How to process KEY_HOME and KEY_END reliably under ncurses - c

I am struggling to have ncurses generate KEY_HOME or KEY_END events, instead the raw escape sequence is coming through as a sequence of characters.
The following simple C program illustrates the problem:
#define _XOPEN_SOURCE 700
#include <curses.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <err.h>
void clean(void)
{
echo();
nl();
nocbreak();
endwin();
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
setvbuf(stderr, NULL, _IONBF, 0);
initscr();
cbreak();
nonl();
noecho();
atexit(clean);
keypad(stdscr, TRUE);
clear();
refresh();
int ch = getch();
if (ch == ERR)
errx(EXIT_FAILURE, "getch");
warnx("read: %x", ch);
halfdelay(1);
while((ch = getch()) != ERR)
{
warnx("read: %x", ch);
}
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
Compile with -lncurses, and redirect stderr to a log file.
When pressing HOME:
test: read: 1b
test: read: 5b
test: read: 31
test: read: 7e
When pressing UP
test: read: 103
How come HOME and END (and indeed F1 etc.) are not parsed by ncurses into KEY_HOME?

You probably have set TERM to a value which does not match the terminal's behavior. For instance, the linux terminal description has khome=\E[1~ (which corresponds to the example output), while xterm has khome=\E[OH. You can see this using
infocmp linux xterm | grep khome
If the terminal description does not match the actual behavior, ncurses will not match the incoming bytes, and will behave as shown.

Related

How to get all currently available input with ncurses? [duplicate]

I have been looking for an equivalent to kbhit() and I have read several forums on this subject, and the majority seem to suggest using ncurses.
How should I go about checking if a key is pressed in C++ using ncurses?
The function getch() provided by ncurses reads a character from the window.
I would like to write a function that only checks if there is a key press and then I want to do getch().
You can use the nodelay() function to turn getch() into a non-blocking call, which returns ERR if no key-press is available. If a key-press is available, it is pulled from the input queue, but you can push it back onto the queue if you like with ungetch().
#include <ncurses.h>
#include <unistd.h> /* only for sleep() */
int kbhit(void)
{
int ch = getch();
if (ch != ERR) {
ungetch(ch);
return 1;
} else {
return 0;
}
}
int main(void)
{
initscr();
cbreak();
noecho();
nodelay(stdscr, TRUE);
scrollok(stdscr, TRUE);
while (1) {
if (kbhit()) {
printw("Key pressed! It was: %d\n", getch());
refresh();
} else {
printw("No key pressed yet...\n");
refresh();
sleep(1);
}
}
}

STDIN input size restriction to 1k in C program

Probably a silly question, with read and other functions you can specify the number of bytes you want to read, however when reading from stdin I find that I can only type 1024 characters in the prompt, if I type the 1025 character, it's not written and if I want the line to be read (pressing ENTER key) I need to remove the 1024 character in order to leave space for '\n' I suppose. This occurs only in my c program not the shell so what's causing this restriction?
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
char buf[2048];
int c;
c = read(fileno(stdin), &buf, sizeof(buf));
printf("%s\n", buf);
return 0;
}
Transferring select comments to form an answer.
General diagnosis
This is a property of the terminal driver on your system, rather than of the program or the C library. Modern shells such as Bash don't read a single line; they read characters as they become available using non-canonical input. See also Canonical vs non-canonical terminal input.
Barmar noted:
Note that read() doesn't add a null terminator to the input that it reads, but printf() expects a null-terminated string.
Instead of adding a null terminator, you could tell printf() how many characters to print:
printf("%.*s\n", c, buf);
That is, however, tangential to the question of how to get a long line of input.
If you use an open source o/s, you can modify the terminal driver source code and recompile your kernel to allow you to type more than 1 KiB on a single line, but anything much short of that isn't going to work. The terminal driver imposes a limit; you have to change the terminal driver to change that limit. If you're on Linux, you can poke around the /proc file system to see if there's a dynamic configuration parameter you can change (so you don't have to recompile the kernel, but you do have to alter the settings of the terminal driver); I've not heard of that being possible.
The limit can be a nuisance if you copy'n'paste more than 1 KiB of text with no newlines in it from a browser and want to paste it into a file on your system. Use a program such as Vim to manage it — it puts the terminal into a non-canonical mode and therefore doesn't run into the limit.
Using POSIX termios to slurp input from a terminal
If you want a program to read from a terminal without the line lengths (but also with line editing such as erase or kill processing), then you could consider this program — slurp:
/*
#(#)File: $RCSfile: slurp.c,v $
#(#)Version: $Revision: 1.3 $
#(#)Last changed: $Date: 2018/10/28 17:14:24 $
#(#)Purpose: Put terminal into non-canonical mode to slurp input
#(#)Author: J Leffler
*/
/*TABSTOP=4*/
#include "posixver.h"
#include "stderr.h"
#include <assert.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <unistd.h>
static const char optstr[] = "a:ho:V";
static const char usestr[] = "[-hV][-a output | -o output]";
static const char hlpstr[] =
" -a output Append to named file (creating it if necessary)\n"
" -h Print this help message and exit\n"
" -o output Output to named file (truncating it if it exists)\n"
" -V Print version information and exit\n"
;
static struct termios saved = { 0 };
static bool sigint_enabled = false;
static bool sigquit_enabled = false;
static bool slurping = false;
static void reset_termios(void);
static void set_non_canonical(void);
static void sig_handler(int signum);
static void set_signal_handling(void);
static void slurp(int ofd, const char *filename);
#ifndef lint
/* Prevent over-aggressive optimizers from eliminating ID string */
extern const char jlss_id_slurp_c[];
const char jlss_id_slurp_c[] = "#(#)$Id: slurp.c,v 1.3 2018/10/28 17:14:24 jonathanleffler Exp $";
#endif /* lint */
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
const char *filename = "standard output";
int ofd = STDOUT_FILENO;
int oflag = 0;
err_setarg0(argv[0]);
int opt;
while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, optstr)) != -1)
{
switch (opt)
{
case 'h':
err_help(usestr, hlpstr);
/*NOTREACHED*/
case 'o':
case 'a':
if (ofd != STDOUT_FILENO)
{
err_remark("the -a and -o flags are mutually exclusive\n");
err_usage(usestr);
}
oflag = (opt == 'o') ? O_TRUNC : O_APPEND;
if ((ofd = open(optarg, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | oflag, 0644)) < 0)
err_syserr("failed to open file %s for writing: ", optarg);
filename = optarg;
break;
case 'V':
err_version("PROG", &"#(#)$Revision: 1.3 $ ($Date: 2018/10/28 17:14:24 $)"[4]);
/*NOTREACHED*/
default:
err_usage(usestr);
/*NOTREACHED*/
}
}
if (optind != argc)
{
err_remark("unexpected file name options (first is '%s')\n", argv[optind]);
err_usage(usestr);
}
set_non_canonical();
if (slurping)
set_signal_handling();
slurp(ofd, filename);
return 0;
}
static void reset_termios(void)
{
tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, 0, &saved);
}
static void set_non_canonical(void)
{
if (tcgetattr(STDIN_FILENO, &saved) == 0)
{
struct termios modified = saved;
atexit(reset_termios);
/*
** On macOS 10.14 (at least), if you don't reset ISIG, the
** signal characters are not transferred to the program, so
** you can't detect those signals. With ICANON reset, they
** don't generate the signal either. The code does not try
** to handle the suspend (^Z) key specially, nor any other
** keys than EOF, INTR, QUIT.
*/
modified.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ISIG);
modified.c_cc[VMIN] = 1;
modified.c_cc[VTIME] = 0;
tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &modified);
slurping = true;
}
}
static void sig_handler(int signum)
{
reset_termios();
_exit(128 + signum);
}
/* Almost worth a data structure and a loop, but not quite */
static void set_signal_handling(void)
{
/* Simulate SIGINT and SIGQUIT */
if (signal(SIGINT, SIG_IGN) != SIG_IGN)
{
(void)signal(SIGINT, sig_handler);
sigint_enabled = true;
}
if (signal(SIGQUIT, SIG_IGN) != SIG_IGN)
{
(void)signal(SIGQUIT, sig_handler);
sigquit_enabled = true;
}
/* Have program terminate when sent normal signals */
if (signal(SIGHUP, SIG_IGN) != SIG_IGN)
(void)signal(SIGHUP, sig_handler);
if (signal(SIGTERM, SIG_IGN) != SIG_IGN)
(void)signal(SIGTERM, sig_handler);
if (signal(SIGPIPE, SIG_IGN) != SIG_IGN)
(void)signal(SIGPIPE, sig_handler);
}
static void slurp(int ofd, const char *filename)
{
char buffer[4096];
int nbytes;
while ((nbytes = read(STDIN_FILENO, buffer, sizeof(buffer))) > 0)
{
/* Simulate EOF and interrupt and quit signals */
if (nbytes == 1 && slurping)
{
if (buffer[0] == saved.c_cc[VEOF])
break;
if (sigint_enabled && buffer[0] == saved.c_cc[VINTR])
exit(128 + SIGINT);
if (sigquit_enabled && buffer[0] == saved.c_cc[VQUIT])
exit(128 + SIGQUIT);
}
if (write(ofd, buffer, nbytes) != nbytes)
err_syserr("failed to write %d bytes to %s: ", nbytes, filename);
}
}
The library code used is available in my SOQ (Stack Overflow Questions) repository on GitHub as files stderr.c, stderr.h and posixver.h in the libsoq sub-directory.
This deals with most of the traps for the unwary. It does its best to reset the terminal back to the initial ('known good') state when it exits. It does simulate EOF, interrupt and quit keyboard signals, but it does not simulate regular terminal processing such as erase or kill.
It doesn't make sense to use this when the standard input is not a terminal, but the code should handle that OK too (it simply does normal reads). You can send the output to standard output (default) or to a file (-o file to create or truncate a file, -a file to append or create a file).

How to flush EOF and enable scanf to get new input without starting over the program in C [duplicate]

I want to capture the Ctrl+D signal in my program and write a signal handler for it.
How can I do that?
I am working on C and using a Linux system.
As others have already said, to handle Control+D, handle "end of file"s.
Control+D is a piece of communication between the user and the pseudo-file that you see as stdin. It does not mean specifically "end of file", but more generally "flush the input I typed so far". Flushing means that any read() call on stdin in your program returns with the length of the input typed since the last flush. If the line is nonempty, the input becomes available to your program although the user did not type "return" yet. If the line is empty, then read() returns with zero, and that is interpreted as "end of file".
So when using Control+D to end a program, it only works at the beginning of a line, or if you do it twice (first time to flush, second time for read() to return zero).
Try it:
$ cat
foo
(type Control-D once)
foofoo (read has returned "foo")
(type Control-D again)
$
Ctrl+D is not a signal, it's EOF (End-Of-File). It closes the stdin pipe. If read(STDIN) returns 0, it means stdin closed, which means Ctrl+D was hit (assuming there is a keyboard at the other end of the pipe).
A minimalistic example:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <signal.h>
void sig_hnd(int sig){ (void)sig; printf("(VINTR)"); }
int main(){
setvbuf(stdout,NULL,_IONBF,0);
struct termios old_termios, new_termios;
tcgetattr(0,&old_termios);
signal( SIGINT, sig_hnd );
new_termios = old_termios;
new_termios.c_cc[VEOF] = 3; // ^C
new_termios.c_cc[VINTR] = 4; // ^D
tcsetattr(0,TCSANOW,&new_termios);
char line[256]; int len;
do{
len=read(0,line,256); line[len]='\0';
if( len <0 ) printf("(len: %i)",len);
if( len==0 ) printf("(VEOF)");
if( len >0 ){
if( line[len-1] == 10 ) printf("(line:'%.*s')\n",len-1,line);
if( line[len-1] != 10 ) printf("(partial line:'%s')",line);
}
}while( line[0] != 'q' );
tcsetattr(0,TCSANOW,&old_termios);
}
The program change the VEOF char (from Ctrl-D) to Ctrl-C and the VINTR char (from Ctrl-C) to Ctrl-D. If You press Ctrl-D then the terminal driver will send a SIGINT to the signal handler of the program.
Note: pressing VINTR will erase the terminal input buffer so You can not read the characters typed in the line before the VINTR key pressed.
There's no need to process signals.
You need to ensure ISIG is not set on the terminal flags, that's all.
Here's a complete contained example using select to avoid blocking on stdin:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <sys/select.h>
#define STDIN_FILENO 0
struct termios org_opts;
/** Select to check if stdin has pending input */
int pending_input(void) {
struct timeval tv;
fd_set fds;
tv.tv_sec = 0;
tv.tv_usec = 0;
FD_ZERO(&fds);
FD_SET(STDIN_FILENO, &fds); //STDIN_FILENO is 0
select(STDIN_FILENO+1, &fds, NULL, NULL, &tv);
return FD_ISSET(STDIN_FILENO, &fds);
}
/** Input terminal mode; save old, setup new */
void setup_terminal(void) {
struct termios new_opts;
tcgetattr(STDIN_FILENO, &org_opts);
memcpy(&new_opts, &org_opts, sizeof(new_opts));
new_opts.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO | ECHOE | ECHOK | ECHONL | ECHOPRT | ECHOKE | ISIG | ICRNL);
tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &new_opts);
}
/** Shutdown terminal mode */
void reset_terminal(void) {
tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, TCSANOW, &org_opts);
}
/** Return next input or -1 if none */
int next_input(void) {
if (!pending_input())
return -1;
int rtn = fgetc(stdin);
printf("Found: %d\n", rtn);
return(rtn);
}
int main()
{
setup_terminal();
printf("Press Q to quit...\n");
for (;;) {
int key = next_input();
if (key != -1) {
if ((key == 113) || (key == 81)) {
printf("\nNormal exit\n");
break;
}
}
}
reset_terminal();
return 0;
}
Output:
doug-2:rust-sys-sterm doug$ cc junk.c
doug-2:rust-sys-sterm doug$ ./a.out
Press Q to quit...
Found: 4
Found: 3
Found: 27
Found: 26
Found: 113
Normal exit
NB. 3 is control C and 4 is control D; 26 is control z. 113 is 'q'.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII#ASCII_control_characters for a full table.
As far as I know Ctrl+D is translated by the system to end of standard input so your app won't get any signal.
I think that the only way to intercept Ctrl+D is to work directly with the system api (like accessing tty)
You can use poll() and watch for POLLHUP on fd #1, because the TTY layer translates ^D to EOF.
Ctrl + D value in ascci table is 4 and is a non printable characters. So your can capture it in a terminal with the following code.
When getline function get Ctrl + D an error occur and return value is -1.
Your can make a condition on the return value.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
char *buf = malloc(sizeof(char) * 500);
size_t size = 500;
int nb = getline(&buf, &size, stdin);
if (nb == -1)
printf("CTRL + D captured\n");
free(buf);
return (0);
}
You can check if stdin is not of with the feof method like so:
if (feof(stdin))
{
// some code
exit(0);
}
See this for more details/
According to the man page, getline() will return -1 on failure to read a line (including the end-of-file condition).
This means:
When getline() encounters a failure it will return -1
When getline() reads CTRL+D it will return -1
Since getline() returns a value of type ssize_t which is defined as a signed integer value, you can construct your code in such a way to test for the -1 value which will be returned in the event of an end-of-file condition or failure to read a line.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib>
int main(void)
{
char *buffer = NULL;
size_t bufsize = 0;
ssize_t characters;
characters = getline(&buffer, &bufsize, stdin);
if (characters == -1)
{
printf("You entered CTRL+D\n");
}
free(buffer);
return (0);
}

How do I port this program from conio to curses?

I wrote this simple program on Windows. Since Windows has conio, it worked just fine.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main()
{
char input;
for(;;)
{
if(kbhit())
{
input = getch();
printf("%c", input);
}
}
}
Now I want to port it to Linux, and curses/ncurses seems like the right way to do it. How would I accomplish the same using those libraries in place of conio?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ncurses.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv)
{
char input;
initscr(); // entering ncurses mode
raw(); // CTRL-C and others do not generate signals
noecho(); // pressed symbols wont be printed to screen
cbreak(); // disable line buffering
while (1) {
erase();
mvprintw(1,0, "Enter symbol, please");
input = getch();
mvprintw(2,0, "You have entered %c", input);
getch(); // press any key to continue
}
endwin(); // leaving ncurses mode
return 0;
}
When building your program do not forget to link with ncurses lib (-L lncurses) flag to gcc
gcc -g -o sample sample.c -L lncurses
And here you can see kbhit() implementation for linux.

Ctrl+D doesn't stop application from executing in command window

I've written a program to encrypt a given message by XOR. It works, but It doesn't end. Here is the code.(I have created 3 files):
encrypt.h :
void encrypt(char *message);
message_hider.c:
#include <stdio.h>
#include "encrypt.h"
int main() {
char msg[80];
while (fgets(msg, 80, stdin)){
encrypt(msg);
printf("%s", msg);
}
return 0;
}
encrypt.c :
#include "encrypt.h"
void encrypt(char *message) {
while (*message) {
*message++ ^= 0x1f;
}
}
As I mentioned above, It works. but I can't stop it. When I pressed Ctrl+D to stop it (in cmd) It encrypts it also.(I need this code stop after it encrypt a message). Please explain me about this case.
When I pressed Ctrl+D to stop it (in cmd)
If that's the cmd from Windows you probably want Ctrl+Z.
Ctrl-D is used for the console EOF on Unix systems.
Ctrl-Z is used for the console EOF on Windows systems.
isprint() can help:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
void encrypt(char *message)
{
while (*message) {
*message = *message ^ 31;
message++;
}
}
int main(void)
{
char msg[80];
while (fgets(msg, 80, stdin) != NULL) {
if (!isprint((unsigned char)*msg)) break;
encrypt(msg);
printf("%s", msg);
}
return 0;
}
Add an exit condition:
if( c < 0x20 ) break;
You may need to add other checks also to support backspace without encoding it...
http://www.asciitable.com/
Just run
$> kill -l
To see the list of signals in Linux. You will not find SIGKILL (Ctrl + D) signal there :(
Ctrl + D is SIGKILL (0) signal in Linux which is not documented anywhere.
Ctrl + Z is for Windows which tell EOF and we need to press "Enter" to close.

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