term_variables(3x) — Linux manual page
term_variables(3X) term_variables(3X)
NAME
SP, acs_map, boolcodes, boolfnames, boolnames, cur_term,
numcodes, numfnames, numnames, strcodes, strfnames, strnames,
ttytype - curses terminfo global variables
SYNOPSIS
#include <curses.h>
#include <term.h>
chtype acs_map[];
SCREEN * SP;
TERMINAL * cur_term;
char ttytype[];
NCURSES_CONST char * const boolcodes[];
NCURSES_CONST char * const boolfnames[];
NCURSES_CONST char * const boolnames[];
NCURSES_CONST char * const numcodes[];
NCURSES_CONST char * const numfnames[];
NCURSES_CONST char * const numnames[];
NCURSES_CONST char * const strcodes[];
NCURSES_CONST char * const strfnames[];
NCURSES_CONST char * const strnames[];
DESCRIPTION
This page summarizes variables provided by the curses library's
low-level terminfo interface. A more complete description is
given in the curs_terminfo(3X) manual page.
Depending on the configuration, these may be actual variables, or
macros (see curs_threads(3X)) which provide read-only access to
curses's state. In either case, applications should treat them
as read-only to avoid confusing the library.
Alternate Character Set Mapping
After initializing the curses or terminfo interfaces, the acs_map
array holds information used to translate cells with the
A_ALTCHARSET video attribute into line-drawing characters.
The encoding of the information in this array has changed period‐
ically. Application developers need only know that it is used
for the “ACS_” constants in <curses.h>.
The comparable data for the wide-character library is a private
variable.
Current Terminal Data
After initializing the curses or terminfo interfaces, the
cur_term contains data describing the current terminal. This
variable is also set as a side-effect of set_term(3X) and
delscreen(3X).
It is possible to save a value of cur_term for subsequent use as
a parameter to set_term, for switching between screens. Alterna‐
tively, one can save the return value from newterm or se‐
tupterm(3X) to reuse in set_term.
Terminfo Lookup Tables
The @TIC@(1) and @INFOCMP@(1) programs use lookup tables for the
long and short names of terminfo capabilities, as well as the
corresponding names for termcap capabilities. These are avail‐
able to other applications, although the hash-tables used by the
terminfo and termcap functions are not available.
The long terminfo capability names use a “f” (eff) in their
names: boolfnames, numfnames, and strfnames.
These are the short names for terminfo capabilities: boolnames,
numnames, and strnames.
These are the corresponding names used for termcap descriptions:
boolcodes, numcodes, and strcodes.
Terminal Type
A terminal description begins with one or more terminal names
separated by “|” (vertical bars). On initialization of the curs‐
es or terminfo interfaces, setupterm(3X) copies the terminal
names to the array ttytype.
Terminfo Names
In addition to the variables, <term.h> also defines a symbol for
each terminfo capability long name. These are in terms of the
symbol CUR, which is defined
#define CUR ((TERMTYPE *)(cur_term))->
These symbols provide a faster method of accessing terminfo capa‐
bilities than using tigetstr(3X), etc.
The actual definition of CUR depends upon the implementation, but
each terminfo library provides these long names defined to point
into the current terminal description loaded into memory.
NOTES
The low-level terminfo interface is initialized using
setupterm(3X). The upper-level curses interface uses the low-
level terminfo interface, internally.
PORTABILITY
X/Open Curses does not describe any of these except for cur_term.
(The inclusion of cur_term appears to be an oversight, since oth‐
er comparable low-level information is omitted by X/Open).
Other implementations may have comparable variables. Some imple‐
mentations provide the variables in their libraries, but omit
them from the header files.
All implementations which provide terminfo interfaces add defini‐
tions as described in the Terminfo Names section. Most, but not
all, base the definition upon the cur_term variable.
SEE ALSO
curses(3X), curs_terminfo(3X), curs_threads(3X), terminfo(5).
COLOPHON
This page is part of the ncurses (new curses) project. Informa‐
tion about the project can be found at
⟨https://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ncurses.html⟩. If you have
a bug report for this manual page, send it to
bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org. This page was obtained from the
project's upstream Git mirror of the CVS repository
⟨https://github.com/mirror/ncurses.git⟩ on 2024-06-14. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
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