/usr/share/terminfo
compiled terminal description database
List table of entries of terminfo terminal types
toe [-ahs]
[-v
[n]]
[directory ...]
toe [{-u | -U}]
file
toe -V
toe reports to the standard output stream the (primary) names and descriptions of the terminal types available to the terminfo library. Each directory is scanned; if none are given, toe scans the default terminfo directory.
The -h option can be helpful to observe where toe is looking for terminal descriptions. Other options support maintainers of terminfo terminal descriptions.
-a
lists entries from all terminal database directories that terminfo would search, instead of only the first that it finds.
If -s is also given, toe additionally reports, like conflict(1), which entries correspond to a given terminal database. An “*” marks entries that differ, and “+” marks equivalent entries.
Without the -s option, toe does not attempt to merge duplicates in its report.
-h
writes a heading naming each directory as it is accessed.
-s
sorts the output by the entry names.
-u file
lists terminal type dependencies in file, a terminfo entry source or termcap database file. The report summarizes the “use” (terminfo) and tc (termcap) relations: each line comprises the primary name of a terminal type employing use/tc capabilities, a colon, a space- and tab-separated list of primary names of terminal types thus named, and a newline.
-U file
lists terminal type reverse dependencies in file, a terminfo entry source or termcap database file. The report summarizes the “use” (terminfo) and tc (termcap) reverse relations: each line comprises the primary name of a terminal type occurring in use/tc capabilities, a colon, a space- and tab-separated list of primary names of terminal types naming them thus, and a newline.
-v [
n] reports verbose status information to the standard error stream, showing toe's progress.
The optional parameter n is an integer between 1 and 10 inclusive, interpreted as for tic(1M). If ncurses is built without tracing support, n is ignored.
-V
reports the version of ncurses associated with this program and exits with a successful status.
/usr/share/terminfo
compiled terminal description database
toe is not provided by other implementations. There is no applicable X/Open or POSIX standard for it.
When not sorting with the -s option, the -a option reports all of the names found in all of the terminal database directories named in the TERMINFO and TERMINFO_DIRS environment variables.
| xterm-color | generic color xterm |
| xterm-xfree86 | xterm terminal emulator (XFree86) |
| xterm-vt220 | xterm emulating vt220 |
| xterm-256color | xterm with 256 colors |
| xterm-r6 | xterm X11R6 version |
| xterm-r5 | xterm R5 version |
| xterm-mono | monochrome xterm |
| xterm | xterm terminal emulator (X Window System) |
| vt220 | dec vt220 |
| vt102 | dec vt102 |
| vt100 | dec vt100 (w/advanced video) |
| vt52 | dec vt52 |
| ... |
Use the -a and -s options together to show where each terminal description was found.
| --> /etc/terminfo |
| ----> /lib/terminfo |
| ------> /usr/share/terminfo |
| --*---: | vt100 | dec vt100 (w/advanced video) |
| --*---: | vt102 | dec vt102 |
| --*---: | vt220 | dec vt220 |
| --*---: | vt52 | dec vt52 |
| --*---: | xterm | xterm terminal emulator (X Window System) |
| --*---: | xterm-256color | xterm with 256 colors |
| --*---: | xterm-color | generic color xterm |
| --*---: | xterm-mono | monochrome xterm |
| --*---: | xterm-r5 | xterm R5 version |
| --*---: | xterm-r6 | xterm X11R6 version |
| --*---: | xterm-vt220 | xterm emulating vt220 |
| --*---: | xterm-xfree86 | xterm terminal emulator (XFree86) |
| ... |
5 releases since Debian 1.1 (Buzz); the text changed 2 times.
-a since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
-h since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
-s since Arch Linux 2026-11-01.