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termcap(3NCURSES)                                            termcap(3NCURSES)

NAME
       PC, UP, BC, ospeed, tgetent, tgetflag, tgetnum, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs -
       direct curses interface to the terminfo capability database

SYNOPSIS
       #include <ncurses/curses.h>
       #include <term.h>

       extern char PC;
       extern char * UP;
       extern char * BC;
       extern speed_t ospeed;

       int tgetent(char *bp, const char *name);
       int tgetflag(char *id);
       int tgetnum(char *id);
       char *tgetstr(char *id, char **area);
       char *tgoto(const char *cap, int col, int row);
       int tputs(const char *str, int affcnt, int (*putc)(int));

DESCRIPTION
       These routines are included as a conversion aid for programs  that  use
       the  termcap  library.   Their parameters are the same and the routines
       are emulated using the terminfo database.  Thus, they can only be  used
       to  query  the  capabilities  of entries for which a terminfo entry has
       been compiled.

   INITIALIZATION
       The tgetent routine loads the entry for name.  It returns:

          1  on success,

          0  if there is no such entry (or that it is a generic  type,  having
             too little information for curses applications to run), and

          -1 if the terminfo database could not be found.

       This differs from the termcap library in two ways:

          o   The  emulation  ignores  the buffer pointer bp.  The termcap li-
              brary would store a copy of the terminal description in the area
              referenced  by this pointer.  However, ncurses stores its termi-
              nal descriptions in compiled binary form, which is not the  same
              thing.

          o   There is a difference in return codes.  The termcap library does
              not check if the terminal description is marked with the generic
              capability,  or  if the terminal description has cursor-address-
              ing.

   CAPABILITY VALUES
       The tgetflag routine gets the boolean entry for id, or zero  if  it  is
       not available.

       The  tgetnum  routine gets the numeric entry for id, or -1 if it is not
       available.

       The tgetstr routine returns the string entry for id, or zero if  it  is
       not  available.   Use  tputs to output the returned string.  The return
       value will also be copied to the buffer pointed to  by  area,  and  the
       area value will be updated to point past the null ending this value.

       Only  the first two characters of the id parameter of tgetflag, tgetnum
       and tgetstr are compared in lookups.

   FORMATTING CAPABILITIES
       The tgoto routine instantiates the parameters into the given  capabili-
       ty.  The output from this routine is to be passed to tputs.

       The  tputs  routine is described on the terminfo(3NCURSES) manual page.
       It can retrieve capabilities by either termcap or terminfo name.

   GLOBAL VARIABLES
       The variables PC, UP and BC are set by tgetent to the terminfo  entry's
       data for pad_char, cursor_up and backspace_if_not_bs, respectively.  UP
       is not used by ncurses.  PC is used in the tdelay_output function.   BC
       is  used in the tgoto emulation.  The variable ospeed is set by ncurses
       in a system-specific coding to reflect the terminal speed.

RETURN VALUE
       Except where explicitly noted, routines that return an  integer  return
       ERR  upon  failure  and OK (SVr4 only specifies "an integer value other
       than ERR") upon successful completion.

       Routines that return pointers return NULL on error.

BUGS
       If you call tgetstr to fetch ca 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 will not cause problems if
       all  you do with it is call tgoto or tparm, which both expand terminfo-
       style strings as terminfo.  (The tgoto function, if configured to  sup-
       port  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 capa-
       bilities differ from termcap's, tputs("50"); will  put  out  a  literal
       "50" rather than busy-waiting for 50 milliseconds.  Cope with it.

       Note  that termcap has nothing analogous to terminfo's sgr string.  One
       consequence of this is that termcap applications  assume  me  (terminfo
       sgr0)  does not reset the alternate character set.  This implementation
       checks for, and modifies the data shown to the termcap interface to ac-
       commodate termcap's limitation in this respect.

PORTABILITY
       The  XSI  Curses standard, Issue 4 describes these functions.  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 tgetent correctly, though all three were in fact re-
       turned ever since SVr1.  In particular, an omission in the  XSI  Curses
       documentation  has  been misinterpreted to mean that tgetent returns OK
       or ERR.  Because the purpose of these functions is to provide  compati-
       bility  with the termcap library, that is a defect in XCurses, Issue 4,
       Version 2 rather than in ncurses.

       External variables are provided for support of certain termcap applica-
       tions.  However, termcap applications' use of those variables is poorly
       documented, e.g., not distinguishing between input and output.  In par-
       ticular,  some  applications  are reported to declare and/or modify os-
       peed.

       The comment that only the first two characters of the id parameter  are
       used escapes many application developers.  The original BSD 4.2 termcap
       library (and historical relics thereof) did not require a trailing null
       NUL  on  the  parameter  name  passed to tgetstr, tgetnum and tgetflag.
       Some applications assume that the termcap interface  does  not  require
       the trailing NUL for the parameter name.  Taking into account these is-
       sues:

       o   As a special case,  tgetflag  matched  against  a  single-character
           identifier  provided  that  was at the end of the terminal descrip-
           tion.  You should not rely upon this behavior in portable programs.
           This  implementation disallows matches against single-character ca-
           pability names.

       o   This implementation disallows  matches  by  the  termcap  interface
           against extended capability names which are longer than two charac-
           ters.

SEE ALSO
       ncurses(3NCURSES), terminfo(5), terminfo_variables(3NCURSES), putc(3).

       http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html

                                                             termcap(3NCURSES)

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