curs_termcap(3) UNIX Programmer's Manual curs_termcap(3)NAME
tgetent, tgetflag, tgetnum, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs - direct
curses interface to the terminfo capability database
SYNOPSIS
#include <curses.h>
#include <term.h>
extern char PC; extern char * UP; extern char * BC; extern
short ospeed;
int tgetent(char *bp, const char *name);
int tgetflag(char *id);
int tgetnum(char *id);
char *tgetstr(char *id, char **area);
char *tgoto(const char *cap, int col, int row);
int tputs(const char *str, int affcnt, int (*putc)(int));
DESCRIPTION
These routines are included as a conversion aid for programs
that use the termcap library. Their parameters are the same
and the routines are emulated using the terminfo database.
Thus, they can only be used to query the capabilities of
entries for which a terminfo entry has been compiled.
The tgetent routine loads the entry for name. It returns 1
on success, 0 if there is no such entry, and -1 if the ter-
minfo database could not be found. The emulation ignores the
buffer pointer bp.
The tgetflag routine gets the boolean entry for id, or zero
if it is not available.
The tgetnum routine gets the numeric entry for id, or -1 if
it is not available.
The tgetstr routine returns the string entry for id, or zero
if it is not available. Use tputs to output the returned
string. The return value will also be copied to the buffer
pointed to by area, and the area value will be updated to
point past the null ending this value.
Only the first two characters of the id parameter of tget-
flag, tgetnum and tgetstr are compared in lookups.
The tgoto routine instantiates the parameters into the given
capability. The output from this routine is to be passed to
tputs.
The tputs routine is described on the curs_terminfo(3)
manual page. It can retrieve capabilities by either termcap
or terminfo name.
The variables PC, UP and BC are set by tgetent to the
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terminfo entry's data for pad_char, cursor_up and
backspace_if_not_bs, respectively. UP is not used by
ncurses. PC is used in the tdelay_output function. BC is
used in the tgoto emulation. The variable ospeed is set by
ncurses in a system-specific coding to reflect the terminal
speed.
RETURN VALUE
Except where explicitly noted, routines that return an
integer return ERR upon failure and OK (SVr4 only specifies
"an integer value other than ERR") upon successful comple-
tion.
Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.
BUGS
If you call tgetstr to fetch ca or any other parameterized
string, be aware that it will be returned in terminfo nota-
tion, not the older and not-quite-compatible termcap nota-
tion. This won't cause problems if all you do with it is
call tgoto or tparm, which both expand terminfo-style
strings as terminfo. (The tgoto function, if configured to
support termcap, will check if the string is indeed
terminfo-style by looking for "%p" parameters or "$<..>"
delays, and invoke a termcap-style parser if the string does
not appear to be terminfo).
Because terminfo conventions for representing padding in
string capabilities differ from termcap's, tputs("50"); will
put out a literal "50" rather than busy-waiting for 50 mil-
liseconds. Cope with it.
Note that termcap has nothing analogous to terminfo's sgr
string. One consequence of this is that termcap applications
assume me (terminfo sgr0) does not reset the alternate char-
acter set. This implementation checks for, and modifies the
data shown to the termcap interface to accommodate termcap's
limitation in this respect.
PORTABILITY
The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions.
However, they are marked TO BE WITHDRAWN and may be removed
in future versions.
Neither the XSI Curses standard nor the SVr4 man pages docu-
mented the return values of tgetent correctly, though all
three were in fact returned ever since SVr1. In particular,
an omission in the XSI Curses documentation has been misin-
terpreted to mean that tgetent returns OK or ERR. Because
the purpose of these functions is to provide compatibility
with the termcap library, that is a defect in XCurses, Issue
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curs_termcap(3) UNIX Programmer's Manual curs_termcap(3)
4, Version 2 rather than in ncurses.
External variables are provided for support of certain
termcap applications. However, termcap applications' use of
those variables is poorly documented, e.g., not distinguish-
ing between input and output. In particular, some applica-
tions are reported to declare and/or modify ospeed.
SEE ALSOcurses(3), terminfo(5), putc(3).
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