Terminfo

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~~Terminfo differences~~ that ~~aren't really handled in~~ terminfo ~~include:~~

libterminfo provides something of an abstraction layer over various terminals; its support for old physical terminals is especially rich and essential. Some will tell you that the introduction of the ANSI standards have rendered terminfo unnecessary; they lie. With that said, it is not perfect, nor complete.

* Precise mechanisms of <tt>setaf</tt>/<tt>setbf</tt>

As author of [[Notcurses]], I humbly beseech terminal creators: '''please, please, please keep your terminfo database up-to-date, and expose capabilities there!'''

* Whether ANSI 39 "Default foreground color" / ANSI 49 "Default background color" can be used distinctly (you just get <tt>op</tt>, often defined as <tt>op=\E[39;49m</tt>

* Struck (<tt>~~sgr~~</tt> 9)

Terminal differences that aren't really handled in terminfo include:

* Kitty's [https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/3185 weird replacement of RGB matching the default background color]

* Precise mechanisms of <tt>setaf</tt>/<tt>setbf</tt> and interactions with palette-indexed color

* Whether ANSI 39 "Default foreground color" / ANSI 49 "Default background color" can be used distinctly (you just get <tt>op</tt>, often defined as <tt>op=\E[39;49m</tt>). This might be addressed by the <tt>AX</tt> user capability.

* Kitty's [https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/3185 weird replacement of RGB matching the default background color] and Alacritty's [https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/pull/4196 recent opacity madness]

* Ordering of x/y coordinates when retrieving cursor location (this might be u6?)

==Desired additions==

* A string which can match the terminal's reply to <tt>XTVERSION</tt>, to test whether we've got a terminfo database which doesn't correspond to the terminal we're actually using.

* Individual enable/disable for each style. In particular, the ANSI <tt>CSI 22 m</tt> escape that disables bold/dim ought have a terminfo entry.

* <tt>XTPOPCOLORS</tt>/<tt>XTPUSHCOLORS</tt>

* An abstraction over [https://github.com/hackerb9/lsix/issues/41 DECSDM]

* Indications that the terminal draw various line- and box-drawing characters itself, rather than relying on the font. This might overlap somewhat with <tt>U8</tt>.

* Dump the palette in one go, rather than making me query 256 entries.

==Community extensions==

These capabilities are not described in the most recent terminfo man page at the time of this writing, but are more or less widespread.

* <tt>smxx</tt>/<tt>rmxx</tt> begin and end strikeout mode (terminfo has <tt>os</tt>, a boolean capability indicating that the terminal supports strikeout)

* <tt>Smulx</tt>/<tt>rmulx</tt> begin and end extended underline mode (supports multiple underline forms)

* <tt>Su</tt> scrolls up some number of lines

* <tt>Sync</tt> [https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/terminal-wg/specifications/-/merge_requests/2 Synchronized Update Mode] (currently discovered via $2026 query) header and footer

** <tt>\E[?2026%?%p1%{1}%-%tl%eh</tt>

==Operating with terminfo==

Dump a database entry with <tt>infocmp</tt>. This produces a source which can be compiled using <tt>tic</tt>. By default, <tt>tic</tt> writes a local database entry. The database structure varies between different environments, and ought not be relied upon. Moving a terminfo database TERM from one machine to another is thus best accomplished by:

<ol>

<li>Run <tt>infocmp TERM</tt> on a machine with the database TERM, capturing the output to FILE

<li>Write the database entry TERM on the remote machine with <tt>tic</tt> FILE

</ol>

[[CATEGORY: Terminals]]

Terminfo: Difference between revisions

Dank (talk | contribs)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Terminfo differences that aren't really handled in terminfo include:
+libterminfo provides something of an abstraction layer over various terminals; its support for old physical terminals is especially rich and essential. Some will tell you that the introduction of the ANSI standards have rendered terminfo unnecessary; they lie. With that said, it is not perfect, nor complete.
-* Precise mechanisms of <tt>setaf</tt>/<tt>setbf</tt>
+As author of [[Notcurses]], I humbly beseech terminal creators: '''please, please, please keep your terminfo database up-to-date, and expose capabilities there!'''
-* Whether ANSI 39 "Default foreground color" / ANSI 49 "Default background color" can be used distinctly (you just get <tt>op</tt>, often defined as <tt>op=\E[39;49m</tt>
-* Struck (<tt>sgr</tt> 9)
+Terminal differences that aren't really handled in terminfo include:
-* Kitty's [https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/3185 weird replacement of RGB matching the default background color]
+* Precise mechanisms of <tt>setaf</tt>/<tt>setbf</tt> and interactions with palette-indexed color
+* Whether ANSI 39 "Default foreground color" / ANSI 49 "Default background color" can be used distinctly (you just get <tt>op</tt>, often defined as <tt>op=\E[39;49m</tt>). This might be addressed by the <tt>AX</tt> user capability.
+* Kitty's [https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/3185 weird replacement of RGB matching the default background color] and Alacritty's [https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/pull/4196 recent opacity madness]
+* Ordering of x/y coordinates when retrieving cursor location (this might be u6?)
+==Desired additions==
+* A string which can match the terminal's reply to <tt>XTVERSION</tt>, to test whether we've got a terminfo database which doesn't correspond to the terminal we're actually using.
+* Individual enable/disable for each style. In particular, the ANSI <tt>CSI 22 m</tt> escape that disables bold/dim ought have a terminfo entry.
+* <tt>XTPOPCOLORS</tt>/<tt>XTPUSHCOLORS</tt>
+* An abstraction over [https://github.com/hackerb9/lsix/issues/41 DECSDM]
+* Indications that the terminal draw various line- and box-drawing characters itself, rather than relying on the font. This might overlap somewhat with <tt>U8</tt>.
+* Dump the palette in one go, rather than making me query 256 entries.
+==Community extensions==
+These capabilities are not described in the most recent terminfo man page at the time of this writing, but are more or less widespread.
+* <tt>smxx</tt>/<tt>rmxx</tt> begin and end strikeout mode (terminfo has <tt>os</tt>, a boolean capability indicating that the terminal supports strikeout)
+* <tt>Smulx</tt>/<tt>rmulx</tt> begin and end extended underline mode (supports multiple underline forms)
+* <tt>Su</tt> scrolls up some number of lines
+* <tt>Sync</tt> [https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/terminal-wg/specifications/-/merge_requests/2 Synchronized Update Mode] (currently discovered via $2026 query) header and footer
+** <tt>\E[?2026%?%p1%{1}%-%tl%eh</tt>
+==Operating with terminfo==
+Dump a database entry with <tt>infocmp</tt>. This produces a source which can be compiled using <tt>tic</tt>. By default, <tt>tic</tt> writes a local database entry. The database structure varies between different environments, and ought not be relied upon. Moving a terminfo database TERM from one machine to another is thus best accomplished by:
+<ol>
+<li>Run <tt>infocmp TERM</tt> on a machine with the database TERM, capturing the output to FILE
+<li>Write the database entry TERM on the remote machine with <tt>tic</tt> FILE
+</ol>
+[[CATEGORY: Terminals]]