X-Git-Url: http://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fhtml%2Fman%2Fncurses.3x.html;h=1192282dd35aad325e4fd656fb48744bc3f446f7;hb=bf2c36c4930ac5bb04cd2b1ba209cd09b6f510ab;hp=adc7badbc8f5cfd41cf8e6a2aff30feeaa0d3800;hpb=e6725415d8e5cbb514b8d6056e0700152c540fa0;p=ncurses.git
diff --git a/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html b/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html
index adc7badb..1192282d 100644
--- a/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html
+++ b/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html
@@ -28,24 +28,19 @@
* sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
* authorization. *
****************************************************************************
- * @Id: ncurses.3x,v 1.195 2024/01/05 21:46:58 tom Exp @
- * X/Open Curses Issue 7 assumes some optimization will be done, but
- * does not mandate it in any way.
- * See X/Open Curses Issue 4, Version 2, pp. 227-234.
- * See X/Open Curses Issue 7, pp. 311-318.
- * XXX: What's missing? GBR counts untic(1), and that's all.
+ * @Id: ncurses.3x,v 1.197 2024/01/13 20:30:39 tom Exp @
-->
-ncurses 3x 2024-01-05 ncurses 6.4 Library calls
+ncurses 3x 2024-01-13 ncurses 6.4 Library calls
-
ncurses 3x 2024-01-05 ncurses 6.4 Library calls
+
ncurses 3x 2024-01-13 ncurses 6.4 Library calls
ncurses(3x) Library calls ncurses(3x)
@@ -65,7 +60,7 @@
method of updating character screens with reasonable optimization.
This implementation is "new curses" (ncurses) and is the approved
replacement for 4.4BSD classic curses, which has been discontinued.
- This describes ncurses version 6.4 (patch 20240106).
+ This describes ncurses version 6.4 (patch 20240113).
The ncurses library emulates the curses library of System V Release 4
Unix ("SVr4"), and XPG4 (X/Open Portability Guide) curses (also known
@@ -210,32 +205,33 @@
- The selection of an approprate value of TERM in the process environment
- is essential to correct curses and terminfo library operation. A well-
- configured system selects a correct TERM value automatically; tset(1)
- may assist with troubleshooting exotic situations.
-
- If the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS are set, or if the
- curses program is executing in a graphical windowing environment, the
- information obtained thence overrides that obtained by terminfo. An
+ The selection of an appropriate value of TERM in the process
+ environment is essential to correct curses and terminfo library
+ operation. A well-configured system selects a correct TERM value
+ automatically; tset(1) may assist with troubleshooting exotic
+ situations.
+
+ If the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS are set, or if the
+ curses program is executing in a graphical windowing environment, the
+ information obtained thence overrides that obtained by terminfo. An
ncurses extension supports resizable terminals; see wresize(3x).
- If the environment variable TERMINFO is defined, a curses program
- checks first for a terminal type description in the location it
+ If the environment variable TERMINFO is defined, a curses program
+ checks first for a terminal type description in the location it
identifies. TERMINFO is useful for developing experimental type
- descriptions or when write permission to /usr/share/terminfo is not
+ descriptions or when write permission to /usr/share/terminfo is not
available.
See section "ENVIRONMENT" below.
- Many curses functions have two or more versions. Those prefixed with
- "w" require a window argument. Four functions prefixed with "p"
- require a pad argument. Those without a prefix generally operate on
+ Many curses functions have two or more versions. Those prefixed with
+ "w" require a window argument. Four functions prefixed with "p"
+ require a pad argument. Those without a prefix generally operate on
stdscr.
- In function synopses, ncurses man pages apply the following names to
+ In function synopses, ncurses man pages apply the following names to
parameters.
bfbool (TRUE or FALSE)
@@ -244,84 +240,83 @@
- This manual page describes functions that appear in any configuration
- of the library. There are two common configurations; see section
+ This manual page describes functions that appear in any configuration
+ of the library. There are two common configurations; see section
"ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS" below.
ncurses is the library in its "non-wide" configuration, handling only
- eight-bit characters. It stores a character combined with
+ eight-bit characters. It stores a character combined with
attributes in a chtype datum, which is often an alias of int.
- Attributes alone (with no corresponding character) can be
- stored in variables of chtype or attr_t type. In either
+ Attributes alone (with no corresponding character) can be
+ stored in variables of chtype or attr_t type. In either
case, they are represented as an integral bit mask.
Each cell of a WINDOW is stored as a chtype.
- ncursesw is the library in its "wide" configuration, which handles
+ ncursesw is the library in its "wide" configuration, which handles
character encodings requiring a larger data type than char (a
byte-sized type) can represent. It adds about one third more
calls using additional data types that can store such
multibyte characters.
- cchar_t corresponds to the non-wide configuration's chtype.
- It always a structure type, because it stores more
- data than fits into an integral type. A character
+ cchar_t corresponds to the non-wide configuration's chtype.
+ It always a structure type, because it stores more
+ data than fits into an integral type. A character
code may not be representable as a char, and
- moreover more than one character may occupy a cell
- (as with accent marks and other diacritics). Each
- character is of type wchar_t; a complex character
+ moreover more than one character may occupy a cell
+ (as with accent marks and other diacritics). Each
+ character is of type wchar_t; a complex character
contains one spacing character and zero or more non-
spacing characters (see below). Attributes and
- color data are stored in separate fields of the
+ color data are stored in separate fields of the
structure, not combined as in chtype.
Each cell of a WINDOW is stored as a cchar_t.
- The setcchar(3x) and getcchar(3x) functions store and
+ The setcchar(3x) and getcchar(3x) functions store and
retrieve the data from a cchar_t structure. The wide library
- API of ncurses depends on two data types standardized by ISO
+ API of ncurses depends on two data types standardized by ISO
C95.
- wchar_t stores a wide character. Like chtype, it may be an
- alias of int. Depending on the character encoding,
- a wide character may be spacing, meaning that it
- occupies a character cell by itself and typically
- accompanies cursor advancement, or non-spacing,
- meaning that it occupies the same cell as a spacing
- character, is often regarded as a "modifier" of the
- base glyph with which it combines, and typically
+ wchar_t stores a wide character. Like chtype, it may be an
+ alias of int. Depending on the character encoding,
+ a wide character may be spacing, meaning that it
+ occupies a character cell by itself and typically
+ accompanies cursor advancement, or non-spacing,
+ meaning that it occupies the same cell as a spacing
+ character, is often regarded as a "modifier" of the
+ base glyph with which it combines, and typically
does not advance the cursor.
- wint_t can store a wchar_t or the constant WEOF,
- analogously to the int-sized character manipulation
+ wint_t can store a wchar_t or the constant WEOF,
+ analogously to the int-sized character manipulation
functions of ISO C and its constant EOF.
- The wide library provides additional functions that
- complement those in the non-wide library where the size of
- the underlying character type is significant. A somewhat
- regular naming convention relates many of the wide variants
- to their non-wide counterparts; where a non-wide function
- name contains "ch" or "str", prefix it with "_w" to obtain
+ The wide library provides additional functions that
+ complement those in the non-wide library where the size of
+ the underlying character type is significant. A somewhat
+ regular naming convention relates many of the wide variants
+ to their non-wide counterparts; where a non-wide function
+ name contains "ch" or "str", prefix it with "_w" to obtain
the wide counterpart. For example, waddch becomes wadd_wch.
- This convention is inapplicable to some non-wide function
+ This convention is inapplicable to some non-wide function
names, so other transformations are used for the wide
configuration: in the window background management functions,
- "bkgd" becomes "bkgrnd"; the window border-drawing and
+ "bkgd" becomes "bkgrnd"; the window border-drawing and
-clearing functions are suffixed with "_set".
- Unless otherwise noted, functions that return an integer return OK on
+ Unless otherwise noted, functions that return an integer return OK on
success and ERR on failure. Functions that return pointers return NULL
- on failure. Typically, ncurses treats a null pointer passed as a
+ on failure. Typically, ncurses treats a null pointer passed as a
function parameter as a failure.
- Functions with a "mv" prefix first perform cursor movement using wmove
- and fail if the position is outside the window, or (for "mvw"
+ Functions with a "mv" prefix first perform cursor movement using wmove
+ and fail if the position is outside the window, or (for "mvw"
functions) if the WINDOW pointer is null.
- The following environment symbols are useful for customizing the
- runtime behavior of the ncurses library. The most important ones have
+ The following environment symbols are useful for customizing the
+ runtime behavior of the ncurses library. The most important ones have
been already discussed in detail.
-
+ When set, change the command_character (cmdch) capability value of
+ loaded terminfo entries to the value of this variable. Very few term-info entries provide this feature.
Because this name is also used in development environments to represent
@@ -820,33 +815,33 @@
The debugging library checks this environment variable when the
- application has redirected output to a file. The variable's numeric
- value is used for the baudrate. If no value is found, ncurses uses
+ application has redirected output to a file. The variable's numeric
+ value is used for the baudrate. If no value is found, ncurses uses
9600. This allows testers to construct repeatable test-cases that take
into account costs that depend on baudrate.
Specify the width of the screen in characters. Applications running in
- a windowing environment usually are able to obtain the width of the
- window in which they are executing. If neither the COLUMNS value nor
- the terminal's screen size is available, ncurses uses the size which
+ a windowing environment usually are able to obtain the width of the
+ window in which they are executing. If neither the COLUMNS value nor
+ the terminal's screen size is available, ncurses uses the size which
may be specified in the terminfo database (i.e., the cols capability).
- It is important that your application use a correct size for the
- screen. This is not always possible because your application may be
- running on a host which does not honor NAWS (Negotiations About Window
+ It is important that your application use a correct size for the
+ screen. This is not always possible because your application may be
+ running on a host which does not honor NAWS (Negotiations About Window
Size), or because you are temporarily running as another user.
- However, setting COLUMNS and/or LINES overrides the library's use of
+ However, setting COLUMNS and/or LINES overrides the library's use of
the screen size obtained from the operating system.
- Either COLUMNS or LINES symbols may be specified independently. This
- is mainly useful to circumvent legacy misfeatures of terminal
- descriptions, e.g., xterm which commonly specifies a 65 line screen.
- For best results, lines and cols should not be specified in a terminal
+ Either COLUMNS or LINES symbols may be specified independently. This
+ is mainly useful to circumvent legacy misfeatures of terminal
+ descriptions, e.g., xterm which commonly specifies a 65 line screen.
+ For best results, lines and cols should not be specified in a terminal
description for terminals which are run as emulations.
- Use the use_env function to disable all use of external environment
+ Use the use_env function to disable all use of external environment
(but not including system calls) to determine the screen size. Use the
use_tioctl function to update COLUMNS or LINES to match the screen size
obtained from system calls or the terminal database.
@@ -854,31 +849,31 @@
Specifies the total time, in milliseconds, for which ncurses will await
- a character sequence, e.g., a function key. The default value, 1000
- milliseconds, is enough for most uses. However, it is made a variable
+ a character sequence, e.g., a function key. The default value, 1000
+ milliseconds, is enough for most uses. However, it is made a variable
to accommodate unusual applications.
- The most common instance where you may wish to change this value is to
- work with slow hosts, e.g., running on a network. If the host cannot
- read characters rapidly enough, it will have the same effect as if the
- terminal did not send characters rapidly enough. The library will
+ The most common instance where you may wish to change this value is to
+ work with slow hosts, e.g., running on a network. If the host cannot
+ read characters rapidly enough, it will have the same effect as if the
+ terminal did not send characters rapidly enough. The library will
still see a timeout.
- Note that xterm mouse events are built up from character sequences
- received from the xterm. If your application makes heavy use of
- multiple-clicking, you may wish to lengthen this default value because
- the timeout applies to the composed multi-click event as well as the
+ Note that xterm mouse events are built up from character sequences
+ received from the xterm. If your application makes heavy use of
+ multiple-clicking, you may wish to lengthen this default value because
+ the timeout applies to the composed multi-click event as well as the
individual clicks.
In addition to the environment variable, this implementation provides a
- global variable with the same name. Portable applications should not
- rely upon the presence of ESCDELAY in either form, but setting the
- environment variable rather than the global variable does not create
+ global variable with the same name. Portable applications should not
+ rely upon the presence of ESCDELAY in either form, but setting the
+ environment variable rather than the global variable does not create
problems when compiling an application.
- Tells ncurses where your home directory is. That is where it may read
+ Tells ncurses where your home directory is. That is where it may read
and write auxiliary terminal descriptions:
$HOME/.termcap
@@ -886,13 +881,13 @@
- Like COLUMNS, specify the height of the screen in characters. See
+ Like COLUMNS, specify the height of the screen in characters. See
COLUMNS for a detailed description.
- This applies only to the OS/2 EMX port. It specifies the order of
- buttons on the mouse. OS/2 numbers a 3-button mouse inconsistently
+ This applies only to the OS/2 EMX port. It specifies the order of
+ buttons on the mouse. OS/2 numbers a 3-button mouse inconsistently
from other platforms:
1 = left
@@ -900,37 +895,37 @@
3 = middle.
This variable lets you customize the mouse. The variable must be three
- numeric digits 1-3 in any order, e.g., 123 or 321. If it is not
+ numeric digits 1-3 in any order, e.g., 123 or 321. If it is not
specified, ncurses uses 132.
- Override the compiled-in assumption that the terminal's default colors
- are white-on-black (see default_colors(3x)). You may set the
- foreground and background color values with this environment variable
- by proving a 2-element list: foreground,background. For example, to
- tell ncurses to not assume anything about the colors, set this to
- "-1,-1". To make it green-on-black, set it to "2,0". Any positive
+ Override the compiled-in assumption that the terminal's default colors
+ are white-on-black (see default_colors(3x)). You may set the
+ foreground and background color values with this environment variable
+ by proving a 2-element list: foreground,background. For example, to
+ tell ncurses to not assume anything about the colors, set this to
+ "-1,-1". To make it green-on-black, set it to "2,0". Any positive
value from zero to the terminfo max_colors value is allowed.
This applies only to the MinGW port of ncurses.
- The Console2 program's handling of the Microsoft Console API call
- CreateConsoleScreenBuffer is defective. Applications which use this
+ The Console2 program's handling of the Microsoft Console API call
+ CreateConsoleScreenBuffer is defective. Applications which use this
will hang. However, it is possible to simulate the action of this call
- by mapping coordinates, explicitly saving and restoring the original
- screen contents. Setting the environment variable NCGDB has the same
+ by mapping coordinates, explicitly saving and restoring the original
+ screen contents. Setting the environment variable NCGDB has the same
effect.
This applies only to ncurses configured to use the GPM interface.
- If present, the environment variable is a list of one or more terminal
- names against which the TERM environment variable is matched. Setting
- it to an empty value disables the GPM interface; using the built-in
+ If present, the environment variable is a list of one or more terminal
+ names against which the TERM environment variable is matched. Setting
+ it to an empty value disables the GPM interface; using the built-in
support for xterm, etc.
If the environment variable is absent, ncurses will attempt to open GPM
@@ -938,39 +933,39 @@
- ncurses may use tabs as part of cursor movement optimization. In some
- cases, your terminal driver may not handle these properly. Set this
+ ncurses may use tabs as part of cursor movement optimization. In some
+ cases, your terminal driver may not handle these properly. Set this
environment variable to any value to disable the feature. You can also
adjust your stty(1) settings to avoid the problem.
- Some terminals use a magic-cookie feature which requires special
- handling to make highlighting and other video attributes display
+ Some terminals use a magic-cookie feature which requires special
+ handling to make highlighting and other video attributes display
properly. You can suppress the highlighting entirely for these
terminals by setting this environment variable to any value.
- Most of the terminal descriptions in the terminfo database are written
- for real "hardware" terminals. Many people use terminal emulators
+ Most of the terminal descriptions in the terminfo database are written
+ for real "hardware" terminals. Many people use terminal emulators
which run in a windowing environment and use curses-based applications.
- Terminal emulators can duplicate all of the important aspects of a
- hardware terminal, but they do not have the same limitations. The
- chief limitation of a hardware terminal from the standpoint of your
- application is the management of dataflow, i.e., timing. Unless a
- hardware terminal is interfaced into a terminal concentrator (which
- does flow control), it (or your application) must manage dataflow,
- preventing overruns. The cheapest solution (no hardware cost) is for
- your program to do this by pausing after operations that the terminal
+ Terminal emulators can duplicate all of the important aspects of a
+ hardware terminal, but they do not have the same limitations. The
+ chief limitation of a hardware terminal from the standpoint of your
+ application is the management of dataflow, i.e., timing. Unless a
+ hardware terminal is interfaced into a terminal concentrator (which
+ does flow control), it (or your application) must manage dataflow,
+ preventing overruns. The cheapest solution (no hardware cost) is for
+ your program to do this by pausing after operations that the terminal
does slowly, such as clearing the display.
- As a result, many terminal descriptions (including the vt100) have
- delay times embedded. You may wish to use these descriptions, but not
+ As a result, many terminal descriptions (including the vt100) have
+ delay times embedded. You may wish to use these descriptions, but not
want to pay the performance penalty.
- Set the NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable to disable all but
- mandatory padding. Mandatory padding is used as a part of special
+ Set the NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable to disable all but
+ mandatory padding. Mandatory padding is used as a part of special
control sequences such as flash.
@@ -981,44 +976,44 @@
o continued though 5.9 patch 20130126
- ncurses enabled buffered output during terminal initialization. This
- was done (as in SVr4 curses) for performance reasons. For testing
- purposes, both of ncurses and certain applications, this feature was
- made optional. Setting the NCURSES_NO_SETBUF variable disabled output
- buffering, leaving the output in the original (usually line buffered)
+ ncurses enabled buffered output during terminal initialization. This
+ was done (as in SVr4 curses) for performance reasons. For testing
+ purposes, both of ncurses and certain applications, this feature was
+ made optional. Setting the NCURSES_NO_SETBUF variable disabled output
+ buffering, leaving the output in the original (usually line buffered)
mode.
- In the current implementation, ncurses performs its own buffering and
- does not require this workaround. It does not modify the buffering of
+ In the current implementation, ncurses performs its own buffering and
+ does not require this workaround. It does not modify the buffering of
the standard output.
- The reason for the change was to make the behavior for interrupts and
- other signals more robust. One drawback is that certain
+ The reason for the change was to make the behavior for interrupts and
+ other signals more robust. One drawback is that certain
nonconventional programs would mix ordinary stdio(3) calls with ncurses
- calls and (usually) work. This is no longer possible since ncurses is
- not using the buffered standard output but its own output (to the same
- file descriptor). As a special case, the low-level calls such as putp
+ calls and (usually) work. This is no longer possible since ncurses is
+ not using the buffered standard output but its own output (to the same
+ file descriptor). As a special case, the low-level calls such as putp
still use the standard output. But high-level curses calls do not.
- During initialization, the ncurses library checks for special cases
+ During initialization, the ncurses library checks for special cases
where VT100 line-drawing (and the corresponding alternate character set
- capabilities) described in the terminfo are known to be missing.
- Specifically, when running in a UTF-8 locale, the Linux console
- emulator and the GNU screen program ignore these. ncurseschecksthe
- TERMenvironmentvariableforthese.Forotherspecialcases,you
- shouldsetthisenvironmentvariable.Doingthistellsncursestouse
+ capabilities) described in the terminfo are known to be missing.
+ Specifically, when running in a UTF-8 locale, the Linux console
+ emulator and the GNU screen program ignore these. ncurseschecksthe
+ TERMenvironmentvariableforthese.Forotherspecialcases,you
+ shouldsetthisenvironmentvariable.DoingthistellsncursestouseUnicodevalueswhichcorrespondtotheVT100line-drawingglyphs.That
- worksforthespecialcasescited,andislikelytoworkforterminal
+ worksforthespecialcasescited,andislikelytoworkforterminalemulators.
- When setting this variable, you should set it to a nonzero value.
- Setting it to zero (or to a nonnumber) disables the special check for
+ When setting this variable, you should set it to a nonzero value.
+ Setting it to zero (or to a nonnumber) disables the special check for
"linux" and "screen".
- As an alternative to the environment variable, ncurses checks for an
- extended terminfo capability U8. This is a numeric capability which
+ As an alternative to the environment variable, ncurses checks for an
+ extended terminfo capability U8. This is a numeric capability which
can be compiled using tic-x. For example
# linux console, if patched to provide working
@@ -1030,67 +1025,67 @@
xterm-utf8|xterm relying on UTF-8 line-graphics,
U8#1, use=xterm,
- The name "U8" is chosen to be two characters, to permit it to be used
+ The name "U8" is chosen to be two characters, to permit it to be used
by applications that use ncurses' termcap interface.
- During initialization, the ncurses debugging library checks the
- NCURSES_TRACE environment variable. If it is defined, to a numeric
- value, ncurses calls the trace function, using that value as the
+ During initialization, the ncurses debugging library checks the
+ NCURSES_TRACE environment variable. If it is defined, to a numeric
+ value, ncurses calls the trace function, using that value as the
argument.
- The argument values, which are defined in curses.h, provide several
- types of information. When running with traces enabled, your
+ The argument values, which are defined in curses.h, provide several
+ types of information. When running with traces enabled, your
application will write the file trace to the current directory.
See curs_trace(3x) for more information.
- Denotes your terminal type. Each terminal type is distinct, though
+ Denotes your terminal type. Each terminal type is distinct, though
many are similar.
- TERM is commonly set by terminal emulators to help applications find a
- workable terminal description. Some of those choose a popular
+ TERM is commonly set by terminal emulators to help applications find a
+ workable terminal description. Some of those choose a popular
approximation, e.g., "ansi", "vt100", "xterm" rather than an exact fit.
Not infrequently, your application will have problems with that
approach, e.g., incorrect function-key definitions.
- If you set TERM in your environment, it has no effect on the operation
- of the terminal emulator. It only affects the way applications work
- within the terminal. Likewise, as a general rule (xterm(1) being a
- rare exception), terminal emulators which allow you to specify TERM as
- a parameter or configuration value do not change their behavior to
+ If you set TERM in your environment, it has no effect on the operation
+ of the terminal emulator. It only affects the way applications work
+ within the terminal. Likewise, as a general rule (xterm(1) being a
+ rare exception), terminal emulators which allow you to specify TERM as
+ a parameter or configuration value do not change their behavior to
match that setting.
- If the ncurses library has been configured with termcap support,
- ncurses will check for a terminal's description in termcap form if it
+ If the ncurses library has been configured with termcap support,
+ ncurses will check for a terminal's description in termcap form if it
is not available in the terminfo database.
The TERMCAP environment variable contains either a terminal description
- (with newlines stripped out), or a file name telling where the
+ (with newlines stripped out), or a file name telling where the
information denoted by the TERM environment variable exists. In either
- case, setting it directs ncurses to ignore the usual place for this
+ case, setting it directs ncurses to ignore the usual place for this
information, e.g., /etc/termcap.
- ncurses can be configured to read from multiple terminal databases.
- The TERMINFO variable overrides the location for the default terminal
- database. Terminal descriptions (in terminal format) are stored in
+ ncurses can be configured to read from multiple terminal databases.
+ The TERMINFO variable overrides the location for the default terminal
+ database. Terminal descriptions (in terminal format) are stored in
terminal databases:
o Normally these are stored in a directory tree, using subdirectories
named by the first letter of the terminal names therein.
This is the scheme used in System V, which legacy Unix systems use,
- and the TERMINFO variable is used by curses applications on those
+ and the TERMINFO variable is used by curses applications on those
systems to override the default location of the terminal database.
- o If ncurses is built to use hashed databases, then each entry in
+ o If ncurses is built to use hashed databases, then each entry in
this list may be the path of a hashed database file, e.g.,
/usr/share/terminfo.db
@@ -1099,30 +1094,30 @@
/usr/share/terminfo/
- The hashed database uses less disk-space and is a little faster
- than the directory tree. However, some applications assume the
- existence of the directory tree, reading it directly rather than
+ The hashed database uses less disk-space and is a little faster
+ than the directory tree. However, some applications assume the
+ existence of the directory tree, reading it directly rather than
using the terminfo library calls.
- o If ncurses is built with a support for reading termcap files
- directly, then an entry in this list may be the path of a termcap
+ o If ncurses is built with a support for reading termcap files
+ directly, then an entry in this list may be the path of a termcap
file.
o If the TERMINFO variable begins with "hex:" or "b64:", ncurses uses
- the remainder of that variable as a compiled terminal description.
+ the remainder of that variable as a compiled terminal description.
You might produce the base64 format using infocmp(1m):
TERMINFO="$(infocmp -0 -Q2 -q)"
export TERMINFO
- The compiled description is used if it corresponds to the terminal
+ The compiled description is used if it corresponds to the terminal
identified by the TERM variable.
- Setting TERMINFO is the simplest, but not the only way to set location
- of the default terminal database. The complete list of database
+ Setting TERMINFO is the simplest, but not the only way to set location
+ of the default terminal database. The complete list of database
locations in order follows:
- o the last terminal database to which ncurses wrote, if any, is
+ o the last terminal database to which ncurses wrote, if any, is
searched first
o the location specified by the TERMINFO environment variable
@@ -1131,31 +1126,31 @@
o locations listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable
- o one or more locations whose names are configured and compiled
+ o one or more locations whose names are configured and compiled
into the ncurses library, i.e.,
- o /usr/share/terminfo (corresponding to the TERMINFO_DIRS
+ o /usr/share/terminfo (corresponding to the TERMINFO_DIRS
variable)
o /usr/share/terminfo (corresponding to the TERMINFO variable)
- Specifies a list of locations to search for terminal descriptions.
- Each location in the list is a terminal database as described in the
- section on the TERMINFO variable. The list is separated by colons
+ Specifies a list of locations to search for terminal descriptions.
+ Each location in the list is a terminal database as described in the
+ section on the TERMINFO variable. The list is separated by colons
(i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX.
- There is no corresponding feature in System V terminfo; it is an
+ There is no corresponding feature in System V terminfo; it is an
extension developed for ncurses.
- If TERMCAP does not hold a file name then ncurses checks the TERMPATH
- environment variable. This is a list of filenames separated by spaces
+ If TERMCAP does not hold a file name then ncurses checks the TERMPATH
+ environment variable. This is a list of filenames separated by spaces
or colons (i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX.
- If the TERMPATH environment variable is not set, ncurses looks in the
+ If the TERMPATH environment variable is not set, ncurses looks in the
files
/etc/termcap, /usr/share/misc/termcap and $HOME/.termcap,
@@ -1163,16 +1158,16 @@
in that order.
The library may be configured to disregard the following variables when
- the current user is the superuser (root), or if the application uses
+ the current user is the superuser (root), or if the application uses
setuid or setgid permissions:
$TERMINFO, $TERMINFO_DIRS, $TERMPATH, as well as $HOME.
- Many different ncurses configurations are possible, determined by the
- options given to the configure script when building the library. Run
- the script with the --help option to peruse them all. A few are of
+ Many different ncurses configurations are possible, determined by the
+ options given to the configure script when building the library. Run
+ the script with the --help option to peruse them all. A few are of
particular significance to the application developer employing ncurses.
--disable-overwrite
@@ -1180,20 +1175,20 @@
#include<curses.h>
- This option is used to avoid filename conflicts when ncurses is
+ This option is used to avoid filename conflicts when ncurses is
not the main implementation of curses of the computer. If ncurses
- is installed disabling overwrite, it puts its headers in a
+ is installed disabling overwrite, it puts its headers in a
subdirectory, e.g.,
#include<ncurses/curses.h>
- It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you to use
+ It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you to use
-lcurses to build executables.
--enable-widec
- The configure script renames the library and (if the
- --disable-overwrite option is used) puts the header files in a
- different subdirectory. All of the library names have a "w"
+ The configure script renames the library and (if the
+ --disable-overwrite option is used) puts the header files in a
+ different subdirectory. All of the library names have a "w"
appended to them, i.e., instead of
-lncurses
@@ -1202,45 +1197,45 @@
-lncursesw
- You must also enable the wide-character features in the header
- file when compiling for the wide-character library to use the
- extended (wide-character) functions. The symbol which enables
+ You must also enable the wide-character features in the header
+ file when compiling for the wide-character library to use the
+ extended (wide-character) functions. The symbol which enables
these features has changed since XSI Curses, Issue 4:
- o Originally, the wide-character feature required the symbol
+ o Originally, the wide-character feature required the symbol
_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED but that was only valid for XPG4
(1996).
- o Later, that was deemed conflicting with _XOPEN_SOURCE defined
+ o Later, that was deemed conflicting with _XOPEN_SOURCE defined
to 500.
- o As of mid-2018, none of the features in this implementation
- require a _XOPEN_SOURCE feature greater than 600. However,
+ o As of mid-2018, none of the features in this implementation
+ require a _XOPEN_SOURCE feature greater than 600. However,
X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) recommends defining it to 700.
- o Alternatively, you can enable the feature by defining
- NCURSES_WIDECHAR with the caveat that some other header file
- than curses.h may require a specific value for _XOPEN_SOURCE
+ o Alternatively, you can enable the feature by defining
+ NCURSES_WIDECHAR with the caveat that some other header file
+ than curses.h may require a specific value for _XOPEN_SOURCE
(or a system-specific symbol).
- The curses.h header file installed for the wide-character library
- is designed to be compatible with the non-wide library's header.
- Only the size of the WINDOW structure differs; few applications
+ The curses.h header file installed for the wide-character library
+ is designed to be compatible with the non-wide library's header.
+ Only the size of the WINDOW structure differs; few applications
require more than pointers to WINDOWs.
If the headers are installed allowing overwrite, the wide-
- character library's headers should be installed last, to allow
+ character library's headers should be installed last, to allow
applications to be built using either library from the same set of
headers.
--with-pthread
- The configure script renames the library. All of the library
- names have a "t" appended to them (before any "w" added by
+ The configure script renames the library. All of the library
+ names have a "t" appended to them (before any "w" added by
--enable-widec).
The global variables such as LINES are replaced by macros to allow
read-only access. At the same time, setter-functions are provided
- to set these values. Some applications (very few) may require
+ to set these values. Some applications (very few) may require
changes to work with this convention.
--with-shared
@@ -1250,17 +1245,17 @@
--with-debug
--with-profile
- The shared and normal (static) library names differ by their
- suffixes, e.g., libncurses.so and libncurses.a. The debug and
- profiling libraries add a "_g" and a "_p" to the root names
+ The shared and normal (static) library names differ by their
+ suffixes, e.g., libncurses.so and libncurses.a. The debug and
+ profiling libraries add a "_g" and a "_p" to the root names
respectively, e.g., libncurses_g.a and libncurses_p.a.
--with-termlib
- Low-level functions which do not depend upon whether the library
+ Low-level functions which do not depend upon whether the library
supports wide-characters, are provided in the tinfo library.
- By doing this, it is possible to share the tinfo library between
- wide/normal configurations as well as reduce the size of the
+ By doing this, it is possible to share the tinfo library between
+ wide/normal configurations as well as reduce the size of the
library when only low-level functions are needed.
Those functions are described in these pages:
@@ -1280,8 +1275,8 @@
ocurs_util(3x) - miscellaneous curses utility routines
--with-trace
- The trace function normally resides in the debug library, but it
- is sometimes useful to configure this in the shared library.
+ The trace function normally resides in the debug library, but it
+ is sometimes useful to configure this in the shared library.
Configure scripts should check for the function's existence rather
than assuming it is always in the debug library.
@@ -1295,151 +1290,151 @@
- X/Open Curses permits most functions it specifies to be made available
+ X/Open Curses permits most functions it specifies to be made available
as macros as well. ncurses does so
o for functions that return values via their parameters,
o to support obsolete features,
- o to reuse functions (for example, those that move the cursor before
+ o to reuse functions (for example, those that move the cursor before
another operation), and
o a few special cases.
- If the standard output file descriptor of an ncurses program is
- redirected to something that is not a terminal device, the library
- writes screen updates to the standard error file descriptor. This was
+ If the standard output file descriptor of an ncurses program is
+ redirected to something that is not a terminal device, the library
+ writes screen updates to the standard error file descriptor. This was
an undocumented feature of SVr3.
- See subsection "Header files" below regarding symbols exposed by
+ See subsection "Header files" below regarding symbols exposed by
inclusion of curses.h.
- ncurses enables an application to capture mouse events on certain
+ ncurses enables an application to capture mouse events on certain
terminals, including xterm; see curs_mouse(3x).
- ncurses provides a means of responding to window resizing events, as
- when running in a GUI terminal emulator application such as xterm; see
+ ncurses provides a means of responding to window resizing events, as
+ when running in a GUI terminal emulator application such as xterm; see
resizeterm(3x) and wresize(3x).
ncurses allows an application to query the terminal for the presence of
a wide variety of special keys; see has_key(3x).
ncurses extends the fixed set of function key capabilities specified by
- X/Open Curses by allowing the application programmer to define
- additional key sequences at runtime; see define_key(3x),
+ X/Open Curses by allowing the application programmer to define
+ additional key sequences at runtime; see define_key(3x),
key_defined(3x), and keyok(3x).
- ncurses can exploit the capabilities of terminals implementing
- ISO 6429/ECMA-48 SGR 39 and SGR 49 sequences, which allow an
- application to reset the terminal to its original foreground and
- background colors. From a user's perspective, the application is able
- to draw colored text on a background whose color is set independently,
+ ncurses can exploit the capabilities of terminals implementing
+ ISO 6429/ECMA-48 SGR 39 and SGR 49 sequences, which allow an
+ application to reset the terminal to its original foreground and
+ background colors. From a user's perspective, the application is able
+ to draw colored text on a background whose color is set independently,
providing better control over color contrasts. See default_colors(3x).
- An ncurses application can choose to hide the internal details of
- WINDOW structures, instead using accessor functions such as
+ An ncurses application can choose to hide the internal details of
+ WINDOW structures, instead using accessor functions such as
is_scrollok(3x).
- ncurses enables an application to direct application output to a
+ ncurses enables an application to direct application output to a
printer attached to the terminal device; see curs_print(3x).
- ncurses offers slk_attr(3x) as a counterpart of attr_get(3x) for soft-
- label key lines, and extended_slk_color(3x) as a form of slk_color(3x)
- that can gather color information from them when many colors are
+ ncurses offers slk_attr(3x) as a counterpart of attr_get(3x) for soft-
+ label key lines, and extended_slk_color(3x) as a form of slk_color(3x)
+ that can gather color information from them when many colors are
supported.
- Some extensions are only available if ncurses is compiled to support
+ Some extensions are only available if ncurses is compiled to support
them; see section "ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS" above.
- o Rudimentary support for multi-threaded applications may be
+ o Rudimentary support for multi-threaded applications may be
available; see curs_threads(3x).
- o Functions that ease the management of multiple screens can be
+ o Functions that ease the management of multiple screens can be
exposed; see curs_sp_funcs(3x).
o The compiler option -DUSE_GETCAP causes the library to fall back to
reading /etc/termcap if the terminal setup code cannot find a term-
- info entry corresponding to TERM. Use of this feature is not
- recommended, as it essentially includes an entire termcap compiler
- in the ncurses startup code, at a cost in memory usage and
+ info entry corresponding to TERM. Use of this feature is not
+ recommended, as it essentially includes an entire termcap compiler
+ in the ncurses startup code, at a cost in memory usage and
application launch latency.
- PDCurses and NetBSD curses incorporate some ncurses extensions.
+ PDCurses and NetBSD curses incorporate some ncurses extensions.
Individual man pages indicate where this is the case.
X/Open Curses defines two levels of conformance, "base" and "enhanced".
The latter includes several additional features, such as wide-character
- and color support. ncurses intends base-level conformance with X/Open
+ and color support. ncurses intends base-level conformance with X/Open
Curses, and supports nearly all its enhanced features.
- Differences between X/Open Curses and ncurses are documented in the
+ Differences between X/Open Curses and ncurses are documented in the
"PORTABILITY" sections of applicable man pages.
- In many cases, X/Open Curses is vague about error conditions, omitting
+ In many cases, X/Open Curses is vague about error conditions, omitting
some of the SVr4 documentation.
- Unlike other implementations, this one checks parameters such as
- pointers to WINDOW structures to ensure they are not null. The main
- reason for providing this behavior is to guard against programmer
- error. The standard interface does not provide a way for the library
- to tell an application which of several possible errors were detected.
- Relying on this (or some other) extension will adversely affect the
+ Unlike other implementations, this one checks parameters such as
+ pointers to WINDOW structures to ensure they are not null. The main
+ reason for providing this behavior is to guard against programmer
+ error. The standard interface does not provide a way for the library
+ to tell an application which of several possible errors were detected.
+ Relying on this (or some other) extension will adversely affect the
portability of curses applications.
- In historic curses versions, delays embedded in the capabilities cr,
- ind, cub1, ff and tab activated corresponding delay bits in the Unix
+ In historic curses versions, delays embedded in the capabilities cr,
+ ind, cub1, ff and tab activated corresponding delay bits in the Unix
tty driver. In this implementation, all padding is done by sending NUL
- bytes. This method is slightly more expensive, but narrows the
- interface to the Unix kernel significantly and increases the package's
+ bytes. This method is slightly more expensive, but narrows the
+ interface to the Unix kernel significantly and increases the package's
portability correspondingly.
- The header file curses.h itself includes the header files stdio.h and
+ The header file curses.h itself includes the header files stdio.h and
unctrl.h.
X/Open Curses has more to say, but does not finish the story:
- The inclusion of <curses.h> may make visible all symbols from the
+ The inclusion of <curses.h> may make visible all symbols from the
headers <stdio.h>, <term.h>, <termios.h>, and <wchar.h>.
Here is a more complete story:
- o Starting with BSD curses, all implementations have included
+ o Starting with BSD curses, all implementations have included
<stdio.h>.
- BSD curses included <curses.h> and <unctrl.h> from an internal
+ BSD curses included <curses.h> and <unctrl.h> from an internal
header file curses.ext ("ext" abbreviated "externs").
- BSD curses used <stdio.h> internally (for printw and scanw), but
+ BSD curses used <stdio.h> internally (for printw and scanw), but
nothing in <curses.h> itself relied upon <stdio.h>.
- o SVr2 curses added newterm(3x), which relies upon <stdio.h>. That
+ o SVr2 curses added newterm(3x), which relies upon <stdio.h>. That
is, the function prototype uses FILE.
SVr4 curses added putwin and getwin, which also use <stdio.h>.
X/Open Curses documents all three of these functions.
- SVr4 curses and X/Open Curses do not require the developer to
+ SVr4 curses and X/Open Curses do not require the developer to
include <stdio.h> before including <curses.h>. Both document
curses showing <curses.h> as the only required header.
As a result, standard <curses.h> will always include <stdio.h>.
- o X/Open Curses is inconsistent with respect to SVr4 regarding
+ o X/Open Curses is inconsistent with respect to SVr4 regarding
<unctrl.h>.
- As noted in curs_util(3x), ncurses includes <unctrl.h> from
+ As noted in curs_util(3x), ncurses includes <unctrl.h> from
<curses.h> (like SVr4).
o X/Open's comments about <term.h> and <termios.h> may refer to HP-UX
@@ -1448,49 +1443,49 @@
HP-UX curses includes <term.h> from <curses.h> to declare setupterm
in curses.h, but ncurses (and Solaris curses) do not.
- AIX curses includes <term.h> and <termios.h>. Again, ncurses (and
+ AIX curses includes <term.h> and <termios.h>. Again, ncurses (and
Solaris curses) do not.
- o X/Open says that <curses.h> may include <term.h>, but there is no
+ o X/Open says that <curses.h> may include <term.h>, but there is no
requirement that it do that.
Some programs use functions declared in both <curses.h> and
- <term.h>, and must include both headers in the same module. Very
- old versions of AIX curses required including <curses.h> before
+ <term.h>, and must include both headers in the same module. Very
+ old versions of AIX curses required including <curses.h> before
including <term.h>.
- Because ncurses header files include the headers needed to define
+ Because ncurses header files include the headers needed to define
datatypes used in the headers, ncurses header files can be included
- in any order. But for portability, you should include <curses.h>
+ in any order. But for portability, you should include <curses.h>
before <term.h>.
- o X/Open Curses says "maymakevisible" because including a header
+ o X/Open Curses says "maymakevisible" because including a header
file does not necessarily make all symbols in it visible (there are
ifdef's to consider).
- For instance, in ncurses <wchar.h> may be included if the proper
- symbol is defined, and if ncurses is configured for wide-character
- support. If the header is included, its symbols may be made
- visible. That depends on the value used for _XOPEN_SOURCE feature
+ For instance, in ncurses <wchar.h> may be included if the proper
+ symbol is defined, and if ncurses is configured for wide-character
+ support. If the header is included, its symbols may be made
+ visible. That depends on the value used for _XOPEN_SOURCE feature
test macro.
- o X/Open Curses documents one required header, in a special case:
- <stdarg.h> before <curses.h> to prototype the vw_printw and
- vw_scanw functions (as well as the obsolete the vwprintw and
+ o X/Open Curses documents one required header, in a special case:
+ <stdarg.h> before <curses.h> to prototype the vw_printw and
+ vw_scanw functions (as well as the obsolete the vwprintw and
vwscanw functions). Each of those uses a va_list parameter.
- The two obsolete functions were introduced in SVr3. The other
- functions were introduced in X/Open Curses. In between, SVr4
- curses provided for the possibility that an application might
+ The two obsolete functions were introduced in SVr3. The other
+ functions were introduced in X/Open Curses. In between, SVr4
+ curses provided for the possibility that an application might
include either <varargs.h> or <stdarg.h>. Initially, that was done
- by using void* for the va_list parameter. Later, a special type
- (defined in <stdio.h>) was introduced, to allow for compiler type-
+ by using void* for the va_list parameter. Later, a special type
+ (defined in <stdio.h>) was introduced, to allow for compiler type-
checking. That special type is always available, because <stdio.h>
is always included by <curses.h>.
None of the X/Open Curses implementations require an application to
- include <stdarg.h> before <curses.h> because they either have
- allowed for a special type, or (like ncurses) include <stdarg.h>
+ include <stdarg.h> before <curses.h> because they either have
+ allowed for a special type, or (like ncurses) include <stdarg.h>
directly to provide a portable interface.
@@ -1504,7 +1499,7 @@
-ncurses 6.4 2024-01-05 ncurses(3x)
+ncurses 6.4 2024-01-13 ncurses(3x)
@@ -1523,7 +1518,7 @@ ncurses 6.4 2024-01-05 RETURN VALUE