The file /etc/termcap is a text file which lists the
terminal capabilities. Several applications use the
termcap information to move the cursor in the screen and do other
screen-oriented tasks.
tcsh, bash, vi and all the curses-based applications
use the termcapdatabase.
The database represents various terminal types, and applications use
the TERM environment variable to refer to the right entry in
termcap. Each capability is then represented by a two-letter code
associated to the character string used to get the desired effect.
The separator character between different capabilities is colon (":").
As an example, the audible bell, whith code "bl", is usually represented
by the string "bl=^G", which instructs the applications to use
the control-G character, the ASCII BEL.
In addition to the bl capability, there is a vb capability,
which represents the "visible bell". vb is usually missing in the
console entry in Linux' /etc/termcap.