X-Git-Url: http://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fhtml%2Fman%2Fncurses.3x.html;h=530b293ac1c87f23be19f7ced997adcf50ff9ced;hp=57f28a07111c8f87a8135c63a183bbdd1194e5b0;hb=f367fa254ce3fe29710c86971f04e03111c2bd2c;hpb=f86cbeb5f9bd96ab041d34039c35749a14965039
diff --git a/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html b/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html
index 57f28a07..530b293a 100644
--- a/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html
+++ b/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
* sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
* authorization. *
****************************************************************************
- * @Id: ncurses.3x,v 1.103 2011/02/05 23:21:29 tom Exp @
+ * @Id: ncurses.3x,v 1.106 2011/12/17 23:19:59 tom Exp @
-->
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@
sonable 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 5.8 (patch 20110226).
+ describes ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20120107).
The ncurses library emulates the curses library of System
V Release 4 UNIX, and XPG4 (X/Open Portability Guide)
@@ -757,9 +757,12 @@
pletion, unless otherwise noted in the routine descrip-
tions.
- All macros return the value of the w version, except
+ 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 setscrreg, wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx,
+ return values of setscrreg, wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx,
and getmaxyx are undefined (i.e., these should not be used
as the right-hand side of assignment statements).
@@ -773,46 +776,46 @@
important ones have been already discussed in detail.
BAUDRATE
- The debugging library checks this environment symbol
+ The debugging library checks this environment symbol
when the application has redirected output to a file.
- The symbol's numeric value is used for the baudrate.
+ The symbol'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
+ testers to construct repeatable test-cases that take
into account costs that depend on baudrate.
CC When set, change occurrences of the command_character
- (i.e., the cmdch capability) of the loaded terminfo
- entries to the value of this symbol. Very few ter-
+ (i.e., the cmdch capability) of the loaded terminfo
+ entries to the value of this symbol. Very few ter-
minfo entries provide this feature.
- Because this name is also used in development envi-
- ronments to represent the C compiler's name, ncurses
+ Because this name is also used in development envi-
+ ronments to represent the C compiler's name, ncurses
ignores it if it does not happen to be a single char-
acter.
COLUMNS
Specify the width of the screen in characters.
- Applications running in a windowing environment usu-
- ally are able to obtain the width of the window in
- which they are executing. If neither the COLUMNS
- value nor the terminal's screen size is available,
- ncurses uses the size which may be specified in the
+ Applications running in a windowing environment usu-
+ ally are able to obtain the width of the window in
+ which they are executing. If neither the COLUMNS
+ value nor the terminal's screen size is available,
+ ncurses uses the size which may be specified in the
terminfo database (i.e., the cols capability).
- 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. However, setting COLUMNS and/or LINES
+ 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. 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 descriptions, e.g.,
+ Either COLUMNS or LINES symbols may be specified
+ independently. This 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
+ best results, lines and cols should not be specified
in a terminal description for terminals which are run
as emulations.
@@ -821,35 +824,35 @@
the screen size.
ESCDELAY
- Specifies the total time, in milliseconds, for which
- ncurses will await a character sequence, e.g., a
- function key. The default value, 1000 milliseconds,
+ Specifies the total time, in milliseconds, for which
+ ncurses will await a character sequence, e.g., a
+ function key. The default value, 1000 milliseconds,
is enough for most uses. However, it is made a vari-
able to accommodate unusual applications.
The most common instance where you may wish to change
- this value is to work with slow hosts, e.g., running
- on a network. If the host cannot read characters
- rapidly enough, it will have the same effect as if
- the terminal did not send characters rapidly enough.
+ this value is to work with slow hosts, e.g., running
+ on a network. If the host cannot read characters
+ rapidly enough, it will have the same effect as if
+ the terminal did not send characters rapidly enough.
The library will still see a timeout.
- Note that xterm mouse events are built up from char-
- acter sequences received from the xterm. If your
+ Note that xterm mouse events are built up from char-
+ acter sequences 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
+ 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 imple-
- mentation provides a global variable with the same
+ In addition to the environment variable, this imple-
+ mentation provides a global variable with the same
name. Portable applications should not rely upon the
- presence of ESCDELAY in either form, but setting the
- environment variable rather than the global variable
- does not create problems when compiling an applica-
+ presence of ESCDELAY in either form, but setting the
+ environment variable rather than the global variable
+ does not create problems when compiling an applica-
tion.
- HOME Tells ncurses where your home directory is. That is
+ HOME Tells ncurses where your home directory is. That is
where it may read and write auxiliary terminal
descriptions:
@@ -857,12 +860,12 @@
$HOME/.terminfo
LINES
- Like COLUMNS, specify the height of the screen in
- characters. See COLUMNS for a detailed description.
+ Like COLUMNS, specify the height of the screen in
+ characters. See COLUMNS for a detailed description.
MOUSE_BUTTONS_123
This applies only to the OS/2 EMX port. It specifies
- the order of buttons on the mouse. OS/2 numbers a
+ the order of buttons on the mouse. OS/2 numbers a
3-button mouse inconsistently from other platforms:
1 = left
@@ -870,109 +873,109 @@
3 = middle.
This symbol lets you customize the mouse. The symbol
- must be three numeric digits 1-3 in any order, e.g.,
- 123 or 321. If it is not specified, ncurses uses
+ must be three numeric digits 1-3 in any order, e.g.,
+ 123 or 321. If it is not specified, ncurses uses
132.
NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS
- Override the compiled-in assumption that the termi-
- nal's default colors are white-on-black (see
- default_colors(3x)). You may set the foreground and
- background color values with this environment vari-
- able by proving a 2-element list: foreground,back-
- ground. 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 posi-
+ Override the compiled-in assumption that the termi-
+ nal's default colors are white-on-black (see
+ default_colors(3x)). You may set the foreground and
+ background color values with this environment vari-
+ able by proving a 2-element list: foreground,back-
+ ground. 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 posi-
tive value from zero to the terminfo max_colors value
is allowed.
NCURSES_GPM_TERMS
- This applies only to ncurses configured to use the
+ This applies only to ncurses configured to use the
GPM interface.
If present, the environment variable is a list of one
- or more terminal names against which the TERM envi-
- ronment variable is matched. Setting it to an empty
- value disables the GPM interface; using the built-in
+ or more terminal names against which the TERM envi-
+ ronment variable is matched. Setting it to an empty
+ value disables the GPM interface; using the built-in
support for xterm, etc.
- If the environment variable is absent, ncurses will
+ If the environment variable is absent, ncurses will
attempt to open GPM if TERM contains "linux".
NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS
- 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
+ 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.
NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIES
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 termi-
- nals by setting this environment variable.
+ 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.
NCURSES_NO_PADDING
- Most of the terminal descriptions in the terminfo
- database are written for real "hardware" terminals.
- Many people use terminal emulators which run in a
- windowing environment and use curses-based applica-
- tions. Terminal emulators can duplicate all of the
+ Most of the terminal descriptions in the terminfo
+ database are written for real "hardware" terminals.
+ Many people use terminal emulators which run in a
+ windowing environment and use curses-based applica-
+ tions. Terminal emulators can duplicate all of the
important aspects of a hardware terminal, but they do
- not have the same limitations. The chief limitation
- of a hardware terminal from the standpoint of your
+ not have the same limitations. The chief limitation
+ of a hardware terminal from the standpoint of your
application is the management of dataflow, i.e., tim-
ing. Unless a hardware terminal is interfaced into a
- terminal concentrator (which does flow control), it
- (or your application) must manage dataflow, prevent-
- ing overruns. The cheapest solution (no hardware
+ terminal concentrator (which does flow control), it
+ (or your application) must manage dataflow, prevent-
+ ing 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
+ 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
+ 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 symbol to disable all but
- mandatory padding. Mandatory padding is used as a
+ Set the NCURSES_NO_PADDING symbol to disable all but
+ mandatory padding. Mandatory padding is used as a
part of special control sequences such as flash.
NCURSES_NO_SETBUF
- Normally ncurses enables buffered output during ter-
- minal initialization. This is done (as in SVr4
- curses) for performance reasons. For testing pur-
+ Normally ncurses enables buffered output during ter-
+ minal initialization. This is done (as in SVr4
+ curses) for performance reasons. For testing pur-
poses, both of ncurses and certain applications, this
feature is made optional. Setting the
NCURSES_NO_SETBUF variable disables output buffering,
- leaving the output in the original (usually line
+ leaving the output in the original (usually line
buffered) mode.
NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS
During initialization, the ncurses library checks for
- special cases where VT100 line-drawing (and the cor-
- responding alternate character set capabilities)
- described in the terminfo are known to be missing.
- 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
+ special cases where VT100 line-drawing (and the cor-
+ responding alternate character set capabilities)
+ described in the terminfo are known to be missing.
+ 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 termi-
nal emulators.
- When setting this variable, you should set it to a
- nonzero value. Setting it to zero (or to a nonnum-
- ber) disables the special check for "linux" and
+ When setting this variable, you should set it to a
+ nonzero value. Setting it to zero (or to a nonnum-
+ ber) disables the special check for "linux" and
"screen".
- As an alternative to the environment variable,
- ncurses checks for an extended terminfo capability
- U8. This is a numeric capability which can be com-
+ As an alternative to the environment variable,
+ ncurses checks for an extended terminfo capability
+ U8. This is a numeric capability which can be com-
piled using tic -x. For example
# linux console, if patched to provide working
@@ -985,43 +988,43 @@
U8#1, use=xterm,
The name "U8" is chosen to be two characters, to per-
- mit it to be used by applications that use ncurses'
+ mit it to be used by applications that use ncurses'
termcap interface.
NCURSES_TRACE
- During initialization, the ncurses debugging library
- checks the NCURSES_TRACE symbol. If it is defined,
+ During initialization, the ncurses debugging library
+ checks the NCURSES_TRACE symbol. If it is defined,
to a numeric 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 application will write the
+ The argument values, which are defined in curses.h,
+ provide several types of information. When running
+ with traces enabled, your application will write the
file trace to the current directory.
- TERM Denotes your terminal type. Each terminal type is
+ TERM Denotes your terminal type. Each terminal type is
distinct, though many are similar.
TERMCAP
If the ncurses library has been configured with term-
- cap support, ncurses will check for a terminal's
+ cap support, ncurses will check for a terminal's
description in termcap form if it is not available in
the terminfo database.
- The TERMCAP symbol contains either a terminal
- description (with newlines stripped out), or a file
- name telling where the information denoted by the
- TERM symbol exists. In either case, setting it
- directs ncurses to ignore the usual place for this
+ The TERMCAP symbol contains either a terminal
+ description (with newlines stripped out), or a file
+ name telling where the information denoted by the
+ TERM symbol exists. In either case, setting it
+ directs ncurses to ignore the usual place for this
information, e.g., /etc/termcap.
TERMINFO
Overrides the directory in which ncurses searches for
your terminal description. This is the simplest, but
- not the only way to change the list of directories.
+ not the only way to change the list of directories.
The complete list of directories in order follows:
- o the last directory to which ncurses wrote, if
+ o the last directory to which ncurses wrote, if
any, is searched first
o the directory specified by the TERMINFO symbol
@@ -1030,62 +1033,70 @@
o directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS symbol
- o one or more directories whose names are config-
+ o one or more directories whose names are config-
ured and compiled into the ncurses library, e.g.,
/usr/share/terminfo
TERMINFO_DIRS
- Specifies a list of directories to search for termi-
- nal descriptions. The list is separated by colons
- (i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX. All of
+ Specifies a list of directories to search for termi-
+ nal descriptions. The list is separated by colons
+ (i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX. All of
the terminal descriptions are in terminfo form, which
- makes a subdirectory named for the first letter of
+ makes a subdirectory named for the first letter of
the terminal names therein.
+ If ncurses is built with a hashed database, then each
+ entry in this list can also be the path of the corre-
+ sponding database file.
+
+ If ncurses is built with a support for reading term-
+ cap files directly, then an entry in this list may be
+ the path of a termcap file.
+
TERMPATH
- If TERMCAP does not hold a file name then ncurses
- checks the TERMPATH symbol. This is a list of file-
- names separated by spaces or colons (i.e., ":") on
+ If TERMCAP does not hold a file name then ncurses
+ checks the TERMPATH symbol. This is a list of file-
+ names separated by spaces or colons (i.e., ":") on
Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX. If the TERMPATH symbol
- is not set, ncurses looks in the files /etc/termcap,
- /usr/share/misc/termcap and $HOME/.termcap, in that
+ is not set, ncurses looks in the files /etc/termcap,
+ /usr/share/misc/termcap and $HOME/.termcap, in that
order.
- The library may be configured to disregard the following
- variables when the current user is the superuser (root),
- or if the application uses setuid or setgid permissions:
+ The library may be configured to disregard the following
+ variables when the current user is the superuser (root),
+ or if the application uses setuid or setgid permissions:
$TERMINFO, $TERMINFO_DIRS, $TERMPATH, as well as $HOME.
ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS
- Several different configurations are possible, depending
- on the configure script options used when building
- ncurses. There are a few main options whose effects are
+ 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 SYN-
+ The standard include for ncurses is as noted in SYN-
OPSIS:
#include <curses.h>
- 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 subdirectory,
+ 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 subdirectory,
e.g.,
#include <ncurses/curses.h>
- It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you
+ It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you
to use -lcurses to build executables.
--enable-widec
- The configure script renames the library and (if the
- --disable-overwrite option is used) puts the header
+ 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.,
+ library names have a "w" appended to them, i.e.,
instead of
-lncurses
@@ -1095,16 +1106,16 @@
-lncursesw
You must also define _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED when com-
- piling for the wide-character library to use the
- extended (wide-character) functions. The curses.h
- file which is installed for the wide-character
- library is designed to be compatible with the normal
+ piling for the wide-character library to use the
+ extended (wide-character) functions. The curses.h
+ file which is installed for the wide-character
+ library is designed to be compatible with the normal
library's header. Only the size of the WINDOW struc-
- ture differs, and very few applications require more
- than a pointer to WINDOWs. 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
+ ture differs, and very few applications require more
+ than a pointer to WINDOWs. 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-shared
@@ -1114,16 +1125,16 @@
--with-debug
--with-profile
- 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,
+ 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-trace
- The trace function normally resides in the debug
+ The trace function normally resides in the debug
library, but it is sometimes useful to configure this
- in the shared library. Configure scripts should
+ in the shared library. Configure scripts should
check for the function's existence rather than assum-
ing it is always in the debug library.
@@ -1131,14 +1142,14 @@
FILES
/usr/share/tabset
- directory containing initialization files for the
+ directory containing initialization files for the
terminal capability database /usr/share/terminfo ter-
minal capability database
SEE ALSO
- terminfo(5) and related pages whose names begin "curs_"
+ terminfo(5) and related pages whose names begin "curs_"
for detailed routine descriptions.
curs_variables(3x)
@@ -1148,52 +1159,61 @@
The ncurses library can be compiled with an option
(-DUSE_GETCAP) that falls back to the old-style /etc/term-
cap 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
+ 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 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 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
+ 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.
+ 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) man-
ual pages for details.
The ncurses library can exploit the capabilities of termi-
- nals which implement the ISO-6429 SGR 39 and SGR 49 con-
+ nals which implement the ISO-6429 SGR 39 and SGR 49 con-
trols, 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 col-
- ored text on a background whose color is set indepen-
- dently, providing better control over color contrasts.
+ its original foreground and background colors. From the
+ users' perspective, the application is able to draw col-
+ ored text on a background whose color is set indepen-
+ dently, providing better control over color contrasts.
See the default_colors(3x) manual page for details.
- The ncurses library includes a function for directing
- application output to a printer attached to the terminal
+ 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.
PORTABILITY
- The ncurses library is intended to be BASE-level confor-
+ The ncurses library is intended to be BASE-level confor-
mant with XSI Curses. The EXTENDED XSI Curses functional-
ity (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 sections of the library man
+ 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.
+ 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 applica-
+ tion which of several possible errors were detected.
+ Relying on this (or some other) extension will adversely
+ affect the portability of curses applications.
+
This implementation also contains several extensions:
o The routine has_key is not part of XPG4, nor is it