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29 * @Id: curs_getstr.3x,v 1.26 2018/09/01 20:34:52 tom Exp @
30 * X/Open says also until EOf
31 * X/Open says then an EOS is added to the result
32 * X/Open doesn't mention n<0
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44 <H1 class="no-header">curs_getstr 3x</H1>
46 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getstr.3x.html">curs_getstr(3x)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getstr.3x.html">curs_getstr(3x)</A></STRONG>
51 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
52 <STRONG>getstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>getnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>wgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvgetnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvwgetstr</STRONG>,
53 <STRONG>mvwgetnstr</STRONG> - accept character strings from <STRONG>curses</STRONG> terminal keyboard
56 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
57 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
59 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>getstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str);</STRONG>
60 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>getnstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>n);</STRONG>
61 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wgetstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*win,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str);</STRONG>
62 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>wgetnstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*win,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>n);</STRONG>
63 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvgetstr(int</STRONG> <STRONG>y,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>x,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str);</STRONG>
64 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvwgetstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*win,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>y,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>x,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str);</STRONG>
65 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvgetnstr(int</STRONG> <STRONG>y,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>x,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>n);</STRONG>
66 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>mvwgetnstr(WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>y,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>x,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>n);</STRONG>
69 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
70 The function <STRONG>getstr</STRONG> is equivalent to a series of calls to <STRONG>getch</STRONG>, until
71 a newline or carriage return is received (the terminating character is
72 not included in the returned string). The resulting value is placed in
73 the area pointed to by the character pointer <EM>str</EM>, followed by a NUL.
75 <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> reads at most <EM>n</EM> characters, thus preventing a possible over-
76 flow of the input buffer. Any attempt to enter more characters (other
77 than the terminating newline or carriage return) causes a beep. Func-
78 tion keys also cause a beep and are ignored. The <STRONG>getnstr</STRONG> function
79 reads from the <EM>stdscr</EM> default window.
81 The user's erase and kill characters are interpreted. If keypad mode
82 is on for the window, <STRONG>KEY_LEFT</STRONG> and <STRONG>KEY_BACKSPACE</STRONG> are both considered
83 equivalent to the user's kill character.
85 Characters input are echoed only if <STRONG>echo</STRONG> is currently on. In that
86 case, backspace is echoed as deletion of the previous character (typi-
90 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
91 All routines return the integer <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and an <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4 speci-
92 fies only "an integer value other than <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>") upon successful comple-
95 X/Open defines no error conditions.
97 In this implementation, these functions return an error if the window
98 pointer is null, or if its timeout expires without having any data.
100 This implementation provides an extension as well. If a <STRONG>SIGWINCH</STRONG> in-
101 terrupts the function, it will return <STRONG>KEY_RESIZE</STRONG> rather than <STRONG>OK</STRONG> or <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>.
103 Functions with a "mv" prefix first perform a cursor movement using
104 <STRONG>wmove</STRONG>, and return an error if the position is outside the window, or if
105 the window pointer is null.
108 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></H2><PRE>
109 Note that <STRONG>getstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvgetstr</STRONG>, and <STRONG>mvwgetstr</STRONG> may be macros.
112 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
113 These functions are described in the XSI Curses standard, Issue 4.
114 They read single-byte characters only. The standard does not define
115 any error conditions. This implementation returns <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> if the window
116 pointer is null, or if the lower-level <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getch.3x.html">wgetch(3x)</A></STRONG> call returns an <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>.
118 SVr3 and early SVr4 curses implementations did not reject function
119 keys; the SVr4.0 documentation claimed that "special keys" (such as
120 function keys, "home" key, "clear" key, <EM>etc</EM>.) are "interpreted", with-
121 out giving details. It lied. In fact, the "character" value appended
122 to the string by those implementations was predictable but not useful
123 (being, in fact, the low-order eight bits of the key's KEY_ value).
125 The functions <STRONG>getnstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvgetnstr</STRONG>, and <STRONG>mvwgetnstr</STRONG> were present but not
128 X/Open Curses issue 5 (2007) stated that these functions "read at most
129 <EM>n</EM> bytes" but did not state whether the terminating NUL is counted in
130 that limit. X/Open Curses issue 7 (2009) changed that to say they
131 "read at most <EM>n</EM>-1 bytes" to allow for the terminating NUL. As of 2018,
132 some implementations do, some do not count it:
134 <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses 6.1 and PDCurses do not count the NUL in the given limit,
137 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris SVr4 and NetBSD curses count the NUL as part of the limit.
139 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris xcurses provides both: its wide-character <STRONG>wget_nstr</STRONG> re-
140 serves a NUL, but its <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> does not count the NUL consistently.
142 In SVr4 curses, a negative value of <EM>n</EM> tells <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> to assume that the
143 caller's buffer is large enough to hold the result, i.e., to act like
144 <STRONG>wgetstr</STRONG>. X/Open Curses does not mention this (or anything related to
145 negative or zero values of <EM>n</EM>), however most implementations use the
146 feature, with different limits:
148 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris SVr4 curses and PDCurses limit the result to 255 bytes.
149 Other Unix systems than Solaris are likely to use the same limit.
151 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Solaris xcurses limits the result to <STRONG>LINE_MAX</STRONG> bytes.
153 <STRONG>o</STRONG> NetBSD 7 assumes no particular limit for the result from <STRONG>wgetstr</STRONG>.
154 However, it limits the <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> parameter <EM>n</EM> to ensure that it is
157 A comment in NetBSD's source code states that this is specified in
160 <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses (before 6.2) assumes no particular limit for the result
161 from <STRONG>wgetstr</STRONG>, and treats the <EM>n</EM> parameter of <STRONG>wgetnstr</STRONG> like SVr4
164 <STRONG>o</STRONG> ncurses 6.2 uses <STRONG>LINE_MAX</STRONG>, or a larger (system-dependent) value
165 which the <STRONG>sysconf</STRONG> function may provide. If neither <STRONG>LINE_MAX</STRONG> or
166 <STRONG>sysconf</STRONG> is available, ncurses uses the POSIX value for <STRONG>LINE_MAX</STRONG> (a
167 2048 byte limit). In either case, it reserves a byte for the ter-
171 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
172 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getch.3x.html">curs_getch(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_variables.3x.html">curs_variables(3x)</A></STRONG>.
176 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_getstr.3x.html">curs_getstr(3x)</A></STRONG>
180 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
181 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
182 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
183 <li><a href="#h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></li>
184 <li><a href="#h2-NOTES">NOTES</a></li>
185 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
186 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>