Manual Pages for UNIX Operating System command usage for man curs_termcap

Miscellaneous Library Functions                  curs_termcap(3X)



NAME
     tgetent, tgetflag, tgetnum, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs  -  direct
     curses interface to the terminfo capability database

SYNOPSIS
     #include 
     #include 

     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.





SunOS 5.10                Last change:                          1






Miscellaneous Library Functions                  curs_termcap(3X)



     The tputs routine  is  described  on  the  curs_terminfo(3X)
     manual page.  It can retrieve capabilities by either termcap
     or terminfo name.

     The variables PC, UP and BC are set by tgetent to  the  ter-
     minfo    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 will not 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 applica-
     tions assume me (terminfo sgr0) does not reset the alternate
     character 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,



SunOS 5.10                Last change:                          2






Miscellaneous Library Functions                  curs_termcap(3X)



     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
     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 ALSO
     curses(3X), terminfo(5), putc(3).









































SunOS 5.10                Last change:                          3