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<H1 class="no-header">curs_terminfo 3x</H1>
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>pair</EM> of type <STRONG>short</STRONG> for the color-pair number.
The <STRONG>vid_attr</STRONG> and <STRONG>vid_puts</STRONG> routines are designed to use the attribute
- constants with the <EM>WA</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG> prefix.
+ constants with the <STRONG>WA_</STRONG> prefix.
X/Open Curses reserves the <EM>opts</EM> argument for future use, saying that
applications must provide a null pointer for that argument. As an ex-
While <STRONG>putp</STRONG> and <STRONG>mvcur</STRONG> are low-level functions which do not use the high-
level curses state, they are declared in <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG> because SystemV did
- this (see <STRONG>HISTORY</STRONG>).
+ this (see <EM>HISTORY</EM>).
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Terminal-Capability-Functions">Terminal Capability Functions</a></H3><PRE>
<STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*strnames[]</STRONG>, <STRONG>*strcodes[]</STRONG>, <STRONG>*strfnames[]</STRONG>
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Releasing-Memory">Releasing Memory</a></H3><PRE>
+ Each successful call to <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> allocates memory to hold the terminal
+ description. As a side-effect, it sets <STRONG>cur_term</STRONG> to point to this memo-
+ ry. If an application calls
+
+ <STRONG>del_curterm(cur_term);</STRONG>
+
+ the memory will be freed.
+
+ The formatting functions <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> and <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG> extend the storage allocated
+ by <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> the "static" terminfo variables [a-z]. Before ncurses 6.3, those
+ were shared by all screens. With ncurses 6.3, those are allocated
+ per screen. See <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG> for details.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> to improve performance, ncurses 6.3 caches the result of analyzing
+ terminfo strings for their parameter types. That is stored as a
+ binary tree referenced from the <STRONG>TERMINAL</STRONG> structure.
+
+ The higher-level <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> and <STRONG>newterm</STRONG> functions use <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>. Normally
+ they do not free this memory, but it is possible to do that using the
+ <STRONG><A HREF="curs_initscr.3x.html">delscreen(3x)</A></STRONG> function.
+
+
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
- Routines that return an integer return <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4
- only specifies "an integer value other than <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>") upon successful com-
+ Routines that return an integer return <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4
+ only specifies "an integer value other than <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>") upon successful com-
pletion, unless otherwise noted in the preceding routine descriptions.
Routines that return pointers always return <STRONG>NULL</STRONG> on error.
ditions are documented above.
<STRONG>tputs</STRONG>
- returns an error if the string parameter is null. It does not
- detect I/O errors: X/Open states that <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> ignores the return
+ returns an error if the string parameter is null. It does not
+ detect I/O errors: X/Open states that <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> ignores the return
value of the output function <EM>putc</EM>.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Compatibility-macros">Compatibility macros</a></H3><PRE>
- This implementation provides a few macros for compatibility with sys-
- tems before SVr4 (see <STRONG>HISTORY</STRONG>). Those include <STRONG>crmode</STRONG>, <STRONG>fixterm</STRONG>,
+ This implementation provides a few macros for compatibility with sys-
+ tems before SVr4 (see <EM>HISTORY</EM>). Those include <STRONG>crmode</STRONG>, <STRONG>fixterm</STRONG>,
<STRONG>gettmode</STRONG>, <STRONG>nocrmode</STRONG>, <STRONG>resetterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>saveterm</STRONG>, and <STRONG>setterm</STRONG>.
- In SVr4, those are found in <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>, but except for <STRONG>setterm</STRONG>, are
+ In SVr4, those are found in <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>, but except for <STRONG>setterm</STRONG>, are
likewise macros. The one function, <STRONG>setterm</STRONG>, is mentioned in the manual
- page. The manual page notes that the <STRONG>setterm</STRONG> routine was replaced by
+ page. The manual page notes that the <STRONG>setterm</STRONG> routine was replaced by
<STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>, stating that the call:
<STRONG>setupterm(</STRONG><EM>term</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>1,</STRONG> <STRONG>(int</STRONG> <STRONG>*)0)</STRONG>
provides the same functionality as <STRONG>setterm(</STRONG><EM>term</EM><STRONG>)</STRONG>, and is not recommend-
- ed for new programs. This implementation provides each of those sym-
+ ed for new programs. This implementation provides each of those sym-
bols as macros for BSD compatibility,
fixterm restore tty to "in curses" state
gettmode establish current tty modes
mvcur low level cursor motion
- putp utility function that uses <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> to send char-
+ putp utility function that uses <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> to send char-
acters via <STRONG>putchar</STRONG>.
resetterm set tty modes to "out of curses" state
resetty reset tty flags to stored value
tparm instantiate a string expression with parameters
tputs apply padding information to a string
vidattr like <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG>, but outputs through <STRONG>putchar</STRONG>
- vidputs output a string to put terminal in a specified
+ vidputs output a string to put terminal in a specified
video attribute mode
- The programming manual also mentioned functions provided for termcap
+ The programming manual also mentioned functions provided for termcap
compatibility (commenting that they "may go away at a later date"):
<STRONG>Function</STRONG> <STRONG>Description</STRONG>
tputs apply padding to capability, calling
a function to put characters
- Early terminfo programs obtained capability values from the <STRONG>TERMINAL</STRONG>
+ Early terminfo programs obtained capability values from the <STRONG>TERMINAL</STRONG>
structure initialized by <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>.
- SVr3 extended terminfo by adding functions to retrieve capability val-
+ SVr3 extended terminfo by adding functions to retrieve capability val-
ues (like the termcap interface), and reusing tgoto and tputs:
<STRONG>Function</STRONG> <STRONG>Description</STRONG>
-------------------------------------------
tigetflag get boolean entry for given <EM>id</EM>
+
tigetnum get numeric entry for given <EM>id</EM>
tigetstr get string entry for given <EM>id</EM>
- SVr3 also replaced several of the SVr2 terminfo functions which had no
+ SVr3 also replaced several of the SVr2 terminfo functions which had no
counterpart in the termcap interface, documenting them as obsolete:
<STRONG>Function</STRONG> <STRONG>Replaced</STRONG> <STRONG>by</STRONG>
saveterm def_prog_mode
setterm setupterm
- SVr3 kept the <STRONG>mvcur</STRONG>, <STRONG>vidattr</STRONG> and <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG> functions, along with <STRONG>putp</STRONG>,
- <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> and <STRONG>tputs</STRONG>. The latter were needed to support padding, and han-
- dling functions such as <STRONG>vidattr</STRONG> (which used more than the two parame-
+ SVr3 kept the <STRONG>mvcur</STRONG>, <STRONG>vidattr</STRONG> and <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG> functions, along with <STRONG>putp</STRONG>,
+ <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> and <STRONG>tputs</STRONG>. The latter were needed to support padding, and han-
+ dling functions such as <STRONG>vidattr</STRONG> (which used more than the two parame-
ters supported by <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG>).
- SVr3 introduced the functions for switching between terminal descrip-
- tions, e.g., <STRONG>set_curterm</STRONG>. The various global variables such as <STRONG>bool-</STRONG>
- <STRONG>names</STRONG> were mentioned in the programming manual at this point.
+ SVr3 introduced the functions for switching between terminal descrip-
+ tions, e.g., <STRONG>set_curterm</STRONG>. Some of that was incremental improvements to
+ the SVr2 library:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <STRONG>TERMINAL</STRONG> type definition was introduced in SVr3.01, for the
+ <STRONG>term</STRONG> structure provided in SVr2.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The various global variables such as <STRONG>boolnames</STRONG> were mentioned in
+ the programming manual at this point, though the variables were
+ provided in SVr2.
SVr4 added the <STRONG>vid_attr</STRONG> and <STRONG>vid_puts</STRONG> functions.
There are other low-level functions declared in the curses header files
on Unix systems, but none were documented. The functions marked "obso-
- lete" remained in use by the Unix <STRONG>vi</STRONG> editor.
+ lete" remained in use by the Unix <STRONG>vi(1)</STRONG> editor.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
- <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_initscr.3x.html">curs_initscr(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_kernel.3x.html">curs_kernel(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>,
- <STRONG><A HREF="curs_variables.3x.html">curs_variables(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG>putc(3)</STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>
+ <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_initscr.3x.html">curs_initscr(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_kernel.3x.html">curs_kernel(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_memleaks.3x.html">curs_memleaks(3x)</A></STRONG>,
+ <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="curs_variables.3x.html">curs_variables(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG>putc(3)</STRONG>, <STRONG>ter-</STRONG>
+ <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">minfo(5)</A></STRONG>
<li><a href="#h3-Output-Functions">Output Functions</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Terminal-Capability-Functions">Terminal Capability Functions</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Terminal-Capability-Names">Terminal Capability Names</a></li>
+<li><a href="#h3-Releasing-Memory">Releasing Memory</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a>