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30 * @Id: curs_termcap.3x,v 1.22 2007/06/02 20:40:07 tom Exp @
34 <TITLE>curs_termcap 3x</TITLE>
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39 <H1>curs_termcap 3x</H1>
42 <!-- Manpage converted by man2html 3.0.1 -->
43 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>
50 <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG>, <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> - direct
51 <STRONG>curses</STRONG> interface to the terminfo capability database
55 <H2>SYNOPSIS</H2><PRE>
56 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
57 <STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><term.h></STRONG>
59 <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>PC;</STRONG>
60 <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <STRONG>UP;</STRONG>
61 <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*</STRONG> <STRONG>BC;</STRONG>
62 <STRONG>extern</STRONG> <STRONG>short</STRONG> <STRONG>ospeed;</STRONG>
64 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetent(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*bp,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*name);</STRONG>
65 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetflag(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id);</STRONG>
66 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetnum(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id);</STRONG>
67 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tgetstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>**area);</STRONG>
68 <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tgoto(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*cap,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>col,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>row);</STRONG>
69 <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tputs(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>affcnt,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>(*putc)(int));</STRONG>
73 <H2>DESCRIPTION</H2><PRE>
74 These routines are included as a conversion aid for pro-
75 grams that use the <EM>termcap</EM> library. Their parameters are
76 the same and the routines are emulated using the <EM>terminfo</EM>
77 database. Thus, they can only be used to query the capa-
78 bilities of entries for which a terminfo entry has been
81 The <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> routine loads the entry for <EM>name</EM>. It returns
82 1 on success, 0 if there is no such entry, and -1 if the
83 terminfo database could not be found. The emulation
84 ignores the buffer pointer <EM>bp</EM>.
86 The <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG> routine gets the boolean entry for <EM>id</EM>, or
87 zero if it is not available.
89 The <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> routine gets the numeric entry for <EM>id</EM>, or -1
90 if it is not available.
92 The <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> routine returns the string entry for <EM>id</EM>, or
93 zero if it is not available. Use <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> to output the
94 returned string. The return value will also be copied to
95 the buffer pointed to by <EM>area</EM>, and the <EM>area</EM> value will be
96 updated to point past the null ending this value.
98 Only the first two characters of the <STRONG>id</STRONG> parameter of <STRONG>tget-</STRONG>
99 <STRONG>flag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> and <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> are compared in lookups.
101 The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> routine instantiates the parameters into the
102 given capability. The output from this routine is to be
103 passed to <STRONG>tputs</STRONG>.
105 The <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> routine is described on the <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG>
106 manual page. It can retrieve capabilities by either term-
107 cap or terminfo name.
109 The variables <STRONG>PC</STRONG>, <STRONG>UP</STRONG> and <STRONG>BC</STRONG> are set by <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> to the ter-
110 minfo entry's data for <STRONG>pad_char</STRONG>, <STRONG>cursor_up</STRONG> and
111 <STRONG>backspace_if_not_bs</STRONG>, respectively. <STRONG>UP</STRONG> is not used by
112 ncurses. <STRONG>PC</STRONG> is used in the <STRONG>tdelay_output</STRONG> function. <STRONG>BC</STRONG> is
113 used in the <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> emulation. The variable <STRONG>ospeed</STRONG> is set
114 by ncurses in a system-specific coding to reflect the ter-
119 <H2>RETURN VALUE</H2><PRE>
120 Except where explicitly noted, routines that return an
121 integer return <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4 only speci-
122 fies "an integer value other than <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>") upon successful
125 Routines that return pointers return <STRONG>NULL</STRONG> on error.
130 If you call <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> to fetch <STRONG>ca</STRONG> or any other parameterized
131 string, be aware that it will be returned in terminfo
132 notation, not the older and not-quite-compatible termcap
133 notation. This will not cause problems if all you do with
134 it is call <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> or <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>, which both expand terminfo-
135 style strings as terminfo. (The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> function, if con-
136 figured to support termcap, will check if the string is
137 indeed terminfo-style by looking for "%p" parameters or
138 "$<..>" delays, and invoke a termcap-style parser if the
139 string does not appear to be terminfo).
141 Because terminfo conventions for representing padding in
142 string capabilities differ from termcap's, <STRONG>tputs("50");</STRONG>
143 will put out a literal "50" rather than busy-waiting for
144 50 milliseconds. Cope with it.
146 Note that termcap has nothing analogous to terminfo's <STRONG>sgr</STRONG>
147 string. One consequence of this is that termcap applica-
148 tions assume me (terminfo <STRONG>sgr0</STRONG>) does not reset the alter-
149 nate character set. This implementation checks for, and
150 modifies the data shown to the termcap interface to accom-
151 modate termcap's limitation in this respect.
155 <H2>PORTABILITY</H2><PRE>
156 The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these func-
157 tions. However, they are marked TO BE WITHDRAWN and may
158 be removed in future versions.
160 Neither the XSI Curses standard nor the SVr4 man pages
161 documented the return values of <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> correctly, though
162 all three were in fact returned ever since SVr1. In par-
163 ticular, an omission in the XSI Curses documentation has
164 been misinterpreted to mean that <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> returns <STRONG>OK</STRONG> or
165 <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>. Because the purpose of these functions is to provide
166 compatibility with the <EM>termcap</EM> library, that is a defect
167 in XCurses, Issue 4, Version 2 rather than in ncurses.
169 External variables are provided for support of certain
170 termcap applications. However, termcap applications' use
171 of those variables is poorly documented, e.g., not distin-
172 guishing between input and output. In particular, some
173 applications are reported to declare and/or modify <STRONG>ospeed</STRONG>.
177 <H2>SEE ALSO</H2><PRE>
178 <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="putc.3.html">putc(3)</A></STRONG>.
182 <STRONG><A HREF="curs_termcap.3x.html">curs_termcap(3x)</A></STRONG>
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