These low-level routines must be called by programs that
have to deal directly with the terminfo database to handle
certain terminal capabilities, such as programming func-
tion keys. For all other functionality, curses routines
are more suitable and their use is recommended.
+
+
Initially, setupterm should be called. Note that se-tupterm is automatically called by initscr and newterm.
This defines the set of terminal-dependent variables
- [listed in terminfo(5)]. The terminfo variables lines and
- columns are initialized by setupterm as follows:
-
- If use_env(FALSE) has been called, values for lines
- and columns specified in terminfo are used.
-
- Otherwise, if the environment variables LINES and
- COLUMNS exist, their values are used. If these en-
- vironment 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 values for lines and columns speci-
- fied in the terminfo database are used.
-
- The header files curses.h and term.h should be included
- (in this order) to get the definitions for these strings,
- numbers, and flags. Parameterized strings should be
- passed through tparm to instantiate them. All terminfo
- strings [including the output of tparm] should be printed
- with tputs or putp. Call the reset_shell_mode to restore
- the tty modes before exiting [see curs_kernel(3x)]. Pro-
- grams which use cursor addressing should output en-
- ter_ca_mode upon startup and should output exit_ca_mode
- before exiting. Programs desiring shell escapes should
- call
-
- reset_shell_mode and output exit_ca_mode before the shell
- is called and should output enter_ca_mode and call re-
- set_prog_mode after returning from the shell.
+ [listed in terminfo(5)].
+
+ Each initialization routine provides applications with the
+ terminal capabilities either directly (via header defini-
+ tions), or by special functions. The header files curs-
+ es.h and term.h should be included (in this order) to get
+ the definitions for these strings, numbers, and flags.
+
+ The terminfo variables lines and columns are initialized
+ by setupterm as follows:
+
+ o If use_env(FALSE) has been called, values for lines
+ and columns specified in terminfo are used.
+
+ o Otherwise, if the environment variables LINES and COL-
+ UMNS exist, their values are used. If these environ-
+ ment variables do not exist and the program is running
+ in a window, the current window size is used. Other-
+ wise, if the environment variables do not exist, the
+ values for lines and columns specified in the terminfo
+ database are used.
+
+ Parameterized strings should be passed through tparm to
+ instantiate them. All terminfo strings [including the
+ output of tparm] should be printed with tputs or putp.
+ Call reset_shell_mode to restore the tty modes before ex-
+ iting [see curs_kernel(3x)].
+
+ Programs which use cursor addressing should
+
+ o output enter_ca_mode upon startup and
+
+ o output exit_ca_mode before exiting.
+
+ Programs which execute shell subprocesses should
+
+ o call reset_shell_mode and output exit_ca_mode before
+ the shell is called and
+
+ o output enter_ca_mode and call reset_prog_mode after
+ returning from the shell.
The setupterm routine reads in the terminfo database, ini-
tializing the terminfo structures, but does not set up the
@@ -129,54 +145,76 @@
rret. A return value of OK combined with status of 1 in
errret is normal. If ERR is returned, examine errret:
- 1 means that the terminal is hardcopy, cannot be
- used for curses applications.
+ 1 means that the terminal is hardcopy, cannot be used
+ for curses applications.
- 0 means that the terminal could not be found, or
- that it is a generic type, having too little
- information for curses applications to run.
+ setupterm determines if the entry is a hardcopy type
+ by checking the hc (hardcopy) capability.
- -1 means that the terminfo database could not be
- found.
+ 0 means that the terminal could not be found, or that
+ it is a generic type, having too little information
+ for curses applications to run.
- If errret is null, setupterm prints an error message upon
+ setupterm determines if the entry is a generic type
+ by checking the gn (generic) capability.
+
+ -1 means that the terminfo database could not be found.
+
+ If errret is null, setupterm prints an error message upon
finding an error and exits. Thus, the simplest call is:
setupterm((char*)0,1,(int*)0);,
- which uses all the defaults and sends the output to std-
+ which uses all the defaults and sends the output to std-out.
- The setterm routine is being replaced by setupterm. The
- call:
+ The setterm routine was replaced by setupterm. The call:
setupterm(term,1,(int*)0)
provides the same functionality as setterm(term). The
- setterm routine is included here for BSD compatibility,
- and is not recommended for new programs.
-
- The set_curterm routine sets the variable cur_term to
- nterm, and makes all of the terminfo boolean, numeric, and
- string variables use the values from nterm. It returns
- the old value of cur_term.
-
- The del_curterm routine frees the space pointed to by
+ setterm routine is provided for BSD compatibility, and is
+ not recommended for new programs.
+
+
+
+ The setupterm routine stores its information about the
+ terminal in a TERMINAL structure pointed to by the global
+ variable cur_term. If it detects an error, or decides
+ that the terminal is unsuitable (hardcopy or generic), it
+ discards this information, making it not available to ap-
+ plications.
+
+ If setupterm is called repeatedly for the same terminal
+ type, it will reuse the information. It maintains only
+ one copy of a given terminal's capabilities in memory. If
+ it is called for different terminal types, setupterm allo-
+ cates new storage for each set of terminal capabilities.
+
+ The set_curterm routine sets cur_term to nterm, and makes
+ all of the terminfo boolean, numeric, and string variables
+ use the values from nterm. It returns the old value of
+ cur_term.
+
+ The del_curterm routine frees the space pointed to by
oterm and makes it available for further use. If oterm is
- the same as cur_term, references to any of the terminfo
- boolean, numeric, and string variables thereafter may re-
- fer to invalid memory locations until another setupterm
+ the same as cur_term, references to any of the terminfo
+ boolean, numeric, and string variables thereafter may re-
+ fer to invalid memory locations until another setupterm
has been called.
The restartterm routine is similar to setupterm and
- initscr, except that it is called after restoring memory
- to a previous state (for example, when reloading a game
- saved as a core image dump). It assumes that the windows
- and the input and output options are the same as when mem-
- ory was saved, but the terminal type and baud rate may be
- different. Accordingly, it saves various tty state bits,
- calls setupterm, and then restores the bits.
+ initscr, except that it is called after restoring memory
+ to a previous state (for example, when reloading a game
+ saved as a core image dump). restartterm assumes that the
+ windows and the input and output options are the same as
+ when memory was saved, but the terminal type and baud rate
+ may be different. Accordingly, restartterm saves various
+ tty state bits, calls setupterm, and then restores the
+ bits.
+
+
The tparm routine instantiates the string str with parame-
ters pi. A pointer is returned to the result of str with
the parameters applied.
@@ -185,6 +223,8 @@
rather than a fixed-parameter list. Its numeric parame-
ters are integers (int) rather than longs.
+
+
The tputs routine applies padding information to the
string str and outputs it. The str must be a terminfo
string variable or the return value from tparm, tgetstr,
@@ -218,39 +258,52 @@
takes effect immediately (rather than at the next re-
fresh).
+
+
The tigetflag, tigetnum and tigetstr routines return the
value of the capability corresponding to the terminfocap-
- name passed to them, such as xenl.
+ name passed to them, such as xenl. The capname for each
+ capability is given in the table column entitled capname
+ code in the capabilities section of terminfo(5).
+
+ These routines return special values to denote errors.
+
+ The tigetflag routine returns
+
+ -1 if capname is not a boolean capability, or
+
+ 0 if it is canceled or absent from the terminal de-
+ scription.
+
+ The tigetnum routine returns
+
+ -2 if capname is not a numeric capability, or
+
+ -1 if it is canceled or absent from the terminal de-
+ scription.
- The tigetflag routine returns the value -1 if capname is
- not a boolean capability, or 0 if it is canceled or absent
- from the terminal description.
+ The tigetstr routine returns
- The tigetnum routine returns the value -2 if capname is
- not a numeric capability, or -1 if it is canceled or ab-
- sent from the terminal description.
+ (char*)-1
+ if capname is not a string capability, or
- The tigetstr routine returns the value (char*)-1 if cap-
- name is not a string capability, or 0 if it is canceled or
- absent from the terminal description.
+ 0 if it is canceled or absent from the terminal de-
+ scription.
- The capname for each capability is given in the table col-
- umn entitled capname code in the capabilities section of
- terminfo(5).
+
+ These null-terminated arrays contain the short terminfo
+ names ("codes"), the termcap names, and the long terminfo
+ names ("fnames") for each of the predefined terminfo vari-
+ ables:
char*boolnames[], *boolcodes[], *boolfnames[]char*numnames[], *numcodes[], *numfnames[]char*strnames[], *strcodes[], *strfnames[]
- These null-terminated arrays contain the capnames, the
- termcap codes, and the full C names, for each of the ter-
- minfo variables.
-
-
Routines that return an integer return ERR upon failure
and OK (SVr4 only specifies "an integer value other than
ERR") upon successful completion, unless otherwise noted
@@ -261,49 +314,63 @@
X/Open defines no error conditions. In this implementa-
tion
- del_curterm
- returns an error if its terminal parameter is
- null.
-
- putp calls tputs, returning the same error-codes.
+ del_curterm
+ returns an error if its terminal parameter is
+ null.
- restartterm
- returns an error if the associated call to se-
- tupterm returns an error.
+ putp calls tputs, returning the same error-codes.
- setupterm
- returns an error if it cannot allocate enough
- memory, or create the initial windows (stdscr,
- curscr, newscr). Other error conditions are
- documented above.
+ restartterm
+ returns an error if the associated call to se-
+ tupterm returns an error.
- tputs
- returns an error if the string parameter is
- null. It does not detect I/O errors: X/Open
- states that tputs ignores the return value of
- the output function putc.
+ setupterm
+ returns an error if it cannot allocate enough
+ memory, or create the initial windows (stdscr,
+ curscr, newscr). Other error conditions are
+ documented above.
+ tputs
+ returns an error if the string parameter is
+ null. It does not detect I/O errors: X/Open
+ states that tputs ignores the return value of
+ the output function putc.
-
-
NOTES
- The setupterm routine should be used in place of setterm.
- It may be useful when you want to test for terminal capa-
- bilities without committing to the allocation of storage
- involved in initscr.
-
- Note that vidattr and vidputs may be macros.
+
+ X/Open notes that vidattr and vidputs may be macros.
-
-
PORTABILITY
- The function setterm is not described by X/Open and must
- be considered non-portable. All other functions are as
+ The function setterm is not described by X/Open and must
+ be considered non-portable. All other functions are as
described by X/Open.
- setupterm copies the terminal name to the array ttytype.
- This is not part of X/Open Curses, but is assumed by some
+ setupterm copies the terminal name to the array ttytype.
+ This is not part of X/Open Curses, but is assumed by some
applications.
+ If configured to use the terminal-driver, e.g., for the
+ MinGW port,
+
+ osetupterm interprets a missing/empty TERM variable as
+ the special value "unknown".
+
+ osetupterm allows explicit use of the the windows con-
+ sole driver by checking if $TERM is set to "#win32con"
+ or an abbreviation of that string.
+
+ Older versions of ncurses assumed that the file descriptor
+ passed to setupterm from initscr or newterm uses buffered
+ I/O, and would write to the corresponding stream. In ad-
+ dition to the limitation that the terminal was left in
+ block-buffered mode on exit (like SystemV curses), it was
+ problematic because ncurses did not allow a reliable way
+ to cleanup on receiving SIGTSTP. The current version uses
+ output buffers managed directly by ncurses. Some of the
+ low-level functions described in this manual page write to
+ the standard output. They are not signal-safe. The high-
+ level functions in ncurses use alternate versions of these
+ functions using the more reliable buffering scheme.
+
In System V Release 4, set_curterm has an int return type
and returns OK or ERR. We have chosen to implement the
X/Open Curses semantics.
@@ -323,12 +390,12 @@
zeroes are fine for this purpose.
In response to comments by Thomas E. Dickey, X/Open Curses
- Issue 7 proposed the tiparam function in mid-2009.
+ Issue 7 proposed the tiparm function in mid-2009.
X/Open notes that after calling mvcur, the curses state
may not match the actual terminal state, and that an ap-
plication should touch and refresh the window before re-
- suming normal curses calls. Both ncurses and System V Re-
+ suming normal curses calls. Both ncurses and System V Re-
lease 4 curses implement mvcur using the SCREEN data allo-
cated in either initscr or newterm. So though it is docu-
mented as a terminfo function, mvcur is really a curses
@@ -339,25 +406,41 @@
for the old ordinates. In that case, the old location is
unknown.
+ Other implementions may not declare the capability name
+ arrays. Some provide them without declaring them. X/Open
+ does not specify them.
+
Extended terminal capability names, e.g., as defined by
- tic-x, are not stored in the arrays described in this
- section.
+ tic-x, are not stored in the arrays described here.
-