termcap(3) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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TERMCAP(3)              NetBSD Library Functions Manual             TERMCAP(3)


NAME

     tgetent, tgetnum, tgetflag, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs -- terminal independent
     operation routines


LIBRARY

     Termcap Access Library (libtermcap, -ltermcap)


SYNOPSIS

     #include <termcap.h>

     char PC;
     char *BC;
     char *UP;

     int
     tgetent(char *bp, const char *name);

     int
     tgetnum(const char *id);

     int
     tgetflag(const char *id);

     char *
     tgetstr(const char *id, char **area);

     char *
     tgoto(const char *cm, int destcol, int destline);


DESCRIPTION

     These functions extract and use capabilities from a terminal capability
     database.  They exist as wrappers around equivalent terminfo(3) func-
     tions, which new code should use.  These are low level routines; see
     curses(3) for a higher level package.

     The tgetent() function calls setupterm() and configures PC, UP and BC.
     Only PC is actually used internally.  The tgetent() function returns -1
     if none of the terminfo data base files could be opened, 0 if the termi-
     nal name given does not match an entry, and 1 if all goes well.  The bp
     argument is not used.

     The tgetnum() function gets the numeric value of the capability id,
     returning -1 if it is not given for the terminal.  The tgetflag() func-
     tion returns 1 if the specified capability is present in the terminal's
     entry, 0 if it is not.  The tgetstr() function returns the string value
     of the capability id.  This is a terminfo(5) string and not a termcap
     string; as such it should only be processed by tgoto().  The tgetstr()
     function returns NULL if the capability was not found.  The area argument
     is unused.

     The tgoto() function returns a cursor addressing string decoded from cm
     to go to column destcol in line destline, or NULL on error conditions
     such as out of memory.  Please note that tgoto() can return an incomplete
     value on a malformed input sequence.  Historically tgoto() used to return
     ``OOPS'' on those conditions, so newer programs should now be checking
     the return value.


SEE ALSO

     terminfo(3), terminfo(5)


HISTORY

     termcap first appeared in 4.0BSD.  NetBSD 1.5 introduced some termcap
     t_*() extensions which were removed in NetBSD 6.0 when terminfo(3) was
     introduced.


AUTHORS

     Roy Marples <roy@NetBSD.org>

NetBSD 6.1.2                    March 14, 2011                    NetBSD 6.1.2