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30 * @Id: curs_termcap.3x,v 1.18 2003/02/08 22:25:47 tom Exp @
34 <TITLE>curs_termcap 3x</TITLE>
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39 <H1>curs_termcap 3x</H1>
42 <!-- Manpage converted by man2html 3.0.1 -->
43 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>
50 <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG>, <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> - direct
51 <STRONG>curses</STRONG> interface to the terminfo capability database
55 <H2>SYNOPSIS</H2><PRE>
56 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
57 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><term.h></STRONG>
58 <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>PC;</STRONG> <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <STRONG>UP;</STRONG> <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <STRONG>BC;</STRONG> <STRONG>extern</STRONG>
59 <STRONG>short</STRONG> <STRONG>ospeed;</STRONG>
60 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetent(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*bp,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*name);</STRONG>
61 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetflag(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id);</STRONG>
62 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetnum(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id);</STRONG>
63 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tgetstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>**area);</STRONG>
64 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tgoto(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*cap,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>col,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>row);</STRONG>
65 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tputs(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>affcnt,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>(*putc)(int));</STRONG>
69 <H2>DESCRIPTION</H2><PRE>
70 These routines are included as a conversion aid for pro-
71 grams that use the <EM>termcap</EM> library. Their parameters are
72 the same and the routines are emulated using the <EM>terminfo</EM>
73 database. Thus, they can only be used to query the capa-
74 bilities of entries for which a terminfo entry has been
77 The <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> routine loads the entry for <EM>name</EM>. It returns
78 1 on success, 0 if there is no such entry, and -1 if the
79 terminfo database could not be found. The emulation
80 ignores the buffer pointer <EM>bp</EM>.
82 The <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG> routine gets the boolean entry for <EM>id</EM>, or
83 zero if it is not available.
85 The <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> routine gets the numeric entry for <EM>id</EM>, or -1
86 if it is not available.
88 The <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> routine returns the string entry for <EM>id</EM>, or
89 zero if it is not available. Use <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> to output the
90 returned string. The return value will also be copied to
91 the buffer pointed to by <EM>area</EM>, and the <EM>area</EM> value will be
92 updated to point past the null ending this value.
94 Only the first two characters of the <STRONG>id</STRONG> parameter of <STRONG>tget-</STRONG>
95 <STRONG>flag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> and <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> are compared in lookups.
97 The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> routine instantiates the parameters into the
98 given capability. The output from this routine is to be
99 passed to <STRONG>tputs</STRONG>.
101 The <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> routine is described on the <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG>
102 manual page. It can retrieve capabilities by either term-
103 cap or terminfo name.
105 The variables <STRONG>PC</STRONG>, <STRONG>UP</STRONG> and <STRONG>BC</STRONG> are set by <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> to the ter-
106 minfo entry's data for <STRONG>pad_char</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_up</STRONG> and
107 <STRONG>backspace_if_not_bs</STRONG>, respectively. <STRONG>UP</STRONG> is not used by
108 ncurses. <STRONG>PC</STRONG> is used in the <STRONG>tdelay_output</STRONG> function. <STRONG>BC</STRONG> is
109 used in the <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> emulation. The variable <STRONG>ospeed</STRONG> is set
110 by ncurses in a system-specific coding to reflect the ter-
116 <H2>RETURN VALUE</H2><PRE>
117 Except where explicitly noted, routines that return an
118 integer return <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4 only
119 specifies "an integer value other than <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>") upon success-
122 Routines that return pointers return <STRONG>NULL</STRONG> on error.
127 If you call <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> to fetch <STRONG>ca</STRONG> or any other parameterized
128 string, be aware that it will be returned in terminfo
129 notation, not the older and not-quite-compatible termcap
130 notation. This won't cause problems if all you do with it
131 is call <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> or <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>, which both expand terminfo-style
132 strings as terminfo. (The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> function, if configured
133 to support termcap, will check if the string is indeed
134 terminfo-style by looking for "%p" parameters or "$<..>"
135 delays, and invoke a termcap-style parser if the string
136 does not appear to be terminfo).
138 Because terminfo conventions for representing padding in
139 string capabilities differ from termcap's, <STRONG>tputs("50");</STRONG>
140 will put out a literal "50" rather than busy-waiting for
141 50 milliseconds. Cope with it.
143 Note that termcap has nothing analogous to terminfo's <STRONG>sgr</STRONG>
144 string. One consequence of this is that termcap applica-
145 tions assume me (terminfo <STRONG>sgr0</STRONG>) does not reset the alter-
146 nate character set. This implementation checks for, and
147 modifies the data shown to the termcap interface to accom-
148 modate termcap's limitation in this respect.
152 <H2>PORTABILITY</H2><PRE>
153 The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these func-
154 tions. However, they are marked TO BE WITHDRAWN and may
155 be removed in future versions.
157 Neither the XSI Curses standard nor the SVr4 man pages
158 documented the return values of <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> correctly, though
159 all three were in fact returned ever since SVr1. In par-
160 ticular, an omission in the XSI Curses documentation has
161 been misinterpreted to mean that <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> returns <STRONG>OK</STRONG> or
162 <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>. Because the purpose of these functions is to provide
163 compatibility with the <EM>termcap</EM> library, that is a defect
164 in XCurses, Issue 4, Version 2 rather than in ncurses.
166 External variables are provided for support of certain
167 termcap applications. However, termcap applications' use
168 of those variables is poorly documented, e.g., not distin-
169 guishing between input and output. In particular, some
170 applications are reported to declare and/or modify <STRONG>ospeed</STRONG>.
174 <H2>SEE ALSO</H2><PRE>
175 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="putc.3S.html">putc(3S)</A></STRONG>.
179 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>
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