If no file is given, then the environment variable TERMCAP is used for the filename or entry. If TERMCAP is a full pathname to a file, only the terminal whose name is specified in the environment variable TERM is extracted from that file. If the environment variable TERMCAP is not set, then the file /usr/share/terminfo is read.
Some obsolete nonstandard capabilities will automatically be translated into standard (SVr4/XSI Curses) terminfo capabilities by captoinfo. Whenever one of these automatic translations is done, the program will issue an notification to stderr, inviting the user to check that it has not mistakenly translated a completely unknown and random capability and/or syntax error.
| Nonstd | Std | From | Terminfo |
| name | name | capability | |
| BO | mr | AT&T | enter_reverse_mode |
| CI | vi | AT&T | cursor_invisible |
| CV | ve | AT&T | cursor_normal |
| DS | mh | AT&T | enter_dim_mode |
| EE | me | AT&T | exit_attribute_mode |
| FE | LF | AT&T | label_on |
| FL | LO | AT&T | label_off |
| XS | mk | AT&T | enter_secure_mode |
| EN | @7 | XENIX | key_end |
| GE | ae | XENIX | exit_alt_charset_mode |
| GS | as | XENIX | enter_alt_charset_mode |
| HM | kh | XENIX | key_home |
| LD | kL | XENIX | key_dl |
| PD | kN | XENIX | key_npage |
| PN | po | XENIX | prtr_off |
| PS | pf | XENIX | prtr_on |
| PU | kP | XENIX | key_ppage |
| RT | @8 | XENIX | kent |
| UP | ku | XENIX | kcuu1 |
| KA | k; | Tek | key_f10 |
| KB | F1 | Tek | key_f11 |
| KC | F2 | Tek | key_f12 |
| KD | F3 | Tek | key_f13 |
| KE | F4 | Tek | key_f14 |
| KF | F5 | Tek | key_f15 |
| BC | Sb | Tek | set_background |
| FC | Sf | Tek | set_foreground |
| HS | mh | Iris | enter_dim_mode |
XENIX termcap also used to have a set of extension capabilities for forms drawing, designed to take advantage of the IBM PC high-half graphics. They were as follows:
| Cap | Graphic |
| G2 | upper left |
| G3 | lower left |
| G1 | upper right |
| G4 | lower right |
| GR | pointing right |
| GL | pointing left |
| GU | pointing up |
| GD | pointing down |
| GH | horizontal line |
| GV | vertical line |
| GC | intersection |
| G6 | upper left |
| G7 | lower left |
| G5 | upper right |
| G8 | lower right |
| Gr | tee pointing right |
| Gr | tee pointing left |
| Gu | tee pointing up |
| Gd | tee pointing down |
| Gh | horizontal line |
| Gv | vertical line |
| Gc | intersection |
| GG | acs magic cookie count |
If the single-line capabilities occur in an entry, they will automatically be composed into an acsc string. The double-line capabilities and GG are discarded with a warning message.
IBM's AIX has a terminfo facility descended from SVr1 terminfo but incompatible with the SVr4 format. The following AIX extensions are automatically translated:
| IBM | XSI |
| ksel | kslt |
| kbtab | kcbt |
| font0 | s0ds |
| font1 | s1ds |
| font2 | s2ds |
| font3 | s3ds |
Additionally, the AIX box1 capability will be automatically translated to an acsc string.
Hewlett-Packard's terminfo library supports two nonstandard terminfo capabilities meml (memory lock) and memu (memory unlock). These will be discarded with a warning message.
The trace option is not identical to SVr4's. Under SVr4, instead of following the -v with a trace level n, you repeat it n times.
This describes ncurses version 5.7 (patch 20090207).