NAME

       libtecla - An interactive command-line input library.

SYNOPSIS

       gcc ... -ltecla -lcurses

DESCRIPTION

       The tecla library provides programs with interactive command line editing facilities, similar to those of
       the unix tcsh shell. In addition to simple command-line editing, it supports recall of previously entered
       command  lines,  TAB  completion  of  file  names  or  other  tokens,  and in-line wild-card expansion of
       filenames. The internal functions which perform file-name completion and  wild-card  expansion  are  also
       available externally for optional use by the calling program.

       The various parts of the library are documented in the following man pages:

         tecla(7)              -  Use level documentation of the
                               command-line editing facilities
                               provided by gl_get_line().
         gl_get_line(3)        -  The interactive line-input module.
         gl_io_mode(3)         -  How to use gl_get_line() in an
                               incremental, non-blocking fashion.
         cpl_complete_word(3)  -  The word completion module.
         ef_expand_file(3)     -  The filename expansion module.
         pca_lookup_file(3)    -  A directory-list based filename
                               lookup and completion module.

       In addition there is one optional application distributed with the library:

         enhance(1)            -  Add command-line editing to third
                                  party applications.

THREAD SAFETY

       If  the  library  is  compiled with -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L, reentrant versions of as many functions as
       possible are used. This includes using getpwuid_r() and getpwnam_r() instead of getpwuid() and getpwnam()
       when  looking  up the home directories of specific users in the password file (for ~user/ expansion), and
       readdir_r() instead of readdir() for reading  directory  entries  when  doing  filename  completion.  The
       reentrant  version  of  the  library is usually called libtecla_r.a instead of libtecla.a, so if only the
       latter is available, it probably isn't the correct version to link with threaded programs.

       Reentrant functions for iterating through the password file aren't available,  so  when  the  library  is
       compiled  to  be reentrant, TAB completion of incomplete usernames in ~username/ expressions is disabled.
       This doesn't disable expansion of complete ~username expressions,  which  can  be  done  reentrantly,  or
       expansion of the parts of filenames that follow them, so this doesn't remove much functionality.

       The  terminfo  functions  setupterm(), tigetstr(), tigetnum() and tputs() also aren't reentrant, but very
       few programs will want to interact with multiple terminals, so this shouldn't prevent this  library  from
       being used in threaded programs.

LIBRARY VERSION NUMBER

       The version number of the library can be queried using the following function.

        void libtecla_version(int *major, int *minor, int *micro);

       On  return,  this function records the three components of the libtecla version number in *major, *minor,
       *micro. The formal meaning of the three components is as follows.

        major - Incrementing this number implies that a change has
                been made to the library's public interface, which
                makes it binary incompatible  with programs that
                were linked with previous shared versions of the
                tecla library.

        minor - This number is incremented by one whenever
                additional functionality, such as new functions or
                modules, are added to the library.

        micro - This is incremented whenever modifications to the
                library are made which make no changes to the
                public interface, but which fix bugs and/or improve
                the behind-the-scenes implementation.

TRIVIA

       In Spanish, a "tecla" is the key of a keyboard. Since this library centers on keyboard input,  and  given
       that I wrote much of the library while working in Chile, this seemed like a suitable name.

FILES

       libtecla.a    -   The tecla library.
       libtecla.h    -   The tecla header file.
       ~/.teclarc    -   The tecla personal customization file.

SEE ALSO

       gl_get_line(3), tecla(7), gl_io_mode(3), ef_expand_file(3),
       cpl_complete_word(3), pca_lookup_file(3), enhance(1)

AUTHOR

       Martin Shepherd  (mcs@astro.caltech.edu)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

       Markus Gyger  - Lots of assistance, including help with
                       shared libraries, configuration information,
                       particularly for Solaris; modifications to
                       support C++ compilers, improvements for ksh
                       users, faster cursor motion, output
                       buffering, and changes to make gl_get_line()
                       8-bit clean.
       Mike MacFaden - Suggestions, feedback and testing that led
                       to many of the major new functions that were
                       added in version 1.4.0.
       Tim Eliseo    - Many vi-mode bindings and fixes.

                                                                                                     libtecla(3)