TERD(1)
π TERD(1) β the entity-relationship diagram editor bestie π
okay so real talk, this is the manual page for terd from the General Commands Manual section, and I'm gonna walk you through it like we're texting at 2am. grab a snack π
β¨ NAME β¨
terd β Tool for Entity-Relationship Diagrams. that's it, that's the name, it's giving acronym but make it cute π¦
π SYNOPSIS π
terd [options] [diagram]
yeah. options, then optionally a diagram. that's the whole vibe check. π
πΈ DESCRIPTION πΈ
so terd is an X11/Motif based graphical editor for drawing entity-relationship diagrams. you draw them, you look at them, it's a whole thing. β¨
Diagrams can be loaded from and stored to a file. no cap.
It can print diagrams to a PostScript printer or save as PostScript to a file. lowkey versatile.
terd is part of The Toolkit for Conceptual Modeling (TCM). so it's not alone out here, it's got family π«Ά
π ARGUMENTS π
You can call terd with a single diagram name as argument. just one, bestie, don't get greedy.
- If this argument is an existing file, then
terdtries to load a diagram from it. - If it does not exist, a new diagram is created with the argument as diagram name.
terd files should have suffix *.erd. periodt. π
Without a diagram argument, terd creates a new empty entity-relationship diagram with the name untitled.erd. classic untitled behavior honestly π
In addition to the standard X11 toolkit options (see X11(7)) terd accepts the options listed below:
-drawing widthxheightβ Create a drawing area of width pixels wide and height pixels high. so like, the canvas size. iconic.-helpβ Write all available options to standard output and quit. it's literally just telling you what it can do and then leaving. respect.-maxdrawing widthxheightβ The drawing area can not be larger than width pixels wide and height pixels high. it's a hard limit, no negotiating π«-priv_cmapβ Start the editor with a private colormap. fancy colors, just for you π-projdir directoryβ Set the project directory (current working directory) to directory. where your stuff lives fr fr.-toEPS [file.eps]β Generate EPS (tofile.epsor stdout when no file name was given) and quit. no editor window, just output and βοΈ-toFig [file.fig] [-latex]β Generate Fig format (tofile.figor stdout when no file name was given and quit. When the-latexoption is given, LaTeX fonts are generated, otherwise normal PostScript fonts are generated. The Fig format can be read byxfig(1)andfig2dev(1). so you can take it elsewhere, it's giving export energy π₯-toPNG file.pngβ Generate PNG format tofile.pngand quit. pixel girlies rise π-toPS [file.ps]β Generate PostScript (tofile.psor stdout when no file name was given) and quit. PostScript stays winning ngl.-versionβ Write the TCM version to standard output and quit. quick little flex. β
π§ ENVIRONMENT π§
TCM_HOMEβ should be the directory where the TCM files are installed. your home base πPATHβ Should include$TCM_HOME/binMANPATHβ Should include$TCM_HOME/manPRINTERβ Name of the default printer that is used byterd. so it knows where to send your masterpiece π¨οΈLD_LIBRARY_PATHβ Should include$TCM_HOME/libwhen the distribution contains shared object libraries in$TCM_HOME/lib.
π¦ FILES π¦
The following relative files are relative to $TCM_HOME.
bin/terdβ the entity-relationship diagram editor. that's her πbin/psfβ a program to filter PostScript output.lib/banner.psβ PostScript banner page that can be used when the printer does not print a banner page. for when your printer is being lazy about the cover page πlib/help/*β The help directory contains a collection of text files for the on-line help.lib/TCMβ X Resources (the same as the ones that are built-in). You can customize the fonts and colors by setting resources in your X defaults database. Each string of the form`TCM.resource:definition`sets a resource. aesthetic customization, obsessed./tmp/tcmXXXXXXβ Pseudo random temporary file, for PostScript output. it's random, it's temporary, it's doing its best πlib/tcm.confβ TCM editor configuration file. This file contains values for some of the editor defaults like the page size, the default fonts etc. This file is read by each editor upon startup.$HOME/.tcmrcβ Each user of TCM can override some of the options oftcm.confby its own configuration file, installed in$HOME/.tcmrc. your personal era π
π₯ SEE ALSO π₯
Frank Dehne, Roel Wieringa and Henk van de Zandschulp β TCM (Toolkit for Conceptual Modeling), User's Guide and Reference. This document is available as PostScript and HTML in $TCM_HOME/doc or as HTML via the URL http://www.cs.utwente.nl/~tcm/tcm-usersguide.html.
tcm(1), X11(7), xfig(1), fig2dev(1)
π AUTHOR π
Frank Dehne (frank@cs.vu.nl). king behavior, honestly.
π BUGS π
Please send bug reports to tcm@cs.utwente.nl. don't be shy, they want to hear it π«Ά
π and that's the whole page bestie. terd version, from the General Commands Manual, dated 9 January 2000 β shoutout to the source, she's been iconic for a minute. go draw some entity-relationship diagrams. slay. π
β¨π
π¦ where this page comes from
- debian bookworm: tcm 2.20+TSQD-7+b1
- debian trixie: tcm 2.20+TSQD-8
- ubuntu jammy: tcm 2.20+TSQD-7
- ubuntu noble: tcm 2.20+TSQD-7build2
- ubuntu questing: tcm 2.20+TSQD-8
- ubuntu resolute: tcm 2.20+TSQD-9
- ubuntu stonking: tcm 2.20+TSQD-10
- π girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms