@@ -60,38 +60,38 @@
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 6.2 (patch 20200222).
+ This describes ncurses version 6.4 (patch 20231014).
The ncurses library emulates the curses library of System V Release 4
UNIX, 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. Differences
- from the SVr4 curses are summarized under the EXTENSIONS and PORTABIL-
- ITY sections below and described in detail in the respective EXTEN-
- SIONS, PORTABILITY and BUGS sections of individual man pages.
+ from the SVr4 curses are summarized under the EXTENSIONS and
+ PORTABILITY sections below and described in detail in the respective
+ EXTENSIONS, PORTABILITY and BUGS sections of individual man pages.
- The ncurses library also provides many useful extensions, i.e., fea-
- tures which cannot be implemented by a simple add-on library but which
- require access to the internals of the library.
+ The ncurses library also provides many useful extensions, i.e.,
+ features which cannot be implemented by a simple add-on library but
+ which require access to the internals of the library.
A program using these routines must be linked with the -lncurses
option, or (if it has been generated) with the debugging library
-lncurses_g. (Your system integrator may also have installed these
libraries under the names -lcurses and -lcurses_g.) The ncurses_g
- library generates trace logs (in a file called 'trace' in the current
+ library generates trace logs (in a file called "trace" in the current
directory) that describe curses actions. See also the section on
ALTERNATECONFIGURATIONS.
- The ncurses package supports: overall screen, window and pad manipula-
- tion; output to windows and pads; reading terminal input; control over
- terminal and curses input and output options; environment query rou-
- tines; color manipulation; use of soft label keys; terminfo capabili-
- ties; and access to low-level terminal-manipulation routines.
+ 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.
- That is normally done with setlocale:
+ That is normally done with setlocale(3):
setlocale(LC_ALL,"");
@@ -102,8 +102,8 @@
The function initscr or newterm must be called to initialize the
library before any of the other routines that deal with windows and
- screens are used. The routine endwin(3x) must be called before exit-
- ing.
+ screens are used. The routine endwin(3x) must be called before
+ exiting.
To get character-at-a-time input without echoing (most interactive,
screen oriented programs want this), the following sequence should be
@@ -113,69 +113,70 @@
Most programs would additionally use the sequence:
- nonl();intrflush(stdscr,FALSE);keypad(stdscr,TRUE);
Before a curses program is run, the tab stops of the terminal should be
set and its initialization strings, if defined, must be output. This
- can be done by executing the tputinit command after the shell environ-
- ment variable TERM has been exported. tset(1) is usually responsible
- for doing this. [See terminfo(5) for further details.]
+ can be done by executing the tputinit command after the shell
+ environment variable TERM has been exported. (The BSD-style tset(1)
+ utility also performs this function.) See subsection "Tabs and
+ Initialization" of terminfo(5).
- The ncurses library permits manipulation of data structures, called
- windows, which can be thought of as two-dimensional arrays of charac-
- ters representing all or part of a CRT screen. A default window called
- stdscr, which is the size of the terminal screen, is supplied. Others
- may be created with newwin.
-
- Note that curses does not handle overlapping windows, that's done by
- the panel(3x) library. This means that you can either use stdscr or
- divide the screen into tiled windows and not using stdscr at all. Mix-
- ing the two will result in unpredictable, and undesired, effects.
-
- Windows are referred to by variables declared as WINDOW*. These data
- structures are manipulated with routines described here and elsewhere
- in the ncurses manual pages. Among those, the most basic routines are
- move and addch. More general versions of these routines are included
- with names beginning with w, allowing the user to specify a window.
+ The ncurses library permits manipulation of data structures, called
+ windows, which can be thought of as two-dimensional arrays of
+ characters representing all or part of a CRT screen. A default window
+ called stdscr, which is the size of the terminal screen, is supplied.
+ Others may be created with newwin.
+
+ Note that curses does not handle overlapping windows, that's done by
+ the panel(3x) library. This means that you can either use stdscr or
+ divide the screen into tiled windows and not using stdscr at all.
+ Mixing the two will result in unpredictable, and undesired, effects.
+
+ Windows are referred to by variables declared as WINDOW*. These data
+ structures are manipulated with routines described here and elsewhere
+ in the ncurses manual pages. Among those, the most basic routines are
+ move and addch. More general versions of these routines are included
+ with names beginning with w, allowing the user to specify a window.
The routines not beginning with w affect stdscr.
- After using routines to manipulate a window, refresh(3x) is called,
- telling curses to make the user's CRT screen look like stdscr. The
- characters in a window are actually of type chtype, (character and
- attribute data) so that other information about the character may also
+ After using routines to manipulate a window, refresh(3x) is called,
+ telling curses to make the user's CRT screen look like stdscr. The
+ characters in a window are actually of type chtype, (character and
+ attribute data) so that other information about the character may also
be stored with each character.
Special windows called pads may also be manipulated. These are windows
- which are not constrained to the size of the screen and whose contents
- need not be completely displayed. See curs_pad(3x) for more informa-
- tion.
+ which are not constrained to the size of the screen and whose contents
+ need not be completely displayed. See curs_pad(3x) for more
+ information.
- In addition to drawing characters on the screen, video attributes and
- colors may be supported, causing the characters to show up in such
- modes as underlined, in reverse video, or in color on terminals that
- support such display enhancements. Line drawing characters may be
- specified to be output. On input, curses is also able to translate
- arrow and function keys that transmit escape sequences into single val-
- ues. The video attributes, line drawing characters, and input values
- use names, defined in <curses.h>, such as A_REVERSE, ACS_HLINE, and
- KEY_LEFT.
+ In addition to drawing characters on the screen, video attributes and
+ colors may be supported, causing the characters to show up in such
+ modes as underlined, in reverse video, or in color on terminals that
+ support such display enhancements. Line drawing characters may be
+ specified to be output. On input, curses is also able to translate
+ arrow and function keys that transmit escape sequences into single
+ values. The video attributes, line drawing characters, and input
+ values use names, defined in <curses.h>, such as A_REVERSE, ACS_HLINE,
+ and KEY_LEFT.
- If the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS are set, or if the pro-
- gram is executing in a window environment, line and column information
- in the environment will override information read by terminfo. This
- would affect a program running in an AT&T 630 layer, for example, where
- the size of a screen is changeable (see ENVIRONMENT).
+ If the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS are set, or if the
+ program is executing in a window environment, line and column
+ information in the environment will override information read by
+ terminfo. This would affect a program running in an AT&T 630 layer,
+ for example, where the size of a screen is changeable (see
+ ENVIRONMENT).
If the environment variable TERMINFO is defined, any program using
curses checks for a local terminal definition before checking in the
- standard place. For example, if TERM is set to att4424, then the com-
- piled terminal definition is found in
+ standard place. For example, if TERM is set to att4424, then the
+ compiled terminal definition is found in
/usr/share/terminfo/a/att4424.
@@ -198,13 +199,13 @@
The curses routines also define the WINDOW* variable curscr which is
used for certain low-level operations like clearing and redrawing a
- screen containing garbage. The curscr can be used in only a few rou-
- tines.
+ screen containing garbage. The curscr can be used in only a few
+ routines.
Many curses routines have two or more versions. The routines prefixed
- with w require a window argument. The routines prefixed with p require
+ with w require a window argument. The routines prefixed with p require
a pad argument. Those without a prefix generally use stdscr.
The routines prefixed with mv require a y and x coordinate to move to
@@ -214,8 +215,8 @@
The upper left-hand corner is always (0,0), not (1,1).
The routines prefixed with mvw take both a window argument and x and y
- coordinates. The window argument is always specified before the coor-
- dinates.
+ coordinates. The window argument is always specified before the
+ coordinates.
In each case, win is the window affected, and pad is the pad affected;
win and pad are always pointers to type WINDOW.
@@ -226,14 +227,14 @@
defined in <curses.h>. Types used for the terminfo routines such as
TERMINAL are defined in <term.h>.
- This manual page describes functions which may appear in any configura-
- tion of the library. There are two common configurations of the
- library:
+ This manual page describes functions which may appear in any
+ configuration of the library. There are two common configurations of
+ the library:
ncurses
- the "normal" library, which handles 8-bit characters. The nor-
- mal (8-bit) library stores characters combined with attributes
- in chtype data.
+ the "normal" library, which handles 8-bit characters. The
+ normal (8-bit) library stores characters combined with
+ attributes in chtype data.
Attributes alone (no corresponding character) may be stored in
chtype or the equivalent attr_t data. In either case, the data
@@ -242,11 +243,11 @@
Each cell (row and column) in a WINDOW is stored as a chtype.
ncursesw
- the so-called "wide" library, which handles multibyte charac-
- ters (see the section on ALTERNATECONFIGURATIONS). The "wide"
- library includes all of the calls from the "normal" library.
- It adds about one third more calls using data types which store
- multibyte characters:
+ the so-called "wide" library, which handles multibyte
+ characters (see the section on ALTERNATECONFIGURATIONS). The
+ "wide" library includes all of the calls from the "normal"
+ library. It adds about one third more calls using data types
+ which store multibyte characters:
cchar_t
corresponds to chtype. However it is a structure, because
@@ -259,7 +260,7 @@
Each cell (row and column) in 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.
wchar_t
@@ -271,32 +272,22 @@
have the same size.
The "wide" library provides new functions which are analogous
- to functions in the "normal" library. There is a naming con-
- vention which relates many of the normal/wide variants: a "_w"
- is inserted into the name. For example, waddch becomes
+ to functions in the "normal" library. There is a naming
+ convention which relates many of the normal/wide variants: a
+ "_w" is inserted into the name. For example, waddch becomes
wadd_wch.
Routines that return an integer return ERR upon failure and an integer
value other than ERR upon successful completion, unless otherwise noted
in the routine descriptions.
- As a general rule, routines check for null pointers passed as parame-
- ters, and handle this as an error.
+ As a general rule, routines check for null pointers passed as
+ parameters, and handle this as an error.
All macros return the value of the w version, except setscrreg,
wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx, and getmaxyx. The return values of
@@ -757,19 +771,25 @@
(i.e., these should not be used as the right-hand side of assignment
statements).
+ Functions with a "mv" prefix first perform a cursor movement using
+ wmove, and return an error if the position is outside the window, or if
+ the window pointer is null. Most "mv"-prefixed functions (except
+ variadic functions such as mvprintw) are provided both as macros and
+ functions.
+
Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.
- The following environment symbols are useful for customizing the run-
- time 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 occurrences of the command_character (i.e., the cmdch
- capability) of the loaded terminfo entries to the value of this vari-
- able. Very few terminfo entries provide this feature.
+ capability) of the loaded terminfo entries to the value of this
+ variable. Very few terminfo entries provide this feature.
Because this name is also used in development environments to represent
the C compiler's name, ncurses ignores it if it does not happen to be a
@@ -777,11 +797,11 @@
- The debugging library checks this environment variable when the appli-
- cation 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.
+ 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
+ 9600. This allows testers to construct repeatable test-cases that take
+ into account costs that depend on baudrate.
@@ -794,15 +814,15 @@
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. How-
- ever, setting COLUMNS and/or LINES overrides the library's use of the
- screen size obtained from the operating system.
+ Size), or because you are temporarily running as another user.
+ 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 descrip-
- tions, e.g., xterm which commonly specifies a 65 line screen. For best
- results, lines and cols should not be specified in a terminal descrip-
- tion for terminals which are run as emulations.
+ 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
(but not including system calls) to determine the screen size. Use the
@@ -823,10 +843,10 @@
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 multi-
- ple-clicking, you may wish to lengthen this default value because the
- timeout applies to the composed multi-click event as well as the indi-
- vidual clicks.
+ 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
@@ -844,41 +864,41 @@
- Like COLUMNS, specify the height of the screen in characters. See COL-
- UMNS for a detailed description.
+ 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 but-
- tons on the mouse. OS/2 numbers a 3-button mouse inconsistently from
- other platforms:
+ 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
2 = right
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 speci-
- fied, ncurses uses 132.
+ 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 fore-
- ground 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.
+ 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 Cre-
- ateConsoleScreenBuffer 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
+ 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
effect.
@@ -899,14 +919,14 @@
Ncurses may use tabs as part of the cursor movement optimization. In
some cases, your terminal driver may not handle these properly. Set
this environment variable to disable the feature. You can also adjust
- your stty settings to avoid the problem.
+ your stty(1) settings to avoid the problem.
- Some terminals use a magic-cookie feature which requires special han-
- dling to make highlighting and other video attributes display properly.
- You can suppress the highlighting entirely for these terminals by set-
- ting this environment variable.
+ 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.
@@ -918,18 +938,18 @@
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, pre-
- venting 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.
+ 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
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 con-
- trol sequences such as flash.
+ mandatory padding. Mandatory padding is used as a part of special
+ control sequences such as flash.
@@ -940,9 +960,9 @@
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 pur-
- poses, both of ncurses and certain applications, this feature was made
- optional. Setting the NCURSES_NO_SETBUF variable disabled output
+ 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.
@@ -951,28 +971,28 @@
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 nonconven-
- tional programs would mix ordinary stdio 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 still
- use the standard output. But high-level curses calls do not.
+ other signals more robust. One drawback is that certain
+ nonconventional programs would mix ordinary stdio 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
+ still use the standard output. But high-level curses calls do not.
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 emula-
- tor and the GNU screen program ignore these. Ncurses checks the TERM
- environment variable for these. For other special cases, you should
- set this environment variable. Doing this tells ncurses to use Unicode
- values which correspond to the VT100 line-drawing glyphs. That works
- for the special cases cited, and is likely to work for terminal emula-
- tors.
-
- When setting this variable, you should set it to a nonzero value. Set-
- ting it to zero (or to a nonnumber) disables the special check for
+ Specifically, when running in a UTF-8 locale, the Linux console
+ emulator and the GNU screen program ignore these. Ncurses checks the
+ TERM environment variable for these. For other special cases, you
+ should set this environment variable. Doing this tells ncurses to use
+ Unicode values which correspond to the VT100 line-drawing glyphs. That
+ works for the special cases cited, and is likely to work for terminal
+ emulators.
+
+ 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
@@ -995,12 +1015,12 @@
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 argu-
- ment.
+ 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 applica-
- tion will write the file trace to the current directory.
+ 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.
@@ -1010,17 +1030,17 @@
many are similar.
TERM is commonly set by terminal emulators to help applications find a
- workable terminal description. Some of those choose a popular approxi-
- mation, 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.
+ 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 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.
+ 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.
@@ -1029,10 +1049,10 @@
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 informa-
- tion denoted by the TERM environment variable exists. In either case,
- setting it directs ncurses to ignore the usual place for this informa-
- tion, e.g., /etc/termcap.
+ (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
+ information, e.g., /etc/termcap.
@@ -1077,8 +1097,8 @@
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 loca-
- tions in order follows:
+ 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
searched first
@@ -1092,8 +1112,8 @@
o one or more locations whose names are configured and compiled
into the ncurses library, i.e.,
- o /usr/local/ncurses/share/terminfo:/usr/share/terminfo (corre-
- sponding to the TERMINFO_DIRS variable)
+ o /usr/share/terminfo (corresponding to the TERMINFO_DIRS
+ variable)
o /usr/share/terminfo (corresponding to the TERMINFO variable)
@@ -1104,8 +1124,8 @@
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 exten-
- sion developed for ncurses.
+ There is no corresponding feature in System V terminfo; it is an
+ extension developed for ncurses.
- Several different configurations are possible, depending on the config-
- ure script options used when building ncurses. There are a few main
- options whose effects are visible to the applications developer using
- ncurses:
+ Several different configurations are possible, depending on the
+ configure script options used when building ncurses. There are a few
+ main options whose effects are visible to the applications developer
+ using ncurses:
--disable-overwrite
The standard include for ncurses is as noted in SYNOPSIS:
@@ -1140,8 +1160,8 @@
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 subdi-
- rectory, e.g.,
+ is installed disabling overwrite, it puts its headers in a
+ subdirectory, e.g.,
#include<ncurses/curses.h>
@@ -1149,10 +1169,10 @@
-lcurses to build executables.
--enable-widec
- The configure script renames the library and (if the --dis-
- able-overwrite option is used) puts the header files in a differ-
- ent subdirectory. All of the library names have a "w" appended to
- them, i.e., instead of
+ 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
@@ -1186,10 +1206,10 @@
header. Only the size of the WINDOW structure differs, and very
few applications require more than a pointer to WINDOWs.
- If the headers are installed allowing overwrite, the wide-charac-
- ter library's headers should be installed last, to allow applica-
- tions to be built using either library from the same set of head-
- ers.
+ If the headers are installed allowing overwrite, the wide-
+ 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
@@ -1208,170 +1228,189 @@
--with-debug
--with-profile
- The shared and normal (static) library names differ by their suf-
- fixes, e.g., libncurses.so and libncurses.a. The debug and pro-
- filing libraries add a "_g" and a "_p" to the root names respec-
- tively, e.g., libncurses_g.a and libncurses_p.a.
+ 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
+ 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
+ library when only low-level functions are needed.
+
+ Those functions are described in these pages:
+
+ ocurs_extend(3x) - miscellaneous curses extensions
+
+ ocurs_inopts(3x) - curses input options
+
+ ocurs_kernel(3x) - low-level curses routines
+
+ ocurs_termattrs(3x) - curses environment query routines
+
+ ocurs_termcap(3x) - curses emulation of termcap
+
+ ocurs_terminfo(3x) - curses interfaces to terminfo database
+
+ 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. Con-
- figure scripts should check for the function's existence rather
+ 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.
- The ncurses library can be compiled with an option (-DUSE_GETCAP) that
- falls back to the old-style /etc/termcap file if the terminal setup
- code cannot find a terminfo entry corresponding to TERM. Use of this
- feature is not recommended, as it essentially includes an entire term-
- cap compiler in the ncurses startup code, at significant cost in core
- and startup cycles.
-
- The ncurses library includes facilities for capturing mouse events on
- certain terminals (including xterm). See the curs_mouse(3x) manual
+ The ncurses library can be compiled with an option (-DUSE_GETCAP) that
+ falls back to the old-style /etc/termcap file if the terminal setup
+ code cannot find a terminfo 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 significant cost in
+ core and startup cycles.
+
+ The ncurses library includes facilities for capturing mouse events on
+ certain terminals (including xterm). See the curs_mouse(3x) manual
page for details.
- The ncurses library includes facilities for responding to window resiz-
- ing events, e.g., when running in an xterm. See the resizeterm(3x) and
- wresize(3x) manual pages for details. In addition, the library may be
- configured with a SIGWINCH handler.
+ The ncurses library includes facilities for responding to window
+ resizing events, e.g., when running in an xterm. See the
+ resizeterm(3x) and wresize(3x) manual pages for details. In addition,
+ the library may be configured with a SIGWINCH handler.
- The ncurses library extends the fixed set of function key capabilities
- of terminals by allowing the application designer to define additional
- key sequences at runtime. See the define_key(3x)key_defined(3x), and
+ The ncurses library extends the fixed set of function key capabilities
+ of terminals by allowing the application designer to define additional
+ key sequences at runtime. See the define_key(3x)key_defined(3x), and
keyok(3x) manual pages for details.
- The ncurses library can exploit the capabilities of terminals which
- implement the ISO-6429 SGR 39 and SGR 49 controls, which allow an
- application to reset the terminal to its original foreground and back-
- ground colors. From the users' perspective, the application is able to
- draw colored text on a background whose color is set independently,
- providing better control over color contrasts. See the default_col-
- ors(3x) manual page for details.
+ The ncurses library can exploit the capabilities of terminals which
+ implement the ISO-6429 SGR 39 and SGR 49 controls, which allow an
+ application to reset the terminal to its original foreground and
+ background colors. From the users' perspective, the application is
+ able to draw colored text on a background whose color is set
+ independently, providing better control over color contrasts. See the
+ default_colors(3x) manual page for details.
- The ncurses library includes a function for directing application out-
- put to a printer attached to the terminal device. See the
+ The ncurses library includes a function for directing application
+ output to a printer attached to the terminal device. See the
curs_print(3x) manual page for details.
- The ncurses library is intended to be BASE-level conformant with XSI
- Curses. The EXTENDED XSI Curses functionality (including color sup-
- port) is supported.
+ The ncurses library is intended to be BASE-level conformant with XSI
+ Curses. The EXTENDED XSI Curses functionality (including color
+ support) is supported.
- A small number of local differences (that is, individual differences
- between the XSI Curses and ncurses calls) are described in PORTABILITY
+ A small number of local differences (that is, individual differences
+ between the XSI Curses and ncurses calls) are described in PORTABILITY
sections of the library 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 point-
- ers 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.
+ 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.
- Most of the extensions provided by ncurses have not been standardized.
+ Most of the extensions provided by ncurses have not been standardized.
Some have been incorporated into other implementations, such as
PDCurses or NetBSD curses. Here are a few to consider:
o The routine has_key is not part of XPG4, nor is it present in SVr4.
See the curs_getch(3x) manual page for details.
- o The routine slk_attr is not part of XPG4, nor is it present in
+ o The routine slk_attr is not part of XPG4, nor is it present in
SVr4. See the curs_slk(3x) manual page for details.
- o The routines getmouse, mousemask, ungetmouse, mouseinterval, and
- wenclose relating to mouse interfacing are not part of XPG4, nor
- are they present in SVr4. See the curs_mouse(3x) manual page for
+ o The routines getmouse, mousemask, ungetmouse, mouseinterval, and
+ wenclose relating to mouse interfacing are not part of XPG4, nor
+ are they present in SVr4. See the curs_mouse(3x) manual page for
details.
- o The routine mcprint was not present in any previous curses imple-
- mentation. See the curs_print(3x) manual page for details.
+ o The routine mcprint was not present in any previous curses
+ implementation. See the curs_print(3x) manual page for details.
o The routine wresize is not part of XPG4, nor is it present in SVr4.
See the wresize(3x) manual page for details.
- o The WINDOW structure's internal details can be hidden from applica-
- tion programs. See curs_opaque(3x) for the discussion of is_scrol-
- lok, etc.
+ o The WINDOW structure's internal details can be hidden from
+ application programs. See curs_opaque(3x) for the discussion of
+ is_scrollok, etc.
- o This implementation can be configured to provide rudimentary sup-
- port for multi-threaded applications. See curs_threads(3x) for
+ o This implementation can be configured to provide rudimentary
+ support for multi-threaded applications. See curs_threads(3x) for
details.
- o This implementation can also be configured to provide a set of
- functions which improve the ability to manage multiple screens.
+ o This implementation can also be configured to provide a set of
+ functions which improve the ability to manage multiple screens.
See curs_sp_funcs(3x) for details.
- 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 inter-
- face 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> automatically includes the header files
+ The header file <curses.h> automatically 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 "curses.ext" ("ext" was a short name for 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 <unc-
- trl.h>.
+ 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
@@ -1380,31 +1419,50 @@
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 visi-
- ble. That depends on the value used for _XOPEN_SOURCE feature test
- macro.
+ 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
+ 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
+ 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-
+ 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>
+ directly to provide a portable interface.
- Zeyd M. Ben-Halim, Eric S. Raymond, Thomas E. Dickey. Based on pcurses
+ Zeyd M. Ben-Halim, Eric S. Raymond, Thomas E. Dickey. Based on pcurses
by Pavel Curtis.
+