Variant: 0

[romainl]

The lowest supported variant is currently 2 based on the assumption that cterm* are ignored in favor of term when &t_Co <= 2. This is wrong because cterm* are definitely used when &t_Co == 2:

and ignored when &t_Co < 2:

Note that the behavior of 2 is generally the same as that of 8 except for these differences:

• when using color names, red/darkred and blue/darkblue are switched, as well as yellow/darkyellow and cyan/darkcyan: ctermbg=darkred gives you whatever the terminal emulator thinks is darkblue and so on,
• when using color indices, colors are in the standard "xterm" order: 1 is darkred, etc.

There is no difference between 1 and 0.

[lifepillar]

This is addressed by the current master. Now, Variant: 2 generates code that uses cterm attributes; Variant: 1 and Variant: 0 (now supported) generate code that uses term attributes.