ncurses 6.1 - patch 20191005

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

diff --git a/man/curs_memleaks.3x b/man/curs_memleaks.3x
index 5ebc0d066fa51609b4a28cf6c30bf12282044487..4477829a112d70357d64bfdff381b87d6d6e7c55 100644 (file)
--- a/man/curs_memleaks.3x
+++ b/man/curs_memleaks.3x
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 .\"***************************************************************************
-.\" Copyright (c) 2008,2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.                   *
+.\" Copyright (c) 2008-2010,2017 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            *
@@ -26,13 +26,18 @@
 .\" authorization.                                                           *
 .\"***************************************************************************
 .\"
-.\" $Id: curs_memleaks.3x,v 1.3 2010/12/04 18:40:45 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: curs_memleaks.3x,v 1.6 2017/08/22 08:35:37 Sven.Joachim Exp $
 .TH curs_memleaks 3X ""
+.ie \n(.g .ds `` \(lq
+.el       .ds `` ``
+.ie \n(.g .ds '' \(rq
+.el       .ds '' ''
 .na
 .hy 0
 .SH NAME
-\fB_nc_freeall\fP
-\fB_nc_free_and_exit\fP \- \fBcurses\fR memory-leak checking
+\fB_nc_freeall\fP,
+\fB_nc_free_and_exit\fP,
+\fB_nc_free_tinfo\fP \- \fBcurses\fR memory-leak checking
 .ad
 .hy
 .SH SYNOPSIS
@@ -41,29 +46,46 @@
 \fBvoid _nc_freeall(void);\fR
 .br
 \fBvoid _nc_free_and_exit(int);\fR
+.br
+\fBvoid _nc_free_tinfo(int);\fR
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 These functions are used to simplify analysis of memory leaks in the ncurses
 library.
-They are normally not available; they must be configured into the library
+They are normally not available;
+they must be configured into the library
 at build time using the \fB\-\-disable-leaks\fP option.
 That compiles-in code that frees memory that normally would not be freed.
 .PP
 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
 a screen, since (even after calling \fBendwin\fP), it must be available
-for use in the next call to \fBrefresh\fP.
+for use in the next call to \fBrefresh\fP(3X).
 There are also chunks of memory held for performance reasons.
 That makes it hard to analyze curses applications for memory leaks.
-To work around this, one can build a debugging version of the ncurses
-library which frees those chunks which it can, and provides these
-functions to free all of the memory allocated by the ncurses library.
+When using the specially configured debugging version of the ncurses library,
+applications can call functions which free those chunks of memory,
+simplifying the process of memory-leak checking.
 .PP
-The \fP_nc_free_and_exit\fP function is the preferred one since
-some of the memory which is freed may be required for the application
-to continue running.
-Its parameter is the code to pass to the \fPexit\fP routine.
+These functions are named with a \*(``_nc_\*('' prefix because they are not
+intended for use in the non-debugging library:
+.TP 5
+\fB_nc_freeall\fP
+This frees (almost) all of the memory allocated by ncurses.
+.TP 5
+\fB_nc_free_and_exit\fP
+This frees the memory allocated by ncurses (like \fB_nc_freeall\fP),
+and exits the program.
+It is preferred over \fB_nc_freeall\fP since some of that memory
+may be required to keep the application running.
+Simply exiting (with the given exit-code) is safer.
+.TP 5
+\fB_nc_free_tinfo\fP
+Use this function if only the low-level terminfo functions (and
+corresponding library) are used.
+Like \fB_nc_free_and_exit\fP, it exits the program after freeing memory.
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 These functions do not return a value.
 .SH PORTABILITY
-These functions are not part of the XSI interface.
+These functions are not part of X/Open Curses;
+nor do other implementations of curses provide a similar feature.
 .SH SEE ALSO
 \fBcurses\fR(3X).