The
/etc/ttytype file associates termcap/terminfo terminal type names
with tty lines. Each line consists of a terminal type, followed by
whitespace, followed by a tty name (a device name without the
/dev/) prefix.
This association is used by the program
tset(1)
to set the environment variable TERM to the default terminal name for
the user’s current tty.
This facility was designed for a traditional time-sharing environment
featuring character-cell terminals hardwired to a Unix minicomputer.
It is little used on modern workstation and personal Unixes.
