Entries in terminfo consist of a sequence of `,' separated fields (embedded commas may be escaped with a backslash or notated as \054). White space after the `,' separator is ignored. The first entry for each terminal gives the names which are known for the terminal, separated by `|' characters. The first name given is the most common abbreviation for the terminal, the last name given should be a long name fully identifying the terminal, and all others are understood as synonyms for the terminal name. All names but the last should be in lower case and contain no blanks; the last name may well contain upper case and blanks for readability.
Terminal names (except for the last, verbose entry) should be chosen using the following conventions. The particular piece of hardware making up the terminal should have a root name, thus ``hp2621''. This name should not contain hyphens. Modes that the hardware can be in, or user preferences, should be indicated by appending a hyphen and a mode suffix. Thus, a vt100 in 132 column mode would be vt100-w. The following suffixes should be used where possible:
| Suffix | Meaning | Example |
| -nn | Number of lines on the screen | aaa-60 |
| -np | Number of pages of memory | c100-4p |
| -am | With automargins (usually the default) | vt100-am |
| -m | Mono mode; suppress color | ansi-m |
| -mc | Magic cookie; spaces when highlighting | wy30-mc |
| -na | No arrow keys (leave them in local) | c100-na |
| -nam | Without automatic margins | vt100-nam |
| -nl | No status line | att4415-nl |
| -ns | No status line | hp2626-ns |
| -rv | Reverse video | c100-rv |
| -s | Enable status line | vt100-s |
| -vb | Use visible bell instead of beep | wy370-vb |
| -w | Wide mode (> 80 columns, usually 132) | vt100-w |
For more on terminal naming conventions, see the term(7) manual page.