tgetstr on system V R2 (HELP!)
lvs at ndm20.UUCP
lvs at ndm20.UUCP
Tue Jul 22 05:32:00 AEST 1986
> I am trying to get a recently posted reminder program (rs)
>to run on my machine (VAX 11/780 running Sys V R2). The program
>seems to run okay, except that all calls to tgetstr() do not
>return the correct escape sequence (they return null).
>
> The sequence being used is:
> tgetent(bp, terminal name) /* works fine - return of 1 */
> tgetnum("co") /* works fine - returns 80 */
> tgetstr("so",&some_buffer) or
> tgetstr("bl",&some_buffer) or anything else
> /* returns 0's in buffer */
>
> Does anyone know why it doesn't? Am I doing something wrong?
>Please respond via email.
>
>Lee Vallone AT&T Information Systems Merlin
>{... ihnp4, mtuxo}!mtsbb!lav
No, you are not doing anything wrong, AT&T is! They have broken the
way tgetent and tgetstr work. The only help you get from AT&T
software support is "Sorry, we don't support termcap anymore". Oh
well, so it goes.
The original definition for tgetstr was
char *tgetstr( char *code, char **bufptr )
tgetstr would get the string you desired (if it can find it) and
place it in your buffer, supplied by bufptr. It would then update
bufptr to point just beyond the string just added and return the
original value of the buffer pointer (unless the code couldn't be
found in which case it returns NULL).
Well, so much for the way it SHOULD work. The version supplied by
AT&T in SVR2 is just plain broken. It does nothing with the buffer
you supply it, nor does it update the pointer. The only usefull
information is the return value. If it is not NULL it will point to
the string you requested. Therefore, you must save the return value
from the call, that is you can't use bufptr because it doesn't point
to the string. If you want the strings in a buffer you will have to
copy them into it yourself.
Alas, it seems AT&T has broken termcap and instead of fixing it, they
decided not to support it.
BTW, the machine I have checked this on is an AT&T PC6300PLUS. It
exibited the same problems you described. It now works by doing it
the way I described above.
Hope this helps,
Larry V. Streepy Jr. "Waiting is"
Nathan D. Maier Consulting Engineers
VOICE: (214)739-4741
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