NAME

       exit_curses, exit_terminfo - check for memory leaks in curses

SYNOPSIS

       #include <curses.h>
       void exit_curses(int code);

       #include <term.h>
       void exit_terminfo(int code);

       /* deprecated (intentionally not declared in curses.h or term.h) */
       void _nc_freeall(void);
       void _nc_free_and_exit(int code);
       void _nc_free_tinfo(int code);

DESCRIPTION

       These functions are used to simplify analysis of memory leaks in the ncurses library.

       Any  implementation  of  curses  must  not free the memory associated with a screen, since
       (even after calling endwin(3NCURSES)), it must be available for use in the  next  call  to
       refresh(3NCURSES).   There  are  also chunks of memory held for performance reasons.  That
       makes it hard to analyze curses applications for memory leaks.  When using  the  specially
       configured debugging version of the ncurses library, applications can call functions which
       free those chunks of memory, simplifying the process of memory-leak checking.

       Some of the functions are named with a “_nc_” prefix because they are not intended for use
       in the non-debugging library:

       _nc_freeall
            This frees (almost) all of the memory allocated by ncurses.

       _nc_free_and_exit
            This frees the memory allocated by ncurses (like _nc_freeall), and exits the program.
            It is preferred over _nc_freeall since some of that memory may be  required  to  keep
            the application running.  Simply exiting (with the given exit-code) is safer.

       _nc_free_tinfo
            Use  this  function  if  only  the  low-level  terminfo  functions (and corresponding
            library) are used.  Like  _nc_free_and_exit,  it  exits  the  program  after  freeing
            memory.

       The  functions prefixed “_nc” are normally not available; they must be configured into the
       library at build time using the --disable-leaks option.  That compiles-in code that  frees
       memory that normally would not be freed.

       The  exit_curses  and exit_terminfo functions call _nc_free_and_exit and _nc_free_tinfo if
       the library is configured  to  support  memory-leak  checking.   If  the  library  is  not
       configured to support memory-leak checking, they simply call exit.

RETURN VALUE

       These functions do not return a value.

PORTABILITY

       These  functions  are  not  part  of X/Open Curses; nor do other implementations of curses
       provide a similar feature.

       In any implementation of X/Open Curses,  an  application  can  free  part  of  the  memory
       allocated by curses:

       •   The  portable  part  of  exit_curses  can be freed using delscreen, passing the SCREEN
           pointer returned by newterm.

           In some implementations, there is a global variable sp which could be used,  e.g.,  if
           the screen were only initialized using initscr.

       •   The portable part of exit_terminfo can be freed using del_curterm.

           In this case, there is a global variable cur_term which can be used as parameter.

SEE ALSO

       ncurses(3NCURSES), initscr(3NCURSES), terminfo(3NCURSES)