ncurses 6.1 - patch 20191214

[ncurses.git] / man / curs_getstr.3x

diff --git a/man/curs_getstr.3x b/man/curs_getstr.3x
index 74c690d2f97346612d7a036c9d0ccbfc1cd34258..818dc9035a0e5da9f91bbb98cbd17fd71c387bea 100644 (file)
--- a/man/curs_getstr.3x
+++ b/man/curs_getstr.3x
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"***************************************************************************

-.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2017,2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.              *
+.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2018,2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.              *

 .\"                                                                          *
 .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a  *
 .\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the            *
 .\"                                                                          *
 .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a  *
 .\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the            *


@@ -26,12 +26,16 @@
 .\" authorization.                                                           *
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"
 .\" authorization.                                                           *
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"

-.\" $Id: curs_getstr.3x,v 1.24 2018/07/28 21:34:56 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: curs_getstr.3x,v 1.28 2019/07/20 19:14:56 tom Exp $

 .TH curs_getstr 3X ""
 .ie \n(.g .ds `` \(lq
 .el       .ds `` ``
 .ie \n(.g .ds '' \(rq
 .el       .ds '' ''
 .TH curs_getstr 3X ""
 .ie \n(.g .ds `` \(lq
 .el       .ds `` ``
 .ie \n(.g .ds '' \(rq
 .el       .ds '' ''

+.de bP
+.ie n  .IP \(bu 4
+.el    .IP \(bu 2
+..

 .na
 .hy 0
 .SH NAME
 .na
 .hy 0
 .SH NAME


@@ -68,8 +72,12 @@
 The function \fBgetstr\fR is equivalent to a series of calls to \fBgetch\fR,
 until a newline or carriage return is received (the terminating character is
 not included in the returned string).
 The function \fBgetstr\fR is equivalent to a series of calls to \fBgetch\fR,
 until a newline or carriage return is received (the terminating character is
 not included in the returned string).

+.\" X/Open says also until EOf
+.\" X/Open says then an EOS is added to the result
+.\" X/Open doesn't mention n<0

 The resulting value is placed in the
 The resulting value is placed in the

-area pointed to by the character pointer \fIstr\fR.
+area pointed to by the character pointer \fIstr\fR,
+followed by a NUL.

 .PP
 \fBwgetnstr\fR reads at most \fIn\fR characters, thus preventing a possible
 overflow of the input buffer.
 .PP
 \fBwgetnstr\fR reads at most \fIn\fR characters, thus preventing a possible
 overflow of the input buffer.


@@ -131,6 +139,53 @@ string by those implementations was predictable but not useful
 .PP
 The functions \fBgetnstr\fR, \fBmvgetnstr\fR, and \fBmvwgetnstr\fR were
 present but not documented in SVr4.
 .PP
 The functions \fBgetnstr\fR, \fBmvgetnstr\fR, and \fBmvwgetnstr\fR were
 present but not documented in SVr4.

+.PP
+X/Open Curses, Issue 5 (2007) stated that these functions
+\*(``read at most \fIn\fP bytes\*(''
+but did not state whether the terminating NUL is counted in that limit.
+X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) changed that to say they
+\*(``read at most \fIn\fP\-1 bytes\*(''
+to allow for the terminating NUL.
+As of 2018, some implementations do, some do not count it:
+.bP
+ncurses 6.1 and PDCurses do not count the NUL in the given limit, while
+.bP
+Solaris SVr4 and NetBSD curses count the NUL as part of the limit.
+.bP
+Solaris xcurses provides both:
+its wide-character \fBwget_nstr\fP reserves a NUL,
+but its \fBwgetnstr\fP does not count the NUL consistently.
+.PP
+In SVr4 curses,
+a negative value of \fIn\fP tells \fBwgetnstr\fP to assume that the
+caller's buffer is large enough to hold the result,
+i.e., to act like \fBwgetstr\fP.
+X/Open Curses does not mention this
+(or anything related to negative or zero values of \fIn\fP),
+however most implementations
+use the feature, with different limits:
+.bP
+Solaris SVr4 curses and PDCurses limit the result to 255 bytes.
+Other Unix systems than Solaris are likely to use the same limit.
+.bP
+Solaris xcurses limits the result to \fBLINE_MAX\fP bytes.
+.bP
+NetBSD 7 assumes no particular limit for the result from \fBwgetstr\fP.
+However, it limits the \fBwgetnstr\fP parameter \fIn\fP to ensure
+that it is greater than zero.
+.IP
+A comment in NetBSD's source code states that this is specified in SUSv2.
+.bP
+ncurses (before 6.2) assumes no particular limit for the result
+from \fBwgetstr\fP, and treats the \fIn\fP parameter of \fBwgetnstr\fP
+like SVr4 curses.
+.bP
+ncurses 6.2 uses \fBLINE_MAX\fP,
+or a larger (system-dependent) value
+which the \fBsysconf\fP function may provide.
+If neither \fBLINE_MAX\fP or \fBsysconf\fP is available,
+ncurses uses the POSIX value for \fBLINE_MAX\fP (a 2048 byte limit).
+In either case, it reserves a byte for the terminating NUL.

 .SH SEE ALSO
 \fBcurses\fR(3X),
 \fBcurs_getch\fR(3X),
 .SH SEE ALSO
 \fBcurses\fR(3X),
 \fBcurs_getch\fR(3X),