termcap(3x)termcap(3x)Name
tgetent, tgetnum, tgetflag, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs - terminal indepen‐
dent operation routines
Syntax
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 These are low level routines; see for a higher level
package.
The function extracts the entry for terminal name into the buffer at
bp. The bp should be a character buffer of size 1024 and must be
retained through all subsequent calls to and The function returns -1 if
it cannot open the 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 pathname rather than
This can speed up entry into programs that call as well as to help
debug new terminal descriptions or to make one for your terminal if you
cannot write the file
The function gets the numeric value of capability id, returning -1 if
is not given for the terminal. The returns 1 if the specified capabil‐
ity is present in the terminal's entry, 0 if it is not. The function
gets the string value of capability id, placing it in the buffer at
area, advancing the area pointer. It decodes the abbreviations for
this field described in except for cursor addressing and padding infor‐
mation.
The function 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 nec‐
essary to avoid placing \n, ^D or ^@ in the returned string. Programs
that call should be sure to turn off the XTABS bit(s), because may now
output a tab. Note that programs using termcap should in general turn
off XTABS anyway, because some terminals use control I for other func‐
tions, such as nondestructive space. If a % sequence is given that is
not understood, then returns “OOPS”.
The function 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 that is called with each
character in turn. The external variable ospeed should contain the
output speed of the terminal as encoded by 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 Alsoex(1), curses(3x), termcap(5)termcap(3x)