- The ncurses library routines give the user a terminal-independent
- 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 20240120).
-
- The ncurses library emulates the curses library of System V Release 4
- Unix ("SVr4"), and XPG4 (X/Open Portability Guide) curses (also known
- as XSI curses). XSI stands for X/Open System Interfaces Extension.
- The ncurses library is freely redistributable in source form.
+ The "new curses" library offers the programmer a terminal-independent
+ means of reading keyboard and mouse input and updating character-cell
+ terminals with output optimized to minimize screen updates. ncurses
+ replaces the curses libraries from System V Release 4 Unix ("SVr4") and
+ 4.4BSD Unix, the development of which ceased in the 1990s. This
+ describes ncurses version 6.4 (patch 20240323).
+
+ ncurses permits control of the terminal screen's contents; abstraction
+ and subdivision thereof with windows and pads; the reading of terminal
+ input; control of terminal input and output options; environment query
+ routines; color manipulation; the definition and use of softlabel
+ keys; terminfo capabilities; a termcap compatibility interface; and
+ access to low-level terminal-manipulation routines.
+
+ ncurses implements the standard interface described by X/Open Curses
+ Issue 7. In many behavioral details not standardized by X/Open,
+ ncurses emulates the curses library of SVr4 and provides numerous
+ useful extensions.
ncurses man pages employ several sections to clarify matters of usage
and interoperability with other curses implementations.
@@ -101,12 +109,6 @@
directory) that describe curses actions. See section "ALTERNATE
CONFIGURATIONS" below.
- The ncurses package supports: overall screen, window and pad
- manipulation; output to windows and pads; reading terminal input;
- control over terminal and curses input and output options; environment
- query routines; color manipulation; use of soft label keys; terminfo
- capabilities; and access to low-level terminal-manipulation routines.
-
The library uses the locale which the calling program has initialized.
@@ -117,7 +119,7 @@
If the locale is not initialized, the library assumes that characters
are printable as in ISO-8859-1, to work with certain legacy programs.
You should initialize the locale and not rely on specific details of
- the library when the locale has not been setup.
+ the library when the locale has not been set up.
The function initscr or newterm must be called to initialize the
library before any of the other routines that deal with windows and
@@ -162,7 +164,7 @@
Among those, the most basic are move(3x) and addch(3x): these place the
cursor and write a character to stdscr, respectively. As a rule,
window-addressing functions feature names prefixed (or infixed, see
- below) with "w"; these allow the user to specify a pointer to a WINDOW.
+ below) with "w"; these allow the user to specify a pointer to a WINDOW.
Counterparts not thus prefixed (or infixed) affect stdscr. Because
moving the cursor prior to another operation is so common, curses
generally also provides functions with a "mv" prefix as a convenience.
@@ -246,13 +248,13 @@
ncurses is the library in its "non-wide" configuration, handling only
eight-bit characters. It stores a character combined with
- attributes in a chtype datum, which is often an alias of int.
+ 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
case, they are represented as an integral bit mask.
- Each cell of a WINDOW is stored as a chtype.
+ Each cell of a WINDOW is stored as a chtype.
ncursesw is the library in its "wide" configuration, which handles
character encodings requiring a larger data type than char (a
@@ -260,30 +262,30 @@
calls using additional data types that can store such
multibyte characters.
- cchar_t corresponds to the non-wide configuration's chtype.
+ 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
+ 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
+ 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
- structure, not combined as in chtype.
+ structure, not combined as in chtype.
- Each cell of a WINDOW is stored as a cchar_t.
+ Each cell of a WINDOW is stored as a cchar_t.
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
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
+ 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,
+ 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
@@ -318,6 +320,7 @@
---------------------------------------------
COLOR_PAIR curs_color(3x)
PAIR_NUMBER curs_color(3x)
+
add_wch curs_add_wch(3x)
add_wchnstr curs_add_wchstr(3x)
add_wchstr curs_add_wchstr(3x)
@@ -380,12 +383,12 @@
erasechar curs_termattrs(3x)
erasewchar curs_termattrs(3x)
exit_curses curs_memleaks(3x)*
-
exit_terminfo curs_memleaks(3x)*
extended_color_content curs_color(3x)*
extended_pair_content curs_color(3x)*
extended_slk_color curs_slk(3x)*
filter curs_util(3x)
+
find_pair new_pair(3x)*
flash curs_beep(3x)
flushinp curs_util(3x)
@@ -446,7 +449,6 @@
insdelln curs_deleteln(3x)
insertln curs_deleteln(3x)
insnstr curs_insstr(3x)
-
insstr curs_insstr(3x)
instr curs_instr(3x)
intrflush curs_inopts(3x)
@@ -454,6 +456,7 @@
is_cbreak curs_inopts(3x)*
is_cleared curs_opaque(3x)*
is_echo curs_inopts(3x)*
+
is_idcok curs_opaque(3x)*
is_idlok curs_opaque(3x)*
is_immedok curs_opaque(3x)*
@@ -512,7 +515,6 @@
mvin_wch curs_in_wch(3x)
mvin_wchnstr curs_in_wchstr(3x)
mvin_wchstr curs_in_wchstr(3x)
-
mvinch curs_inch(3x)
mvinchnstr curs_inchstr(3x)
mvinchstr curs_inchstr(3x)
@@ -522,6 +524,7 @@
mvins_wch curs_ins_wch(3x)
mvins_wstr curs_ins_wstr(3x)
mvinsch curs_insch(3x)
+
mvinsnstr curs_insstr(3x)
mvinsstr curs_insstr(3x)
mvinstr curs_instr(3x)
@@ -578,7 +581,6 @@
nl curs_inopts(3x)
nocbreak curs_inopts(3x)
nodelay curs_inopts(3x)
-
noecho curs_inopts(3x)
nofilter curs_util(3x)*
nonl curs_inopts(3x)
@@ -590,6 +592,7 @@
pair_content curs_color(3x)
pecho_wchar curs_pad(3x)
pechochar curs_pad(3x)
+
pnoutrefresh curs_pad(3x)
prefresh curs_pad(3x)
printw curs_printw(3x)
@@ -644,7 +647,6 @@
start_color curs_color(3x)
subpad curs_pad(3x)
subwin curs_window(3x)
-
syncok curs_window(3x)
term_attrs curs_termattrs(3x)
termattrs curs_termattrs(3x)
@@ -658,6 +660,7 @@
tigetnum curs_terminfo(3x)
tigetstr curs_terminfo(3x)
timeout curs_inopts(3x)
+
tiparm curs_terminfo(3x)
tiparm_s curs_terminfo(3x)*
tiscan_s curs_terminfo(3x)*
@@ -710,7 +713,6 @@
wbkgrnd curs_bkgrnd(3x)
wbkgrndset curs_bkgrnd(3x)
wborder curs_border(3x)
-
wborder_set curs_border_set(3x)
wchgat curs_attr(3x)
wclear curs_clear(3x)
@@ -726,6 +728,7 @@
werase curs_clear(3x)
wget_wch curs_get_wch(3x)
wget_wstr curs_get_wstr(3x)
+
wgetbkgrnd curs_bkgrnd(3x)
wgetch curs_getch(3x)
wgetdelay curs_opaque(3x)*
@@ -816,9 +819,9 @@
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
+ value is used for the baud rate. 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.
+ into account costs that depend on baud rate.
@@ -1168,7 +1171,7 @@
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.
+ particular significance to the application developer employing ncurses.
--disable-overwrite
The standard include for ncurses is as noted in SYNOPSIS:
@@ -1313,10 +1316,10 @@
ncurses enables an application to capture mouse events on certain
- terminals, including xterm; see curs_mouse(3x).
+ 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
+ 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
@@ -1357,7 +1360,7 @@
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
+ 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.
@@ -1499,7 +1502,7 @@
-ncurses 6.4 2024-01-13 ncurses(3x)
+ncurses 6.4 2024-03-23 ncurses(3x)