toe(1M) User commands toe(1M)

toe - list table of entries of terminfo terminal types

toe [-ahs] [-v [n]] [directory ...]

toe [-u|-U] file

toe -V

toe reports to the standard output stream the (primary) names and descriptions of the terminal types available to the terminfo library. Each directory is scanned; if none are given, toe scans the default terminfo directory.

The -h option can be helpful to observe where toe is looking for terminal descriptions. Other options support maintainers of terminfo terminal descriptions.

lists entries from all terminal database directories that terminfo would search, instead of only the first that it finds.
If -s is also given, toe additionally reports, like conflict(1), which entries correspond to a given terminal database. An “*” marks entries that differ, and “+” marks equivalent entries.
Without the -s option, toe does not attempt to merge duplicates in its report.
writes a heading naming each each directory as it is accessed.
sorts the output by the entry names.
lists terminal type dependencies in file, a terminfo entry source or termcap database file. The report summarizes the “use” (terminfo) and tc (termcap) relations: each line comprises the primary name of a terminal type employing use/tc capabilities, a colon, a space- and tab-separated list of primary names of terminal types thus named, and a newline.
lists terminal type reverse dependencies in file, a terminfo entry source or termcap database file. The report summarizes the “use” (terminfo) and tc (termcap) reverse relations: each line comprises the primary name of a terminal type occurring in use/tc capabilities, a colon, a space- and tab-separated list of primary names of terminal types naming them thus, and a newline.
reports verbose status information to the standard error stream, showing toe's progress.
The optional parameter n is an integer between 1 and 10 inclusive, interpreted as for tic(1M). If ncurses is built without tracing support, n is ignored.
reports the version of ncurses associated with this program and exits with a successful status.

/usr/share/terminfo
compiled terminal description database

toe is not provided by other implementations. There is no applicable X/Open or POSIX standard for it.

toe replaces a -T option that was briefly supported by the ncurses infocmp utility in 1995.

The -a and -s options were added in 2006 and 2011, respectively.

The program's name originates with a developer's pun:

  • tic,
  • tac (now tack),
  • toe.

When not sorting with the -s option, the -a option reports all of the names found in all of the terminal database directories named in the TERMINFO and TERMINFO_DIRS environment variables.

xterm-color generic color xterm
xterm-xfree86 xterm terminal emulator (XFree86)
xterm-vt220 xterm emulating vt220
xterm-256color xterm with 256 colors
xterm-r6 xterm X11R6 version
xterm-r5 xterm R5 version
xterm-mono monochrome xterm
xterm xterm terminal emulator (X Window System)
vt220 dec vt220
vt102 dec vt102
vt100 dec vt100 (w/advanced video)
vt52 dec vt52
...

Use the -a and -s options together to show where each terminal description was found.

--> /etc/terminfo
----> /lib/terminfo
------> /usr/share/terminfo
--*---: vt100 dec vt100 (w/advanced video)
--*---: vt102 dec vt102
--*---: vt220 dec vt220
--*---: vt52 dec vt52
--*---: xterm xterm terminal emulator (X Window System)
--*---: xterm-256color xterm with 256 colors
--*---: xterm-color generic color xterm
--*---: xterm-mono monochrome xterm
--*---: xterm-r5 xterm R5 version
--*---: xterm-r6 xterm X11R6 version
--*---: xterm-vt220 xterm emulating vt220
--*---: xterm-xfree86 xterm terminal emulator (XFree86)
...

captoinfo(1M), infocmp(1M), infotocap(1M), tic(1M), curses(3X), terminfo(5)

2024-04-20 ncurses 6.5