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CAPFILE(5)                    File Formats Manual                   CAPFILE(5)

NAME
     capfile - capability database files

DESCRIPTION
     capfile describes the format of capability database files, made popular
     by termcap.  termcap itself has been superseded by terminfo(5), which
     contains equivalent termcap capabilities, and this page exists solely to
     document the termcap format as it is still used by other programs such as
     rtadvd.conf(5).

     Entries in capfile consist of a number of `:'-separated fields.  The
     first entry for each record gives the names that are known for the
     record, separated by `|' characters.  By convention, the last name is
     usually a comment and is not intended as a lookup tag.  The entry must be
     terminated by the `:' character.

   A Sample Entry
     The following entry describes the Teletype model 33.

     T3|tty33|33|tty|Teletype model 33:\
             :bl=^G:co#72:.cr=9^M:cr=^M:do=^J:hc:os:am@:

     Entries may continue onto multiple lines by giving a \ as the last
     character of a line, and empty fields may be included for readability
     (here between the last field on a line and the first field on the next).
     Comments may be included on lines beginning with "#".

   Types of Capabilities
     Capabilities in capfile are of three types: Boolean capabilities, numeric
     capabilities, and string capabilities.

     Boolean capabilities are just the name, to indicate the ability is
     present.

     Numeric capabilities are followed by the character `#' then the value.
     In the example above co gives the value `72'.

     String capabilities are followed by the character `=' and then the
     string.  In the example above bl gives the value `^G'.

     Sometimes individual capabilities must be commented out.  To do this, put
     a period (`.') before the capability name.  For example, see the first cr
     in the example above.

     Sometimes individual capabilities must be marked as absent.  To do this,
     put a @ after the capability name.  For example, see the last am in the
     example above.  This is only useful when merging entries.  See the
     tc=name discussion below for more details.

   Encoding
     Numeric capability values may be given in one of three numeric bases.  If
     the number starts with either `0x' or `0X' it is interpreted as a
     hexadecimal number (both upper and lower case a-f may be used to denote
     the extended hexadecimal digits).  Otherwise, if the number starts with a
     `0' it is interpreted as an octal number.  Otherwise the number is
     interpreted as a decimal number.

     String capability values may contain any character.  Non-printable ASCII
     codes, new lines, and colons may be conveniently represented by the use
     of escape sequences:

     ^X        ('X' & 037)          control-X
     \b, \B    (ASCII 010)          backspace
     \t, \T    (ASCII 011)          tab
     \n, \N    (ASCII 012)          line feed (newline)
     \f, \F    (ASCII 014)          form feed
     \r, \R    (ASCII 015)          carriage return
     \e, \E    (ASCII 027)          escape
     \c, \C    (:)                  colon
     \\        (\)                  back slash
     \^        (^)                  caret
     \nnn      (ASCII octal nnn)

     A `\' followed by up to three octal digits directly specifies the numeric
     code for a character.  The use of ASCII NULs, while easily encoded,
     causes all sorts of problems and must be used with care since NULs are
     typically used to denote the end of strings; many applications use `\200'
     to represent a NUL.

     A special capability, "tc=name", is used to indicate that the record
     specified by name should be substituted for the "tc" capability.  "tc"
     capabilities may interpolate records which also contain "tc" capabilities
     and more than one "tc" capability may be used in a record.  A "tc"
     expansion scope (i.e. where the argument is searched for) contains the
     file in which the "tc" is declared and all subsequent files in the file
     array.

SEE ALSO
     cgetcap(3), termcap(3), terminfo(5)

HISTORY
     termcap described the capabilities of terminals, used by programs such as
     vi(1) and hack(6).  These programs still use termcap today, but their
     capability requests are mapped onto terminfo(5) ones instead.  As such,
     the termcap database file is no longer shipped with NetBSD.

AUTHORS
     Roy Marples <roy@NetBSD.org>

NetBSD 10.99                    March 27, 2012                    NetBSD 10.99