- These functions are used to simplify analysis of memory leaks in the
- ncurses library. They are normally not available; they must be config-
- ured into the library at build time using the --disable-leaks option.
- That compiles-in code that frees memory that normally would not be
- freed.
+ These functions are used to simplify analysis of memory leaks in the
+ ncurses library.
Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with a
- screen, since (even after calling endwin), it must be available for use
- in the next call to refresh(3x). There are also chunks of memory held
- for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze curses applica-
- tions for memory leaks. When using the specially configured debugging
- version of the ncurses library, applications can call functions which
- free those chunks of memory, simplifying the process of memory-leak
- checking.
-
- These functions are named with a "_nc_" prefix because they are not in-
- tended for use in the non-debugging library:
-
- _nc_freeall
+ screen, since (even after calling endwin(3X)), it must be available for
+ use in the next call to refresh(3X). There are also chunks of memory
+ held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze curses ap-
+ plications for memory leaks. When using the specially configured de-
+ bugging version of the ncurses library, applications can call functions
+ which free those chunks of memory, simplifying the process of memory-
+ leak checking.
+
+ Some of the functions are named with a "_nc_" prefix because they are
+ not intended for use in the non-debugging library:
+
+ _nc_freeall
This frees (almost) all of the memory allocated by ncurses.
- _nc_free_and_exit
- This frees the memory allocated by ncurses (like _nc_freeall), and
- exits the program. It is preferred over _nc_freeall since some of
+ _nc_free_and_exit
+ This frees the memory allocated by ncurses (like _nc_freeall), and
+ exits the program. It is preferred over _nc_freeall since some of
that memory may be required to keep the application running. Sim-
ply exiting (with the given exit-code) is safer.
- _nc_free_tinfo
+ _nc_free_tinfo
Use this function if only the low-level terminfo functions (and
- corresponding library) are used. Like _nc_free_and_exit, it exits
+ corresponding library) are used. Like _nc_free_and_exit, it exits
the program after freeing memory.
+ The functions prefixed "_nc" are normally not available; they must be
+ configured into the library at build time using the --disable-leaks op-
+ tion. That compiles-in code that frees memory that normally would not
+ be freed.
+
+ The exit_curses and exit_terminfo functions call _nc_free_and_exit and
+ _nc_free_tinfo if the library is configured to support memory-leak
+ checking. If the library is not configured to support memory-leak
+ checking, they simply call exit.
+