termcap - meaning and definition. What is termcap
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What (who) is termcap - definition

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termcap         
<operating system> (terminal capabilities) A Unix database listing different types of terminal (or terminal emulation) and the character strings to send to make the terminal perform certain functions such as move the cursor up one line or clear the screen. Programs written using termcap can work on any terminal in the database which supports the necessary functions. Typical programs are text editors or file viewers like more. The termcap routines look for an environment variable "TERM" to determine which terminal the user is using. terminfo is a later version of termcap. (1998-10-30)
TERMCAP         
TERMinal CAPability (Reference: Unix)
Termcap         
Termcap (terminal capability) is a software library and database used on Unix-like computers. It enables programs to use display computer terminals in a device-independent manner, which greatly simplifies the process of writing portable text mode applications.

Wikipedia

Termcap

Termcap (terminal capability) is a software library and database used on Unix-like computers. It enables programs to use display computer terminals in a device-independent manner, which greatly simplifies the process of writing portable text mode applications. Bill Joy wrote the first termcap library in 1978 for the Berkeley Unix operating system; it has since been ported to most Unix and Unix-like environments, even OS-9. Joy's design was reportedly influenced by the design of the terminal data store in the earlier Incompatible Timesharing System.

A termcap database can describe the capabilities of hundreds of different display terminals. This allows programs to have character-based display output, independent of the type of terminal. On-screen text editors such as vi and Emacs are examples of programs that may use termcap. Other programs are listed in the Termcap category.

Examples of what the database describes:

  • how many columns wide the display is
  • what string to send to move the cursor to an arbitrary position (including how to encode the row and column numbers)
  • how to scroll the screen up one or several lines
  • how much padding is needed for such a scrolling operation.