man7.org > Linux > man-pages

Linux/UNIX system programming training

keybound(3x) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | EXTENSIONS | PORTABILITY | AUTHORS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON 

keybound(3X)                  Library calls                  keybound(3X)

NAME         top

       keybound - get definition of a curses function key code

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <curses.h>

       char * keybound(int key-code, int count);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The keybound ncurses extension permits a curses application to
       obtain the value of the string bound to the function key key-code;
       see wgetch(3X) (wide-character API users: wget_wch(3X)).  By
       default, such bindings are string capabilities from the terminfo
       database entry corresponding to the terminal type.  The
       application can non-destructively and repeatedly override such
       definitions with define_key(3X), as if by pushing new definitions
       onto a stack.  The count parameter accesses the nth most recently
       defined binding; 0 selects the binding that is used on input.

RETURN VALUE         top

       If key-code corresponds to a function key defined by the
       application or the terminal type in use, keybound allocates and
       returns a string that must be freed by the application.  keybound
       returns NULL if key-code is not positive or if it does not
       correspond to a key code definition.

EXTENSIONS         top

       keybound is an ncurses extension.

PORTABILITY         top

       Applications employing ncurses extensions should condition their
       use on the visibility of the NCURSES_VERSION preprocessor macro.

AUTHORS         top

       Thomas Dickey

SEE ALSO         top

       curses(3X), define_key(3X), keyok(3X), key_defined(3X),
       terminfo(5)

COLOPHON         top

       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... 2024-12-28                   keybound(3X)

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.

Cover of TLPI