- Routines that return an integer return ERR upon failure
- and an integer value other than ERR upon successful com-
+ 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.
- All macros return the value of the w version, except
- setscrreg, wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx, getmaxyx. The
- return values of setscrreg, wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx,
- and getmaxyx are undefined (i.e., these should not be used
+ All macros return the value of the w version, except
+ setscrreg, wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx, and getmaxyx. The
+ 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).
- Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.
+ Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment symbols are useful for customiz-
- ing the runtime behavior of the ncurses library. The most
+ ing the runtime behavior of the ncurses library. The most
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
+ 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
+ (i.e., the cmdch capability) of the loaded terminfo
entries to the value of this symbol. Very few ter-
minfo entries provide this feature.
+ Because this name is also used in development envi-
+ ronments to represent the C compiler's name, ncurses
+ ignores it if it does not happen to be a single char-
+ acter.
+
COLUMNS
Specify the width of the screen in characters.
- Applications running in a windowing environment usu-
- ally are able to obtain the width of the window in
- which they are executing. If neither the $COLUMNS
- value nor the terminal's screen size is available,
- ncurses uses the size which may be specified in the
- terminfo database (i.e., the cols capability).
-
- It is important that your application use a correct
- size for the screen. However, this is not always
- possible because your application may be running on a
- host which does not honor NAWS (Negotiations About
- Window Size), or because you are temporarily running
- as another user.
-
- Either COLUMNS or LINES symbols may be specified
- independently. This is mainly useful to circumvent
- legacy misfeatures of terminal descriptions, e.g.,
+ Applications running in a windowing environment usu-
+ ally are able to obtain the width of the window in
+ which they are executing. If neither the COLUMNS
+ value nor the terminal's screen size is available,
+ ncurses uses the size which may be specified in the
+ terminfo database (i.e., the cols capability).
+
+ It is important that your application use a correct
+ size for the screen. This is not always possible
+ because your application may be running on a host
+ which does not honor NAWS (Negotiations About Window
+ Size), or because you are temporarily running as
+ another user. However, setting COLUMNS and/or LINES
+ overrides the library's use of the screen size
+ obtained from the operating system.
+
+ Either COLUMNS or LINES symbols may be specified
+ independently. This is mainly useful to circumvent
+ legacy misfeatures of terminal descriptions, e.g.,
xterm which commonly specifies a 65 line screen. For
- best results, lines and cols should not be specified
+ best results, lines and cols should not be specified
in a terminal description for terminals which are run
as emulations.
- Use the use_env function to disable this feature.
+ Use the use_env function to disable all use of exter-
+ nal environment (including system calls) to determine
+ the screen size.
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.
- HOME Tells ncurses where your home directory is. That is
+ 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-
+ tion.
+
+ HOME Tells ncurses where your home directory is. That is
where it may read and write auxiliary terminal
descriptions:
@@ -602,9 +855,8 @@
$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
@@ -617,63 +869,122 @@
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
+ 123 or 321. If it is not specified, ncurses uses
132.
+ NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS
+ Override the compiled-in assumption that the termi-
+ nal's default colors are white-on-black (see
+ default_colors(3x)). You may set the foreground and
+ background color values with this environment vari-
+ able by proving a 2-element list: foreground,back-
+ ground. For example, to tell ncurses to not assume
+ anything about the colors, set this to "-1,-1". To
+ make it green-on-black, set it to "2,0". Any posi-
+ tive value from zero to the terminfo max_colors value
+ is allowed.
+
+ NCURSES_GPM_TERMS
+ This applies only to ncurses configured to use the
+ GPM interface.
+
+ If present, the environment variable is a list of one
+ or more terminal names against which the TERM envi-
+ ronment variable is matched. Setting it to an empty
+ value disables the GPM interface; using the built-in
+ support for xterm, etc.
+
+ If the environment variable is absent, ncurses will
+ attempt to open GPM if TERM contains "linux".
+
+ NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS
+ Ncurses may use tabs as part of the cursor movement
+ optimization. In some cases, your terminal driver
+ may not handle these properly. Set this environment
+ variable to disable the feature. You can also adjust
+ your stty settings to avoid the problem.
+
+ NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIES
+ 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 termi-
+ nals by setting this environment variable.
+
NCURSES_NO_PADDING
- Most of the terminal descriptions in the terminfo
- database are written for real "hardware" terminals.
- Many people use terminal emulators which run in a
- windowing environment and use curses-based applica-
- tions. Terminal emulators can duplicate all of the
+ Most of the terminal descriptions in the terminfo
+ database are written for real "hardware" terminals.
+ Many people use terminal emulators which run in a
+ windowing environment and use curses-based applica-
+ tions. Terminal emulators can duplicate all of the
important aspects of a hardware terminal, but they do
- not have the same limitations. The chief limitation
- of a hardware terminal from the standpoint of your
+ not have the same limitations. The chief limitation
+ of a hardware terminal from the standpoint of your
application is the management of dataflow, i.e., tim-
ing. Unless a hardware terminal is interfaced into a
- terminal concentrator (which does flow control), it
- (or your application) must manage dataflow, prevent-
- ing overruns. The cheapest solution (no hardware
+ terminal concentrator (which does flow control), it
+ (or your application) must manage dataflow, prevent-
+ ing overruns. The cheapest solution (no hardware
cost) is for your program to do this by pausing after
- operations that the terminal does slowly, such as
+ operations that the terminal does slowly, such as
clearing the display.
- As a result, many terminal descriptions (including
- the vt100) have delay times embedded. You may wish
- to use these descriptions, but not want to pay the
+ As a result, many terminal descriptions (including
+ the vt100) have delay times embedded. You may wish
+ 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 symbol 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
+ 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
+ leaving the output in the original (usually line
buffered) mode.
+ NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS
+ During initialization, the ncurses library checks for
+ special cases where VT100 line-drawing (and the cor-
+ responding alternate character set capabilities)
+ described in the terminfo are known to be missing.
+ 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. Doing this
+ tells ncurses to use Unicode values which correspond
+ to the VT100 line-drawing glyphs. That works for the
+ special cases cited, and is likely to work for termi-
+ nal emulators.
+
+ When setting this variable, you should set it to a
+ nonzero value. Setting it to zero (or to a nonnum-
+ ber) disables the special check for "linux" and
+ "screen".
+
NCURSES_TRACE
- During initialization, the ncurses debugging library
+ During initialization, the ncurses debugging library
checks the NCURSES_TRACE symbol. If it is defined,
- to a numeric value, ncurses calls the trace function,
+ to a numeric value, ncurses calls the trace function,
using that value as the argument.
- The argument values, which are defined in curses.h,
+ The argument values, which are defined in curses.h,
provide several types of information. When running
with traces enabled, your application will write the
- file trace to the current directory.
+ file trace to the current directory.
TERM Denotes your terminal type. Each terminal type is
distinct, though many are similar.
TERMCAP
- If the ncurses library has been configured with term-
- cap support, ncurses will check for a terminal's
+ If the ncurses library has been configured with term-
+ cap support, ncurses will check for a terminal's
description in termcap form if it is not available in
the terminfo database.
@@ -681,182 +992,230 @@
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
+ directs ncurses to ignore the usual place for this
information, e.g., /etc/termcap.
TERMINFO
- Overrides the directory in which ncurses searches for
+ Overrides the directory in which ncurses searches for
your terminal description. This is the simplest, but
not the only way to change the list of directories.
The complete list of directories in order follows:
- - the last directory to which ncurses wrote, if any,
- is searched first.
+ o the last directory to which ncurses wrote, if
+ any, is searched first
- - the directory specified by the TERMINFO symbol
+ o the directory specified by the TERMINFO symbol
- - $HOME/.terminfo
+ o $HOME/.terminfo
- - directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS symbol
+ o directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS symbol
- - one or more directories whose names are configured
- and compiled into the ncurses library, e.g.,
- @DATADIR@/terminfo
+ o one or more directories whose names are config-
+ ured and compiled into the ncurses library, e.g.,
+ /usr/share/terminfo
TERMINFO_DIRS
Specifies a list of directories to search for termi-
nal descriptions. The list is separated by colons
- (i.e., ":"). 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, which
+ makes a subdirectory named for the first letter of
+ the terminal names therein.
TERMPATH
- If TERMCAP does not hold a file name then ncurses
- checks the TERMPATH symbol. This is a list of file-
- names separated by colons (i.e., ":"). If the
- TERMPATH symbol is not set, ncurses looks in the
- files /etc/termcap, /usr/share/misc/termcap and
- $HOME/.termcap, in that order.
+ 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,
+ /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.
+
+
+
+
ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS
+ Several different configurations are possible, depending
+ on the configure script options used when building
+ ncurses. There are a few main options whose effects are
+ visible to the applications developer using ncurses:
+
+ --disable-overwrite
+ The standard include for ncurses is as noted in SYN-
+ OPSIS:
+
+ #include<curses.h>
+
+ This option is used to avoid filename conflicts when
+ ncurses is not the main implementation of curses of
+ the computer. If ncurses is installed disabling
+ overwrite, it puts its headers in a subdirectory,
+ e.g.,
+
+ #include<ncurses/curses.h>
+
+ It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you
+ to use -lcurses to build executables.
+
+ --enable-widec
+ The configure script renames the library and (if the
+ --disable-overwrite 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
+
+ -lncurses
+
+ you link with
+
+ -lncursesw
+
+ You must also define _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED when com-
+ piling for the wide-character library to use the
+ extended (wide-character) functions. The curses.h
+ file which is installed for the wide-character
+ library is designed to be compatible with the normal
+ library's header. Only the size of the WINDOW struc-
+ ture differs, and very few applications require more
+ than a pointer to WINDOWs. If the headers are
+ installed allowing overwrite, the wide-character
+ library's headers should be installed last, to allow
+ applications to be built using either library from
+ the same set of headers.
+
+ --with-shared
+
+ --with-normal
+
+ --with-debug
+
+ --with-profile
+ The shared and normal (static) library names differ
+ 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
+ library, but it is sometimes useful to configure this
+ in the shared library. Configure scripts should
+ check for the function's existence rather than assum-
+ ing it is always in the debug library.
FILES
- @DATADIR@/tabset
- directory containing initialization files for the
- terminal capability database @DATADIR@/terminfo ter-
+ /usr/share/tabset
+ directory containing initialization files for the
+ terminal capability database /usr/share/terminfo ter-
minal capability database
SEE ALSO
- terminfo(5) and 3x pages whose names begin "curs_" for
- detailed routine descriptions.
+ terminfo(5) and related pages whose names begin "curs_"
+ for detailed routine descriptions.
EXTENSIONS
- The ncurses library can be compiled with an option
- (-DUSE_GETCAP) that falls back to the old-style /etc/term-
+ The ncurses library can be compiled with an option
+ (-DUSE_GETCAP) that falls back to the old-style /etc/term-
cap file if the terminal setup code cannot find a terminfo
- entry corresponding to TERM. Use of this feature is not
- recommended, as it essentially includes an entire termcap
- compiler in the ncurses startup code, at significant cost
+ entry corresponding to TERM. Use of this feature is not
+ recommended, as it essentially includes an entire termcap
+ compiler in the ncurses startup code, at significant cost
in core and startup cycles.
- The ncurses library includes facilities for capturing
- mouse events on certain terminals (including xterm). See
- the curs_mouse(3x) manual page for details.
+ The ncurses library includes facilities for capturing
+ mouse events on certain terminals (including xterm). See
+ the curs_mouse(3x) manual page for details.
- The ncurses library includes facilities for responding to
- window resizing events, e.g., when running in an xterm.
- See the resizeterm(3x) and wresize(3x) manual pages for
- details. In addition, the library may be configured with
+ The ncurses library includes facilities for responding to
+ window resizing events, e.g., when running in an xterm.
+ See the resizeterm(3x) and wresize(3x) manual pages for
+ details. In addition, the library may be configured with
a SIGWINCH handler.
- The ncurses library extends the fixed set of function key
- capabilities of terminals by allowing the application
- designer to define additional key sequences at runtime.
- See the define_key(3x) and keyok(3x) manual pages for
- details.
+ The ncurses library extends the fixed set of function key
+ capabilities of terminals by allowing the application
+ designer to define additional key sequences at runtime.
+ See the define_key(3x)key_defined(3x), and keyok(3x) man-
+ ual pages for details.
- The ncurses library can exploit the capabilities of termi-
- nals which implement the ISO-6429 SGR 39 and SGR 49 con-
+ The ncurses library can exploit the capabilities of termi-
+ nals which implement the ISO-6429 SGR 39 and SGR 49 con-
trols, 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 col-
- ored text on a background whose color is set indepen-
- dently, providing better control over color contrasts.
- See the use_default_colors(3x) manual page for details.
+ its original foreground and background colors. From the
+ users' perspective, the application is able to draw col-
+ ored text on a background whose color is set indepen-
+ dently, providing better control over color contrasts.
+ See the default_colors(3x) manual page for details.
- The ncurses library includes a function for directing
- application output to a printer attached to the terminal
- device. See the curs_print(3x) manual page for details.
+ The ncurses library includes a function for directing
+ application output to a printer attached to the terminal
+ device. See the curs_print(3x) manual page for details.
PORTABILITY
- The ncurses library is intended to be BASE-level
- conformant with the XSI Curses standard. Certain portions
- of the EXTENDED XSI Curses functionality (including color
- support) are supported. The following EXTENDED XSI Curses
- calls in support of wide (multibyte) characters are not
- yet implemented: add_wch, add_wchnstr, add_wchstr, addnw-
- str, addwstr, bkgrnd, bkgrndset, border_set, box_set,
- echo_wchar, erasewchar, get_wch, get_wstr, getbkgrnd,
- getcchar, getn_wstr, getwchtype, hline_set, in_wch,
- in_wchnstr, in_wchstr, innwstr, ins_nwstr, ins_wch,
- ins_wstr, inwchnstr, inwchstr, inwstr, key_name, kill-
- wchar, mvadd_wch, mvadd_wchnstr, mvadd_wchstr, mvaddnwstr,
- mvaddwstr, mvget_wch, mvget_wstr, mvgetn_wstr, mvh-
- line_set, mvin_wch, mvinnwstr, mvins_nwstr, mvins_wch,
- mvins_wstr, mvinwchnstr, mvinwchstr, mvinwchstr, mvinwstr,
- mvvline_set, mvwadd_wch, mvwadd_wchnstr, mvwadd_wchstr,
- mvwaddnwstr, mvwaddwstr, mvwget_ch, mvwget_wch,
- mvwget_wstr, mvwgetn_wstr, mvwhline_set, mvwin_wch,
- mvwin_wchnstr, mvwin_wchstr, mvwinnwstr, mvwins_nwstr,
- mvwins_wch, mvwins_wstr, mvwinwchnstr. mvwinwstr, mvwv-
- line_set, pecho_wchar, setcchar, slk_wset, term_attrs,
- unget_wch, vhline_set, vid_attr, vid_puts, vline_set,
- wadd_wch, wadd_wchnstr, wadd_wchstr, waddnwstr, waddwstr,
- waddwstr, wbkgrnd, wbkgrndset, wbkgrndset, wborder_set,
- wecho_wchar, wecho_wchar, wget_wch, wget_wstr, wgetbkgrnd,
- wgetn_wstr, whline_set, win_wch, win_wchnstr, win_wchstr,
- winnwstr, wins_nwstr, wins_wch, wins_wstr, winwchnstr,
- winwchstr, winwstr, wunctrl, wvline_set,
+ The ncurses library is intended to be BASE-level confor-
+ mant with XSI Curses. The EXTENDED XSI Curses functional-
+ ity (including color support) is supported.
A small number of local differences (that is, individual
- differences between the XSI Curses and ncurses calls) are
- described in PORTABILITY sections of the library man
+ differences between the XSI Curses and ncurses calls) are
+ described in PORTABILITY sections of the library man
pages.
- The routine has_key is not part of XPG4, nor is it present
- in SVr4. See the curs_getch(3x) manual page for details.
+ This implementation also contains several extensions:
- The routine slk_attr is not part of XPG4, nor is it pre-
- sent in SVr4. See the curs_slk(3x) manual page for
- details.
+ The routine has_key is not part of XPG4, nor is it
+ present in SVr4. See the curs_getch(3x) manual page
+ for details.
- The routines getmouse, mousemask, ungetmouse, mouseinter-
- val, and wenclose relating to mouse interfacing are not
- part of XPG4, nor are they present in SVr4. See the
- curs_mouse(3x) manual page for details.
+ The routine slk_attr is not part of XPG4, nor is it
+ present in SVr4. See the curs_slk(3x) manual page
+ for details.
- The routine mcprint was not present in any previous curses
- implementation. See the curs_print(3x) manual page for
- details.
+ The routines getmouse, mousemask, ungetmouse, mou-
+ seinterval, and wenclose relating to mouse interfac-
+ ing are not part of XPG4, nor are they present in
+ SVr4. See the curs_mouse(3x) manual page for
+ details.
- The routine wresize is not part of XPG4, nor is it present
- in SVr4. See the wresize(3x) manual page for details.
+ The routine mcprint was not present in any previous
+ curses implementation. See the curs_print(3x) manual
+ page for details.
+
+ The routine wresize is not part of XPG4, nor is it
+ present in SVr4. See the wresize(3x) manual page for
+ details.
+
+ The WINDOW structure's internal details can be hidden
+ from application programs. See curs_opaque(3x) for
+ the discussion of is_scrollok, etc.
In historic curses versions, delays embedded in the capa-
- bilities cr, ind, cub1, ff and tab activated corresponding
+ 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 NUL sends. This method is
- slightly more expensive, but narrows the interface to the
- UNIX kernel significantly and increases the package's
- portability correspondingly.
-
- In the XSI standard and SVr4 manual pages, many entry
- points have prototype arguments of the for char*const (or
- cchar_t*const, or wchar_t*const, or void*const).
- Depending on one's interpretation of the ANSI C standard
- (see section 3.5.4.1), these declarations are either (a)
- meaningless, or (b) meaningless and illegal. The declara-
- tion constchar*x is a modifiable pointer to unmodifiable
- data, but char*constx' is an unmodifiable pointer to
- modifiable data. Given that C passes arguments by value,
- <type>*const as a formal type is at best dubious. Some
- compilers choke on the prototypes. Therefore, in this
- implementation, they have been changed to const<type>*
- globally.
+ 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
- header files <stdio.h> and <unctrl.h>.
+ 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
+ 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.
@@ -869,25 +1228,7 @@
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
+ ncurses(3x)