ncurses
Section: Miscellaneous Library Functions (3X)
Updated:
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NAME
ncurses - CRT screen handling and optimization package
SYNOPSIS
#include <curses.h>
DESCRIPTION
The
ncurses library routines give the user a terminal-independent method
of updating character screens with reasonable optimization.
This implementation is ``new curses'' (ncurses) and
is the approved replacement for
4.4BSD classic curses, which has been discontinued.
This describes
ncurses
version 6.0 (patch 20150808).
The ncurses library emulates the curses library of
System V Release 4 UNIX,
and XPG4 (X/Open Portability Guide) curses (also known as XSI curses).
XSI stands for X/Open System Interfaces Extension.
The ncurses library is freely redistributable in source form.
Differences from the SVr4
curses are summarized under the
EXTENSIONS and PORTABILITY sections below and
described in detail in the respective
EXTENSIONS, PORTABILITY and BUGS sections
of individual man pages.
The ncurses library also provides many useful extensions,
i.e., features which cannot be implemented by a simple add-on library
but which require access to the internals of the library.
A program using these routines must be linked with the -lncurses option,
or (if it has been generated) with the debugging library -lncurses_g.
(Your system integrator may also have installed these libraries under
the names -lcurses and -lcurses_g.)
The ncurses_g library generates trace logs (in a file called 'trace' in the
current directory) that describe curses actions.
See also the section on ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS.
The ncurses package supports: 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 capabilities;
and access to low-level terminal-manipulation routines.
Initialization
The library uses the locale which the calling program has initialized.
That is normally done with setlocale:
setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
If the locale is not initialized,
the library assumes that characters are printable as in ISO-8859-1,
to work with certain legacy programs.
You should initialize the locale and not rely on specific details of
the library when the locale has not been setup.
The function initscr or newterm
must be called to initialize the library
before any of the other routines that deal with windows
and screens are used.
The routine endwin must be called before exiting.
To get character-at-a-time input without echoing (most
interactive, screen oriented programs want this), the following
sequence should be used:
initscr(); cbreak(); noecho();
Most programs would additionally use the 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.
This can be done by executing the tput init command
after the shell environment variable TERM has been exported.
tset(1) is usually responsible for doing this.
[See terminfo(5) for further details.]
Datatypes
The ncurses library permits manipulation of data structures,
called windows, which can be thought of as two-dimensional
arrays of characters representing all or part of a CRT screen.
A default window called stdscr, which is the size of the terminal
screen, is supplied.
Others may be created with newwin.
Note that curses does not handle overlapping windows, that's done by
the panel(3X) library.
This means that you can either use
stdscr or divide the screen into tiled windows and not using
stdscr at all.
Mixing the two will result in unpredictable, and undesired, effects.
Windows are referred to by variables declared as WINDOW *.
These data structures are manipulated with routines described here and
elsewhere in the ncurses manual pages.
Among those, the most basic
routines are move and addch.
More general versions of
these routines are included with names beginning with w,
allowing the user to specify a window.
The routines not beginning
with w affect stdscr.
After using routines to manipulate a window, refresh is called,
telling curses to make the user's CRT screen look like
stdscr.
The characters in a window are actually of type
chtype, (character and attribute data) so that other information
about the character may also be stored with each character.
Special windows called pads may also be manipulated.
These are windows
which are not constrained to the size of the screen and whose contents need not
be completely displayed.
See curs_pad(3X) for more information.
In addition to drawing characters on the screen, video attributes and colors
may be supported, causing the characters to show up in such modes as
underlined, in reverse video, or in color on terminals that support such
display enhancements.
Line drawing characters may be specified to be output.
On input, curses is also able to translate arrow and function keys that
transmit escape sequences into single values.
The video attributes, line
drawing characters, and input values use names, defined in <curses.h>,
such as A_REVERSE, ACS_HLINE, and KEY_LEFT.
Environment variables
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 will override information read by terminfo.
This would affect a program running in an AT&T 630 layer,
for example, where the size of a
screen is changeable (see ENVIRONMENT).
If the environment variable TERMINFO is defined, any program using
curses checks for a local terminal definition before checking in the
standard place.
For example, if TERM is set to att4424, then the
compiled terminal definition is found in
/usr/share/terminfo/a/att4424.
(The a is copied from the first letter of att4424 to avoid
creation of huge directories.) However, if TERMINFO is set to
$HOME/myterms, curses first checks
$HOME/myterms/a/att4424,
and if that fails, it then checks
/usr/share/terminfo/a/att4424.
This is useful for developing experimental definitions or when write
permission in /usr/share/terminfo is not available.
The integer variables LINES and COLS are defined in
<curses.h> and will be 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 can be used in only a few routines.
Routine and Argument Names
Many
curses routines have two or more versions.
The routines prefixed with
w require a window argument.
The routines prefixed with
p require a pad argument.
Those without a prefix generally use
stdscr.
The routines prefixed with mv require a y and x
coordinate to move to before performing the appropriate action.
The mv routines imply a call to move before the call to the
other routine.
The coordinate y always refers to the row (of
the window), and x always refers to the column.
The upper left-hand corner is always (0,0), not (1,1).
The routines prefixed with mvw take both a window argument and
x and y coordinates.
The window argument is always specified before the coordinates.
In each case, win is the window affected, and pad is the
pad affected; win and pad are always pointers to type
WINDOW.
Option setting routines require a Boolean flag bf with the value
TRUE or FALSE; bf is always of type bool.
Most of the data types used in the library routines,
such as WINDOW, SCREEN, bool, and chtype
are defined in <curses.h>.
Types used for the terminfo routines such as
TERMINAL are defined in <term.h>.
This manual page describes functions which may appear in any configuration
of the library.
There are two common configurations of the library:
-
- ncurses
-
the "normal" library, which handles 8-bit characters.
The normal (8-bit) library stores characters combined with attributes
in chtype data.
-
Attributes alone (no corresponding character) may be stored in chtype
or the equivalent attr_t data.
In either case, the data is stored in something like an integer.
-
Each cell (row and column) in a WINDOW is stored as a chtype.
- ncursesw
-
the so-called "wide" library, which handles multibyte characters
(see the section on ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS).
The "wide" library includes all of the calls from the "normal" library.
It adds about one third more calls using data types which store
multibyte characters:
-
- cchar_t
-
corresponds to chtype.
However it is a structure, because more data is stored than can fit into
an integer.
The characters are large enough to require a full integer value - and there
may be more than one character per cell.
The video attributes and color are stored in separate fields of the structure.
-
Each cell (row and column) in a WINDOW is stored as a cchar_t.
- wchar_t
-
stores a "wide" character.
Like chtype, this may be an integer.
- wint_t
-
stores a wchar_t or WEOF - not the same, though both may have
the same size.
-
The "wide" library provides new functions which are analogous to
functions in the "normal" library.
There is a naming convention which relates many of the normal/wide variants:
a "_w" is inserted into the name.
For example, waddch becomes wadd_wch.
Routine Name Index
The following table lists each
curses routine and the name of
the manual page on which it is described.
Routines flagged with `*'
are ncurses-specific, not described by XPG4 or present in SVr4.
RETURN VALUE
Routines that return an integer return
ERR upon failure and an
integer value other than
ERR upon successful completion, unless
otherwise noted in the routine descriptions.
As a general rule, routines check for null pointers passed as parameters,
and handle this as an error.
All macros return the value of the w version, except setscrreg,
wsetscrreg, getyx, getbegyx, and getmaxyx.
The return values of
setscrreg,
wsetscrreg,
getyx,
getbegyx, and
getmaxyx are undefined (i.e., these should not be used as the
right-hand side of assignment statements).
Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment symbols are useful for customizing the
runtime behavior of the
ncurses library.
The most important ones have been already discussed in detail.
CC
When set, change occurrences of the command_character
(i.e., the
cmdch capability)
of the loaded terminfo entries to the value of this variable.
Very few terminfo entries provide this feature.
Because this name is also used in development environments to represent
the C compiler's name, ncurses ignores it if it does not happen to
be a single character.
BAUDRATE
The debugging library checks this environment variable when the application
has redirected output to a file.
The variable's numeric value is used for the baudrate.
If no value is found,
ncurses uses 9600.
This allows testers to construct repeatable test-cases
that take into account costs that depend on baudrate.
COLUMNS
Specify the width of the screen in characters.
Applications running in a windowing environment usually are able to
obtain the width of the window in which they are executing.
If neither the
COLUMNS value nor the terminal's screen size is available,
ncurses uses the size which may be specified in the terminfo database
(i.e., the
cols capability).
It is important that your application use a correct size for the screen.
This is not always possible because your application may be
running on a host which does not honor NAWS (Negotiations About Window
Size), or because you are temporarily running as another user.
However, setting COLUMNS and/or LINES overrides the library's
use of the screen size obtained from the operating system.
Either COLUMNS or LINES symbols may be specified independently.
This is mainly useful to circumvent legacy misfeatures of terminal descriptions,
e.g., xterm which commonly specifies a 65 line screen.
For best results, lines and cols should not be specified in
a terminal description for terminals which are run as emulations.
Use the use_env function to disable all use of external environment
(but not including system calls) to determine the screen size.
Use the use_tioctl function to update COLUMNS or LINES
to match the screen size obtained from system calls or the terminal database.
ESCDELAY
Specifies the total time, in milliseconds, for which ncurses will
await a character sequence, e.g., a function key.
The default value, 1000 milliseconds, is enough for most uses.
However, it is made a variable to accommodate unusual applications.
The most common instance where you may wish to change this value
is to work with slow hosts, e.g., running on a network.
If the host cannot read characters rapidly enough, it will have the same
effect as if the terminal did not send characters rapidly enough.
The library will still see a timeout.
Note that xterm mouse events are built up from character sequences
received from the xterm.
If your application makes heavy use of multiple-clicking, you may
wish to lengthen this default value because the timeout applies
to the composed multi-click event as well as the individual clicks.
In addition to the environment variable,
this implementation provides a global variable with the same name.
Portable applications should not rely upon the presence of ESCDELAY
in either form,
but setting the environment variable rather than the global variable
does not create problems when compiling an application.
HOME
Tells
ncurses where your home directory is.
That is where it may read and write auxiliary terminal descriptions:
$HOME/.termcap
$HOME/.terminfo
LINES
Like COLUMNS, specify the height of the screen in characters.
See COLUMNS for a detailed description.
MOUSE_BUTTONS_123
This applies only to the OS/2 EMX port.
It specifies the order of buttons on the mouse.
OS/2 numbers a 3-button mouse inconsistently from other
platforms:
1 = left
2 = right
3 = middle.
This variable lets you customize the mouse.
The variable must be three numeric digits 1-3 in any order, e.g., 123 or 321.
If it is not specified, ncurses uses 132.
NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS
Override the compiled-in assumption that the
terminal's default colors are white-on-black
(see
default_colors(3X)).
You may set the foreground and background color values with this environment
variable by proving a 2-element list: foreground,background.
For example, to tell ncurses to not assume anything
about the colors, set this to "-1,-1".
To make it green-on-black, set it to "2,0".
Any positive value from zero to the terminfo
max_colors value is allowed.
NCURSES_CONSOLE2
This applies only to the MinGW port of ncurses.
The Console2 program's handling of the Microsoft Console API call
CreateConsoleScreenBuffer is defective.
Applications which use this will hang.
However, it is possible to simulate the action of this call by
mapping coordinates,
explicitly saving and restoring the original screen contents.
Setting the environment variable NCGDB has the same effect.
NCURSES_GPM_TERMS
This applies only to ncurses configured to use the GPM interface.
If present,
the environment variable is a list of one or more terminal names
against which the TERM environment variable is matched.
Setting it to an empty value disables the GPM interface;
using the built-in support for xterm, etc.
If the environment variable is absent,
ncurses will attempt to open GPM if TERM contains "linux".
NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS
Ncurses may use tabs as part of the cursor movement optimization.
In some cases,
your terminal driver may not handle these properly.
Set this environment variable to disable the feature.
You can also adjust your
stty settings to avoid the problem.
NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE
Some terminals use a magic-cookie feature which requires special handling
to make highlighting and other video attributes display properly.
You can suppress the highlighting entirely for these terminals by
setting this environment variable.
NCURSES_NO_PADDING
Most of the terminal descriptions in the terminfo database are written
for real "hardware" terminals.
Many people use terminal emulators
which run in a windowing environment and use curses-based applications.
Terminal emulators can duplicate
all of the important aspects of a hardware terminal, but they do not
have the same limitations.
The chief limitation of a hardware terminal from the standpoint
of your application is the management of dataflow, i.e., timing.
Unless a hardware terminal is interfaced into a terminal concentrator
(which does flow control),
it (or your application) must manage dataflow, preventing overruns.
The cheapest solution (no hardware cost)
is for your program to do this by pausing after
operations that the terminal does slowly, such as clearing the display.
As a result, many terminal descriptions (including the vt100)
have delay times embedded.
You may wish to use these descriptions,
but not want to pay the performance penalty.
Set the NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable to disable all but mandatory
padding.
Mandatory padding is used as a part of special control
sequences such as flash.
NCURSES_NO_SETBUF
This setting is obsolete.
Before changes
-
- *
-
started with 5.9 patch 20120825
and
- *
-
continued
though 5.9 patch 20130126
ncurses enabled buffered output during terminal initialization.
This was done (as in SVr4 curses) for performance reasons.
For testing purposes, both of ncurses and certain applications,
this feature was made optional.
Setting the NCURSES_NO_SETBUF variable
disabled output buffering, leaving the output in the original (usually
line buffered) mode.
In the current implementation,
ncurses performs its own buffering and does not require this workaround.
It does not modify the buffering of the standard output.
The reason for the change was to make the behavior for interrupts and
other signals more robust.
One drawback is that certain nonconventional programs would mix
ordinary stdio calls with ncurses calls and (usually) work.
This is no longer possible since ncurses is not using
the buffered standard output but its own output (to the same file descriptor).
As a special case, the low-level calls such as putp still use the
standard output.
But high-level curses calls do not.
NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS
During initialization, the
ncurses library
checks for special cases where VT100 line-drawing (and the corresponding
alternate character set capabilities) described in the terminfo are known
to be missing.
Specifically, when running in a UTF-8 locale,
the Linux console emulator and the GNU screen program ignore these.
Ncurses checks the TERM environment variable for these.
For other special cases, you should set this environment variable.
Doing this tells ncurses to use Unicode values which correspond to
the VT100 line-drawing glyphs.
That works for the special cases cited,
and is likely to work for terminal emulators.
When setting this variable, you should set it to a nonzero value.
Setting it to zero (or to a nonnumber)
disables the special check for "linux" and "screen".
As an alternative to the environment variable,
ncurses checks for an extended terminfo capability U8.
This is a numeric capability which can be compiled using tic -x.
For example
-
# linux console, if patched to provide working
# VT100 shift-in/shift-out, with corresponding font.
linux-vt100|linux console with VT100 line-graphics,
U8#0, use=linux,
# uxterm with vt100Graphics resource set to false
xterm-utf8|xterm relying on UTF-8 line-graphics,
U8#1, use=xterm,
The name "U8" is chosen to be two characters,
to permit it to be used by applications that use ncurses'
termcap interface.
NCURSES_TRACE
During initialization, the
ncurses debugging library
checks the NCURSES_TRACE environment variable.
If it is defined, to a numeric value,
ncurses calls the
trace
function, using that value as the argument.
The argument values, which are defined in curses.h, provide several
types of information.
When running with traces enabled, your application will write the
file trace to the current directory.
See curs_trace(3X) for more information.
TERM
Denotes your terminal type.
Each terminal type is distinct, though many are similar.
TERM is commonly set by terminal emulators to help
applications find a workable terminal description.
Some of those choose a popular approximation, e.g.,
``ansi'', ``vt100'', ``xterm'' rather than an exact fit.
Not infrequently, your application will have problems with that approach,
e.g., incorrect function-key definitions.
If you set TERM in your environment,
it has no effect on the operation of the terminal emulator.
It only affects the way applications work within the terminal.
Likewise, as a general rule (xterm being a rare exception),
terminal emulators which allow you to
specify TERM as a parameter or configuration value do
not change their behavior to match that setting.
TERMCAP
If the
ncurses library has been configured with
termcap
support,
ncurses will check for a terminal's description in
termcap form if it is not available in the terminfo database.
The TERMCAP environment variable contains either a terminal description (with
newlines stripped out),
or a file name telling where the information denoted by
the TERM environment variable exists.
In either case, setting it directs ncurses to ignore
the usual place for this information, e.g., /etc/termcap.
TERMINFO
Overrides the directory in which
ncurses searches for your terminal
description.
This is the simplest, but not the only way to change the list of directories.
The complete list of directories in order follows:
-
- *
-
the last directory to which ncurses wrote, if any, is searched first
- *
-
the directory specified by the TERMINFO environment variable
- *
-
$HOME/.terminfo
- *
-
directories listed in the TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable
- *
-
one or more directories whose names are configured and compiled into the
ncurses library, i.e.,
-
- *
-
no default value (corresponding to the TERMINFO_DIRS variable)
- *
-
/usr/share/terminfo (corresponding to the TERMINFO variable)
TERMINFO_DIRS
Specifies a list of directories to search for terminal descriptions.
The list is separated by colons (i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX.
All of the terminal descriptions are in terminfo form.
Normally these are stored in a directory tree,
using subdirectories named by the first letter of the terminal names therein.
If ncurses is built with a hashed database,
then each entry in this list can also be the path of the corresponding
database file.
If ncurses is built with a support for reading termcap files
directly, then an entry in this list may be the path of a termcap file.
TERMPATH
If TERMCAP does not hold a file name then
ncurses checks
the TERMPATH environment variable.
This is a list of filenames separated by spaces or colons (i.e., ":") on Unix,
semicolons on OS/2 EMX.
If the TERMPATH environment variable is not set,
ncurses looks in the files
/etc/termcap, /usr/share/misc/termcap and $HOME/.termcap, in that order.
The library may be configured to disregard the following variables when the
current user is the superuser (root), or if the application uses setuid or
setgid permissions:
$TERMINFO, $TERMINFO_DIRS, $TERMPATH, as well as $HOME.
ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS
Several different configurations are possible,
depending on the configure script options used when building
ncurses.
There are a few main options whose effects are visible to the applications
developer using
ncurses:
- --disable-overwrite
-
The standard include for ncurses is as noted in SYNOPSIS:
-
#include <curses.h>
-
This option is used to avoid filename conflicts when ncurses
is not the main implementation of curses of the computer.
If ncurses is installed disabling overwrite, it puts its headers in
a subdirectory, e.g.,
-
#include <ncurses/curses.h>
-
It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you to use -lcurses
to build executables.
- --enable-widec
-
The configure script renames the library and
(if the --disable-overwrite option is used)
puts the header files in a different subdirectory.
All of the library names have a "w" appended to them,
i.e., instead of
-
-lncurses
-
you link with
-
-lncursesw
-
You must also define _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED when compiling for the
wide-character library to use the extended (wide-character) functions.
The curses.h file which is installed for the wide-character
library is designed to be compatible with the normal library's header.
Only the size of the WINDOW structure differs, and very few
applications require more than a pointer to WINDOWs.
If the headers are installed allowing overwrite,
the wide-character library's headers should be installed last,
to allow applications to be built using either library
from the same set of headers.
- --with-pthread
-
The configure script renames the library.
All of the library names have a "t" appended to them
(before any "w" added by --enable-widec).
-
The global variables such as LINES are replaced by macros to
allow read-only access.
At the same time, setter-functions are provided to set these values.
Some applications (very few) may require changes to work with this convention.
- --with-shared
-
- --with-normal
-
- --with-debug
-
- --with-profile
-
The shared and normal (static) library names differ by their suffixes,
e.g., libncurses.so and libncurses.a.
The debug and profiling libraries add a "_g" and a "_p" to the root
names respectively,
e.g., libncurses_g.a and libncurses_p.a.
- --with-trace
-
The trace function normally resides in the debug library,
but it is sometimes useful to configure this in the shared library.
Configure scripts should check for the function's existence rather
than assuming it is always in the debug library.
FILES
- /usr/share/tabset
-
directory containing initialization files for the terminal capability database
/usr/share/terminfo
terminal capability database
SEE ALSO
terminfo(5) and related pages whose names begin
"curs_" for detailed routine descriptions.
curs_variables(3X)
EXTENSIONS
The
ncurses library can be compiled with an option (
-DUSE_GETCAP)
that falls back to the old-style /etc/termcap file if the terminal setup code
cannot find a terminfo entry corresponding to
TERM.
Use of this feature
is not recommended, as it essentially includes an entire termcap compiler in
the
ncurses startup code, at significant cost in core and startup cycles.
The ncurses library includes facilities for capturing mouse events on
certain terminals (including xterm).
See the curs_mouse(3X)
manual page for details.
The ncurses library includes facilities for responding to window
resizing events, e.g., when running in an xterm.
See the resizeterm(3X)
and wresize(3X) manual pages for details.
In addition, the library may be configured with a SIGWINCH handler.
The ncurses library extends the fixed set of function key capabilities
of terminals by allowing the application designer to define additional
key sequences at runtime.
See the define_key(3X)
key_defined(3X),
and keyok(3X) manual pages for details.
The ncurses library can exploit the capabilities of terminals which
implement the ISO-6429 SGR 39 and SGR 49 controls, which allow an application
to reset the terminal to its original foreground and background colors.
From the users' perspective, the application is able to draw colored
text on a background whose color is set independently, providing better
control over color contrasts.
See the default_colors(3X) manual page for details.
The ncurses library includes a function for directing application output
to a printer attached to the terminal device.
See the curs_print(3X) manual page for details.
PORTABILITY
The
ncurses library is intended to be BASE-level conformant with XSI
Curses.
The EXTENDED XSI Curses functionality
(including color support) is supported.
A small number of local differences (that is, individual differences between
the XSI Curses and ncurses calls) are described in PORTABILITY
sections of the library man pages.
Unlike other implementations, this one checks parameters such as pointers
to WINDOW structures to ensure they are not null.
The main reason for providing this behavior is to guard against programmer
error.
The standard interface does not provide a way for the library
to tell an application which of several possible errors were detected.
Relying on this (or some other) extension will adversely affect the
portability of curses applications.
This implementation also contains several extensions:
- *
-
The routine has_key is not part of XPG4, nor is it present in SVr4.
See the curs_getch(3X) manual page for details.
- *
-
The routine slk_attr is not part of XPG4, nor is it present in SVr4.
See the curs_slk(3X) manual page for details.
- *
-
The routines getmouse, mousemask, ungetmouse,
mouseinterval, and wenclose relating to mouse interfacing are not
part of XPG4, nor are they present in SVr4.
See the curs_mouse(3X) manual page for details.
- *
-
The routine mcprint was not present in any previous curses implementation.
See the curs_print(3X) manual page for details.
- *
-
The routine wresize is not part of XPG4, nor is it present in SVr4.
See the wresize(3X) manual page for details.
- *
-
The WINDOW structure's internal details can be hidden from application
programs.
See curs_opaque(3X) for the discussion of is_scrollok, etc.
- *
-
This implementation can be configured to provide rudimentary support
for multi-threaded applications.
See curs_threads(3X) for details.
- *
-
This implementation can also be configured to provide a set of functions which
improve the ability to manage multiple screens.
See curs_sp_funcs(3X) for details.
In historic curses versions, delays embedded in the capabilities cr,
ind, cub1, ff and tab activated corresponding delay
bits in the UNIX tty driver.
In this implementation, all padding is done by sending NUL bytes.
This method is slightly more expensive, but narrows the interface
to the UNIX kernel significantly and increases the package's portability
correspondingly.
NOTES
The header file
<curses.h> automatically includes the header files
<stdio.h> and
<unctrl.h>.
If standard output from a ncurses program is re-directed to something
which is not a tty, screen updates will be directed to standard error.
This was an undocumented feature of AT&T System V Release 3 curses.
AUTHORS
Zeyd M. Ben-Halim, Eric S. Raymond, Thomas E. Dickey.
Based on pcurses by Pavel Curtis.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- Initialization
-
- Datatypes
-
- Environment variables
-
- Routine and Argument Names
-
- Routine Name Index
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- ENVIRONMENT
-
- CC
-
- BAUDRATE
-
- COLUMNS
-
- ESCDELAY
-
- HOME
-
- LINES
-
- MOUSE_BUTTONS_123
-
- NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS
-
- NCURSES_CONSOLE2
-
- NCURSES_GPM_TERMS
-
- NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS
-
- NCURSES_NO_PADDING
-
- NCURSES_NO_SETBUF
-
- NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS
-
- NCURSES_TRACE
-
- TERM
-
- TERMCAP
-
- TERMINFO
-
- TERMINFO_DIRS
-
- TERMPATH
-
- ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS
-
- FILES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- EXTENSIONS
-
- PORTABILITY
-
- NOTES
-
- AUTHORS
-