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30 * @Id: curs_trace.3x,v 1.40 2023/10/07 21:19:07 tom Exp @
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42 <H1 class="no-header">curs_trace 3x 2023-10-07 ncurses 6.4 Library calls</H1>
44 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_trace.3x.html">curs_trace(3x)</A></STRONG> Library calls <STRONG><A HREF="curs_trace.3x.html">curs_trace(3x)</A></STRONG>
49 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
50 <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>, <STRONG>trace</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracef</STRONG>, <STRONG>_traceattr</STRONG>, <STRONG>_traceattr2</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracecchar_t</STRONG>,
51 <STRONG>_tracecchar_t2</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracechar</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracechtype</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracechtype2</STRONG>, <STRONG>_nc_tracebits</STRONG>,
52 <STRONG>_tracedump</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracemouse</STRONG> - <EM>curses</EM> debugging routines
55 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
56 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
58 <STRONG>unsigned</STRONG> <STRONG>curses_trace(const</STRONG> <STRONG>unsigned</STRONG> <EM>param</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
60 <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>_tracef(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>format</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>...);</STRONG>
62 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_traceattr(attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attr</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
63 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_traceattr2(int</STRONG> <EM>buffer</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>chtype</STRONG> <EM>ch</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
64 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracecchar_t(const</STRONG> <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>string</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
65 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracecchar_t2(int</STRONG> <EM>buffer</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>string</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
66 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracechar(int</STRONG> <EM>ch</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
67 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracechtype(chtype</STRONG> <EM>ch</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
68 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracechtype2(int</STRONG> <EM>buffer</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>chtype</STRONG> <EM>ch</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
70 <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>_tracedump(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>label</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
71 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_nc_tracebits(void);</STRONG>
72 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracemouse(const</STRONG> <STRONG>MEVENT</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>event</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
74 <EM>/*</EM> <EM>deprecated</EM> <EM>*/</EM>
75 <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>trace(const</STRONG> <STRONG>unsigned</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>param</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
78 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
79 The <EM>curses</EM> <EM>trace</EM> routines are used for debugging the ncurses libraries,
80 as well as applications which use the ncurses libraries. Some
83 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Aside from <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>, the other functions are normally available
84 only with the debugging library e.g., <STRONG>libncurses_g.a</STRONG>.
86 All of the trace functions may be compiled into any model (shared,
87 static, profile) by defining the symbol <STRONG>TRACE</STRONG>.
89 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Additionally, the functions which use <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG> are only available
90 with the wide-character configuration of the libraries.
93 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Functions">Functions</a></H3><PRE>
94 The principal parts of this interface are
96 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>, which selectively enables different tracing features,
99 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>_tracef</STRONG>, which writes formatted data to the <EM>trace</EM> file.
101 The other functions either return a pointer to a string-area
102 (allocated by the corresponding function), or return no value (such
103 as <STRONG>_tracedump</STRONG>, which implements the screen dump for <STRONG>TRACE_UPDATE</STRONG>).
104 The caller should not free these strings, since the allocation is
105 reused on successive calls. To work around the problem of a single
106 string-area per function, some use a buffer-number parameter,
107 telling the library to allocate additional string-areas.
109 The <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> function is always available, whether or not the other
110 trace functions are available:
112 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If tracing is available, calling <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> with a nonzero
113 parameter updates the trace mask, and returns the previous trace
116 When the trace mask is nonzero, ncurses creates the file "trace" in
117 the current directory for output. If the file already exists, no
120 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If tracing is not available, <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> returns zero (0).
123 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Trace-Parameter">Trace Parameter</a></H3><PRE>
124 The trace parameter is formed by OR'ing values from the list of
125 <STRONG>TRACE_</STRONG><EM>xxx</EM> definitions in <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>. These include:
127 <STRONG>TRACE_DISABLE</STRONG>
128 turn off tracing by passing a zero parameter.
130 The library flushes the output file, but retains an open file-
131 descriptor to the trace file so that it can resume tracing later
132 if a nonzero parameter is passed to the <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> function.
134 <STRONG>TRACE_TIMES</STRONG>
135 trace user and system times of updates.
137 <STRONG>TRACE_TPUTS</STRONG>
138 trace <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tputs(3x)</A></STRONG> calls.
140 <STRONG>TRACE_UPDATE</STRONG>
141 trace update actions, old & new screens.
143 <STRONG>TRACE_MOVE</STRONG>
144 trace cursor movement and scrolling.
146 <STRONG>TRACE_CHARPUT</STRONG>
147 trace all character outputs.
149 <STRONG>TRACE_ORDINARY</STRONG>
150 trace all update actions. The old and new screen contents are
151 written to the trace file for each refresh.
153 <STRONG>TRACE_CALLS</STRONG>
154 trace all curses calls. The parameters for each call are traced,
155 as well as return values.
157 <STRONG>TRACE_VIRTPUT</STRONG>
158 trace virtual character puts, i.e., calls to <STRONG>addch</STRONG>.
160 <STRONG>TRACE_IEVENT</STRONG>
161 trace low-level input processing, including timeouts.
163 <STRONG>TRACE_BITS</STRONG>
164 trace state of TTY control bits.
166 <STRONG>TRACE_ICALLS</STRONG>
167 trace internal/nested calls.
169 <STRONG>TRACE_CCALLS</STRONG>
170 trace per-character calls.
172 <STRONG>TRACE_DATABASE</STRONG>
173 trace read/write of terminfo/termcap data.
175 <STRONG>TRACE_ATTRS</STRONG>
176 trace changes to video attributes and colors.
178 <STRONG>TRACE_MAXIMUM</STRONG>
179 maximum trace level, enables all of the separate trace features.
181 Some tracing features are enabled whenever the <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> parameter
182 is nonzero. Some features overlap. The specific names are used as a
186 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Initialization">Initialization</a></H3><PRE>
187 These functions check the <STRONG>NCURSES_TRACE</STRONG> environment variable, to set
188 the tracing feature as if <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> was called:
190 filter, initscr, new_prescr, newterm, nofilter, restartterm,
191 ripoffline, setupterm, slk_init, tgetent, use_env,
192 use_extended_names, use_tioctl
195 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Command-line-Utilities">Command-line Utilities</a></H3><PRE>
196 The command-line utilities such as <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1)</A></STRONG> provide a verbose option
197 which extends the set of messages written using the <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>
198 function. Both of these (<STRONG>-v</STRONG> and <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>) use the same variable
199 (<STRONG>_nc_tracing</STRONG>), which determines the messages which are written.
201 Because the command-line utilities may call initialization functions
202 such as <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> or <STRONG>use_extended_names</STRONG>, some of their
203 debugging output may be directed to the <EM>trace</EM> file if the <STRONG>NCURSES_TRACE</STRONG>
204 environment variable is set:
206 <STRONG>o</STRONG> messages produced in the utility are written to the standard error.
208 <STRONG>o</STRONG> messages produced by the underlying library are written to <EM>trace</EM>.
210 If ncurses is built without tracing, none of the latter are produced,
211 and fewer diagnostics are provided by the command-line utilities.
214 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
215 Routines which return a value are designed to be used as parameters to
216 the <STRONG>_tracef</STRONG> routine.
219 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
220 These functions are not part of the XSI interface. Some other curses
221 implementations are known to have similar features, but they are not
222 compatible with ncurses:
224 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr4 provided <STRONG>traceon</STRONG> and <STRONG>traceoff</STRONG>, to control whether debugging
225 information was written to the "trace" file. While the functions
226 were always available, this feature was only enabled if <STRONG>DEBUG</STRONG> was
227 defined when building the library.
229 The SVr4 tracing feature is undocumented.
231 <STRONG>o</STRONG> PDCurses provides <STRONG>traceon</STRONG> and <STRONG>traceoff</STRONG>, which (like SVr4) are
232 always available, and enable tracing to the "trace" file only when
233 a debug-library is built.
235 PDCurses has a short description of these functions, with a note
236 that they are not present in X/Open Curses, ncurses or NetBSD. It
237 does not mention SVr4, but the functions' inclusion in a header
238 file section labeled "Quasi-standard" hints at the origin.
240 <STRONG>o</STRONG> NetBSD does not provide functions for enabling/disabling traces.
241 It uses environment variables <STRONG>CURSES_TRACE_MASK</STRONG> and
242 <STRONG>CURSES_TRACE_FILE</STRONG> to determine what is traced, and where the
243 results are written. This is available only when a debug-library
246 The NetBSD tracing feature is undocumented.
248 A few ncurses functions are not provided when symbol versioning is
251 _nc_tracebits, _tracedump, _tracemouse
253 The original <STRONG>trace</STRONG> routine was deprecated because it often conflicted
254 with application names.
257 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
258 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>
262 ncurses 6.4 2023-10-07 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_trace.3x.html">curs_trace(3x)</A></STRONG>
266 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
267 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
268 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
270 <li><a href="#h3-Functions">Functions</a></li>
271 <li><a href="#h3-Trace-Parameter">Trace Parameter</a></li>
272 <li><a href="#h3-Initialization">Initialization</a></li>
273 <li><a href="#h3-Command-line-Utilities">Command-line Utilities</a></li>
276 <li><a href="#h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></li>
277 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
278 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>