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curses

Section: C Library Functions (3)
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NAME

curses - Terminal screen-handling and optimization package  

SYNOPSIS

c89 [flag...] file -l curses [library...]

cc [flag...] file -lcurses [-llibrary...]

#include <curses.h>


 

DESCRIPTION

The Curses library routines give the user a terminal-independent method of updating character screens with reasonable optimization. A C program using these routines must be compiled with the -l curses operand. (The cc command supports only -lcurses as an operand. The c89 command supports -lcurses in addition to the space-separated format.) See NOTES for information about compiling in the different definition environments required for the standard and backward compatible subsets of functions, macros, and other definitions that the library supports.

The Curses package allows: overall screen, window, and pad manipulation; output to windows and pads; reading terminal input; control over terminal and Curses input and output options; environment query routines; color manipulation; use of soft label keys; terminfo database access; and access to low-level Curses routines.
 

Screen, Windows, and Terminals

A screen is the physical output device of the terminal. In Curses, a SCREEN data type is an opaque data type associated with a terminal. Each window (described later) is associated with a SCREEN.

The Curses library permits manipulation of data structures, called windows, which can be thought of as two-dimensional arrays of characters and their renditions representing all or part of a terminal's physical screen. Windows do not have to correspond to the entire screen. It is possible to create smaller windows and also to indicate that a window is only partially visible on the screen. It is possible to create windows larger than the terminal screen by using pads. A default window called stdscr, which is the size of the terminal screen, is supplied. Other windows may be created with the newterm or newwin function.

Windows are referred to by variables declared as WINDOW *. These data structures are manipulated with routines described on Section 3 reference pages whose names begin ``curs_''. Among the most basic routines are move and addch, which manipulate the default window stdscr, and refresh, which tells Curses to update the user's terminal screen from stdscr. More general versions of these routines enable specific windows to be manipulated and refreshed.

Each window has a flag to indicate whether the information in the window could differ from the information displayed on the terminal device. Making any change to the contents of the window, moving or modifying the window, or setting the window's cursor position sets this flag (in other words, touches the window). Refreshing the window clears this flag.

A subwindow is a window, created within another window called the parent window, and positioned relative to the parent window. A subwindow can be created by calling derwin, subpad, or subwin. Changes to either the parent window or the subwindow affect both. Window clipping is not a property of subwindows.

The term ancestor refers to a window's parent, or its parent, or so on.

Derived windows are subwindows whose position is defined by reference to the parent window rather than in absolute screen coordinates. Otherwise, derived windows are no different from subwindows.

Special windows called pads may also be manipulated. Pads are windows that are not necessarily associated with a viewable part of the screen. Pads can be larger than the size of the screen. Use a pad whenever the application requires a window that is larger than the terminal screen. A subpad is a specialized case of a subwindow created within a pad. See curs_pad(3) for more information.

A terminal is the logical input and output device through which character-based applications interact with the user. TERMINAL is an opaque data type associated with a terminal. A TERMINAL data structure primarily contains information about the capabilities of the terminal, as defined by the terminfo database. A TERMINAL data structure also contains information about the terminal modes and current state for input and output operations. Each screen is associated with a TERMINAL data structure.

In addition to drawing characters on the screen, applications can include video attributes and colors, causing the characters to show up in such modes as underlined, reverse video, or color on terminals that support such display enhancements. Applications can also specify line-drawing characters as output. On input, Curses can translate arrow and function keys that transmit escape sequences into single values. The video attributes, line-drawing characters, and input values use names, such as A_REVERSE, WA_UNDERLINE, ACS_VLINE, ACS_HLINE, and KEY_LEFT, that are defined in <curses.h>. If the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS are set, or if the program is executing in a window environment, line and column information in the environment overrides information read from the terminfo database. This would affect a program running in a window environment, for example, where the size of a screen is changeable.

If the environment variable TERMINFO is defined, Curses checks for a local terminal definition before checking in the standard place. For example, if TERM is set to wyse150, then the standard pathname of the compiled terminal definition is /usr/share/lib/terminfo/w/wyse150. (The w in this path is copied from the first letter of wyse150 to avoid creation of huge directories.) However, if TERMINFO is set to $HOME/myterms, Curses first checks for $HOME/myterms/w/wyse150 and, if no definition is found, then checks for /usr/share/lib/terminfo/w/wyse150. The search path beginning with $HOME is useful for developing and testing experimental definitions or when write permission in /usr/share/lib/terminfo is not available.

The integer variables LINES and COLS are defined in <curses.h> and are filled in by initscr with the size of the screen. The constants TRUE and FALSE have the values 1 and 0, respectively.

The Curses routines also define the WINDOW * variable curscr, which is used for certain low-level operations like clearing and redrawing a screen containing garbage. The curscr variable can be used in only a few routines.
 

Multicolumn Characters

Some character sets define multicolumn characters that occupy more than one column position when displayed on the screen.

Writing a character whose width is greater than the width of the destination window is an error.
 

Attributes

Each character can be displayed with attributes, such as underlining, reverse video, or color on terminals that support such display enhancements. Current attributes of a window are applied to all characters that are written into the window by waddch, wadd_wch, waddstr, waddchstr, waddwstr, waddwchstr, or wprintw. Attributes can be combined.

The <curses.h> file defines constants that applications use to specify attributes. Names of these constants start with A_. The A_ constants manipulate attributes in objects of type int. Additional attributes can be specified using constants with the WA_ prefix. The WA_ constants manipulate attributes in objects of type attr_t.

Two constants that begin with A_ and WA_ and that represent the same terminal capability refer to the same attribute in the terminfo database and in the window data structure. The effect on a window does not differ depending on whether the application specifies A_ or WA_ constants. For example, when an application updates window attributes using the interfaces that support the A_ values, a query of the window attribute using the function that returns WA_ values reflects this update. When it updates window attributes using the interfaces that support the WA_ values, for which corresponding A_ values exist, a query of the window attribute using the function that returns A_ values reflects this update.
 

Rendition

The rendition of a character displayed on the screen is its attributes and a color pair.

The rendition of a character written to the screen becomes a property of the character and moves with the character through any of the following operations: Scrolling Line or character insertion Line or character deletion

To the extent possible on a particular terminal, a character's rendition corresponds to the graphic rendition of the character put on the screen.

If a given terminal does not support a rendition that an application program is trying to use, Curses may substitute a different rendition.

Colors are always used in pairs (referred to as color-pairs). A color-pair consists of a foreground color (for characters) and a background color (for the field on which the characters are displayed).
 

Nonspacing Characters

Some character sets may contain nonspacing characters. Nonspacing characters are those for which wcwidth returns a width of zero. The application may write nonspacing characters to a window. Every nonspacing character in a window is associated with a spacing character and modifies the spacing character. Nonspacing characters in a window cannot be addressed separately. A nonspacing character is implicitly addressed whenever a Curses operation affects the spacing character with which the nonspacing character is associated.

Nonspacing characters do not support attributes. For interfaces that use wide characters and attributes, the attributes are ignored if the wide character is a nonspacing character. Multicolumn characters have a single set of attributes for all columns. The association of nonspacing characters with spacing characters can be controlled by the application using the wide character interfaces. The wide-character string functions provide codeset-dependent association.

Two typical effects of a nonspacing character associated with a spacing character called c, are as follows: The nonspacing character may modify the appearance of c. For instance, there may be nonspacing characters that add diacritical marks to characters. However, there may also be spacing characters with built-in diacritical marks. The nonspacing character may bridge c to the character following c. Examples of this usage are the formation of ligatures and the conversion of characters into compound display forms, words, or ideograms.
 

Complex Characters

A complex character is a set of associated characters, which may include a spacing character, any nonspacing characters associated with it, or both. A spacing complex character is a spacing character followed by its associated nonspacing characters. A nonspacing complex character is one or more nonspacing characters without an associated spacing character. An example of a coded character set that has complex characters is ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993.

A complex character can be written to the screen. If the complex character does not include a spacing character, any nonspacing characters are associated with the spacing complex character that exists at the specified screen position. When the application reads information back from the screen, it obtains spacing complex characters.

The cchar_t data type represents a complex character and its rendition. When cchar_t represents a complex character without a spacing character, then its rendition is not used; when it is written to the screen, it uses the rendition specified by the spacing character already displayed.

An object of type cchar_t can be initialized by using setcchar and the object's contents can be extracted by using getcchar. The behavior of functions that take a cchar_t input argument is undefined if the application provides a cchar_t value that was not initialized in this way.
 

Window Properties

Windows have the following properties that affect the placing of characters in the window: Each window has a rendition, which is combined with the rendition component of the window's background property (described next). Each window has a background property. The background property specifies the following: A spacing complex character (the background character) that will be used in a variety of situations where visible information is deleted from the screen. A rendition to use in displaying the background character in those situations, and in other situations.
 

Screen Addressing

Many Curses functions use a coordinate pair for screen addressing. In the DESCRIPTION, coordinate locations are represented as (y, x) since the y argument always precedes the x argument in the function call. These coordinates denote a line/column position, not a character position.

The coordinate y always refers to the row (of the window), and x always refers to the column. The first row and the first column are numbered 0, not 1. The position (0, 0) is the window's origin.

For example, for terminals that display the ISO 8859-1 character set (with left-to-right writing), (0, 0) represents the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

Functions that start with mv take arguments that specify a (y, x) position and move the cursor (as though move were called) before performing the requested action. As part of the requested action, further cursor movement may occur as specified on the respective reference page.
 

Adding (Overwriting) Characters

The Curses functions that contain the word add, such as addch, specify one or more characters to replace (overwrite) characters already in the window. If these functions specify only nonspacing characters, they are appended to a spacing character already in the window.

When replacing a multicolumn character with a character that requires fewer columns, the new character is added starting at the specified or implied column position. All columns that the former multicolumn character occupied that the new character does not require are orphaned columns, which are filled using the background character and window rendition.

Replacing a character with a character that requires more columns also replaces one or more subsequent characters on the line. This process may also produce orphaned columns.
 

Truncation, Wrapping, and Scrolling

If the application specifies a character or a string of characters such that writing them to a window would extend beyond the end of the line (for example, if the application tries to deposit any multicolumn character at the last column in a line), the behavior depends on whether the function supports line wrapping: If the function does not wrap, it fails. If the function wraps, then it places one or more characters in the window at the start of the next line, beginning with the first character that would not completely fit on the original line.

If the final character on the line is a multicolumn character that does not completely fit on the line, the entire character wraps to the next line, and columns at the end of the original line may be orphaned.
If the original line was the last line in the window, the wrap may cause a scroll to occur as follows: If scrolling is enabled, a scroll occurs. The contents of the first line of the window are lost. The contents of each remaining line in the window move to the previous line. The last line of the window is filled with any characters that wrapped. Any remaining space on the last line is filled with the background character and rendition. If scrolling is disabled, any characters that would extend beyond the last column of the last line are truncated. The scrollok function enables and disables scrolling.

Some add functions move the cursor just beyond the end of the last character added. If this position is beyond the end of a line, wrapping and scrolling occur under the conditions specified in the preceding list.
 

Inserting Characters

Insertion functions (such as insch) insert characters immediately before the character at the specified or current cursor position.

The insertion shifts all characters that were formerly at or beyond the cursor position on the cursor line toward the end of that line. The disposition of the characters that would thus extend beyond the end of the line depends on whether the function supports wrapping: If the function does not wrap, those characters are removed from the window. This may produce orphaned columns. If the function supports wrapping, the effect is as described earlier.

If multicolumn characters are displayed, some cursor positions are within a multicolumn character but not at the beginning of a character. Any request to insert data at a position that is not the beginning of a multicolumn character will be adjusted so that the actual cursor position is at the beginning of the multicolumn character in which the requested position occurs.

There are no warning indications relative to cursor relocation. The application should not maintain an image of the cursor position, since this constitutes placing terminal-specific information in the application and defeats the purpose of using Curses.

Portable applications cannot assume that a cursor position specified in an insert function is a reusable indication of the actual cursor position.
 

Deleting Characters

Deletion functions (such as delch) delete the simple or complex character at the specified or implied cursor position. Regardless of which column of the character on which the cursor is positioned, all column positions are replaced by the background character and window rendition. The cursor is not relocated. If a character-deletion operation would cause a previous wrapping operation to be undone, then the results are unspecified.
 

Window Operations

Overlapping a window (that is, placing one window on top of another) and overwriting a window (that is, copying the contents of one window into another) follows the operation of overwriting multicolumn glyphs around its edge. Any orphaned columns are handled as described in the preceding sections on character operations.
 

Characters that Straddle the Subwindow Border

A subwindow can be defined such that multicolumn characters straddle the subwindow border. The character operations deal with these straddling characters as follows: Reading the subwindow with a function such as in_wch reads the entire straddling character. Adding, inserting, or deleting characters in the subwindow deletes the entire straddling character before the requested operation begins and does not relocate the cursor. Scrolling lines in the subwindow has the following effects: A straddling character at the start of the line is completely erased before the scroll operation begins. A straddling character at the end of the line moves in the direction of the scroll and continues to straddle the subwindow border. Column positions outside the subwindow at the straddling character's former position are orphaned unless another straddling character scrolls into those positions.

If the application calls a function such as border, the preceding situations do not occur because writing the border on the subwindow deletes any straddling characters.

In the preceding cases involving multicolumn characters, operations confined to a subwindow can modify the screen outside the subwindow. Therefore, saving a subwindow, performing operations within the subwindow, and then restoring the subwindow may disturb the appearance of the screen. To overcome these effects (for example, for pop-up windows), the application should refresh the entire screen.
 

Special Characters

The following table describes cursor movement that results from processing of special characters.

In Curses functions that do not move the cursor based on the information placed in the window, special characters are used only within a string to affect the placement of subsequent characters. In this case, the cursor movement described in the table does not persist in the visible cursor beyond the end of the operation.

In functions that do move the cursor, the special characters can be used to affect the placement of subsequent characters and to achieve movement of the visible cursor.


Special CharacterEffect on Cursor

backspace Unless the cursor was already in column 0, backspace moves the cursor one column toward the start of the current line; any characters after the backspace are added or inserted starting there.
carriage return Unless the cursor was already in column 0, carriage return moves the cursor to the start of the current line. Any characters after the carriage return are added or inserted starting there.
newline In an add operation, Curses adds the background character into successive columns until reaching the end of the line. Scrolling occurs as described earlier. Any characters after the newline character are inserted starting at the start of the new line.

In an insert operation, newline moves the cursor to the start of a new line. Any characters after the newline character are placed at the start of the new line.

The filter function may inhibit this processing.

tab Tab characters in text move subsequent characters to the next horizontal tab stop. By default, tab stops are in column 0, 8, 16, and so on.

In an insert or add operation, Curses inserts or adds, respectively, the background character into successive columns until reaching the next tab stop. If there are no more tab stops in the current line, wrapping and scrolling occur as described earlier.



 

Control Characters

The Curses functions that perform special-character processing conceptually convert control characters to the caret (^) character, followed by a second character (which is an uppercase letter if it is alphabetic), and write this string to the window in place of the control character. The functions that retrieve text from the window do not retrieve the original control character.
 

Rendition of Characters Placed into a Window

When the application adds or inserts characters into a window, assuming the character is not the space character, then the window receives the following: The character that the application specifies The color that the application specifies or the window color if the application does not specify a color The attributes specified

In this case, a logically inclusive OR operation combines the specified attributes with the window attributes.

If the character that the application adds or inserts into a window is the space character, then the window receives: The background character The color that the application specifies, or the window color if the application does not specify a color The attributes specified

In this case, a logically inclusive OR operation combines the specified attributes with the window attributes.
 

Input Processing

The Curses input model provides a variety of ways to obtain input from the keyboard.
 

Keypad Processing

The application can enable or disable keypad translation by calling keypad. When translation is enabled, Curses attempts to translate a sequence of terminal input that represents the pressing of a function key into a single key code. When translation is disabled, Curses passes terminal input to the application without such translation, and the application must interpret the input.

The complete set of key codes for keypad keys that Curses can process is specified by the constants defined in <curses.h> whose names begin with KEY_. Each terminal type described in the terminfo database may support some or all of these key codes. The terminfo database specifies the sequence of input characters from the terminal type that correspond to each key code.

Curses cannot translate keypad keys on terminals where pressing the keys does not transmit a unique sequence.

When translation is enabled and a character that could be the beginning of a function key (such as escape) is received, Curses notes the time and begins accumulating characters. If Curses receives additional characters that represent the pressing of a keypad key, within an unspecified interval from the time the first character was received, then Curses converts this input to a key code for presentation to the application. If such characters are not received during this interval, translation of this input does not occur and the individual characters are presented to the application separately. (Because Curses waits for this interval to accumulate a key code, many terminals experience a delay between the time a user presses the escape key and the time the escape is returned to the application.)

In addition, No Timeout Mode provides that in any case where Curses has received part of a function key sequence, Curses waits indefinitely for the complete key sequence. The ``unspecified interval'' in the previous paragraph becomes infinite in No Timeout Mode. No Timeout Mode allows the use of function keys over slow communication lines. No Timeout Mode not only lets the user type the individual characters of a function key sequence but also delays application response when the user types a character (not a function key) that begins the function key sequence. For this reason, in No Timeout Mode, many terminals will appear to hang between the time a user presses the escape key and the time another key is pressed. No Timeout Mode is switchable by calling notimeout.

If any special characters are defined or redefined to be characters that are members of a function key sequence, then Curses will be unable to recognize and translate those function keys.

Several of the modes discussed in the next section are described in terms of availability of input. If keypad translation is enabled, then input is not available from the time Curses begins receiving a keypad sequence until the sequence is completely received or until the interval has elapsed.
 

Input Modes

Four mutually-exclusive Curses input modes let the application control the effect of certain characters. In the following table, the term ``special characters'' represents flow-control characters, the interrupt character, the erase character, and the kill character:


Input ModeEffect

Cooked Mode This mode achieves normal line-at-a-time processing with all special characters handled outside the application. Cooked mode achieves the same effect as canonical-mode input processing as specified in the XBD specification. The state of the ISIG and IXON options are not changed upon entering this mode by calling cbreak, and are set upon entering this mode by calling noraw.
cbreak Mode Characters typed by the user are immediately available to the application and Curses does not perform special processing on either the erase character or the kill character. An application can select cbreak mode to do its own line editing but to let the abort character be used to abort the task. This mode achieves the same effect as noncanonical mode, Case B input processing (with MIN set to 1 and ICRNL cleared) as specified in the XBD specification. The state of the ISIG and IXON options are not changed upon entering this mode.
Half-Delay Mode The effect is the same as cbreak Mode, except that input functions wait until a character is available or an interval defined by the application elapses, whichever comes first. This mode achieves the same effect as noncanonical mode, Case C input processing (with TIME set to the value specified by the application) as specified in the XBD specification. The state of the ISIG and IXON options are not changed upon entering this mode.
Raw Mode Raw mode gives the application maximum control over terminal input. The application sees each character as it is typed. This achieves the same effect as noncanonical mode, Case D input processing as specified in the XBD specification. The ISIG and IXON options are cleared upon entering this mode.

The terminal interface settings are recorded when the process calls initscr or newterm to initialize Curses and restores these settings when endwin is called. The initial input mode for Curses operations is cbreak mode.

The behavior of the Break key depends on other bits in the display driver that are not set by Curses.
 

Delay Modes

Two mutually-exclusive delay modes specify how quickly certain Curses functions return to the application when there is no terminal input waiting when the function is called:

No DelayThe function fails.
Delay The application waits until the implementation passes text through to the application. If cbreak or Raw Mode is set, the application waits until after one character is passed. Otherwise, the application waits until after the first newline, end-of-line, or end-of-file character.

The effect of No Delay Mode on function key processing is unspecified.
 

Echo Processing

Echo mode determines whether Curses echoes typed characters to the screen. The effect of Echo mode is analogous to the effect of the ECHO flag in the local mode field of the termios structure associated with the terminal device connected to the window. However, Curses always clears the ECHO flag while it is operating, to inhibit the operating system from performing echoing. The method of echoing characters is not identical to the operating system's method of echoing characters because Curses performs additional processing of terminal input.

If in Echo mode, Curses performs its own echoing. Any visible input character is stored in the current or specified window by the input function that the application called, at that window's cursor position, as though addch were called, with all consequent effects such as cursor movement and wrapping.

If not in Echo mode, the application must perform any echoing of input. Applications usually disable Echo Mode because they often perform their own echoing in a controlled area of the screen or do not echo at all.
 

Initializing the Curses Environment

To initialize the Curses environment, the application must call the initscr or newterm routine before using any of the other routines that deal with windows and screens. The application must call the endwin routine before exiting. To get character-at-a-time input without echoing (most interactive, screen-oriented programs want this), applications should use the following sequence:

initscr(); cbreak(); noecho();

Most applications also use the following sequence:

nonl(); intrflush(stdscr,FALSE); keypad(stdscr,TRUE);

Before a Curses program is run, the tab stops of the terminal should be set and its initialization strings, if defined, must be output. Applications can do this by executing the tput init command after exporting the shell environment variable TERM. (See terminfo(4) for further details.)
 

Function Name Conventions

The reference pages often present families of Curses functions. The names of different functions in each family include a basic name, which is combined with prefixes and infixes to indicate specific programming options. The following list explains the naming conventions for Curses functions: A function with the basic name operates on the window stdscr. A function with the same name plus the w prefix operates on a window specified by the win argument.

When the reference page for a function family refers to the ``current or specified window,'' this means stdscr for the functions whose names begin with the basic name and the window specified by win for the functions whose names begin with w.
Functions whose names have the p prefix require an argument that is a pad instead of a window. A function with the basic name operates based on the current cursor position (of the current or specified window, as described above). A function with the same name plus the mv prefix moves the cursor to a position specified by the y and x arguments before performing the specified operation.
When the reference page for a function family refers to the ``current or specified position,'' this means the cursor position for the functions whose names begin with the basic name and the position (y, x) for functions whose names begin with mv.
The mvw prefix also exists and combines the mv semantics discussed here with the w semantics discussed in the preceding list item. In the function argument list, the window argument is always specified before the arguments for coordinates. A function with the basic name is often provided for historical compatibility and operates only on single-byte characters. A function with the same name plus the w infix operates on wide (multibyte) characters. A function with the same name plus the _w infix operates on complex characters and their renditions. A particular reference page discusses functions in only one of these three categories. When a function with the basic name operates on a single character or a null-terminated string, there is sometimes a function with the same name plus the n infix that operates on a specific number of characters. In this case, the function includes an n argument that specifies the number of characters to process. The respective reference page specifies the outcome if the value of n is inappropriate.
 

Function Families

The following table lists each family of Curses functions. The ``s'', ``w'', and ``c'' columns, whose entries are more fully explained in the Legend following the table, indicate whether the function processes special characters, performs wrapping, and advances the cursor.

Function families include most, but not all, the functions in the Curses library. See the section titled Index of Routine Names for a complete and alphabetically ordered list of Curses functions, along with the reference pages where they are described.


Function NamesDescriptionswc

Add (Overwrite) Family


[mv][w]addchAdd a characterYYY
[mv][w]addch[n]strAdd a character stringNNN
[mv][w]add[n]strAdd a stringYYY
[mv][w]add[n]wstrAdd a wide character stringYYY
[mv][w]add_wchAdd a wide character and renditionYYY
[mv][w]add_wch[n]str Add an array of wide characters and renditions ?NN
Change Renditions Family


[mv][w]chgat Change renditions of characters in a window -NN
Delete Family


[mv][w]delchDelete a character--N
Get Family (Get Input from Keyboard to Window)


[mv][w]getchGet a characterYYY
[mv][w]get[n]strGet a character stringYYY
[mv][w]get_wchGet a wide characterYYY
[mv][w]get[n]_wstr Get an array of wide characters and key codes YYY
Explicit Cursor Movement Family


[w]moveMove the cursor---
Input Family (Read Back From Window)


[mv][w]inchInput a character---
[mv][w]inch[n]str Input an array of characters and attributes ---
[mv][w]in[n]strInput a string---
[mv][w]in[n]wstrInput a string of wide characters---
[mv][w]in_wch Input a wide character and rendition ---
[mv][w]in_wch[n]str Input an array of wide characters and renditions ---
Insert Family


[mv][w]inschInsert a characterYNN
[mv][w]ins[n]strInsert a character stringYNN
[mv][w]ins_[n]wstrInsert a wide-character stringYNN
[mv][w]ins_wchInsert a wide characterYNN
Print and Scan Family


[mv][w]printwPrint formatted output---
[mv][w]scanwConvert formatted output---

Legend

The following notation indicates the effect when characters are moved to the screen. (For functions in the Get family, this effect applies only when echoing is enabled.)

s Y means these functions perform special-character processing.

N means they do not.

? means the results are unspecified when these functions are applied to special characters.

- means this attribute does not apply to these functions.

w Y means these functions perform wrapping.

N means they do not.

- means this attribute does not apply to these functions.

c Y means these functions advance the cursor.

N means they do not.

- means this attribute does not apply to these functions.


 

Index of Routine Names

The following index lists each Curses routine and the name of the reference page on which the routine is described. An asterisk following the routine name indicates that it conforms to the X/Open UNIX standard (Version 4 of the X/Open Curses CAE specification). curs_add_wch(3) curs_add_wchstr(3) curs_add_wchstr(3) curs_addch(3) curs_addchstr(3) curs_addchstr(3) curs_addstr(3) curs_addwstr(3) curs_addstr(3) curs_addwch(3) curs_addwchstr(3) curs_addwchstr(3) curs_addwstr(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_attr(3) curs_attr(3) curs_attr(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_beep(3) curs_bkgd(3) curs_bkgd(3) curs_bkgrnd(3) curs_bkgrnd(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_color(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_chgat(3) curs_clear(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_clear(3) curs_clear(3) curs_color(3) curs_color(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_overlay(3) curs_kernel(3) curs_kernel(3) curs_kernel(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_util(3) curs_delch(3) curs_deleteln(3) curs_initscr(3) curs_window(3) curs_window(3) curs_refresh(3) curs_util(3) curs_window(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_add_wch(3) curs_addch(3) curs_addwch(3) curs_initscr(3) curs_clear(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_util(3) curs_beep(3) curs_util(3) curs_get_wch(3) curs_get_wstr(3) curs_getyx(3) curs_bkgrnd(3) curs_getch(3) curs_getcchar(3) curs_getyx(3) curs_get_wstr(3) curs_getstr(3) curs_getwstr(3) curs_getyx(3) curs_getstr(3) curs_getwch(3) curs_util(3) curs_getwstr(3) curs_getyx(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_color(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_in_wch(3) curs_in_wchstr(3) curs_in_wchstr(3) curs_inch(3) curs_inchstr(3) curs_inchstr(3) curs_color(3) curs_color(3) curs_initscr(3) curs_instr(3) curs_inwstr(3) curs_ins_wstr(3) curs_ins_wch(3) curs_ins_wstr(3) curs_insch(3) curs_deleteln(3) curs_deleteln(3) curs_insstr(3) curs_inswstr(3) curs_insstr(3) curs_instr(3) curs_inswch(3) curs_inswstr(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_inwch(3) curs_inwchstr(3) curs_inwchstr(3) curs_inwstr(3) curs_touch(3) curs_touch(3) curs_initscr(3) curs_util(3) curs_util(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_move(3) curs_add_wch(3) curs_add_wchstr(3) curs_add_wchstr(3) curs_addch(3) curs_addchstr(3) curs_addchstr(3) curs_addstr(3) curs_addwstr(3) curs_addstr(3) curs_addwch(3) curs_addwchstr(3) curs_addwchstr(3) curs_addwstr(3) curs_chgat(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_delch(3) curs_window(3) curs_get_wch(3) curs_get_wstr(3) curs_getch(3) curs_get_wstr(3) curs_getstr(3) curs_getwstr(3) curs_getstr(3) curs_getwch(3) curs_getwstr(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_in_wch(3) curs_in_wchstr(3) curs_in_wchstr(3) curs_inch(3) curs_inchstr(3) curs_inchstr(3) curs_instr(3) curs_inwstr(3) curs_ins_wstr(3) curs_ins_wch(3) curs_insch(3) curs_insstr(3) curs_inswstr(3) curs_insstr(3) curs_instr(3) curs_inswch(3) curs_inswstr(3) curs_inwch(3) curs_inwchstr(3) curs_inwchstr(3) curs_inwstr(3) curs_printw(3) curs_scanw(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_add_wch(3) curs_add_wchstr(3) curs_add_wchstr(3) curs_addch(3) curs_addchstr(3) curs_addchstr(3) curs_addstr(3) curs_addwstr(3) curs_addstr(3) curs_addwch(3) curs_addwchstr(3) curs_addwchstr(3) curs_addwstr(3) curs_chgat(3) curs_delch(3) curs_get_wch(3) curs_get_wstr(3) curs_getch(3) curs_get_wstr(3) curs_getstr(3) curs_getwstr(3) curs_getstr(3) curs_getwch(3) curs_getwstr(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_window(3) curs_in_wch(3) curs_in_wchstr(3) curs_in_wchstr(3) curs_inch(3) curs_inchstr(3) curs_inchstr(3) curs_instr(3) curs_inwstr(3) curs_ins_wstr(3) curs_ins_wch(3) curs_ins_wstr(3) curs_insch(3) curs_insstr(3) curs_insstr(3) curs_instr(3) curs_inswch(3) curs_inswstr(3) curs_inwch(3) curs_inwchstr(3) curs_in_wchstr(3) curs_inwstr(3) curs_printw(3) curs_scanw(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_kernel(3) curs_pad(3) curs_initscr(3) curs_window(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_overlay(3) curs_overlay(3) curs_color(3) curs_color(3) curs_pad(3) curs_pad(3) curs_pad(3) curs_pad(3) curs_pad(3) curs_printw(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_util(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_refresh(3) curs_refresh(3) curs_kernel(3) curs_kernel(3) curs_kernel(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_kernel(3) curs_kernel(3) curs_scanw(3) curs_scr_dump(3) curs_scr_dump(3) curs_scr_dump(3) curs_scr_dump(3) curs_scroll(3) curs_scroll(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_getcchar(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_initscr(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_slk(3) curs_attr(3) curs_attr(3) curs_color(3) curs_pad(3) curs_window(3) curs_window(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_termattrs(3) curs_termcap(3) curs_termcap(3) curs_termcap(3) curs_termcap(3) curs_termcap(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_touch(3) curs_touch(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_termcap(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_util(3) curs_get_wch(3) curs_getch(3) curs_getwch(3) curs_touch(3) curs_util(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_terminfo(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_printw(3) curs_printw(3) curs_scanw(3) curs_scanw(3) curs_add_wch(3) curs_add_wchstr(3) curs_add_wchstr(3) curs_addch(3) curs_addchstr(3) curs_addchstr(3) curs_addstr(3) curs_addwstr(3) curs_addstr(3) curs_addwch(3) curs_addwchstr(3) curs_addwchstr(3) curs_addwstr(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_attr(3) curs_attr(3) curs_attr(3) curs_bkgd(3) curs_bkgd(3) curs_bkgrnd(3) curs_bkgrnd(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_chgat(3) curs_clear(3) curs_clear(3) curs_clear(3) curs_attr_get(3) curs_window(3) curs_delch(3) curs_deleteln(3) curs_addch(3) curs_addwch(3) curs_add_wch(3) curs_clear(3) curs_get_wstr(3) curs_get_wch(3) curs_get_wstr(3) curs_getch(3) curs_getstr(3) curs_getwstr(3) curs_bkgrnd(3) curs_getstr(3) curs_getwch(3) curs_getwstr(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3) curs_in_wch(3) curs_in_wchstr(3) curs_in_wchstr(3) curs_inch(3) curs_inchstr(3) curs_inchstr(3) curs_instr(3) curs_inwstr(3) curs_ins_wstr(3) curs_ins_wch(3) curs_ins_wstr(3) curs_insch(3) curs_deleteln(3) curs_deleteln(3) curs_insstr(3) curs_inswstr(3) curs_insstr(3) curs_instr(3) curs_inswch(3) curs_inswstr(3) curs_inwch(3) curs_inwchstr(3) curs_inwchstr(3) curs_inwstr(3) curs_move(3) curs_refresh(3) curs_printw(3) curs_refresh(3) curs_refresh(3) curs_scanw(3) curs_scroll(3) curs_outopts(3) curs_attr(3) curs_attr(3) curs_window(3) curs_window(3) curs_inopts(3) curs_touch(3) curs_util(3) curs_border(3) curs_border_set(3)
 

NOTES

The header file <curses.h> automatically includes the header file <stdio.h>.

The header files that supply function prototypes and other definitions for the Curses library support different definition environments for either X/Open UNIX standard conformance or compatibility with Tru64 UNIX releases earlier than Version 4.0.

The following list names and describes the macros that select these definition environments: Selects APIs that conform to Version 4 of the X/Open Curses CAE specification and automatically defines _XOPEN_SOURCE.

These APIs were not available in the Curses library provided by operating system versions prior to Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0. The _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED macro defines the recommended compilation environment for all new Curses applications. Note that the c89 command defines _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED by default but the cc command does not. Selects the APIs that conform to Version 3 of the X/Open Curses CAE specification.
These APIs were also available in the Curses library provided by operating system versions prior to Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0. However, as of Version 4.0, these APIs are defined within the _XOPEN_SOURCE definition environment to meet the requirements of the X/Open Curses CAE specification. Selects the System V Multi-National Language Standard (MNLS) APIs, which are Curses library extensions for handling multibyte characters.
These APIs were also available in the Curses library provided by operating system versions prior to Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0. MNLS APIs are supported only for backward compatibility and are not recommended for use in new Curses applications. The _OSF_SOURCE definition environment should be used along with the _XOPEN_SOURCE environment, so applications can access MNLS extensions along with generic Curses functions. Compaq does not recommend use of the MNLS extensions with the _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED definition environment, which contains a different set of functions for handling multibyte characters. Selects the BSD Curses APIs.
These APIs were also available in the Curses library provided by operating system versions prior to Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0. BSD APIs are supported only for backward compatibility and are not recommended for use in new Curses applications. The BSD definition environment is incompatible with all other definition environments. Selects the Minicurses APIs.
These APIs were available in the Curses library provided by operating system versions prior to Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0. Minicurses APIs are supported only for backward compatibility and are not recommended for use in new Curses applications.

Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about the relationship between compilation definition environments and industry standards.
 

RETURN VALUES

Unless otherwise noted in the routine descriptions, routines that return an integer return ERR upon failure and an integer value other than ERR upon successful completion.

Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.
 

SEE ALSO

See terminfo(4) and the Section 3 reference pages whose names begin with ``curs_'' for detailed routine descriptions.


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
Screen, Windows, and Terminals
Multicolumn Characters
Attributes
Rendition
Nonspacing Characters
Complex Characters
Window Properties
Screen Addressing
Adding (Overwriting) Characters
Truncation, Wrapping, and Scrolling
Inserting Characters
Deleting Characters
Window Operations
Characters that Straddle the Subwindow Border
Special Characters
Control Characters
Rendition of Characters Placed into a Window
Input Processing
Keypad Processing
Input Modes
Delay Modes
Echo Processing
Initializing the Curses Environment
Function Name Conventions
Function Families
Index of Routine Names
NOTES
RETURN VALUES
SEE ALSO

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 02:42:15 GMT, October 02, 2010