Re: Ambiguities in the terminfo(5) manpage

[Thomas Dickey]

On Sun, Aug 06, 2023 at 03:57:49PM +0200, Sven Joachim wrote:
> The terminfo(5) manpage states, in the "Fetching Compiled Descriptions"
> section:
> 
> ,----
> |   •   If the environment variable TERMINFO is set, it is interpreted
> |       as the pathname of a directory  containing  the  compiled  de‐
> |       scription   you  are  working  on.   Only  that  directory  is
> |       searched.
> `----
> 
> The last sentence seems to be a bit misleading to me, since the other
> searches will still be performed if the compiled description cannot be
> found below the $TERMINFO directory.
> 
> The next paragraph reads like this:
> 
> ,----
> |    •   If TERMINFO is not set, ncurses will instead look in  the  di‐
> |        rectory $HOME/.terminfo for a compiled description.
> `----
> 
> Again, ncurses also does that TERMINFO is set, but the compiled
> description could not be found there.
> 
> FWIW, the description in the tic(1) manpage ("Libraries that read
> terminfo entries are expected to check in succession") looks rather more
> clear and concise to me.

thanks - I'll have to study this to see how to proceed - it seems that I
last updated both manpages in that area around 2013, probably to explain
the search-order.
 
> Thanks for the recent improvements in the manpages! :-)

no problem (report bugs)

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
https://invisible-island.net

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