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@(#)termcap.3 6.3 (Berkeley) 04/10/89

C 4 tgetent, tgetnum, tgetflag, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs - terminal independent operation routines

 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)(); 

These functions extract and use capabilities from a terminal capability data base, usually /etc/termcap, the format of which is described in termcap (5). These are low level routines; see curses (3X) 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 returns -1 if none of the 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 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 a termcap file. If it does begin with a slash, the string is used as a path name of the termcap file to search. If TERMCAP does not begin with a slash and name is different from TERM, tgetent searches the files $HOME/.termcap and /etc/termcap, in that order, unless the environment variable 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 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 tgetent , as well as help debug new terminal descriptions or 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 returns the string value of the capability id, places it in the buffer at area, and advances the area pointer. It decodes the abbreviations for this field described in termcap (5), except for cursor addressing and padding information. Tgetstr returns NULL if the capability was not found.

Tgoto returns a cursor addressing string decoded from cm to go to column 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 \en, ^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 \*(lqOOPS\*(rq.

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 (3). The external variable PC should contain a pad character to be used (from the pc capability) if a null (^@) is inappropriate.

/usr/lib/libtermcap.a -ltermcap library (also known as -ltermlib)

/etc/termcap standard terminal capability data base

$HOME/.termcap user's terminal capability data base

ex(1), curses(3), termcap(5)