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16.3 The termcap command

Command: termcap term terminal-tweaks [window-tweaks] ¶

Command: terminfo term terminal-tweaks [window-tweaks] ¶

Command: termcapinfo term terminal-tweaks [window-tweaks] ¶

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Use this command to modify your terminal’s termcap entry without going through all the hassles involved in creating a custom termcap entry. Plus, you can optionally customize the termcap generated for the windows. You have to place these commands in one of the screenrc startup files, as they are meaningless once the terminal emulator is booted.

If your system uses the terminfo database rather than termcap, screen will understand the terminfo command, which has the same effects as the termcap command. Two separate commands are provided, as there are subtle syntactic differences, e.g. when parameter interpolation (using ‘%’) is required. Note that the termcap names of the capabilities should also be used with the terminfo command.

In many cases, where the arguments are valid in both terminfo and termcap syntax, you can use the command termcapinfo, which is just a shorthand for a pair of termcap and terminfo commands with identical arguments.

The first argument specifies which terminal(s) should be affected by this definition. You can specify multiple terminal names by separating them with ‘|’s. Use ‘*’ to match all terminals and ‘vt*’ to match all terminals that begin with ‘vt’.

Each tweak argument contains one or more termcap defines (separated by ‘:’s) to be inserted at the start of the appropriate termcap entry, enhancing it or overriding existing values. The first tweak modifies your terminal’s termcap, and contains definitions that your terminal uses to perform certain functions. Specify a null string to leave this unchanged (e.g. ""). The second (optional) tweak modifies all the window termcaps, and should contain definitions that screen understands (see Virtual Terminal).