infotocap(1M)

✨ infotocap — the manual page, but make it a group chat ✨

okay bestie, so this is infotocap, from section 1M of the manual (that's "user commands," for the admins and the terminally curious 💅). Buckle up.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

infotocap — convert a terminfo description into a termcap description

like, it takes the fancy modern-ish terminfo thing and turns it into the older termcap thing. glow-down in format, glow-up in nostalgia 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

infotocap [tic-option] file ...

infotocap -V

that's it. that's the whole vibe. two ways to call her 💖

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so infotocap translates terminal descriptions. literally its whole personality.

It looks in each given text file for terminfo entries and, for each one found, writes an analogous termcap description to the standard output stream. so: you feed it files, it yeets termcap at your stdout. no cap 📤

terminfo "use" capabilities translate to termcap tc capabilities. cute, right?

⚠️ but here's the tea: because termcap is a less expressive format than terminfo, some capabilities cannot be translated. they just get left behind. it's giving "we don't have the range." 💀

This utility is implemented as a link to tic(1M), with the latter's -C option implied. so like, it's tic wearing a different outfit. You can use other tic options such as -1, -f, -v, -w, and -x — they all still work. 👑

The -V option reports the version of ncurses associated with this program and exits with a successful status. short, sweet, informative. main character behavior. ✨

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📁 FILES 📁

• /usr/share/terminfo — the compiled terminal description database. this is where the magic lives, bestie 🏠✨

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🌈 EXTENSIONS 🌈

This command is an ncurses extension. so like, not everyone has her. she's special. she knows. 💅

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💜 PORTABILITY 💜

X/Open Curses Issue 7 (2009) does not specify this command. nope. not in there.

SVr4 and NetBSD curses do not implement it either. so if you're on those, bestie… she's not coming. 🙈

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

• Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
• Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>

the legends themselves. we stan. 🫶

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

• infocmp(1M)
• tic(1M)
• curses(3X)
• terminfo(5)

go read these next, i promise they eat 🍓

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okay and finally, the little footer moment: this whole page is from ncurses 6.6, dated 2025-10-04, and it's the manual entry for infotocap(1M). remember where you came from. 🎀✨ bye bestie, go convert something 🦋