===== Terminal Capabilities =====

As you may have noticed by now, most telnet clients designed for use with
ANSI BBSes do not display full-screen Unix programs correctly. Included with
Synchronet is a pair of terminal capability definition files that enable you
to run native full-screen Unix programs and have the output displayed correctly
in a standard ANSI-BBS terminal.  These files are ''termcap'' and ''terminfo'',
located in your Synchronet install directory.  Your system will use one or the
other, and it won't hurt to install both.  You will need to be logged in as
root to install the files.

==== Installing the terminfo file ====

1) Get the Synchronet ANSI-BBS terminfo file from
[[https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/raw/master/install/terminfo|here]].

2) Enter the command:
  # tic terminfo

==== Installing the termcap file ====

1) Get the Synchronet ANSI-BBS termcap file from
[[https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/raw/master/install/termcap|here]].

2) Enter the command:
  # cat termcap >> /etc/termcap

3) **FreeBSD Only** run the command:
  # cap_mkdb -f /usr/share/misc/termcap /etc/termcap

Once the terminal capability files are installed, edit the ''ExternalTermANSI''
value in the ''[BBS]'' section of your ''[[:config:sbbs.ini]]'' file to read:
    ExternalTermANSI=ansi-bbs

Note: The default value of the ''ExternalTermANSI'' ''[[:config:sbbs.ini]]'' key is ''pc3''. If you get an error ''Unknown terminal: pc3'' from external programs, it means that this key value has not been set to a valid terminal type.

Note: Once again, many Linux distros do not have a termcap.  This is fine.
You do NOT need to install the termcap-compat package.  If termcap
isn't installed, it means nothing uses it.  Only if there is a
termcap do you need to add the ''ansi-bbs'' termcap definition.

===== See Also =====
  * [[:install:nix:|install:nix index]]