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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | PORTABILITY | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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term_variables(3X) Library calls term_variables(3X)
SP, acs_map, boolcodes, boolfnames, boolnames, cur_term, numcodes,
numfnames, numnames, strcodes, strfnames, strnames, ttytype -
terminfo global variables
#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[];
This page summarizes variables provided by the curses library's
lower-level terminfo interface. Locate a more complete
description in the curs_terminfo(3X) manual page.
Depending on ncurses's build-time configuration, these may be
actual variables, or macros (see curs_threads(3X)) that 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
periodically. Application developers need only know that it is
used for the “ACS_” constants in curses.h.
The comparable data for the wide-character library are not exposed
as symbols in the API.
Current Terminal Data
After initializing the curses or terminfo interfaces, cur_term
contains data describing the current terminal. It is also updated
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(3X) for switching between screens.
Alternatively, one can save the return value from newterm(3X) or
setupterm(3X) to reuse in set_term(3X).
[1mterminfo[24m 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 available
to other applications, though the hash tables used by the terminfo
and termcap functions are not.
terminfo stores capability names in arrays with an “f” (eff) in
their names: boolfnames, numfnames, and strfnames. It stores the
briefer capability codes in arrays without the “f”: boolnames,
numnames, and strnames. The corresponding termcap capability
codes are stored in boolcodes, numcodes, and strcodes.
terminfo(5) catalogs these.
Terminal Type
A terminal description begins with one or more terminal names
separated by “|” (vertical bars). On initialization of the curses
or terminfo interfaces, setupterm(3X) copies the terminal name to
the array ttytype.
[1mterminfo[24m Names
In addition to the variables, term.h also defines a symbol for
each terminfo capability 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
capabilities than using, for example, tigetstr(3X).
The definition of CUR is implementation-dependent, but each term‐
info library defines these names to point into the in-memory
description of the current terminal. For example, in ncurses, the
expressions tigetstr("key_dc") and “CUR Strings[59]” are
equivalent.
[1mterminfo[24m and curses
setupterm(3X) initializes the lower-level terminfo interface. The
higher-level curses interface uses the terminfo interface
internally; the symbol SP bridges the curses SCREEN type with the
terminfo TERMINAL type.
X/Open Curses does not describe any of these symbols except for
cur_term. (The inclusion of cur_term appears to be an oversight,
since other comparable low-level information is omitted by
X/Open.)
Other implementations may have comparable variables. Some
implementations provide the variables in their libraries, but omit
them from the header files.
All implementations that provide terminfo interfaces add
definitions as described in the “terminfo Names” section above.
Most, but not all, base the definition upon the cur_term variable.
curses(3X), curs_terminfo(3X), curs_threads(3X), terminfo(5)
This page is part of the ncurses (new curses) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html⟩. If you have a
bug report for this manual page, send it to bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
This page was obtained from the tarball ncurses-6.6.tar.gz fetched
from ⟨https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/⟩ on 2026-01-16. If you
discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page,
or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the
page, or you have corrections or improvements to the information
in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page),
send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
ncurses @NCURSES_MAJOR@.@NCU... 2025-11-11 term_variables(3X)
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HTML rendering created 2026-01-16 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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