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30 * @Id: curs_getstr.3x,v 1.31 2020/10/18 00:27:44 tom Exp @
31 * X/Open says also until EOf
32 * X/Open says then an EOS is added to the result
33 * X/Open doesn't mention n<0
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45 <H1 class="no-header">curs_getstr 3x</H1>
47 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getstr.3x.html">curs_getstr(3x)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getstr.3x.html">curs_getstr(3x)</A></STRONG>
52 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
53 <STRONG>getstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>getnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>wgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvgetnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvwgetstr</STRONG>,
54 <STRONG>mvwgetnstr</STRONG> - accept character strings from <STRONG>curses</STRONG> terminal keyboard
57 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
58 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
60 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>getstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
61 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>getnstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
62 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wgetstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
63 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wgetnstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
65 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvgetstr(int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
66 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvwgetstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
67 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvgetnstr(int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
68 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvwgetnstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>y</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>x</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>n</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
71 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
72 The function <STRONG>getstr</STRONG> is equivalent to a series of calls to <STRONG>getch</STRONG>, until
73 a newline or carriage return is received (the terminating character is
74 not included in the returned string). The resulting value is placed in
75 the area pointed to by the character pointer <EM>str</EM>, followed by a NUL.
77 <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> reads at most <EM>n</EM> characters, thus preventing a possible over-
78 flow of the input buffer. Any attempt to enter more characters (other
79 than the terminating newline or carriage return) causes a beep. Func-
80 tion keys also cause a beep and are ignored. The <STRONG>getnstr</STRONG> function
81 reads from the <EM>stdscr</EM> default window.
83 The user's erase and kill characters are interpreted. If keypad mode
84 is on for the window, <STRONG>KEY_LEFT</STRONG> and <STRONG>KEY_BACKSPACE</STRONG> are both considered
85 equivalent to the user's kill character.
87 Characters input are echoed only if <STRONG>echo</STRONG> is currently on. In that
88 case, backspace is echoed as deletion of the previous character (typi-
92 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
93 All routines return the integer <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and an <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4 speci-
94 fies only "an integer value other than <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>") upon successful comple-
97 X/Open defines no error conditions.
99 In this implementation, these functions return an error if the window
100 pointer is null, or if its timeout expires without having any data.
102 This implementation provides an extension as well. If a <STRONG>SIGWINCH</STRONG> in-
103 terrupts the function, it will return <STRONG>KEY_RESIZE</STRONG> rather than <STRONG>OK</STRONG> or <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>.
105 Functions with a "mv" prefix first perform a cursor movement using
106 <STRONG>wmove</STRONG>, and return an error if the position is outside the window, or if
107 the window pointer is null.
110 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></H2><PRE>
111 Note that <STRONG>getstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvgetstr</STRONG>, and <STRONG>mvwgetstr</STRONG> may be macros.
114 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
115 These functions are described in the XSI Curses standard, Issue 4.
116 They read single-byte characters only. The standard does not define
117 any error conditions. This implementation returns <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> if the window
118 pointer is null, or if the lower-level <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getch.3x.html">wgetch(3x)</A></STRONG> call returns an <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>.
120 SVr3 and early SVr4 curses implementations did not reject function
121 keys; the SVr4.0 documentation claimed that "special keys" (such as
122 function keys, "home" key, "clear" key, <EM>etc</EM>.) are "interpreted", with-
123 out giving details. It lied. In fact, the "character" value appended
124 to the string by those implementations was predictable but not useful
125 (being, in fact, the low-order eight bits of the key's KEY_ value).
127 The functions <STRONG>getnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvgetnstr</STRONG>, and <STRONG>mvwgetnstr</STRONG> were present but not
130 X/Open Curses, Issue 5 (2007) stated that these functions "read at most
131 <EM>n</EM> bytes" but did not state whether the terminating NUL is counted in
132 that limit. X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) changed that to say they
133 "read at most <EM>n</EM>-1 bytes" to allow for the terminating NUL. As of 2018,
134 some implementations do, some do not count it:
136 <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses 6.1 and PDCurses do not count the NUL in the given limit,
139 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris SVr4 and NetBSD curses count the NUL as part of the limit.
141 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris xcurses provides both: its wide-character <STRONG>wget_nstr</STRONG> re-
142 serves a NUL, but its <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> does not count the NUL consistently.
144 In SVr4 curses, a negative value of <EM>n</EM> tells <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> to assume that the
145 caller's buffer is large enough to hold the result, i.e., to act like
146 <STRONG>wgetstr</STRONG>. X/Open Curses does not mention this (or anything related to
147 negative or zero values of <EM>n</EM>), however most implementations use the
148 feature, with different limits:
150 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris SVr4 curses and PDCurses limit the result to 255 bytes.
151 Other Unix systems than Solaris are likely to use the same limit.
153 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris xcurses limits the result to <STRONG>LINE_MAX</STRONG> bytes.
155 <STRONG>o</STRONG> NetBSD 7 assumes no particular limit for the result from <STRONG>wgetstr</STRONG>.
156 However, it limits the <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> parameter <EM>n</EM> to ensure that it is
159 A comment in NetBSD's source code states that this is specified in
162 <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses (before 6.2) assumes no particular limit for the result
163 from <STRONG>wgetstr</STRONG>, and treats the <EM>n</EM> parameter of <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> like SVr4
166 <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses 6.2 uses <STRONG>LINE_MAX</STRONG>, or a larger (system-dependent) value
167 which the <STRONG>sysconf</STRONG> function may provide. If neither <STRONG>LINE_MAX</STRONG> or
168 <STRONG>sysconf</STRONG> is available, ncurses uses the POSIX value for <STRONG>LINE_MAX</STRONG> (a
169 2048 byte limit). In either case, it reserves a byte for the ter-
173 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
174 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getch.3x.html">curs_getch(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_variables.3x.html">curs_variables(3x)</A></STRONG>.
178 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getstr.3x.html">curs_getstr(3x)</A></STRONG>
182 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
183 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
184 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
185 <li><a href="#h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></li>
186 <li><a href="#h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></li>
187 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
188 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>