X-Git-Url: https://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fhtml%2Fman%2Fncurses.3x.html;h=57ca23abd60f56b817bfe9ca24fb71ae79075250;hp=530b293ac1c87f23be19f7ced997adcf50ff9ced;hb=2e5d72d6396bb38a8d1d1b3534f62e28aebaa600;hpb=f367fa254ce3fe29710c86971f04e03111c2bd2c;ds=sidebyside
diff --git a/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html b/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html
index 530b293a..57ca23ab 100644
--- a/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html
+++ b/doc/html/man/ncurses.3x.html
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-
+
@@ -60,10 +60,10 @@
DESCRIPTION
The ncurses library routines give the user a terminal-
independent method of updating character screens with rea-
- sonable optimization. This implementation is ``new
- curses'' (ncurses) and is the approved replacement for
- 4.4BSD classic curses, which has been discontinued. This
- describes ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20120107).
+ sonable optimization. This implementation is "new curses"
+ (ncurses) and is the approved replacement for 4.4BSD clas-
+ sic curses, which has been discontinued. This describes
+ ncurses version 5.9 (patch 20131221).
The ncurses library emulates the curses library of System
V Release 4 UNIX, and XPG4 (X/Open Portability Guide)
@@ -150,48 +150,48 @@
Among those, the most basic routines are move and addch.
More general versions of these routines are included with
names beginning with w, allowing the user to specify a
- window. The routines not beginning with w affect stdscr.
+ window. The routines not beginning with w affect stdscr.
- After using routines to manipulate a window, refresh is
- called, telling curses to make the user's CRT screen look
- like stdscr. The characters in a window are actually of
- type chtype, (character and attribute data) so that other
- information about the character may also be stored with
+ After using routines to manipulate a window, refresh is
+ called, telling curses to make the user's CRT screen look
+ like stdscr. The characters in a window are actually of
+ type chtype, (character and attribute data) so that other
+ information about the character may also be stored with
each character.
- Special windows called pads may also be manipulated.
+ Special windows called pads may also be manipulated.
These are windows which are not constrained to the size of
- the screen and whose contents need not be completely dis-
+ the screen and whose contents need not be completely dis-
played. See curs_pad(3x) for more information.
- In addition to drawing characters on the screen, video
- attributes and colors may be supported, causing the char-
- acters to show up in such modes as underlined, in reverse
- video, or in color on terminals that support such display
+ In addition to drawing characters on the screen, video
+ attributes and colors may be supported, causing the char-
+ acters to show up in such modes as underlined, in reverse
+ video, or in color on terminals that support such display
enhancements. Line drawing characters may be specified to
- be output. On input, curses is also able to translate
- arrow and function keys that transmit escape sequences
- into single values. The video attributes, line drawing
- characters, and input values use names, defined in
+ be output. On input, curses is also able to translate
+ arrow and function keys that transmit escape sequences
+ into single values. The video attributes, line drawing
+ characters, and input values use names, defined in
<curses.h>, such as A_REVERSE, ACS_HLINE, and KEY_LEFT.
If the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS are set, or
- if the program is executing in a window environment, line
- and column information in the environment will override
+ if the program is executing in a window environment, line
+ and column information in the environment will override
information read by terminfo. This would affect a program
- running in an AT&T 630 layer, for example, where the size
+ running in an AT&T 630 layer, for example, where the size
of a screen is changeable (see ENVIRONMENT).
- If the environment variable TERMINFO is defined, any pro-
- gram using curses checks for a local terminal definition
- before checking in the standard place. For example, if
+ If the environment variable TERMINFO is defined, any pro-
+ gram using curses checks for a local terminal definition
+ before checking in the standard place. For example, if
TERM is set to att4424, then the compiled terminal defini-
tion is found in
/usr/share/terminfo/a/att4424.
(The a is copied from the first letter of att4424 to avoid
- creation of huge directories.) However, if TERMINFO is
+ creation of huge directories.) However, if TERMINFO is
set to $HOME/myterms, curses first checks
$HOME/myterms/a/att4424,
@@ -200,119 +200,117 @@
/usr/share/terminfo/a/att4424.
- This is useful for developing experimental definitions or
+ This is useful for developing experimental definitions or
when write permission in /usr/share/terminfo is not avail-
able.
- The integer variables LINES and COLS are defined in
- <curses.h> and will be filled in by initscr with the size
+ The integer variables LINES and COLS are defined in
+ <curses.h> and will be filled in by initscr with the size
of the screen. The constants TRUE and FALSE have the val-
ues 1 and 0, respectively.
- The curses routines also define the WINDOW * variable
+ The curses routines also define the WINDOW * variable
curscr which is used for certain low-level operations like
- clearing and redrawing a screen containing garbage. The
+ clearing and redrawing a screen containing garbage. The
curscr can be used in only a few routines.
Routine and Argument Names
- Many curses routines have two or more versions. The rou-
+ Many curses routines have two or more versions. The rou-
tines prefixed with w require a window argument. The rou-
tines prefixed with p require a pad argument. Those with-
out a prefix generally use stdscr.
The routines prefixed with mv require a y and x coordinate
- to move to before performing the appropriate action. The
- mv routines imply a call to move before the call to the
- other routine. The coordinate y always refers to the row
- (of the window), and x always refers to the column. The
+ to move to before performing the appropriate action. The
+ mv routines imply a call to move before the call to the
+ other routine. The coordinate y always refers to the row
+ (of the window), and x always refers to the column. The
upper left-hand corner is always (0,0), not (1,1).
The routines prefixed with mvw take both a window argument
- and x and y coordinates. The window argument is always
+ and x and y coordinates. The window argument is always
specified before the coordinates.
- In each case, win is the window affected, and pad is the
+ In each case, win is the window affected, and pad is the
pad affected; win and pad are always pointers to type WIN-
DOW.
Option setting routines require a Boolean flag bf with the
- value TRUE or FALSE; bf is always of type bool. Most of
- the data types used in the library routines, such as WIN-
- DOW, SCREEN, bool, and chtype are defined in <curses.h>.
- Types used for the terminfo routines such as TERMINAL are
+ value TRUE or FALSE; bf is always of type bool. Most of
+ the data types used in the library routines, such as WIN-
+ DOW, SCREEN, bool, and chtype are defined in <curses.h>.
+ Types used for the terminfo routines such as TERMINAL are
defined in <term.h>.
- This manual page describes functions which may appear in
- any configuration of the library. There are two common
+ This manual page describes functions which may appear in
+ any configuration of the library. There are two common
configurations of the library:
ncurses
the "normal" library, which handles 8-bit
characters. The normal (8-bit) library stores
- characters combined with attributes in chtype
+ characters combined with attributes in chtype
data.
- Attributes alone (no corresponding character)
- may be stored in chtype or the equivalent
- attr_t data. In either case, the data is
+ Attributes alone (no corresponding character)
+ may be stored in chtype or the equivalent
+ attr_t data. In either case, the data is
stored in something like an integer.
- Each cell (row and column) in a WINDOW is
+ Each cell (row and column) in a WINDOW is
stored as a chtype.
ncursesw
- the so-called "wide" library, which handles
- multibyte characters (see the section on
+ the so-called "wide" library, which handles
+ multibyte characters (see the section on
ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS). The "wide" library
- includes all of the calls from the "normal"
- library. It adds about one third more calls
+ includes all of the calls from the "normal"
+ library. It adds about one third more calls
using data types which store multibyte charac-
ters:
cchar_t
- corresponds to chtype. However it is a
- structure, because more data is stored
- than can fit into an integer. The char-
+ corresponds to chtype. However it is a
+ structure, because more data is stored
+ than can fit into an integer. The char-
acters 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 sepa-
+ integer value - and there may be more
+ than one character per cell. The video
+ attributes and color are stored in sepa-
rate fields of the structure.
Each cell (row and column) in a WINDOW is
stored as a cchar_t.
wchar_t
- stores a "wide" character. Like chtype,
+ stores a "wide" character. Like chtype,
this may be an integer.
wint_t
- stores a wchar_t or WEOF - not the same,
+ stores a wchar_t or WEOF - not the same,
though both may have the same size.
The "wide" library provides new functions
- which are analogous to functions in the "nor-
- mal" library. There is a naming convention
- which relates many of the normal/wide vari-
- ants: a "_w" is inserted into the name. For
+ which are analogous to functions in the "nor-
+ mal" library. There is a naming convention
+ which relates many of the normal/wide vari-
+ ants: a "_w" is inserted into the name. For
example, waddch becomes wadd_wch.
-
Routine Name Index
The following table lists each curses routine and the name
- of the manual page on which it is described. Routines
- flagged with `*' are ncurses-specific, not described by
+ of the manual page on which it is described. Routines
+ flagged with `*' are ncurses-specific, not described by
XPG4 or present in SVr4.
-
curses Routine Name Manual Page Name
--------------------------------------------
COLOR_PAIR curs_color(3x)
PAIR_NUMBER curs_attr(3x)
_nc_free_and_exit curs_memleaks(3x)*
-
_nc_freeall curs_memleaks(3x)*
_nc_tracebits curs_trace(3x)*
+
_traceattr curs_trace(3x)*
_traceattr2 curs_trace(3x)*
_tracechar curs_trace(3x)*
@@ -376,9 +374,9 @@
echo curs_inopts(3x)
echo_wchar curs_add_wch(3x)
echochar curs_addch(3x)
-
endwin curs_initscr(3x)
erase curs_clear(3x)
+
erasechar curs_termattrs(3x)
erasewchar curs_termattrs(3x)
filter curs_util(3x)
@@ -442,9 +440,9 @@
intrflush curs_inopts(3x)
inwstr curs_inwstr(3x)
is_cleared curs_opaque(3x)*
-
is_idcok curs_opaque(3x)*
is_idlok curs_opaque(3x)*
+
is_immedok curs_opaque(3x)*
is_keypad curs_opaque(3x)*
is_leaveok curs_opaque(3x)*
@@ -508,9 +506,9 @@
mvinsch curs_insch(3x)
mvinsnstr curs_insstr(3x)
mvinsstr curs_insstr(3x)
-
mvinstr curs_instr(3x)
mvinwstr curs_inwstr(3x)
+
mvprintw curs_printw(3x)
mvscanw curs_scanw(3x)
mvvline curs_border(3x)
@@ -574,9 +572,9 @@
pair_content curs_color(3x)
pechochar curs_pad(3x)
pnoutrefresh curs_pad(3x)
-
prefresh curs_pad(3x)
printw curs_printw(3x)
+
putp curs_terminfo(3x)
putwin curs_util(3x)
qiflush curs_inopts(3x)
@@ -640,9 +638,9 @@
tigetstr curs_terminfo(3x)
timeout curs_inopts(3x)
touchline curs_touch(3x)
-
touchwin curs_touch(3x)
tparm curs_terminfo(3x)
+
tputs curs_termcap(3x)
tputs curs_terminfo(3x)
trace curs_trace(3x)*
@@ -656,6 +654,7 @@
use_env curs_util(3x)
use_extended_names curs_extend(3x)*
use_legacy_coding legacy_coding(3x)*
+ use_tioctl curs_util(3x)
vid_attr curs_terminfo(3x)
vid_puts curs_terminfo(3x)
vidattr curs_terminfo(3x)
@@ -706,8 +705,8 @@
wgetbkgrnd curs_bkgrnd(3x)
wgetch curs_getch(3x)
wgetn_wstr curs_get_wstr(3x)
-
wgetnstr curs_getstr(3x)
+
wgetstr curs_getstr(3x)
whline curs_border(3x)
whline_set curs_border_set(3x)
@@ -752,17 +751,17 @@
RETURN VALUE
- Routines that return an integer return ERR upon failure
- and an integer value other than ERR upon successful com-
- pletion, unless otherwise noted in the routine descrip-
+ Routines that return an integer return ERR upon failure
+ and an integer value other than ERR upon successful com-
+ pletion, unless otherwise noted in the routine descrip-
tions.
As a general rule, routines check for null pointers passed
as parameters, and handle this as an error.
- All macros return the value of the w version, except
+ All macros return the value of the w version, except
setscrreg, wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx, and getmaxyx. The
- return values of setscrreg, wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx,
+ return values of setscrreg, wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx,
and getmaxyx are undefined (i.e., these should not be used
as the right-hand side of assignment statements).
@@ -776,16 +775,17 @@
important ones have been already discussed in detail.
BAUDRATE
- The debugging library checks this environment symbol
- when the application has redirected output to a file.
- The symbol's numeric value is used for the baudrate.
- If no value is found, ncurses uses 9600. This allows
- testers to construct repeatable test-cases that take
- into account costs that depend on baudrate.
+ The debugging library checks this environment vari-
+ able when the application has redirected output to a
+ file. The variable's numeric value is used for the
+ baudrate. If no value is found, ncurses uses 9600.
+ This allows testers to construct repeatable test-
+ cases that take into account costs that depend on
+ baudrate.
CC When set, change occurrences of the command_character
(i.e., the cmdch capability) of the loaded terminfo
- entries to the value of this symbol. Very few ter-
+ entries to the value of this variable. Very few ter-
minfo entries provide this feature.
Because this name is also used in development envi-
@@ -820,39 +820,42 @@
as emulations.
Use the use_env function to disable all use of exter-
- nal environment (including system calls) to determine
- the screen size.
+ nal environment (but not including system calls) to
+ determine the screen size. Use the use_tioctl func-
+ tion to update COLUMNS or LINES to match the screen
+ size obtained from system calls or the terminal data-
+ base.
ESCDELAY
- Specifies the total time, in milliseconds, for which
- ncurses will await a character sequence, e.g., a
- function key. The default value, 1000 milliseconds,
+ Specifies the total time, in milliseconds, for which
+ ncurses will await a character sequence, e.g., a
+ function key. The default value, 1000 milliseconds,
is enough for most uses. However, it is made a vari-
able to accommodate unusual applications.
The most common instance where you may wish to change
- this value is to work with slow hosts, e.g., running
- on a network. If the host cannot read characters
- rapidly enough, it will have the same effect as if
- the terminal did not send characters rapidly enough.
+ this value is to work with slow hosts, e.g., running
+ on a network. If the host cannot read characters
+ rapidly enough, it will have the same effect as if
+ the terminal did not send characters rapidly enough.
The library will still see a timeout.
- Note that xterm mouse events are built up from char-
- acter sequences received from the xterm. If your
+ Note that xterm mouse events are built up from char-
+ acter sequences received from the xterm. If your
application makes heavy use of multiple-clicking, you
- may wish to lengthen this default value because the
- timeout applies to the composed multi-click event as
+ may wish to lengthen this default value because the
+ timeout applies to the composed multi-click event as
well as the individual clicks.
- In addition to the environment variable, this imple-
- mentation provides a global variable with the same
+ In addition to the environment variable, this imple-
+ mentation provides a global variable with the same
name. Portable applications should not rely upon the
- presence of ESCDELAY in either form, but setting the
- environment variable rather than the global variable
- does not create problems when compiling an applica-
+ presence of ESCDELAY in either form, but setting the
+ environment variable rather than the global variable
+ does not create problems when compiling an applica-
tion.
- HOME Tells ncurses where your home directory is. That is
+ HOME Tells ncurses where your home directory is. That is
where it may read and write auxiliary terminal
descriptions:
@@ -860,8 +863,8 @@
$HOME/.terminfo
LINES
- Like COLUMNS, specify the height of the screen in
- characters. See COLUMNS for a detailed description.
+ Like COLUMNS, specify the height of the screen in
+ characters. See COLUMNS for a detailed description.
MOUSE_BUTTONS_123
This applies only to the OS/2 EMX port. It specifies
@@ -872,10 +875,10 @@
2 = right
3 = middle.
- This symbol lets you customize the mouse. The symbol
- must be three numeric digits 1-3 in any order, e.g.,
- 123 or 321. If it is not specified, ncurses uses
- 132.
+ This variable lets you customize the mouse. The
+ variable must be three numeric digits 1-3 in any
+ order, e.g., 123 or 321. If it is not specified,
+ ncurses uses 132.
NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS
Override the compiled-in assumption that the termi-
@@ -913,8 +916,8 @@
Some terminals use a magic-cookie feature which
requires special handling to make highlighting and
other video attributes display properly. You can
- suppress the highlighting entirely for these
- terminals by setting this environment variable.
+ suppress the highlighting entirely for these termi-
+ nals by setting this environment variable.
NCURSES_NO_PADDING
Most of the terminal descriptions in the terminfo
@@ -939,19 +942,41 @@
to use these descriptions, but not want to pay the
performance penalty.
- Set the NCURSES_NO_PADDING symbol to disable all but
- mandatory padding. Mandatory padding is used as a
- part of special control sequences such as flash.
+ Set the NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable to
+ disable all but mandatory padding. Mandatory padding
+ is used as a part of special control sequences such
+ as flash.
NCURSES_NO_SETBUF
- Normally ncurses enables buffered output during ter-
- minal initialization. This is done (as in SVr4
- curses) for performance reasons. For testing pur-
- poses, both of ncurses and certain applications, this
- feature is made optional. Setting the
- NCURSES_NO_SETBUF variable disables output buffering,
- leaving the output in the original (usually line
- buffered) mode.
+ This setting is obsolete. Before changes
+
+ o started with 5.9 patch 20120825 and
+
+ o continued though 5.9 patch 20130126
+
+ ncurses enabled buffered output during terminal ini-
+ tialization. This was done (as in SVr4 curses) for
+ performance reasons. For testing purposes, both of
+ ncurses and certain applications, this feature was
+ made optional. Setting the NCURSES_NO_SETBUF vari-
+ able disabled output buffering, leaving the output in
+ the original (usually line buffered) mode.
+
+ In the current implementation, ncurses performs its
+ own buffering and does not require this workaround.
+ It does not modify the buffering of the standard out-
+ put.
+
+ The reason for the change was to make the behavior
+ for interrupts and other signals more robust. One
+ drawback is that certain nonconventional programs
+ would mix ordinary stdio calls with ncurses calls and
+ (usually) work. This is no longer possible since
+ ncurses is not using the buffered standard output but
+ its own output (to the same file descriptor). As a
+ special case, the low-level calls such as putp still
+ use the standard output. But high-level curses calls
+ do not.
NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS
During initialization, the ncurses library checks for
@@ -981,11 +1006,11 @@
# linux console, if patched to provide working
# VT100 shift-in/shift-out, with corresponding font.
linux-vt100|linux console with VT100 line-graphics,
- U8#0, use=linux,
+ U8#0, use=linux,
# uxterm with vt100Graphics resource set to false
xterm-utf8|xterm relying on UTF-8 line-graphics,
- U8#1, use=xterm,
+ U8#1, use=xterm,
The name "U8" is chosen to be two characters, to per-
mit it to be used by applications that use ncurses'
@@ -993,9 +1018,9 @@
NCURSES_TRACE
During initialization, the ncurses debugging library
- checks the NCURSES_TRACE symbol. If it is defined,
- to a numeric value, ncurses calls the trace function,
- using that value as the argument.
+ checks the NCURSES_TRACE environment variable. If it
+ is defined, to a numeric value, ncurses calls the
+ trace function, using that value as the argument.
The argument values, which are defined in curses.h,
provide several types of information. When running
@@ -1011,12 +1036,12 @@
description in termcap form if it is not available in
the terminfo database.
- The TERMCAP symbol contains either a terminal
- description (with newlines stripped out), or a file
- name telling where the information denoted by the
- TERM symbol exists. In either case, setting it
- directs ncurses to ignore the usual place for this
- information, e.g., /etc/termcap.
+ The TERMCAP environment variable contains either a
+ terminal description (with newlines stripped out), or
+ a file name telling where the information denoted by
+ the TERM environment variable exists. In either
+ case, setting it directs ncurses to ignore the usual
+ place for this information, e.g., /etc/termcap.
TERMINFO
Overrides the directory in which ncurses searches for
@@ -1027,23 +1052,33 @@
o the last directory to which ncurses wrote, if
any, is searched first
- o the directory specified by the TERMINFO symbol
+ o the directory specified by the TERMINFO environ-
+ ment variable
o $HOME/.terminfo
- o directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS symbol
+ o directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environ-
+ ment variable
o one or more directories whose names are config-
- ured and compiled into the ncurses library, e.g.,
- /usr/share/terminfo
+ ured and compiled into the ncurses library, i.e.,
+
+ o /usr/local/ncurses/share/ter-
+ minfo:/usr/share/terminfo (corresponding to
+ the TERMINFO_DIRS variable)
+
+ o /usr/share/terminfo (corresponding to the
+ TERMINFO variable)
TERMINFO_DIRS
Specifies a list of directories to search for termi-
nal descriptions. The list is separated by colons
- (i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX. All of
- the terminal descriptions are in terminfo form, which
- makes a subdirectory named for the first letter of
- the terminal names therein.
+ (i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX.
+
+ All of the terminal descriptions are in terminfo
+ form. Normally these are stored in a directory tree,
+ using subdirectories named by the first letter of the
+ terminal names therein.
If ncurses is built with a hashed database, then each
entry in this list can also be the path of the corre-
@@ -1055,17 +1090,21 @@
TERMPATH
If TERMCAP does not hold a file name then ncurses
- checks the TERMPATH symbol. This is a list of file-
- names separated by spaces or colons (i.e., ":") on
- Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX. If the TERMPATH symbol
- is not set, ncurses looks in the files /etc/termcap,
+ checks the TERMPATH environment variable. This is a
+ list of filenames separated by spaces or colons
+ (i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX.
+
+ If the TERMPATH environment variable is not set,
+ ncurses looks in the files /etc/termcap,
/usr/share/misc/termcap and $HOME/.termcap, in that
order.
The library may be configured to disregard the following
variables when the current user is the superuser (root),
- or if the application uses setuid or setgid permissions:
- $TERMINFO, $TERMINFO_DIRS, $TERMPATH, as well as $HOME.
+ or if the application uses setuid or setgid permissions:
+
+ $TERMINFO, $TERMINFO_DIRS, $TERMPATH, as well as
+ $HOME.
@@ -1126,10 +1165,10 @@
--with-profile
The shared and normal (static) library names differ
- by their suffixes, e.g., libncurses.so and
- libncurses.a. The debug and profiling libraries add
- a "_g" and a "_p" to the root names respectively,
- e.g., libncurses_g.a and libncurses_p.a.
+ by their suffixes, e.g., libncurses.so and libn-
+ curses.a. The debug and profiling libraries add a
+ "_g" and a "_p" to the root names respectively, e.g.,
+ libncurses_g.a and libncurses_p.a.
--with-trace
The trace function normally resides in the debug
@@ -1247,31 +1286,31 @@
o This implementation can also be configured to provide
a set of functions which improve the ability to manage
- multiple screens. See curs_sp_funcs(3x) for details.
+ multiple screens. See curs_sp_funcs(3x) for details.
- In historic curses versions, delays embedded in the capa-
+ In historic curses versions, delays embedded in the capa-
bilities cr, ind, cub1, ff and tab activated corresponding
- delay bits in the UNIX tty driver. In this implementa-
- tion, all padding is done by sending NUL bytes. This
- method is slightly more expensive, but narrows the inter-
- face to the UNIX kernel significantly and increases the
+ delay bits in the UNIX tty driver. In this implementa-
+ tion, all padding is done by sending NUL bytes. This
+ method is slightly more expensive, but narrows the inter-
+ face to the UNIX kernel significantly and increases the
package's portability correspondingly.
NOTES
- The header file <curses.h> automatically includes the
+ The header file <curses.h> automatically includes the
header files <stdio.h> and <unctrl.h>.
- If standard output from a ncurses program is re-directed
- to something which is not a tty, screen updates will be
+ If standard output from a ncurses program is re-directed
+ to something which is not a tty, screen updates will be
directed to standard error. This was an undocumented fea-
ture of AT&T System V Release 3 curses.
AUTHORS
- Zeyd M. Ben-Halim, Eric S. Raymond, Thomas E. Dickey.
+ Zeyd M. Ben-Halim, Eric S. Raymond, Thomas E. Dickey.
Based on pcurses by Pavel Curtis.