1+tset">tset</A></B>(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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<P>
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Setting your own <B>TERM</B> 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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<P>
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Terminal type descriptions are stored as files of capability data underneath
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/etc/terminfo.
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To browse a list of all terminal names recognized by the system, do
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<P>
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<TT> </TT>toe | more<BR>
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<P>
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from your shell.
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These capability files are in a binary format optimized for
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retrieval speed (unlike the old text-based <B>termcap</B> format they replace);
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to examine an entry, you must use the <B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?1+infocmp">infocmp</A></B>(1) command.
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Invoke it as follows:
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<P>
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<TT> </TT>infocmp <I>entry_name</I><BR>
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<P>
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where <I>entry_name</I> is the name of the type you wish to examine (and the
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name of its capability file the subdirectory of /etc/terminfo named for its first
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letter).
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This command dumps a capability file in the text format described by
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<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?5+terminfo">terminfo</A></B>(5).
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<P>
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The first line of a <B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?5+terminfo">terminfo</A></B>(5) description gives the names by which
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terminfo knows a terminal,
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separated by ``|'' (pipe-bar) characters with the last
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name field terminated by a comma.
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The first name field is the type's
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<I>primary name</I>, and is the one to use when setting <B>TERM</B>. 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).
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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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<P>
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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.
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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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<P>
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First, choose a root name.
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The root will consist of a lower-case letter
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followed by up to seven lower-case letters or digits.
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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.
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The slash (/), or any other character
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that may be interpreted by anyone's file system (\, $, [, ]), 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).
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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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<P>
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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 <B>hp</B> for Hewlett-Packard, <B>wy</B> for
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Wyse, or <B>att</B> for AT&T terminals), or a common name of the terminal line
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(<B>vt</B> for the VT series of terminals from DEC, or <B>sun</B> for Sun
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Microsystems workstation consoles, or <B>regent</B> 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 <B>vt100</B>, <B>hp2621</B>, <B>wy50</B>.
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<P>
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The root name for a PC-Unix console type should be the OS name,
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i.e., <B>linux</B>, <B>bsdos</B>, <B>freebsd</B>, <B>netbsd</B>. It should
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<I>not</I> be <B>console</B> 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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<P>
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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., <B>versaterm</B>, <B>ctrm</B>).
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<P>
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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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<DL COMPACT>
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<DT id="1">2p<DD>
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Has two pages of memory.
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Likewise 4p, 8p, etc.
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<DT id="2">mc<DD>
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Magic-cookie.
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Some terminals (notably older Wyses) can only support one
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attribute without magic-cookie lossage.
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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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<DT id="3">-am<DD>
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Enable auto-margin (right-margin wraparound).
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<DT id="4">-m<DD>
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Mono mode - suppress color support.
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<DT id="5">-na<DD>
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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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<DT id="6">-nam<DD>
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No auto-margin - suppress am capability.
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<DT id="7">-nl<DD>
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No labels - suppress soft labels.
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<DT id="8">-nsl<DD>
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No status line - suppress status line.
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<DT id="9">-pp<DD>
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Has a printer port which is used.
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<DT id="10">-rv<DD>
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Terminal in reverse video mode (black on white).
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<DT id="11">-s<DD>
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Enable status line.
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<DT id="12">-vb<DD>
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Use visible bell (flash) rather than beep.
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<DT id="13">-w<DD>
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Wide; terminal is in 132-column mode.
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</DL>
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<P>
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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.
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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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<B>fubar-30-rv</B> (rather than, say, ``fubar-rv-30'').
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<P>
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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 <B>use</B> capabilities,
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are distinguished by using embedded plus signs rather than dashes.
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<P>
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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.
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Such programs should fall back
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on the <B>TERM</B> environment variable when no -T option is specified.
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<A NAME="lbAD"> </A>
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<H2>PORTABILITY</H2>
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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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<A NAME="lbAE"> </A>
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<H2>FILES</H2>
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<DL COMPACT>
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<DT id="14">/etc/terminfo/?/*<DD>
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compiled terminal capability data base
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<DT id="15">/etc/inittab<DD>
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tty line initialization (AT&T-like UNIXes)
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<DT id="16">/etc/ttys<DD>
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tty line initialization (BSD-like UNIXes)
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</DL>
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<A NAME="lbAF"> </A>
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<H2>SEE ALSO</H2>
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<B>ncurses</B>(3NCURSES), <B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?5+terminfo">terminfo</A></B>(5), <B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?5+term">term</A></B>(5).
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A NAME="index"> </A><H2>Index</H2>
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<DL>
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<DT id="17"><A HREF="#lbAB">NAME</A><DD>
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<DT id="18"><A HREF="#lbAC">DESCRIPTION</A><DD>
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<DT id="19"><A HREF="#lbAD">PORTABILITY</A><DD>
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<DT id="20"><A HREF="#lbAE">FILES</A><DD>
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<DT id="21"><A HREF="#lbAF">SEE ALSO</A><DD>
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</DL>
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<HR>
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This document was created by
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<A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html">man2html</A>,
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using the manual pages.<BR>
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Time: 00:06:10 GMT, March 31, 2021
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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