| Main index | Section 3 | Options |
int getch(void);
int wgetch(WINDOW *win);
int mvgetch(int y, int x);
int mvwgetch(WINDOW *win, int y, int x);
int ungetch(int ch);
int has_key(int ch);
If echo is enabled, and the window is not a pad, then the character will also be echoed into the designated window according to the following rules:
| » | If the character is the current erase character, left arrow, or backspace, the cursor is moved one space to the left and that screen position is erased as if delch had been called. |
| » | If the character value is any other KEY_ define, the user is alerted with a beep call. |
| » | If the character is a carriage-return, and if nl is enabled, it is translated to a line-feed after echoing. |
| » | Otherwise the character is simply output to the screen. |
If keypad is TRUE, and a function key is pressed, the token for that function key is returned instead of the raw characters:
| &#187; | The predefined function keys are listed in <curses.h> as macros with values outside the range of 8-bit characters. Their names begin with KEY_. |
| &#187; | Other (user-defined) function keys which may be defined using define_key(3X) have no names, but also are expected to have values outside the range of 8-bit characters. |
When a character that could be the beginning of a function key is received (which, on modern terminals, means an escape character), curses sets a timer. If the remainder of the sequence does not come in within the designated time, the character is passed through; otherwise, the function key value is returned. For this reason, many terminals experience a delay between the time a user presses the escape key and the escape is returned to the program.
In ncurses, the timer normally expires after the value in ESCDELAY (see curs_variables(3X)). If notimeout is TRUE, the timer does not expire; it is an infinite (or very large) value. Because function keys usually begin with an escape character, the terminal may appear to hang in notimeout mode after pressing the escape key until another key is pressed.
The ungetch routine places ch back onto the input queue to be returned by the next call to wgetch. There is just one input queue for all windows.
| &#187; | Except for the special case KEY_RESIZE, it is necessary to enable keypad for getch to return these codes. |
| &#187; | Not all of these are necessarily supported on any particular terminal. |
| &#187; | The naming convention may seem obscure, with some apparent misspellings (such as ``RSUME'' for ``resume''). The names correspond to the long terminfo capability names for the keys, and were defined long ago, in the 1980s. |
Name Key name KEY_BREAK Break key KEY_DOWN The four arrow keys ... KEY_UP KEY_LEFT KEY_RIGHT KEY_HOME Home key (upward+left arrow) KEY_BACKSPACE Backspace KEY_F0 Function keys; space for 64 keys is reserved. KEY_F(n) For 0 ≤ n ≤ 63 KEY_DL Delete line KEY_IL Insert line KEY_DC Delete character KEY_IC Insert char or enter insert mode KEY_EIC Exit insert char mode KEY_CLEAR Clear screen KEY_EOS Clear to end of screen KEY_EOL Clear to end of line KEY_SF Scroll 1 line forward KEY_SR Scroll 1 line backward (reverse) KEY_NPAGE Next page KEY_PPAGE Previous page KEY_STAB Set tab KEY_CTAB Clear tab KEY_CATAB Clear all tabs KEY_ENTER Enter or send KEY_SRESET Soft (partial) reset KEY_RESET Reset or hard reset KEY_PRINT Print or copy KEY_LL Home down or bottom (lower left) KEY_A1 Upper left of keypad KEY_A3 Upper right of keypad KEY_B2 Center of keypad KEY_C1 Lower left of keypad KEY_C3 Lower right of keypad KEY_BTAB Back tab key KEY_BEG Beg(inning) key KEY_CANCEL Cancel key KEY_CLOSE Close key KEY_COMMAND Cmd (command) key KEY_COPY Copy key KEY_CREATE Create key KEY_END End key KEY_EXIT Exit key KEY_FIND Find key KEY_HELP Help key KEY_MARK Mark key KEY_MESSAGE Message key KEY_MOUSE Mouse event read KEY_MOVE Move key KEY_NEXT Next object key KEY_OPEN Open key KEY_OPTIONS Options key KEY_PREVIOUS Previous object key KEY_REDO Redo key KEY_REFERENCE Ref(erence) key KEY_REFRESH Refresh key KEY_REPLACE Replace key KEY_RESIZE Screen resized KEY_RESTART Restart key KEY_RESUME Resume key KEY_SAVE Save key KEY_SBEG Shifted beginning key KEY_SCANCEL Shifted cancel key KEY_SCOMMAND Shifted command key KEY_SCOPY Shifted copy key KEY_SCREATE Shifted create key KEY_SDC Shifted delete char key KEY_SDL Shifted delete line key KEY_SELECT Select key KEY_SEND Shifted end key KEY_SEOL Shifted clear line key KEY_SEXIT Shifted exit key KEY_SFIND Shifted find key KEY_SHELP Shifted help key KEY_SHOME Shifted home key KEY_SIC Shifted input key KEY_SLEFT Shifted left arrow key KEY_SMESSAGE Shifted message key KEY_SMOVE Shifted move key KEY_SNEXT Shifted next key KEY_SOPTIONS Shifted options key KEY_SPREVIOUS Shifted prev key KEY_SPRINT Shifted print key KEY_SREDO Shifted redo key KEY_SREPLACE Shifted replace key KEY_SRIGHT Shifted right arrow KEY_SRSUME Shifted resume key KEY_SSAVE Shifted save key KEY_SSUSPEND Shifted suspend key KEY_SUNDO Shifted undo key KEY_SUSPEND Suspend key KEY_UNDO Undo key
Keypad is arranged like this:
A1 up A3 left B2 right C1 down C3
A few of these predefined values do not correspond to a real key:
| &#187; | KEY_RESIZE is returned when the SIGWINCH signal has been detected (see initscr(3X) and resizeterm(3X)). This code is returned whether or not keypad has been enabled. |
| &#187; | KEY_MOUSE is returned for mouse-events (see curs_mouse(3X)). This code relies upon whether or not keypad(3X) has been enabled, because (e.g., with xterm mouse prototocol) ncurses must read escape sequences, just like a function key. |
The has_key routine takes a key-code value from the above list, and returns TRUE or FALSE according to whether the current terminal type recognizes a key with that value.
The library also supports these extensions:
define_key defines a key-code for a given string (see define_key(3X)). key_defined checks if there is a key-code defined for a given string (see key_defined(3X)).
ungetch returns ERR if there is no more room in the FIFO. wgetch returns ERR if the window pointer is null, or if its timeout expires without having any data, or if the execution was interrupted by a signal (errno will be set to EINTR).
Functions with a ``mv'' prefix first perform a cursor movement using wmove, and return an error if the position is outside the window, or if the window pointer is null.
Some keys may be the same as commonly used control keys, e.g., KEY_ENTER versus control/M, KEY_BACKSPACE versus control/H. Some curses implementations may differ according to whether they treat these control keys specially (and ignore the terminfo), or use the terminfo definitions. Ncurses uses the terminfo definition. If it says that KEY_ENTER is control/M, getch will return KEY_ENTER when you press control/M.
Generally, KEY_ENTER denotes the character(s) sent by the Enter key on the numeric keypad:
| &#187; | the terminal description lists the most useful keys, |
| &#187; | the Enter key on the regular keyboard is already handled by the standard ASCII characters for carriage-return and line-feed, |
| &#187; | depending on whether nl or nonl was called, pressing ``Enter'' on the regular keyboard may return either a carriage-return or line-feed, and finally |
| &#187; | ``Enter or send'' is the standard description for this key. |
Note that getch, mvgetch, and mvwgetch may be macros.
Historically, the set of keypad macros was largely defined by the extremely function-key-rich keyboard of the AT&T 7300, aka 3B1, aka Safari 4. Modern personal computers usually have only a small subset of these. IBM PC-style consoles typically support little more than KEY_UP, KEY_DOWN, KEY_LEFT, KEY_RIGHT, KEY_HOME, KEY_END, KEY_NPAGE, KEY_PPAGE, and function keys 1 through 12. The Ins key is usually mapped to KEY_IC.
The echo behavior of these functions on input of KEY_ or backspace characters was not specified in the SVr4 documentation. This description is adopted from the XSI Curses standard.
The behavior of getch and friends in the presence of handled signals is unspecified in the SVr4 and XSI Curses documentation. Under historical curses implementations, it varied depending on whether the operating system's implementation of handled signal receipt interrupts a read(2) call in progress or not, and also (in some implementations) depending on whether an input timeout or non-blocking mode has been set.
KEY_MOUSE is mentioned in XSI Curses, along with a few related terminfo capabilities, but no higher-level functions use the feature. The implementation in ncurses is an extension.
KEY_RESIZE is an extension first implemented for ncurses. NetBSD curses later added this extension.
Programmers concerned about portability should be prepared for either of two cases: (a) signal receipt does not interrupt getch; (b) signal receipt interrupts getch and causes it to return ERR with errno set to EINTR.
The has_key function is unique to ncurses. We recommend that any code using it be conditionalized on the NCURSES_VERSION feature macro.
Comparable functions in the wide-character (ncursesw) library are described in curs_get_wch(3).
| curs_getch (3X) |
| Main index | Section 3 | Options |
Please direct any comments about this manual page service to Ben Bullock. Privacy policy.
| “ | A child of 5 could understand this! Fetch me a child of 5. | ” |