.\"	$NetBSD: curses_inch.3,v 1.3 2003/02/14 16:29:11 grant Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2002
.\"	Brett Lymn (blymn@NetBSD.org, brett_lymn@yahoo.com.au)
.\"
.\" This code is donated to the NetBSD Foundation by the Author.
.\"
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.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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.\" 3. The name of the Author may not be used to endorse or promote
.\"    products derived from this software without specific prior written
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.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
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.Dd August 12, 2002
.Dt CURSES_INCH 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm curses_inch ,
.Nm inch ,
.Nm winch ,
.Nm inchnstr ,
.Nm winchnstr ,
.Nm inchstr ,
.Nm winchstr ,
.Nm innstr ,
.Nm winnstr
.Nm instr ,
.Nm winstr
.Nd curses read screen contents routines
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libcurses
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include \*[Lt]curses.h\*[Gt]
.Ft chtype
.Fn inch "void"
.Ft chtype
.Fn winch "WINDOW *win"
.Ft int
.Fn inchnstr "chtype *chars" "int n"
.Ft int
.Fn winchnstr "WINDOW *win" "chtype *chars" "int n"
.Ft int
.Fn inchstr "chtype *chars"
.Ft int
.Fn winchstr "WINDOW *win" "chtype *chars"
.Ft int
.Fn innstr "char *str" "int n"
.Ft int
.Fn winnstr "WINDOW *win" "char *str" "int n"
.Ft int
.Fn instr "char *str"
.Ft int
.Fn winstr "WINDOW *window" "char *str"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
These functions read the contents of
.Dv stdscr
or of the specified window.
.Pp
The
.Fn inch
function returns the character that is displayed on
.Dv stdscr
at the current cursor position.
.Pp
The
.Fn winch
function is the same as the
.Fn inch
function, excepting that the character is read from window specified by
.Fa win .
.Pp
The
.Fn inchnstr
function fills an an arrray of
.Ft chtype
with characters read from
.Dv stdscr ,
the characters are read starting from the current cursor position and
continuing until either n \- 1 characters are read or the right hand
side of the screen is reached.
The resulting character array will be
.Dv NULL
terminated.
.Pp
The
.Fn winchnstr
function is the same as
.Fn inchnstr
excepting that the characters are read from the window specified by
.Fa win .
.Pp
The
.Fn inchstr
and
.Fn winchstr
functions are the same as the
.Fn inchnstr
and
.Fn winchnstr
functions, respectively, excepting that they do not limit the number
of characters read.
The characters returned are those from the current starting position to
the right hand side of the screen.
The use of
.Fn inchstr
and
.Fn winchnstr
is not recommended as the character buffer can be overflowed.
.Pp
The
.Fn innstr
function
is similar to the
.Fn inchstr
function, excepting that the array of characters returned is stripped of all
the curses attributes making it a plain character string.
.Pp
The
.Fn winnstr
function is the same as the
.Fn innstr
function, excepting that characters are read from the window specified by
.Fa win .
.Pp
The
.Fn instr
and
.Fn winstr
functions
are the same as the
.Fn innstr
and
.Fn winnstr
functions, respectively, excepting that there are no limits placed on the
size of the returned string, which may cause buffer overflows.
For this reason, the use of
.Fn instr
and
.Fn winstr
is not recommended.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
Functions returning pointers will return
.Dv NULL
if an error is detected.
The functions that return an int will return one of the following
values:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ERR -compact
.It Er OK
The function completed successfully.
.It Er ERR
An error occurred in the function.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr curses_addch 3 ,
.Xr curses_addstr 3 ,
.Xr curses_attributes 3 ,
.Xr curses_insertch 3
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nx
Curses library complies with the X/Open Curses specification, part
of the Single Unix Specification.
.Sh NOTES
The
.Fn inchnstr
and
.Fn innstr
function read at most n \- 1 characters from the screen so as to leave
room for
.Dv NULL
termination.
The X/Open specification is unclear as to whether or not this is the correct
behaviour.
.Sh HISTORY
The Curses package appeared in
.Bx 4.0 .