Ubuntu Manpage: initscr, newterm, endwin, isendwin, set_term, delscreen

Provided by: ncurses-doc_5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1_all

NAME

       initscr, newterm, endwin, isendwin, set_term, delscreen - curses screen initialization and
       manipulation routines

SYNOPSIS

       #include <curses.h>

       WINDOW *initscr(void);
       int endwin(void);
       bool isendwin(void);
       SCREEN *newterm(char *type, FILE *outfd, FILE *infd);
       SCREEN *set_term(SCREEN *new);
       void delscreen(SCREEN* sp);

DESCRIPTION

initscr is normally the first curses routine to call when initializing a program. A few
special routines sometimes need to be called before it; these are slk_init, filter,
ripoffline, use_env. For multiple-terminal applications, newterm may be called before
initscr.

The initscr code determines the terminal type and initializes all curses data structures.
initscr also causes the first call to refresh to clear the screen. If errors occur,
initscr writes an appropriate error message to standard error and exits; otherwise, a
pointer is returned to stdscr.

A program that outputs to more than one terminal should use the newterm routine for each
terminal instead of initscr. A program that needs to inspect capabilities, so it can
continue to run in a line-oriented mode if the terminal cannot support a screen-oriented
program, would also use newterm. The routine newterm should be called once for each
terminal. It returns a variable of type SCREEN * which should be saved as a reference to
that terminal. The arguments are the type of the terminal to be used in place of $TERM, a
file pointer for output to the terminal, and another file pointer for input from the
terminal (if type is NULL, $TERM will be used). The program must also call endwin for
each terminal being used before exiting from curses. If newterm is called more than once
for the same terminal, the first terminal referred to must be the last one for which
endwin is called.

A program should always call endwin before exiting or escaping from curses mode
temporarily. This routine restores tty modes, moves the cursor to the lower left-hand
corner of the screen and resets the terminal into the proper non-visual mode. Calling
refresh or doupdate after a temporary escape causes the program to resume visual mode.

The isendwin routine returns TRUE if endwin has been called without any subsequent calls
to wrefresh, and FALSE otherwise.

The set_term routine is used to switch between different terminals. The screen reference
new becomes the new current terminal. The previous terminal is returned by the routine.
This is the only routine which manipulates SCREEN pointers; all other routines affect only
the current terminal.

The delscreen routine frees storage associated with the SCREEN data structure. The endwin
routine does not do this, so delscreen should be called after endwin if a particular
SCREEN is no longer needed.

RETURN VALUE

       endwin returns the integer ERR upon failure and OK upon successful completion.

       Routines that return pointers always return NULL on error.

       X/Open defines no error conditions.  In this implementation endwin returns an error if the
       terminal was not initialized.

NOTES

       Note that initscr and newterm may be macros.

PORTABILITY