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30 * @Id: curs_trace.3x,v 1.41 2023/12/16 20:50:14 tom Exp @
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42 <H1 class="no-header">curs_trace 3x 2023-12-16 ncurses 6.4 Library calls</H1>
44 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_trace.3x.html">curs_trace(3x)</A></STRONG> Library calls <STRONG><A HREF="curs_trace.3x.html">curs_trace(3x)</A></STRONG>
49 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
50 <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>, <STRONG>trace</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracef</STRONG>, <STRONG>_traceattr</STRONG>, <STRONG>_traceattr2</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracecchar_t</STRONG>,
51 <STRONG>_tracecchar_t2</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracechar</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracechtype</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracechtype2</STRONG>, <STRONG>_nc_tracebits</STRONG>,
52 <STRONG>_tracedump</STRONG>, <STRONG>_tracemouse</STRONG> - <EM>curses</EM> debugging routines
55 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
56 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
58 <STRONG>unsigned</STRONG> <STRONG>curses_trace(const</STRONG> <STRONG>unsigned</STRONG> <EM>param</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
60 <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>_tracef(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>format</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>...);</STRONG>
62 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_traceattr(attr_t</STRONG> <EM>attr</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
63 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_traceattr2(int</STRONG> <EM>buffer</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>chtype</STRONG> <EM>ch</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
64 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracecchar_t(const</STRONG> <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>string</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
65 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracecchar_t2(int</STRONG> <EM>buffer</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>string</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
66 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracechar(int</STRONG> <EM>ch</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
67 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracechtype(chtype</STRONG> <EM>ch</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
68 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracechtype2(int</STRONG> <EM>buffer</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>chtype</STRONG> <EM>ch</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
70 <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>_tracedump(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>label</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>WINDOW</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>win</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
71 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_nc_tracebits(void);</STRONG>
72 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*_tracemouse(const</STRONG> <STRONG>MEVENT</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>event</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
74 <EM>/*</EM> <EM>deprecated</EM> <EM>*/</EM>
75 <STRONG>void</STRONG> <STRONG>trace(const</STRONG> <STRONG>unsigned</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>param</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
78 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
79 The <EM>curses</EM> <EM>trace</EM> routines are used for debugging the <EM>ncurses</EM> libraries,
80 as well as applications which use the <EM>ncurses</EM> libraries. Some
83 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Aside from <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>, the other functions are normally available
84 only with the debugging library e.g., <STRONG>libncurses_g.a</STRONG>.
86 All of the trace functions may be compiled into any model (shared,
87 static, profile) by defining the symbol <STRONG>TRACE</STRONG>.
89 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Additionally, the functions which use <STRONG>cchar_t</STRONG> are only available
90 with the wide-character configuration of the libraries.
93 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Functions">Functions</a></H3><PRE>
94 The principal parts of this interface are
96 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>, which selectively enables different tracing features,
99 <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>_tracef</STRONG>, which writes formatted data to the <EM>trace</EM> file.
101 The other functions either return a pointer to a string-area
102 (allocated by the corresponding function), or return no value (such
103 as <STRONG>_tracedump</STRONG>, which implements the screen dump for <STRONG>TRACE_UPDATE</STRONG>).
104 The caller should not free these strings, since the allocation is
105 reused on successive calls. To work around the problem of a single
106 string-area per function, some use a buffer-number parameter,
107 telling the library to allocate additional string-areas.
109 The <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> function is always available, whether or not the other
110 trace functions are available:
112 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If tracing is available, calling <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> with a nonzero
113 parameter updates the trace mask, and returns the previous trace
116 When the trace mask is nonzero, <EM>ncurses</EM> creates the file "trace" in
117 the current directory for output. If the file already exists, no
120 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If tracing is not available, <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> returns zero (0).
123 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Trace-Parameter">Trace Parameter</a></H3><PRE>
124 The trace parameter is formed by OR'ing values from the list of
125 <STRONG>TRACE_</STRONG><EM>xxx</EM> definitions in <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>. These include:
127 <STRONG>TRACE_DISABLE</STRONG>
128 turn off tracing by passing a zero parameter.
130 The library flushes the output file, but retains an open file-
131 descriptor to the trace file so that it can resume tracing later
132 if a nonzero parameter is passed to the <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> function.
134 <STRONG>TRACE_TIMES</STRONG>
135 trace user and system times of updates.
137 <STRONG>TRACE_TPUTS</STRONG>
138 trace <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tputs(3x)</A></STRONG> calls.
140 <STRONG>TRACE_UPDATE</STRONG>
141 trace update actions, old & new screens.
143 <STRONG>TRACE_MOVE</STRONG>
144 trace cursor movement and scrolling.
146 <STRONG>TRACE_CHARPUT</STRONG>
147 trace all character outputs.
149 <STRONG>TRACE_ORDINARY</STRONG>
150 trace all update actions. The old and new screen contents are
151 written to the trace file for each refresh.
153 <STRONG>TRACE_CALLS</STRONG>
154 trace all curses calls. The parameters for each call are traced,
155 as well as return values.
157 <STRONG>TRACE_VIRTPUT</STRONG>
158 trace virtual character puts, i.e., calls to <STRONG>addch</STRONG>.
160 <STRONG>TRACE_IEVENT</STRONG>
161 trace low-level input processing, including timeouts.
163 <STRONG>TRACE_BITS</STRONG>
164 trace state of TTY control bits.
166 <STRONG>TRACE_ICALLS</STRONG>
167 trace internal/nested calls.
169 <STRONG>TRACE_CCALLS</STRONG>
170 trace per-character calls.
172 <STRONG>TRACE_DATABASE</STRONG>
173 trace read/write of terminfo/termcap data.
175 <STRONG>TRACE_ATTRS</STRONG>
176 trace changes to video attributes and colors.
178 <STRONG>TRACE_MAXIMUM</STRONG>
179 maximum trace level, enables all of the separate trace features.
181 Some tracing features are enabled whenever the <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> parameter
182 is nonzero. Some features overlap. The specific names are used as a
186 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Initialization">Initialization</a></H3><PRE>
187 These functions check the <EM>NCURSES</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>TRACE</EM> environment variable, to set
188 the tracing feature as if <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG> was called:
190 filter, initscr, new_prescr, newterm, nofilter, restartterm,
191 ripoffline, setupterm, slk_init, tgetent, use_env,
192 use_extended_names, use_tioctl
195 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-Command-line-Utilities">Command-line Utilities</a></H3><PRE>
196 The command-line utilities such as <STRONG><A HREF="tic.1m.html">tic(1)</A></STRONG> provide a verbose option
197 which extends the set of messages written using the <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>
198 function. Both of these (<STRONG>-v</STRONG> and <STRONG>curses_trace</STRONG>) use the same variable
199 (<STRONG>_nc_tracing</STRONG>), which determines the messages which are written.
201 Because the command-line utilities may call initialization functions
202 such as <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> or <STRONG>use_extended_names</STRONG>, some of their
203 debugging output may be directed to the <EM>trace</EM> file if the <EM>NCURSES</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>TRACE</EM>
204 environment variable is set:
206 <STRONG>o</STRONG> messages produced in the utility are written to the standard error.
208 <STRONG>o</STRONG> messages produced by the underlying library are written to <EM>trace</EM>.
210 If <EM>ncurses</EM> is built without tracing, none of the latter are produced,
211 and fewer diagnostics are provided by the command-line utilities.
214 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
215 Routines which return a value are designed to be used as parameters to
216 the <STRONG>_tracef</STRONG> routine.
219 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
220 These functions are not part of the XSI interface. Some other curses
221 implementations are known to have similar features, but they are not
222 compatible with <EM>ncurses</EM>:
224 <STRONG>o</STRONG> SVr4 provided <STRONG>traceon</STRONG> and <STRONG>traceoff</STRONG>, to control whether debugging
225 information was written to the "trace" file. While the functions
226 were always available, this feature was only enabled if <STRONG>DEBUG</STRONG> was
227 defined when building the library.
229 The SVr4 tracing feature is undocumented.
231 <STRONG>o</STRONG> PDCurses provides <STRONG>traceon</STRONG> and <STRONG>traceoff</STRONG>, which (like SVr4) are
232 always available, and enable tracing to the "trace" file only when
233 a debug-library is built.
235 PDCurses has a short description of these functions, with a note
236 that they are not present in X/Open Curses, <EM>ncurses</EM> or NetBSD. It
237 does not mention SVr4, but the functions' inclusion in a header
238 file section labeled "Quasi-standard" hints at the origin.
240 <STRONG>o</STRONG> NetBSD does not provide functions for enabling/disabling traces.
241 It uses environment variables <EM>CURSES</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>TRACE</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>MASK</EM> and
242 <EM>CURSES</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>TRACE</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>FILE</EM> to determine what is traced, and where the
243 results are written. This is available only when a debug-library
246 The NetBSD tracing feature is undocumented.
248 A few <EM>ncurses</EM> functions are not provided when symbol versioning is
251 _nc_tracebits, _tracedump, _tracemouse
253 The original <STRONG>trace</STRONG> routine was deprecated because it often conflicted
254 with application names.
257 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
258 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>
262 ncurses 6.4 2023-12-16 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_trace.3x.html">curs_trace(3x)</A></STRONG>
266 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
267 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
268 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
270 <li><a href="#h3-Functions">Functions</a></li>
271 <li><a href="#h3-Trace-Parameter">Trace Parameter</a></li>
272 <li><a href="#h3-Initialization">Initialization</a></li>
273 <li><a href="#h3-Command-line-Utilities">Command-line Utilities</a></li>
276 <li><a href="#h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></li>
277 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
278 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>