'\" t
.\"***************************************************************************
-.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2007,2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
+.\" Copyright (c) 1998-2009,2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. *
.\" *
.\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
.\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
.\" authorization. *
.\"***************************************************************************
.\"
-.\" $Id: ncurses.3x,v 1.92 2008/10/25 23:31:45 tom Exp $
+.\" $Id: ncurses.3x,v 1.98 2010/09/18 20:17:20 tom Exp $
.hy 0
.TH ncurses 3X ""
+.de bP
+.IP \(bu 4
+..
.ds n 5
.ds d @TERMINFO@
.SH NAME
-\fBncurses\fR - CRT screen handling and optimization package
+\fBncurses\fR \- CRT screen handling and optimization package
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fB#include <curses.h>\fR
.br
This describes \fBncurses\fR
version @NCURSES_MAJOR@.@NCURSES_MINOR@ (patch @NCURSES_PATCH@).
.PP
-The \fBncurses\fR library emulates the \fBcurses\fR(3X) library of
+The \fBncurses\fR library emulates the curses library of
System V Release 4 UNIX,
and XPG4 (X/Open Portability Guide) curses (also known as XSI curses).
XSI stands for X/Open System Interfaces Extension.
i.e., features which cannot be implemented by a simple add-on library
but which require access to the internals of the library.
.PP
-A program using these routines must be linked with the \fB-lncurses\fR option,
-or (if it has been generated) with the debugging library \fB-lncurses_g\fR.
+A program using these routines must be linked with the \fB\-lncurses\fR option,
+or (if it has been generated) with the debugging library \fB\-lncurses_g\fR.
(Your system integrator may also have installed these libraries under
-the names \fB-lcurses\fR and \fB-lcurses_g\fR.)
+the names \fB\-lcurses\fR and \fB\-lcurses_g\fR.)
The ncurses_g library generates trace logs (in a file called 'trace' in the
current directory) that describe curses actions.
See also the section on \fBALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS\fP.
\fBsetlocale(LC_ALL, "");\fP
.sp
If the locale is not initialized,
-the library assumes that characters are printable as in ISO-8859-1,
+the library assumes that characters are printable as in ISO\-8859\-1,
to work with certain legacy programs.
You should initialize the locale and not rely on specific details of
the library when the locale has not been setup.
.TP 5
ncursesw
the so-called "wide" library, which handles multibyte characters
-(See the section on \fBALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS\fP).
+(see the section on \fBALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS\fP).
The "wide" library includes all of the calls from the "normal" library.
It adds about one third more calls using data types which store
multibyte characters:
corresponds to \fBchtype\fP.
However it is a structure, because more data is stored than can fit into
an integer.
-The characters are large enough to require a full integer value - and there
+The characters are large enough to require a full integer value \- and there
may be more than one character per cell.
The video attributes and color are stored in separate fields of the structure.
.IP
Like \fBchtype\fP, this may be an integer.
.TP 5
.B wint_t
-stores a \fBwchar_t\fP or \fBWEOF\fP - not the same, though both may have
+stores a \fBwchar_t\fP or \fBWEOF\fP \- not the same, though both may have
the same size.
.RE
.IP
(i.e., the \fBcmdch\fP capability)
of the loaded terminfo entries to the value of this symbol.
Very few terminfo entries provide this feature.
+.IP
+Because this name is also used in development environments to represent
+the C compiler's name, \fBncurses\fR ignores it if it does not happen to
+be a single character.
.TP 5
COLUMNS
Specify the width of the screen in characters.
3 = middle.
.sp
This symbol lets you customize the mouse.
-The symbol must be three numeric digits 1-3 in any order, e.g., 123 or 321.
+The symbol must be three numeric digits 1\-3 in any order, e.g., 123 or 321.
If it is not specified, \fBncurses\fR uses 132.
.TP 5
NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS
You may set the foreground and background color values with this environment
variable by proving a 2-element list: foreground,background.
For example, to tell ncurses to not assume anything
-about the colors, set this to "-1,-1".
+about the colors, set this to "\-1,\-1".
To make it green-on-black, set it to "2,0".
Any positive value from zero to the terminfo \fBmax_colors\fR value is allowed.
.TP 5
checks for special cases where VT100 line-drawing (and the corresponding
alternate character set capabilities) described in the terminfo are known
to be missing.
-Specifically, when running in a UTF-8 locale,
+Specifically, when running in a UTF\-8 locale,
the Linux console emulator and the GNU screen program ignore these.
Ncurses checks the TERM environment variable for these.
For other special cases, you should set this environment variable.
.IP
When setting this variable, you should set it to a nonzero value.
Setting it to zero (or to a nonnumber)
-disables the special check for Linux and screen.
+disables the special check for "linux" and "screen".
.TP 5
NCURSES_TRACE
During initialization, the \fBncurses\fR debugging library
This is the simplest, but not the only way to change the list of directories.
The complete list of directories in order follows:
.RS
-.TP 3
--
+.bP
the last directory to which \fBncurses\fR wrote, if any, is searched first
-.TP 3
--
+.bP
the directory specified by the TERMINFO symbol
-.TP 3
--
+.bP
$HOME/.terminfo
-.TP 3
--
+.bP
directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS symbol
-.TP 3
--
+.bP
one or more directories whose names are configured and compiled into the
ncurses library, e.g.,
@TERMINFO@
There are a few main options whose effects are visible to the applications
developer using \fBncurses\fP:
.TP 5
---disable-overwrite
+\-\-disable\-overwrite
The standard include for \fBncurses\fP is as noted in \fBSYNOPSIS\fP:
.RS
.sp
\fB#include <ncurses/curses.h>\fR
.RE
.IP
-It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you to use \fB-lcurses\fP
+It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you to use \fB\-lcurses\fP
to build executables.
.TP 5
---enable-widec
-The configure script renames the library and (if the \fB--disable-overwrite\fP
+\-\-enable\-widec
+The configure script renames the library and (if the \fB\-\-disable\-overwrite\fP
option is used) puts the header files in a different subdirectory.
All of the library names have a "w" appended to them,
i.e., instead of
.RS
.sp
-\fB-lncurses\fR
+\fB\-lncurses\fR
.RE
.IP
you link with
.RS
.sp
-\fB-lncursesw\fR
+\fB\-lncursesw\fR
.RE
.IP
You must also define \fB_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED\fP when compiling for the
to allow applications to be built using either library
from the same set of headers.
.TP 5
---with-shared
+\-\-with\-shared
.TP
---with-normal
+\-\-with\-normal
.TP
---with-debug
+\-\-with\-debug
.TP
---with-profile
+\-\-with\-profile
The shared and normal (static) library names differ by their suffixes,
e.g., \fBlibncurses.so\fP and \fBlibncurses.a\fP.
The debug and profiling libraries add a "_g" and a "_p" to the root
names respectively,
e.g., \fBlibncurses_g.a\fP and \fBlibncurses_p.a\fP.
.TP 5
---with-trace
+\-\-with\-trace
The \fBtrace\fP function normally resides in the debug library,
but it is sometimes useful to configure this in the shared library.
Configure scripts should check for the function's existence rather
\fBterminfo\fR(\*n) and related pages whose names begin "curs_" for detailed routine
descriptions.
.SH EXTENSIONS
-The \fBncurses\fR library can be compiled with an option (\fB-DUSE_GETCAP\fR)
+The \fBncurses\fR library can be compiled with an option (\fB\-DUSE_GETCAP\fR)
that falls back to the old-style /etc/termcap file if the terminal setup code
cannot find a terminfo entry corresponding to \fBTERM\fR.
Use of this feature
and \fBkeyok\fR(3X) manual pages for details.
.PP
The \fBncurses\fR library can exploit the capabilities of terminals which
-implement the ISO-6429 SGR 39 and SGR 49 controls, which allow an application
+implement the ISO\-6429 SGR 39 and SGR 49 controls, which allow an application
to reset the terminal to its original foreground and background colors.
From the users' perspective, the application is able to draw colored
text on a background whose color is set independently, providing better
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