Terminfo

[2] This was imitated in pcurses in 1982–1984 by Pavel Curtis, and was available on other UNIX implementations, adapting or incorporating fixes from Mary Horton.

Like termcap, some of the string capabilities represent escape sequences which may be sent to the host by pressing special keys on the keyboard.

These functions provide a stack-based expression parser, which is primarily used to help minimize the number of characters sent for control sequences which have optional parameters such as SGR (Select Graphic Rendition).

Terminfo data is stored as a binary file, making it less simple to modify than termcap.

[6][7] Because the compiled terminfo entries do not contain metadata identifying the indices within the tables to which each capability is assigned, they are not necessarily compatible between implementations.

[8] The original (and most common) implementation of the terminfo library retrieves data from a directory hierarchy.

[citation needed] Some implementations of terminfo store the terminal description in a hashed database (e.g., something like Berkeley DB version 1.85).

The Open Group documents the limits for terminfo (minimum guaranteed values), which apply only to the source file.