term% cat index.txt TERMCAP(3) Library Functions Manual TERMCAP(3)
NAME
tgetent, tgetnum, tgetflag, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs - terminal indepen‐
dent operation routines
SYNOPSIS
char PC;
char *BC;
char *UP;
short ospeed;
tgetent(bp, name)
char *bp, *name;
tgetnum(id)
char *id;
tgetflag(id)
char *id;
char *
tgetstr(id, area)
char *id, **area;
char *
tgoto(cm, destcol, destline)
char *cm;
tputs(cp, affcnt, outc)
register char *cp;
int affcnt;
int (*outc)();
DESCRIPTION
These functions extract and use capabilities from the terminal capabil‐
ity data base termcap(5). These are low level routines; see curses(3)
for a higher level package.
Tgetent extracts the entry for terminal name into the buffer at bp. Bp
should be a character buffer of size 1024 and must be retained through
all subsequent calls to tgetnum, tgetflag, and tgetstr. Tgetent re‐
turns -1 if it cannot open the termcap file, 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 TERMCAP variable. If found, and the value does
not begin with a slash, and the terminal type name is the same as the
environment string TERM, the TERMCAP string is used instead of reading
the termcap file. If it does begin with a slash, the string is used as
a path name rather than /etc/termcap. This can speed up entry into
programs that call tgetent, as well as to help debug new terminal de‐
scriptions or to make one for your terminal if you can't write the file
/etc/termcap.
Tgetnum gets the numeric value of capability id, returning -1 if is not
given for the terminal. Tgetflag returns 1 if the specified capability
is present in the terminal's entry, 0 if it is not. Tgetstr gets the
string value of capability id, placing it in the buffer at area, ad‐
vancing the area pointer. It decodes the abbreviations for this field
described in termcap(5), except for cursor addressing and padding in‐
formation.
Tgoto returns a cursor addressing string decoded from cm to go to col‐
umn destcol in line destline. It uses the external variables UP (from
the up capability) and BC (if bc is given rather than bs) if necessary
to avoid placing \n, ^D or ^@ in the returned string. (Programs which
call tgoto should be sure to turn off the XTABS bit(s), since tgoto may
now output a tab. Note that programs using termcap should in general
turn off XTABS anyway since some terminals use control I for other
functions, such as nondestructive space.) If a % sequence is given
which is not understood, then tgoto returns ‘OOPS'.
Tputs decodes the leading padding information of the string cp; affcnt
gives the number of lines affected by the operation, or 1 if this is
not applicable, outc is a routine which is called with each character
in turn. The external variable ospeed should contain the output speed
of the terminal as encoded by stty (2). The external variable PC
should contain a pad character to be used (from the pc capability) if a
null (^@) is inappropriate.
FILES
/usr/lib/libtermcap.a -ltermcap library
/etc/termcap data base
SEE ALSO
ex(1), curses(3), termcap(5)
AUTHOR
William Joy
BUGS
TERMCAP(3)