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41 <H1 class="no-header">curs_termcap 3x</H1>
43 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>
48 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
49 <STRONG>PC</STRONG>, <STRONG>UP</STRONG>, <STRONG>BC</STRONG>, <STRONG>ospeed</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG>, <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> -
50 direct <STRONG>curses</STRONG> interface to the terminfo capability database
53 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
54 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
55 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><term.h></STRONG>
57 <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>PC;</STRONG>
58 <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <STRONG>UP;</STRONG>
59 <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <STRONG>BC;</STRONG>
60 <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <STRONG>ospeed;</STRONG>
62 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetent(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*bp,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*name);</STRONG>
63 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetflag(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id);</STRONG>
64 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetnum(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id);</STRONG>
65 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tgetstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>**area);</STRONG>
66 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tgoto(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*cap,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>col,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>row);</STRONG>
67 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tputs(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>affcnt,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>(*putc)(int));</STRONG>
70 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
71 These routines are included as a conversion aid for programs that use
72 the <EM>termcap</EM> library. Their parameters are the same and the routines
73 are emulated using the <EM>terminfo</EM> database. Thus, they can only be used
74 to query the capabilities of entries for which a terminfo entry has
78 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-INITIALIZATION">INITIALIZATION</a></H3><PRE>
79 The <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> routine loads the entry for <EM>name</EM>. It returns:
83 0 if there is no such entry (or that it is a generic type, having
84 too little information for curses applications to run), and
86 -1 if the terminfo database could not be found.
88 This differs from the <EM>termcap</EM> library in two ways:
90 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The emulation ignores the buffer pointer <EM>bp</EM>. The <EM>termcap</EM> li-
91 brary would store a copy of the terminal description in the area
92 referenced by this pointer. However, ncurses stores its termi-
93 nal descriptions in compiled binary form, which is not the same
96 <STRONG>o</STRONG> There is a difference in return codes. The <EM>termcap</EM> library does
97 not check if the terminal description is marked with the <EM>generic</EM>
98 capability, or if the terminal description has cursor-address-
102 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-CAPABILITY-VALUES">CAPABILITY VALUES</a></H3><PRE>
103 The <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG> routine gets the boolean entry for <EM>id</EM>, or zero if it is
106 The <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> routine gets the numeric entry for <EM>id</EM>, or -1 if it is not
109 The <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> routine returns the string entry for <EM>id</EM>, or zero if it is
110 not available. Use <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> to output the returned string. The <EM>area</EM> pa-
111 rameter is used as follows:
113 <STRONG>o</STRONG> It is assumed to be the address of a pointer to a buffer managed
114 by the calling application.
116 <STRONG>o</STRONG> However, ncurses checks to ensure that <STRONG>area</STRONG> is not NULL, and al-
117 so that the resulting buffer pointer is not NULL. If either
118 check fails, the <EM>area</EM> parameter is ignored.
120 <STRONG>o</STRONG> If the checks succeed, ncurses also copies the return value to
121 the buffer pointed to by <EM>area</EM>, and the <EM>area</EM> value will be updat-
122 ed to point past the null ending this value.
124 <STRONG>o</STRONG> The return value itself is an address in the terminal descrip-
125 tion which is loaded into memory.
127 Only the first two characters of the <STRONG>id</STRONG> parameter of <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG>
128 and <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> are compared in lookups.
131 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-FORMATTING-CAPABILITIES">FORMATTING CAPABILITIES</a></H3><PRE>
132 The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> routine expands the given capability using the parameters.
134 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Because the capability may have padding characters, the output of
135 <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> should be passed to <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> rather than some other output func-
136 tion such as <STRONG>printf</STRONG>.
138 <STRONG>o</STRONG> While <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> is assumed to be used for the two-parameter cursor po-
139 sitioning capability, termcap applications also use it for single-
140 parameter capabilities.
142 Doing this shows a quirk in <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG>: most hardware terminals use cur-
143 sor addressing with <EM>row</EM> first, but the original developers of the
144 termcap interface chose to put the <EM>column</EM> parameter first. The
145 <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> function swaps the order of parameters. It does this also
146 for calls requiring only a single parameter. In that case, the
147 first parameter is merely a placeholder.
149 <STRONG>o</STRONG> Normally the ncurses library is compiled with terminfo support. In
150 that case, <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> uses <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">tparm(3x)</A></STRONG> (a more capable formatter).
152 The <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> routine is described on the <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG> manual page.
153 It can retrieve capabilities by either termcap or terminfo name.
156 </PRE><H3><a name="h3-GLOBAL-VARIABLES">GLOBAL VARIABLES</a></H3><PRE>
157 The variables <STRONG>PC</STRONG>, <STRONG>UP</STRONG> and <STRONG>BC</STRONG> are set by <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> to the terminfo entry's
158 data for <STRONG>pad_char</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_up</STRONG> and <STRONG>backspace_if_not_bs</STRONG>, respectively. <STRONG>UP</STRONG>
159 is not used by ncurses. <STRONG>PC</STRONG> is used in the <STRONG>tdelay_output</STRONG> function. <STRONG>BC</STRONG>
160 is used in the <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> emulation. The variable <STRONG>ospeed</STRONG> is set by ncurses
161 in a system-specific coding to reflect the terminal speed.
164 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></H2><PRE>
165 Except where explicitly noted, routines that return an integer return
166 <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4 only specifies "an integer value other
167 than <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>") upon successful completion.
169 Routines that return pointers return <STRONG>NULL</STRONG> on error.
172 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-BUGS">BUGS</a></H2><PRE>
173 If you call <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> to fetch <STRONG>ca</STRONG> or any other parameterized string, be
174 aware that it will be returned in terminfo notation, not the older and
175 not-quite-compatible termcap notation. This will not cause problems if
176 all you do with it is call <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> or <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>, which both expand terminfo-
177 style strings as terminfo. (The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> function, if configured to sup-
178 port termcap, will check if the string is indeed terminfo-style by
179 looking for "%p" parameters or "$<..>" delays, and invoke a termcap-
180 style parser if the string does not appear to be terminfo).
182 Because terminfo conventions for representing padding in string capa-
183 bilities differ from termcap's, <STRONG>tputs("50");</STRONG> will put out a literal
184 "50" rather than busy-waiting for 50 milliseconds. Cope with it.
186 Note that termcap has nothing analogous to terminfo's <STRONG>sgr</STRONG> string. One
187 consequence of this is that termcap applications assume me (terminfo
188 <STRONG>sgr0</STRONG>) does not reset the alternate character set. This implementation
189 checks for, and modifies the data shown to the termcap interface to ac-
190 commodate termcap's limitation in this respect.
193 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
194 The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions. However,
195 they are marked TO BE WITHDRAWN and may be removed in future versions.
197 Neither the XSI Curses standard nor the SVr4 man pages documented the
198 return values of <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> correctly, though all three were in fact re-
199 turned ever since SVr1. In particular, an omission in the XSI Curses
200 documentation has been misinterpreted to mean that <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> returns <STRONG>OK</STRONG>
201 or <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>. Because the purpose of these functions is to provide compati-
202 bility with the <EM>termcap</EM> library, that is a defect in XCurses, Issue 4,
203 Version 2 rather than in ncurses.
205 External variables are provided for support of certain termcap applica-
206 tions. However, termcap applications' use of those variables is poorly
207 documented, e.g., not distinguishing between input and output. In par-
208 ticular, some applications are reported to declare and/or modify <STRONG>os-</STRONG>
209 <STRONG>peed</STRONG>.
211 The comment that only the first two characters of the <STRONG>id</STRONG> parameter are
212 used escapes many application developers. The original BSD 4.2 termcap
213 library (and historical relics thereof) did not require a trailing null
214 NUL on the parameter name passed to <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> and <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG>.
215 Some applications assume that the termcap interface does not require
216 the trailing NUL for the parameter name. Taking into account these is-
219 <STRONG>o</STRONG> As a special case, <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG> matched against a single-character
220 identifier provided that was at the end of the terminal descrip-
221 tion. You should not rely upon this behavior in portable programs.
222 This implementation disallows matches against single-character ca-
225 <STRONG>o</STRONG> This implementation disallows matches by the termcap interface
226 against extended capability names which are longer than two charac-
230 </PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
231 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="term_variables.3x.html">term_variables(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG>putc(3)</STRONG>.
233 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
237 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>
241 <li><a href="#h2-NAME">NAME</a></li>
242 <li><a href="#h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
243 <li><a href="#h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a>
245 <li><a href="#h3-INITIALIZATION">INITIALIZATION</a></li>
246 <li><a href="#h3-CAPABILITY-VALUES">CAPABILITY VALUES</a></li>
247 <li><a href="#h3-FORMATTING-CAPABILITIES">FORMATTING CAPABILITIES</a></li>
248 <li><a href="#h3-GLOBAL-VARIABLES">GLOBAL VARIABLES</a></li>
251 <li><a href="#h2-RETURN-VALUE">RETURN VALUE</a></li>
252 <li><a href="#h2-BUGS">BUGS</a></li>
253 <li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></li>
254 <li><a href="#h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>