2. Learn about the capabilities

After you complete the string of terminal names for your description, you have to learn about the terminal's capabilities so that you can properly describe them. To learn about the capabilities your terminal has, you should do the following:

• See the owner's manual for your terminal. It should have information about the capabilities available and the character strings that make up the sequence transmitted from the keyboard for each capability.

• Test the keys on your terminal to see what they transmit, if this information is not available in the manual. You can test the keys in one of the following ways. Type:

     stty -echo; cat -vu
     Type in the keys you want to test;
     for example, see what right arrow () transmits.
     <CR>
     <CTRL-D>
     stty echo
  

  or

     cat >dev/null
     Type in the escape sequences you want to test;
     for example, see what \E[H transmits.
     <CTRL-D>
  

• The first line in each of these testing methods sets up the terminal to carry out the tests. The <<CTRL-D>> helps return the terminal to its normal settings.

• See the oldterminfo(4) manual page. It lists all the capability names you have to use in a terminal description. ``3. Specify capabilities'' gives details.