.\" $NetBSD: termcap.3,v 1.29 2003/08/07 16:44:56 agc Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)termcap.3 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93 .\" .Dd September 30, 1999 .Dt TERMCAP 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm tgetent , .Nm tgetnum , .Nm tgetflag , .Nm tgetstr , .Nm tgoto , .Nm tputs .Nd terminal independent operation routines .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libtermcap .Sh SYNOPSIS .In termcap.h .Vt char PC; .Vt char *BC; .Vt char *UP; .Vt short ospeed; .Vt struct tinfo *info; .Ft int .Fn tgetent "char *bp" "const char *name" .Ft int .Fn tgetnum "const char *id" .Ft int .Fn tgetflag "const char *id" .Ft char * .Fn tgetstr "const char *id" "char **area" .Ft char * .Fn tgoto "const char *cm" "int destcol" "int destline" .Ft void .Fn tputs "const char *cp" "int affcnt" "int (*outc)(int)" .Ft int .Fn t_getent "struct tinfo **info" "const char *name" .Ft int .Fn t_getnum "struct tinfo *info" "const char *id" .Ft int .Fn t_getflag "struct tinfo *info" "const char *id" .Ft char * .Fn t_getstr "struct tinfo *info" "const char *id" "char **area" "size_t *limit" .Ft char * .Fn t_agetstr "struct tinfo *info" "const char *id" .Ft int .Fn t_getterm "struct tinfo *info" "char **area" "size_t *limit" .Ft int .Fn t_goto "struct tinfo *info" "const char *id" "int destcol" "int destline" "char *buffer" "size_t limit" .Ft int .Fn t_puts "struct tinfo *info" "const char *cp" "int affcnt" "void (*outc)(char, void *)" "void *args" .Ft void .Fn t_freent "struct tinfo *info" .Ft int .Fn t_setinfo "struct tinfo **info" "const char *entry" .Sh DESCRIPTION These functions extract and use capabilities from a terminal capability data base, usually .Pa /usr/share/misc/termcap , the format of which is described in .Xr termcap 5 . These are low level routines; see .Xr curses 3 for a higher level package. .Pp The .Fn tgetent function extracts the entry for terminal .Fa name into the buffer at .Fa bp . The .Fa bp argument should be a character buffer of size 1024 and must be retained through all subsequent calls to .Fn tgetnum , .Fn tgetflag , and .Fn tgetstr . The .Fn tgetent function returns \-1 if none of the .Nm termcap data base files could be opened, 0 if the terminal name given does not have an entry, and 1 if all goes well. It will look in the environment for a .Ev TERMCAP variable. If found, and the value does not begin with a slash, the value does not contain the ZZ capability (see .Em NOTES for a description of this capability), and the terminal type .Fa name is the same as the environment string .Ev TERM , the .Ev TERMCAP string is used instead of reading a .Nm termcap file. If the value does contain the ZZ capability then the .Ev TERM environment string is used to read .Nm termcap , if the read fails for any reason the value of .Ev TERMCAP will be used despite it containing ZZ. If .Ev TERMCAP does begin with a slash, the string is used as a path name of the .Nm termcap file to search. If .Ev TERMCAP does not begin with a slash and .Fa name is different from .Ev TERM , .Fn tgetent searches the files .Pa $HOME/.termcap and .Pa /usr/share/misc/termcap , in that order, unless the environment variable .Ev TERMPATH exists, in which case it specifies a list of file pathnames (separated by spaces or colons) to be searched instead. Whenever multiple files are searched and a .Sy tc field occurs in the requested entry, the entry it names must be found in the same file or one of the succeeding files. This can speed up entry into programs that call .Fn tgetent , as well as help debug new terminal descriptions or make one for your terminal if you can't write the file .Pa /usr/share/misc/termcap . .Pp The .Fn tgetnum function gets the numeric value of capability .Fa id , returning \-1 if it is not given for the terminal. The .Fn tgetflag function returns 1 if the specified capability is present in the terminal's entry, 0 if it is not. The .Fn tgetstr function returns the string value of the capability .Fa id , places it in the buffer at .Fa area , and advances the .Fa area pointer. It decodes the abbreviations for this field described in .Xr termcap 5 , except for cursor addressing and padding information. The .Fn tgetstr function returns .Dv NULL if the capability was not found. .Pp The .Fn tgoto function returns a cursor addressing string decoded from .Fa cm to go to column .Fa destcol in line .Fa destline . It uses the external variables .Va UP (from the .Sy up capability) and .Va BC (if .Sy bc is given rather than .Sy bs ) if necessary to avoid placing .Sy \en , .Sy ^D or .Sy ^@ in the returned string. (Programs which call .Fn tgoto should be sure to turn off the .Dv XTABS bit(s), since .Fn tgoto may now output a tab. Note that programs using termcap should in general turn off .Dv XTABS anyway since some terminals use control-I for other functions, such as nondestructive space.) If a .Sy % sequence is given which is not understood, then .Fn tgoto returns .Pq Dv OOPS . .Pp The .Fn tputs function decodes the leading padding information of the string .Fa cp ; .Fa affcnt gives the number of lines affected by the operation, or 1 if this is not applicable, .Fa outc is a routine which is called with each character in turn. The external variable .Va ospeed should contain the output speed of the terminal as encoded by .Xr stty 3 . The external variable .Va PC should contain a pad character to be used (from the .Sy pc capability) if a null .Pq Sy ^@ is inappropriate. .Pp The .Fn t_getent function operates in a similar manner to the .Fn tgetent function excepting that the .Fa info argument is a pointer to a pointer of the opaque type .Va tinfo . If the call to .Fn t_getent succeeds then the argument .Fa info will be updated with the address of an object that contains the termcap entry. This pointer can then be passed to calls of .Fn t_getnum , .Fn t_getflag and .Fn t_getstr . When the information pointed to by .Fa info is no longer required any storage associated with the object can be released by calling .Fn t_freent . .Pp The functions .Fn t_getnum and .Fn t_getflag operate in the same manner as .Fn tgetnum and .Fn tgetflag with the exception that the pointer to the termcap object is passed along with the id of the capability required. .Pp The function .Fn t_getstr performs the same function as .Fn tgetstr but has a .Fa limit parameter that gives the number of characters that can be inserted in to the array pointed to by .Fa area . The .Fa limit argument is updated by the .Fn t_getstr call to give the number of characters that remain available in .Fa area . If the t_getstr call fails then .Dv NULL will be returned and errno set to indicate the failure, .Er ENOENT indicates there was no termcap entry for the given .Fa id , .Er E2BIG indicates the retrieved entry would have overflowed .Fa area . If t_getstr is called with .Fa area being .Dv NULL then the size required to hold the capability string will be returned in .Fa limit so the caller can allocate enough storage to hold the capability. .Pp The function .Fn t_agetstr performs the same function as .Fn t_getstr except it handles memory allocation automatically. The memory that .Fn t_agetstr allocates will be freed when .Fn t_freent is called. .Pp The function .Fn t_getterm returns a copy of the termcap name string of the termcap entry associated with .Fa info in the buffer pointed to by .Fa area . .Fn t_getterm returns 0 on success and \-1 on error. On error errno will be set to .Er EINVAL if the termcap entry in .Fa info is malformed or .Er E2BIG if the size of the name exceeds the size specified by .Fa limit . If .Fa area is .Dv NULL then the size required to hold the terminal name will be returned in .Fa limit allowing sufficient storage to be allocated. If .Fa limit is .Dv NULL then no bounds checking will be performed. .Pp The .Fn t_goto function is the same as the .Fn tgoto function excepting that the capabilities for .Sy up and .Sy bc are extracted from the .Fa info object and that the string formed by .Fn t_goto is placed in the .Fa buffer argument, the number of characters allowed to be placed in .Fa buffer is controlled by .Fa limit . If the expansion performed by .Fn t_goto would exceed the space in .Fa buffer then .Fn t_goto will return \-1 and set errno to .Er E2BIG . The function .Fn t_puts is similar to the .Fn tputs function excepting that .Fa info holds a pointer to the termcap object that was returned by a previous .Fn t_getent call, this object will be used to retrieve the .Sy pc attribute for the terminal. The .Fa outc function is a pointer to a function that will be called by .Fn t_puts to output each character in the .Fa cp string. The .Fa outc function will be called with two parameters. The first is the character to be printed and the second is an optional argument that was passed to .Fn t_puts in the .Fa args argument. The interpretation of the contents of .Fa args is dependent solely on the implementation of .Fa outc . .Pp The .Fn t_setinfo function allows the termcap entry contained in the .Fa entry string to be inserted into the the .Fa info structure. Memory sufficient to hold the contents of .Fa entry is automatically allocated. This allows the programmer to provide a fail over terminal capability string if fetching the termcap entry from the termcap database fails. The format of the string .Fa entry is assumed to be a valid termcap entry. .Pp NOTE: A special capability of .Fa ZZ is added to the end of the termcap entry retrieved. The number that follows this entry is the address of the buffer allocated to hold the full termcap entry. The caller may retrieve the pointer to the extended buffer by performing a .Fn tgetstr to retrieve the .Fa ZZ capability, the string is the output of a .Fn printf %p and may be converted back to a pointer using .Fn sscanf or similar. The ZZ capability is only necessary if the caller wishes to directly manipulate the termcap entry, all the termcap function calls automatically use the extended buffer to retrieve terminal capabilities. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/misc/termcap -compact .It Pa /usr/lib/libtermcap.a .Fl l Ar termcap library (also known as .Fl l Ar termlib ) .It Pa /usr/share/misc/termcap standard terminal capability data base .It Pa $HOME/.termcap user's terminal capability data base .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr ex 1 , .Xr curses 3 , .Xr termcap 5 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm termcap t_*() functions appeared in .Nx 1.5 . The rest of the .Nm termcap functions appeared in .Bx 4.0 .