consoleinfo

Consoleinfo is a term used in software documentation to denote information about a computer console or terminal interface. It is not a single, universal standard, but a generic label for data and APIs that report the capabilities, configuration, and state of a console used by a program.

In Unix-like systems, console information often involves terminal capability databases (terminfo or termcap) and related utilities. Programs may query the TERM environment variable, inspect the terminal entry in the terminfo database, or use libraries such as ncurses to adapt output to the terminal’s width, color support, and input modes. This enables text-based applications to render correctly across a variety of terminals.

On Windows, console information is exposed through the Win32 Console API, which provides current screen buffer size, window size, cursor position, input modes, code pages, and font attributes. Cross-platform libraries aim to shield developers from these differences by offering a common interface to obtain and react to console characteristics.

In gaming consoles or embedded environments, console information may refer to hardware specifications (such as CPU, memory, and GPU), operating system version, and available peripherals, often exposed through developer tools or system APIs. This information is useful for diagnostics, performance tuning, and compatibility checks in specialized software contexts.

Typical uses of console information include adapting user interfaces to varying terminal sizes, enabling color or text attributes only when supported, diagnosing environment-related issues, and creating portable command-line tools that behave consistently across platforms. Related concepts include terminal capability databases, terminal emulation, and platform-specific console APIs.