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* @Id: curs_termcap.3x,v 1.15 2001/07/21 23:33:02 tom Exp @
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<TITLE>curs_termcap 3x</TITLE><link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
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<H1>curs_termcap 3x</H1>
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<PRE>
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</PRE>
<H2>NAME</H2><PRE>
<STRONG>tgetent</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG>, <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> - direct
<STRONG>curses</STRONG> interface to the terminfo capability database
</PRE>
<H2>SYNOPSIS</H2><PRE>
<STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
<STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><term.h></STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetent(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*bp,</STRONG> <STRONG>const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*name);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetflag(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tgetnum(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id);</STRONG>
<STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tgetstr(char</STRONG> <STRONG>*id,</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>**area);</STRONG>
<STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*tgoto(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*cap,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>col,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>row);</STRONG>
<STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>tputs(const</STRONG> <STRONG>char</STRONG> <STRONG>*str,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>affcnt,</STRONG> <STRONG>int</STRONG> <STRONG>(*putc)(int));</STRONG>
</PRE>
<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2><PRE>
These routines are included as a conversion aid for pro-
grams that use the <EM>termcap</EM> library. Their parameters are
the same and the routines are emulated using the <EM>terminfo</EM>
database. Thus, they can only be used to query the capa-
bilities of entries for which a terminfo entry has been
compiled.
The <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> routine loads the entry for <EM>name</EM>. It returns
1 on success, 0 if there is no such entry, and -1 if the
terminfo database could not be found. The emulation
ignores the buffer pointer <EM>bp</EM>.
The <STRONG>tgetflag</STRONG> routine gets the boolean entry for <EM>id</EM>, or
zero if it is not available.
The <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> routine gets the numeric entry for <EM>id</EM>, or -1
if it is not available.
The <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> routine returns the string entry for <EM>id</EM>, or
zero if it is not available. Use <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> to output the
returned string. The return value will also be copied to
the buffer pointed to by <EM>area</EM>, and the <EM>area</EM> value will be
updated to point past the null ending this value.
Only the first two characters of the <STRONG>id</STRONG> parameter of <STRONG>tget-</STRONG>
<STRONG>flag</STRONG>, <STRONG>tgetnum</STRONG> and <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> are compared in lookups.
The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> routine instantiates the parameters into the
given capability. The output from this routine is to be
passed to <STRONG>tputs</STRONG>.
The <STRONG>tputs</STRONG> routine is described on the <STRONG><A HREF="curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo(3x)</A></STRONG>
manual page. It can retrieve capabilities by either term-
cap or terminfo name.
</PRE>
<H2>RETURN VALUE</H2><PRE>
Except where explicitly noted, routines that return an
integer return <STRONG>ERR</STRONG> upon failure and <STRONG>OK</STRONG> (SVr4 only
specifies "an integer value other than <STRONG>ERR</STRONG>") upon success-
ful completion.
Routines that return pointers return <STRONG>NULL</STRONG> on error.
</PRE>
<H2>BUGS</H2><PRE>
If you call <STRONG>tgetstr</STRONG> to fetch <STRONG>ca</STRONG> or any other parameterized
string, be aware that it will be returned in terminfo
notation, not the older and not-quite-compatible termcap
notation. This won't cause problems if all you do with it
is call <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> or <STRONG>tparm</STRONG>, which both expand terminfo-style
strings as terminfo. (The <STRONG>tgoto</STRONG> 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, <STRONG>tputs("50");</STRONG>
will put out a literal "50" rather than busy-waiting for
50 milliseconds. Cope with it.
</PRE>
<H2>PORTABILITY</H2><PRE>
The XSI Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these func-
tions. However, they are marked TO BE WITHDRAWN and may
be removed in future versions.
Neither the XSI Curses standard nor the SVr4 man pages
documented the return values of <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> correctly, though
all three were in fact returned ever since SVr1. In par-
ticular, an omission in the XSI Curses documentation has
been misinterpreted to mean that <STRONG>tgetent</STRONG> returns <STRONG>OK</STRONG> or
<STRONG>ERR</STRONG>. Because the purpose of these functions is to provide
compatibility with the <EM>termcap</EM> library, that is a defect
in XCurses, Issue 4, Version 2 rather than in ncurses.
</PRE>
<H2>SEE ALSO</H2><PRE>
<STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="putc.3S.html">putc(3S)</A></STRONG>.
</PRE>
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