Re: Strange effects with Terminfo DB entry

[Thomas Dickey]

On Mon, Sep 23, 2002 at 09:12:47AM +0200, Bartschies, Thomas wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> we have a Terminfo description here, that gives strange results with the
> tgetent function. Although we can successfully compile it with tic, the 
> tgetent function fails on loading it with return code 0.
> 
> If we just ignore the return code, the following functions seem to work
> normal. We have not fully tested all capabilities. But we have a working
> application with many of them.
> 
> As the manual page says, a return code of 0 signals problems on loading
> the terminfo entry. Can you direct us on seeking the reason for this? Is
> it possible to get an incomplete or incorrect terminfo entry when ignoring 
> the tgetent returncode? Shouldn't the result be undefined?

It should - but the problem is that the entry is loaded, and after that,
checked.  The setupterm manpage gives more information about the error
code returned by tgetent.

On checking, ncurses found problems with it (see below).
 
> Anyway, we've attached the terminfo entry in question. Please test it. The
> problems should be reproducable.
> 
> Our Environment is: ncurses 5.2 on Redhat 7.2
>  <<t97801.tic>> 

It doesn't look right - and "tic -cv" agrees:

"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': csr uses 0 parameters, expected 2
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': hpa uses 0 parameters, expected 1
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': cup uses 0 parameters, expected 2
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': mrcup uses 0 parameters, expected 2
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': ech uses 0 parameters, expected 1
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': expected character after % in if
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': dch uses 0 parameters, expected 1
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': dl uses 0 parameters, expected 1
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': cud uses 0 parameters, expected 1
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': ich uses 0 parameters, expected 1
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': pfkey uses 0 parameters, expected 2
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': pfloc uses 0 parameters, expected 2
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': pfx uses 0 parameters, expected 2
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': rep uses 0 parameters, expected 2
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': tsl uses 0 parameters, expected 1
"t97801.tic", line 1, terminal 'Formant': non-curses applications may be 
confused by ich1 with smir/rmir

Reading the terminfo entry, it looks as if it was dumped incorrectly from
another terminfo database, rather than being written based on the actual
terminal characteristics.

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <address@hidden>
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net