These low-level routines must be called by programs that have to deal directly with the terminfo database to handle certain terminal capabilities, such as programming function keys. For all other functionality, curses routines are more suitable and their use is recommended.

Initially, setupterm() should be called. Note that setupterm() is automatically called by initscr() and newterm(). This defines the set of terminal-dependent variables (listed in terminfo(4)). The terminfo variables lines and columns are initialized by setupterm() as follows: If use_env(FALSE) has been called, values for lines and columns specified in terminfo are used. Otherwise, if the environment variables LINES and COLUMNS exist, their values are used. If these environment variables do not exist and the program is running in a window, the current window size is used. Otherwise, if the environment variables do not exist, the values for lines and columns specified in the terminfo database are used.

The headers <curses.h> and <term.h> should be included (in this order) to get the definitions for these strings, numbers, and flags. Parameterized strings should be passed through tparm() to instantiate them. All terminfo strings (including the output of tparm()) should be printed with tputs() or putp(). Call the reset_shell_mode() routine to restore the tty modes before exiting (see curs_kernel(3CURSES)). Programs which use cursor addressing should output enter_ca_mode upon startup and should output exit_ca_mode before exiting. Programs desiring shell escapes should call reset_shell_mode and output exit_ca_mode before the shell is called and should output enter_ca_mode and call reset_prog_mode after returning from the shell.

The setupterm() routine reads in the terminfo database, initializing the terminfo structures, but does not set up the output virtualization structures used by curses. The terminal type is the character string term; if term is null, the environment variable TERM is used. All output is to file descriptor fildes which is initialized for output. If errret is not null, then setupterm() returns OK or ERR and stores a status value in the integer pointed to by errret. A status of 1 in errret is normal, 0 means that the terminal could not be found, and -1 means that the terminfo database could not be found. If errret is null, setupterm() prints an error message upon finding an error and exits. Thus, the simplest call is:

setupterm((char *)0, 1, (int *)0);,

The setterm() routine is being replaced by setupterm(). The call:

setupterm(term, 1, (int *)0)

The set_curterm() routine sets the variable cur_term to nterm, and makes all of the terminfo boolean, numeric, and string variables use the values from nterm.

The del_curterm() routine frees the space pointed to by oterm and makes it available for further use. If oterm is the same as cur_term, references to any of the terminfo boolean, numeric, and string variables thereafter may refer to invalid memory locations until another setupterm() has been called.

The restartterm() routine is similar to setupterm() and initscr(), except that it is called after restoring memory to a previous state. It assumes that the windows and the input and output options are the same as when memory was saved, but the terminal type and baud rate may be different.

The tparm() routine instantiates the string str with parameters pi. A pointer is returned to the result of str with the parameters applied.

The tputs() routine applies padding information to the string str and outputs it. The str must be a terminfo string variable or the return value from tparm(), tgetstr(), or tgoto(). affcnt is the number of lines affected, or 1 if not applicable. putc is a putchar()-like routine to which the characters are passed, one at a time.

The putp() routine calls tputs(str, 1, putchar). Note that the output of putpA() always goes to stdout, not to the fildes specified in setupterm().

The vidputs() routine displays the string on the terminal in the video attribute mode attrs, which is any combination of the attributes listed in curses(3CURSES). The characters are passed to the putchar()-like routine putc() .

The vidattr() routine is like the vidputs() routine, except that it outputs through putchar().

The mvcur() routine provides low-level cursor motion.

The tigetflag(), tigetnum() and tigetstr() routines return the value of the capability corresponding to the terminfo capname passed to them, such as xenl.

With the tigetflag() routine, the value -1 is returned if capname is not a boolean capability.

With the tigetnum() routine, the value -2 is returned if capname is not a numeric capability.

With the tigetstr() routine, the value (char *)-1 is returned if capname is not a string capability.

The capname for each capability is given in the table column entitled capname code in the capabilities section of terminfo(4).

char *boolnames, *boolcodes, *boolfnames
char *numnames, *numcodes, *numfnames
char *strnames, *strcodes, *strfnames

These null-terminated arrays contain the capnames, the termcap codes, and the full C names, for each of the terminfo variables.

All routines return the integer ERR upon failure and an integer value other than ERR upon successful completion, unless otherwise noted in the preceding routine descriptions.

Routines that return pointers always return NULL on error.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

curs_initscr(3CURSES), curs_kernel(3CURSES), curs_termcap(3CURSES), curses(3CURSES), putc(3C), terminfo(4), attributes(5)

The header <curses.h> automatically includes the headers <stdio.h> and <unctrl.h>.

The setupterm() routine should be used in place of setterm().

Note that vidattr() and vidputs() may be macros.