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

NAME

       del_curterm, mvcur, putp, restartterm, set_curterm, setterm, setupterm, tigetflag,
       tigetnum, tigetstr, tiparm, tparm, tputs, vid_attr, vid_puts, vidattr, vidputs - curses
       interfaces to terminfo database

SYNOPSIS

       #include <curses.h>
       #include <term.h>

       int setupterm(char *term, int fildes, int *errret);
       int setterm(char *term);
       TERMINAL *set_curterm(TERMINAL *nterm);
       int del_curterm(TERMINAL *oterm);
       int restartterm(char *term, int fildes, int *errret);
       char *tparm(char *str, ...);
       int tputs(const char *str, int affcnt, int (*putc)(int));
       int putp(const char *str);
       int vidputs(chtype attrs, int (*putc)(int));
       int vidattr(chtype attrs);
       int vid_puts(attr_t attrs, short pair, void *opts, int (*putc)(int));
       int vid_attr(attr_t attrs, short pair, void *opts);
       int mvcur(int oldrow, int oldcol, int newrow, int newcol);
       int tigetflag(char *capname);
       int tigetnum(char *capname);
       char *tigetstr(char *capname);
       char *tiparm(const char *str, ...);

DESCRIPTION

       These  low-level  routines  must be called by programs that have to deal directly with the
       terminfo database to handle certain terminal capabilities, such  as  programming  function
       keys.   For  all  other  functionality, curses routines are more suitable and their use is
       recommended.

   Initialization
       Initially, setupterm should be called.  Note that setupterm  is  automatically  called  by
       initscr  and  newterm.   This  defines  the set of terminal-dependent variables [listed in
       terminfo(5)].

       Each initialization routine provides applications with the  terminal  capabilities  either
       directly (via header definitions), or by special functions.  The header files curses.h and
       term.h should be included (in this order)  to  get  the  definitions  for  these  strings,
       numbers, and flags.

       The terminfo variables lines and columns are initialized by setupterm as follows:

       •   If  use_env(FALSE) has been called, values for lines and columns specified in terminfo
           are used.

       •   Otherwise, if the environment variables LINES and  COLUMNS  exist,  their  values  are
           used.   If  these  environment  variables do not exist and the program is running in a
           window, the current window size is used.  Otherwise, if the environment  variables  do
           not  exist,  the  values  for lines and columns specified in the terminfo database are
           used.

       Parameterized strings should be passed through tparm to instantiate  them.   All  terminfo
       strings  [including  the  output  of  tparm]  should  be printed with tputs or putp.  Call
       reset_shell_mode to restore the tty modes before exiting [see kernel(3NCURSES)].

       Programs which use cursor addressing should

       •   output enter_ca_mode upon startup and

       •   output exit_ca_mode before exiting.

       Programs which execute shell subprocesses should

       •   call reset_shell_mode and output exit_ca_mode before the shell is called and

       •   output enter_ca_mode and call reset_prog_mode after returning from the shell.

       The  setupterm  routine  reads  in  the  terminfo  database,  initializing  the   terminfo
       structures,  but does not set up the output virtualization structures used by curses.  The
       terminal type is the character string term; if term is null, the environment variable TERM
       is  used.   All  output  is to file descriptor fildes which is initialized for output.  If
       errret is not null, then setupterm returns OK or ERR and stores  a  status  value  in  the
       integer pointed to by errret.  A return value of OK combined with status of 1 in errret is
       normal.  If ERR is returned, examine errret:

       1    means that the terminal is hardcopy, cannot be used for curses applications.

            setupterm determines if the entry is a hardcopy type by checking  the  hc  (hardcopy)
            capability.

       0    means  that the terminal could not be found, or that it is a generic type, having too
            little information for curses applications to run.

            setupterm determines if the entry is a generic type  by  checking  the  gn  (generic)
            capability.

       -1   means that the terminfo database could not be found.

       If  errret  is  null,  setupterm  prints an error message upon finding an error and exits.
       Thus, the simplest call is:

             setupterm((char *)0, 1, (int *)0);,

       which uses all the defaults and sends the output to stdout.

       The setterm routine was replaced by setupterm.  The call:

             setupterm(term, 1, (int *)0)

       provides the same functionality as setterm(term).  The setterm routine is provided for BSD
       compatibility, and is not recommended for new programs.

   The Terminal State
       The  setupterm  routine  stores its information about the terminal in a TERMINAL structure
       pointed to by the global variable cur_term.  If it detects an error, or decides  that  the
       terminal  is unsuitable (hardcopy or generic), it discards this information, making it not
       available to applications.

       If setupterm is  called  repeatedly  for  the  same  terminal  type,  it  will  reuse  the
       information.  It maintains only one copy of a given terminal's capabilities in memory.  If
       it is called for different terminal types, setupterm allocates new storage for each set of
       terminal capabilities.

       The  set_curterm  routine  sets  cur_term to nterm, and makes all of the terminfo boolean,
       numeric, and string variables use the values from nterm.  It  returns  the  old  value  of
       cur_term.

       The  del_curterm  routine  frees  the space pointed to by oterm and makes it available for
       further use.  If oterm is the same as cur_term, references to any of the terminfo boolean,
       numeric,  and  string  variables  thereafter  may  refer to invalid memory locations until
       another setupterm has been called.

       The restartterm routine is similar to setupterm and initscr,  except  that  it  is  called
       after  restoring memory to a previous state (for example, when reloading a game saved as a
       core image dump).  restartterm assumes that the windows and the input and  output  options
       are  the  same  as  when  memory  was  saved,  but  the terminal type and baud rate may be
       different.  Accordingly, restartterm saves various tty state bits,  calls  setupterm,  and
       then restores the bits.

   Formatting Output
       The  tparm  routine instantiates the string str with parameters pi.  A pointer is returned
       to the result of str with the parameters applied.

       tiparm is a newer form of tparm which uses <stdarg.h> rather than a fixed-parameter  list.
       Its numeric parameters are integers (int) rather than longs.

   Output Functions
       The  tputs  routine applies padding information to the string str and outputs it.  The str
       must be a terminfo string variable or the return value  from  tparm,  tgetstr,  or  tgoto.
       affcnt  is  the  number of lines affected, or 1 if not applicable.  putc is a putchar-like
       routine to which the characters are passed, one at a time.

       The putp routine calls tputs(str, 1, putchar).  Note that the output of putp  always  goes
       to stdout, not to the fildes specified in setupterm.

       The vidputs routine displays the string on the terminal in the video attribute mode attrs,
       which is any combination of the attributes listed in  ncurses(3NCURSES).   The  characters
       are passed to the putchar-like routine putc.

       The vidattr routine is like the vidputs routine, except that it outputs through putchar.

       The  vid_attr and vid_puts routines correspond to vidattr and vidputs, respectively.  They
       use a set of arguments for representing the video attributes plus color, i.e., one of type
       attr_t  for  the  attributes and one of short for the color_pair number.  The vid_attr and
       vid_puts routines are designed to use the attribute constants with the  WA_  prefix.   The
       opts  argument  is  reserved  for future use.  Currently, applications must provide a null
       pointer for that argument.

       The mvcur routine provides low-level cursor motion.  It takes effect  immediately  (rather
       than at the next refresh).

   Terminal Capability Functions
       The  tigetflag,  tigetnum  and  tigetstr  routines  return  the  value  of  the capability
       corresponding to the terminfo capname passed to them, such as xenl.  The capname for  each
       capability  is given in the table column entitled capname code in the capabilities section
       of terminfo(5).

       These routines return special values to denote errors.

       The tigetflag routine returns

       -1     if capname is not a boolean capability, or

       0      if it is canceled or absent from the terminal description.

       The tigetnum routine returns

       -2     if capname is not a numeric capability, or

       -1     if it is canceled or absent from the terminal description.

       The tigetstr routine returns

       (char *)-1
              if capname is not a string capability, or

       0      if it is canceled or absent from the terminal description.

   Terminal Capability Names
       These null-terminated arrays contain the  short  terminfo  names  ("codes"),  the  termcap
       names,  and  the  long  terminfo  names  ("fnames")  for  each  of the predefined terminfo
       variables:
              char *boolnames[], *boolcodes[], *boolfnames[]

              char *numnames[], *numcodes[], *numfnames[]

              char *strnames[], *strcodes[], *strfnames[]

RETURN VALUE

       Routines that return an integer return ERR upon failure and OK (SVr4  only  specifies  "an
       integer  value  other than ERR") upon successful completion, unless otherwise noted in the
       preceding routine descriptions.

       Routines that return pointers always return NULL on error.

       X/Open defines no error conditions.  In this implementation

            del_curterm
                 returns an error if its terminal parameter is null.

            putp calls tputs, returning the same error-codes.

            restartterm
                 returns an error if the associated call to setupterm returns an error.

            setupterm
                 returns an error if it cannot allocate enough  memory,  or  create  the  initial
                 windows (stdscr, curscr, newscr).  Other error conditions are documented above.

            tputs
                 returns  an  error  if  the  string  parameter  is null.  It does not detect I/O
                 errors: X/Open states that tputs ignores the return value of the output function
                 putc.

PORTABILITY

       X/Open notes that vidattr and vidputs may be macros.

       The  function setterm is not described by X/Open and must be considered non-portable.  All
       other functions are as described by X/Open.

       setupterm copies the terminal name to the array ttytype.   This  is  not  part  of  X/Open
       Curses, but is assumed by some applications.

       If configured to use the terminal-driver, e.g., for the MinGW port,

       •   setupterm interprets a missing/empty TERM variable as the special value “unknown”.

       •   setupterm  allows  explicit use of the the windows console driver by checking if $TERM
           is set to “#win32con” or an abbreviation of that string.

       Older versions of ncurses assumed that  the  file  descriptor  passed  to  setupterm  from
       initscr  or  newterm  uses  buffered I/O, and would write to the corresponding stream.  In
       addition to the limitation that the terminal was left in block-buffered mode on exit (like
       SystemV  curses),  it  was  problematic  because  ncurses  did not allow a reliable way to
       cleanup on receiving SIGTSTP.  The current version uses output buffers managed directly by
       ncurses.   Some  of  the  low-level  functions  described in this manual page write to the
       standard output.  They are not signal-safe.   The  high-level  functions  in  ncurses  use
       alternate versions of these functions using the more reliable buffering scheme.

       In  System V Release 4, set_curterm has an int return type and returns OK or ERR.  We have
       chosen to implement the X/Open Curses semantics.

       In System V Release 4, the third argument of tputs has the type int (*putc)(char).

       At least one implementation of X/Open Curses (Solaris) returns a value other  than  OK/ERR
       from tputs.  That returns the length of the string, and does no error-checking.

       X/Open  Curses  prototypes tparm with a fixed number of parameters, rather than a variable
       argument list.  This implementation uses a variable argument list, but can  be  configured
       to  use the fixed-parameter list.  Portable applications should provide 9 parameters after
       the format; zeroes are fine for this purpose.

       In response to comments by Thomas E. Dickey, X/Open Curses Issue  7  proposed  the  tiparm
       function in mid-2009.

       X/Open  notes that after calling mvcur, the curses state may not match the actual terminal
       state, and that an application should touch and refresh the window before resuming  normal
       curses calls.  Both ncurses and System V Release 4 curses implement mvcur using the SCREEN
       data allocated in either initscr or newterm.  So though it is  documented  as  a  terminfo
       function, mvcur is really a curses function which is not well specified.

       X/Open  states  that the old location must be given for mvcur.  This implementation allows
       the caller to use -1's for the old ordinates.  In that case, the old location is unknown.

       Other implementions may not declare the capability name arrays.  Some provide them without
       declaring them.  X/Open does not specify them.

       Extended  terminal  capability  names,  e.g.,  as defined by tic -x, are not stored in the
       arrays described here.

SEE ALSO

       ncurses(3NCURSES),      initscr(3NCURSES),      kernel(3NCURSES),       termcap(3NCURSES),
       curses_variables(3NCURSES), terminfo_variables(3NCURSES), putc(3), terminfo(5)

                                                                               terminfo(3NCURSES)