Which $TERM to use to have both 256 colors and mouse move events in python curses?

Question

Currently if I set the TERM environment variable to 'xterm-1003' I can get mouse move events but I get crappy colors and curses.can_change_color() == False

os.environ['TERM'] = 'xterm-1003'
...
curses.mousemask(curses.ALL_MOUSE_EVENTS | curses.REPORT_MOUSE_POSITION)
...
while True:
    event = screen.getch()
    if event == curses.KEY_MOUSE:
        # I get nice events whenever I move the mouse (no click required)
        _, mx, my, _, _ = curses.getmouse()

and if I set the TERM env var to 'xterm-256color' I get a nice color palette plus curses.can_change_color() == True, however I do not receive mouse events unless I click a button!

>ls /usr/share/terminfo/x/ 

reports

xfce           xterm-256color  xterm-hp      xterm-r5     xterm-xf86-v32   xterm-xfree86
xterm          xterm-88color   xterm-new     xterm-r6     xterm-xf86-v33   xterm-xi
xterm-1002     xterm-8bit      xterm-nic     xterm-sco    xterm-xf86-v333  xterms
xterm-1003     xterm-basic     xterm-noapp   xterm-sun    xterm-xf86-v40
xterm-16color  xterm-bold      xterm-old     xterm-vt220  xterm-xf86-v43
xterm-24       xterm-color     xterm-pcolor  xterm-vt52   xterm-xf86-v44

None of the ones I tried seem to support both curses.can_change_color() == True and mouse move events. Is there a way I can get both of them via setting an appropriate $TERM value or some other way?

Thank you!

Answer 1

You can always make your own, using infocmp (to show the contents of an entry), and tic (to compile an entry). If you do not have permission to write in the system area, it goes to $HOME/.terminfo

Start by comparing xterm-1003 and xterm-256color:

> infocmp -x xterm-1003 xterm-256color
comparing xterm-1003 to xterm-256color.
    comparing booleans.
        ccc: F:T.
    comparing numbers.
        colors: 8, 256.
        pairs: 64, 32767.
    comparing strings.
        initc: NULL, '\E]4;%p1%d;rgb\:%p2%{255}%*%{1000}%/%2.2X/%p3%{255}%*%{1000}%/%2.2X/%p4%{255}%*%{1000}%/%2.2X\E\\'.
        setab: '\E[4%p1%dm', '\E[%?%p1%{8}%<%t4%p1%d%e%p1%{16}%<%t10%p1%{8}%-%d%e48;5;%p1%d%;m'.
        setaf: '\E[3%p1%dm', '\E[%?%p1%{8}%<%t3%p1%d%e%p1%{16}%<%t9%p1%{8}%-%d%e38;5;%p1%d%;m'.
        setb: '\E[4%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m', NULL.
        setf: '\E[3%?%p1%{1}%=%t4%e%p1%{3}%=%t6%e%p1%{4}%=%t1%e%p1%{6}%=%t3%e%p1%d%;m', NULL.
        XM: '\E[?1003%?%p1%{1}%=%th%el%;', NULL.

Essentially, all you are interested in is adding the XM capability to a copy of xterm-256color.

So...

1. infocmp -x xterm-256color >foo
2. edit foo, adding the XM string
3. tic -x foo

The "-x" option is needed for tic to compile the XM capability, which is an extended (user-defined) capability which ncurses happens to recognize as noted in comments for the terminal database.