.\" $NetBSD: termcap.3,v 1.5 1995/06/05 19:45:48 pk 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. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. 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 December 11, 1993 .Dt TERMCAP 3 .Os BSD 4 .Sh NAME .Nm tgetent , .Nm tgetnum , .Nm tgetflag , .Nm tgetstr , .Nm tgoto , .Nm tputs .Nd terminal independent operation routines .Sh SYNOPSIS .Vt char PC; .Vt char *BC; .Vt char *UP; .Vt short ospeed; .Fn tgetent "char *bp" "char *name" .Fn tgetnum "char *id" .Fn tgetflag "char *id" .Ft char * .Fn tgetstr "char *id" "char **area" .Ft char * .Fn tgoto "char *cm" destcol destline .Ft void .Fn tputs "register char *cp" "int affcnt" "int (*outc)()" .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 . As an extension .Fn tgetent can be passed NULL for the .Fa bp argument, in which case an internal buffer will be used. If repeated calls to .Fn tgetent is made with a NULL .Fa bp argument, some memory will be leaked on each call subsequent to the first. 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, 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 it 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. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/misc/termcap -compact .It Pa /usr/lib/libtermcap.a .Fl l Ar ltermcap library (also known as .Fl l Ar ltermlib ) .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 functions appeared in .Bx 4.0 .