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- * @Id: curs_terminfo.3x,v 1.82 2022/06/04 22:47:05 tom Exp @
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-<H1 class="no-header">curs_terminfo 3x</H1>
+<H1 class="no-header">curs_terminfo 3x 2023-08-05 ncurses 6.4 Library calls</H1>
<PRE>
-<STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG>
<STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG>
+<STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG>
Library calls <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-NAME">NAME</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>del_curterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>mvcur</STRONG>, <STRONG>putp</STRONG>, <STRONG>restartterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>set_curterm</STRONG>, <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>,
- <STRONG>tigetflag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tigetnum</STRONG>, <STRONG>tigetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG>, <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>, <STRONG>tputs</STRONG>, <STRONG>vid_attr</STRONG>,
- <STRONG>vid_puts</STRONG>, <STRONG>vidattr</STRONG>, <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG> - <STRONG>curses</STRONG> interfaces to terminfo database
+ <STRONG>tigetflag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tigetnum</STRONG>, <STRONG>tigetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG>, <STRONG>tiparm_s</STRONG>, <STRONG>tiscan_s</STRONG>, <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>,
+ <STRONG>tputs</STRONG>, <STRONG>vid_attr</STRONG>, <STRONG>vid_puts</STRONG>, <STRONG>vidattr</STRONG>, <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG> - <STRONG>curses</STRONG> interfaces to
+ terminfo database
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></H2><PRE>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>restartterm(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>term</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>filedes</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>errret</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
<STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tparm(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>...);</STRONG>
+ <EM>or</EM>
+ <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tparm(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>long</STRONG> <EM>p1</EM> <EM>...</EM> <STRONG>long</STRONG> <EM>p9</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
+
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tputs(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>affcnt</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>(*</STRONG><EM>putc</EM><STRONG>)(int));</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>putp(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
<STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tiparm(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>...);</STRONG>
+ /* extensions */
+ <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tiparm_s(int</STRONG> <EM>expected</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <EM>mask</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>...);</STRONG>
+ <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tiscan_s(int</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>expected</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>mask</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>);</STRONG>
+
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></H2><PRE>
- These low-level routines must be called by programs that have to deal
+ These low-level routines must be called by programs that have to deal
directly with the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database to handle certain terminal capabil-
ities, such as programming function keys. For all other functionality,
<STRONG>curses</STRONG> routines are more suitable and their use is recommended.
- None of these functions use (or are aware of) multibyte character
+ None of these functions use (or are aware of) multibyte character
strings such as UTF-8:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> capability names use the POSIX portable character set
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> capability string values have no associated encoding; they are
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> capability string values have no associated encoding; they are
strings of 8-bit characters.
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Initialization">Initialization</a></H3><PRE>
Initially, <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> should be called. The high-level curses functions
- <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> and <STRONG>newterm</STRONG> call <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> to initialize the low-level set of
+ <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> and <STRONG>newterm</STRONG> call <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> to initialize the low-level set of
terminal-dependent variables [listed in <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>].
- Applications can use the terminal capabilities either directly (via
- header definitions), or by special functions. The header files <STRONG>curs-</STRONG>
- <STRONG>es.h</STRONG> and <STRONG>term.h</STRONG> should be included (in this order) to get the defini-
+ Applications can use the terminal capabilities either directly (via
+ header definitions), or by special functions. The header files <STRONG>curs-</STRONG>
+ <STRONG>es.h</STRONG> and <STRONG>term.h</STRONG> should be included (in this order) to get the defini-
tions for these strings, numbers, and flags.
- The <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> variables <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>columns</STRONG> are initialized by <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>
+ The <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> variables <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>columns</STRONG> are initialized by <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>
as follows:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> If <STRONG>use_env(FALSE)</STRONG> has been called, values for <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>columns</STRONG>
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> If <STRONG>use_env(FALSE)</STRONG> has been called, values for <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>columns</STRONG>
specified in <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> are used.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> Otherwise, if the environment variables <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> and <STRONG>COLUMNS</STRONG> exist,
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Otherwise, if the environment variables <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> and <STRONG>COLUMNS</STRONG> exist,
their values are used. If these environment variables do not exist
- and the program is running in a window, the current window size is
- used. Otherwise, if the environment variables do not exist, the
+ and the program is running in a window, the current window size is
+ used. Otherwise, if the environment variables do not exist, the
values for <STRONG>lines</STRONG> and <STRONG>columns</STRONG> specified in the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database are
used.
- Parameterized strings should be passed through <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> to instantiate
- them. All <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> strings (including the output of <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>) should be
- printed with <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> or <STRONG>putp</STRONG>. Call <STRONG>reset_shell_mode</STRONG> to restore the tty
+ Parameterized strings should be passed through <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> to instantiate
+ them. All <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> strings (including the output of <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>) should be
+ printed with <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> or <STRONG>putp</STRONG>. Call <STRONG>reset_shell_mode</STRONG> to restore the tty
modes before exiting [see <STRONG><A HREF="curs_kernel.3x.html">curs_kernel(3x)</A></STRONG>].
Programs which use cursor addressing should
Programs which execute shell subprocesses should
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> call <STRONG>reset_shell_mode</STRONG> and output <STRONG>exit_ca_mode</STRONG> before the shell is
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> call <STRONG>reset_shell_mode</STRONG> and output <STRONG>exit_ca_mode</STRONG> before the shell is
called and
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> output <STRONG>enter_ca_mode</STRONG> and call <STRONG>reset_prog_mode</STRONG> after returning from
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> output <STRONG>enter_ca_mode</STRONG> and call <STRONG>reset_prog_mode</STRONG> after returning from
the shell.
- The <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> routine reads in the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database, initializing the
- <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> structures, but does not set up the output virtualization
+ The <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> routine reads in the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database, initializing the
+ <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> structures, but does not set up the output virtualization
structures used by <STRONG>curses</STRONG>. These are its parameters:
<EM>term</EM> is the terminal type, a character string. If <EM>term</EM> is null, the
environment variable <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> is used.
<EM>filedes</EM>
- is the file descriptor used for all output.
+ is the file descriptor used for getting and setting terminal
+ I/O modes.
+
+ Higher-level applications use <STRONG><A HREF="curs_initscr.3x.html">newterm(3x)</A></STRONG> for initializing the
+ terminal, passing an output <EM>stream</EM> rather than a <EM>descriptor</EM>.
+ In curses, the two are the same because <STRONG>newterm</STRONG> calls <STRONG>se-</STRONG>
+ <STRONG>tupterm</STRONG>, passing the file descriptor derived from its output
+ stream parameter.
<EM>errret</EM>
points to an optional location where an error status can be re-
applications to run.
<STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> determines if the entry is a generic type by
- checking the <STRONG>gn</STRONG> (<STRONG>generic</STRONG>) capability.
+ checking the <STRONG>gn</STRONG> (<STRONG>generic_type</STRONG>) capability.
<STRONG>-1</STRONG> means that the <STRONG>terminfo</STRONG> database could not be found.
fixed-parameter list. Its numeric parameters are integers (int) rather
than longs.
+ Both <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> and <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG> assume that the application passes parameters
+ consistent with the terminal description. Two extensions are provided
+ as alternatives to deal with untrusted data:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>tiparm_s</STRONG> is an extension which is a safer formatting function than
+ <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> or <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG>, because it allows the developer to tell the curses
+ library how many parameters to expect in the parameter list, and
+ which may be string parameters.
+
+ The <EM>mask</EM> parameter has one bit set for each of the parameters (up
+ to 9) which will be passed as char* rather than numbers.
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The extension <STRONG>tiscan_s</STRONG> allows the application to inspect a format-
+ ting capability to see what the curses library would assume.
+
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Output-Functions">Output Functions</a></H3><PRE>
- The <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> routine applies padding information (i.e., by interpreting
- marker embedded in the terminfo capability such as "$<5>" as 5 mil-
+ The <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> routine applies padding information (i.e., by interpreting
+ marker embedded in the terminfo capability such as "$<5>" as 5 mil-
liseconds) to the string <EM>str</EM> and outputs it:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>str</EM> parameter must be a terminfo string variable or the return
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> The <EM>str</EM> parameter must be a terminfo string variable or the return
value from <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>, <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG>, or <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG>.
- The <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> and <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> functions are part of the <EM>termcap</EM> interface,
- which happens to share this function name with the <EM>terminfo</EM> inter-
+ The <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> and <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> functions are part of the <EM>termcap</EM> interface,
+ which happens to share this function name with the <EM>terminfo</EM> inter-
face.
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>affcnt</EM> is the number of lines affected, or 1 if not applicable.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>putc</EM> is a <STRONG>putchar</STRONG>-like routine to which the characters are passed,
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>putc</EM> is a <STRONG>putchar</STRONG>-like routine to which the characters are passed,
one at a time.
- The <STRONG>putp</STRONG> routine calls <STRONG>tputs(</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>1,</STRONG> <STRONG>putchar)</STRONG>. The output of <STRONG>putp</STRONG> al-
+ The <STRONG>putp</STRONG> routine calls <STRONG>tputs(</STRONG><EM>str</EM><STRONG>,</STRONG> <STRONG>1,</STRONG> <STRONG>putchar)</STRONG>. The output of <STRONG>putp</STRONG> al-
ways goes to <STRONG>stdout</STRONG>, rather than the <EM>filedes</EM> specified in <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG>.
- The <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG> routine displays the string on the terminal in the video
+ The <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG> routine displays the string on the terminal in the video
attribute mode <EM>attrs</EM>, which is any combination of the attributes listed
- in <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>. The characters are passed to the <STRONG>putchar</STRONG>-like routine
+ in <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>. The characters are passed to the <STRONG>putchar</STRONG>-like routine
<EM>putc</EM>.
The <STRONG>vidattr</STRONG> routine is like the <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG> routine, except that it outputs
through <STRONG>putchar</STRONG>.
- The <STRONG>vid_attr</STRONG> and <STRONG>vid_puts</STRONG> routines correspond to vidattr and vidputs,
- respectively. They use a set of arguments for representing the video
+ The <STRONG>vid_attr</STRONG> and <STRONG>vid_puts</STRONG> routines correspond to vidattr and vidputs,
+ respectively. They use a set of arguments for representing the video
attributes plus color, i.e.,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <EM>attrs</EM> of type <STRONG>attr_t</STRONG> for the attributes and
<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
+ The <STRONG>vid_attr</STRONG> and <STRONG>vid_puts</STRONG> routines are designed to use the attribute
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-
- tension, this implementation allows <EM>opts</EM> to be used as a pointer to
+ 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-
+ tension, this implementation allows <EM>opts</EM> to be used as a pointer to
<STRONG>int</STRONG>, which overrides the <EM>pair</EM> (<STRONG>short</STRONG>) argument.
- The <STRONG>mvcur</STRONG> routine provides low-level cursor motion. It takes effect
- immediately (rather than at the next refresh).
+ The <STRONG>mvcur</STRONG> routine provides low-level cursor motion. It takes effect
+ immediately (rather than at the next refresh). Unlike the other low-
+ level output functions, which either write to the standard output or
+ pass an output function parameter, <STRONG>mvcur</STRONG> uses an output file descriptor
+ derived from the output stream parameter of <STRONG><A HREF="curs_initscr.3x.html">newterm(3x)</A></STRONG>.
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
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>
+ <STRONG>del_curterm(cur_term);</STRONG>
the memory will be freed.
the initial windows (stdscr, curscr, newscr). Other error con-
ditions are documented above.
+ <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>
+ returns a null if the capability would require unexpected pa-
+ rameters, e.g., too many, too few, or incorrect types (strings
+ where integers are expected, or vice versa).
+
<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
<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>
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a></H2><PRE>
+</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Extensions">Extensions</a></H3><PRE>
+ The functions marked as extensions were designed for <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">ncurses(3x)</A></STRONG>, and
+ are not found in SVr4 curses, 4.4BSD curses, or any other previous ver-
+ sion of curses.
+
+
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Legacy-functions">Legacy functions</a></H3><PRE>
X/Open notes that <STRONG>vidattr</STRONG> and <STRONG>vidputs</STRONG> may be macros.
In response to review comments by Thomas E. Dickey, X/Open Curses
Issue 7 proposed the <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG> function in mid-2009.
+ While <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG> is always provided in ncurses, the older form is only
+ available as a build-time configuration option. If not specially
+ configured, <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> is the same as <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG>.
+
+ Both forms of <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> have drawbacks:
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Most of the calls to <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> use only one or two parameters. Passing
+ nine on each call is awkward.
+
+ Using <STRONG>long</STRONG> for the numeric parameter type is a workaround to make
+ the parameter use the same amount of stack as a pointer. That ap-
+ proach dates back to the mid-1980s, before C was standardized.
+ Since then, there is a standard (and pointers are not required to
+ fit in a long).
+
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Providing the right number of parameters for a variadic function
+ such as <STRONG>tiparm</STRONG> can be a problem, in particular for string parame-
+ ters. However, only a few terminfo capabilities use string parame-
+ ters (e.g., the ones used for programmable function keys).
+
+ The ncurses library checks usage of these capabilities, and returns
+ an error if the capability mishandles string parameters. But it
+ cannot check if a calling program provides strings in the right
+ places for the <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> calls.
+
+ The <STRONG><A HREF="tput.1.html">tput(1)</A></STRONG> program checks its use of these capabilities with a ta-
+ ble, so that it calls <STRONG>tparm</STRONG> correctly.
+
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-Special-TERM-treatment">Special TERM treatment</a></H3><PRE>
If configured to use the terminal-driver, e.g., for the MinGW port,
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> interprets a missing/empty TERM variable as the special
value "unknown".
+ SVr4 curses uses the special value "dumb".
+
+ The difference between the two is that the former uses the <STRONG>gn</STRONG>
+ (<STRONG>generic_type</STRONG>) terminfo capability, while the latter does not. A
+ generic terminal is unsuitable for full-screen applications.
+
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG>setupterm</STRONG> allows explicit use of the the windows console driver by
checking if $TERM is set to "#win32con" or an abbreviation of that
string.
-
<STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG>
+
ncurses 6.4 2023-08-05 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
<div class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-PORTABILITY">PORTABILITY</a>
<ul>
+<li><a href="#h3-Extensions">Extensions</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Legacy-functions">Legacy functions</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Legacy-data">Legacy data</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-Output-buffering">Output buffering</a></li>
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