[Chapter 5] 5.4 Setting the TERMCAP Variable with tset

5.4 Setting the TERMCAP Variable with tset

For C shell users, tset ( 5.3 ) has an even more powerful function. The -s option causes it to send to standard output a series of C shell commands not only to set TERM , but also to set the TERMCAP variable to the actual contents of the termcap entry. This speeds up launch time for programs that use termcap : they no longer need to search through the /etc/termcap file until they find the relevant entry; it is already at hand.

Invoke tset as follows:

eval	set noglob eval `tset -Q -s `other-options-here` `

In order to understand what tset is doing, let's take a moment to send its output to the screen (i.e., issue the command without evaluating it):

% 

tset -Q -s wy50


set noglob;
setenv TERM wy50 ;
setenv TERMCAP 'n9|wy50:li#24:co#80:am:bs:bw:ul:\
:cm=\E=%+\040%+\040:nd=^L:up=^K:do=^J:ho=^^:bt=\EI:\
:cl=^Z:ce=\ET:cd=\EY:al=\EE:dl=\ER:ic=\EQ:dc=\EW:\
:so=\EG4:se=\EGO:sg#1:ue=\EGO:us=\EG8:ug#1\040:\
:me=\E(EGO:mb=\EG2:mp=\E):mh=\EGp:mr=\EG4:mk=\EG1:\
:kl=^H:kr=^L:ku=^K:kd=^J:kh=^^:k1=^A@^M:k2=^AA^M:\
:k3=^AB^M:k4=^AC^M:k5=^AD^M:k6=^AE^M:k7=^AF^M:k8=^AG^M:\
:k9=^AH^M:k0=^AI^M';
unset noglob;

(Article 41.11 explains the format of termcap entries.) The set noglob command ( 6.9 ) causes the shell to suspend interpretation of special characters; the presence of these characters in the termcap entry could cause problems. After execution, the shell is reset to its normal state.

Article 42.3 explains a situation where these changes won't work.

- TOR from O'Reilly & Associates' termcap & terminfo , Chapter 4