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)