Manual Page

## NAME

         libtecla - An interactive command-line input library.

## SYNOPSIS

         gcc ... -ltecla -lcurses

## DESCRIPTION

         The tecla library provides programs with interactive command
         line  editing  facilities, similar to those of the unix tcsh
         shell. In addition to simple command-line editing,  it  sup-
         ports  recall  of previously entered command lines, TAB com-
         pletion of file names or other tokens, and in-line wild-card
         expansion of filenames. The internal functions which perform
         file-name completion and wild-card expansion are also avail-
         able externally for optional use by the calling program.

         The various parts of the library are documented in the  fol-
         lowing man pages:

           gl_get_line(3)        -  The interactive line-input module.
           cpl_complete_word(3)  -  The word completion module.
           ef_expand_file(3)     -  The filename expansion module.
           pca_lookup_file(3)    -  A directory-list based filename
                                    lookup and completion module.

         In addition there is one  optional  application  distributed
         with the library:

           enhance(3)            -  Add command-line editing to third
                                    party applications.

## THREAD SAFETY

         If the library is compiled  with  -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L,
         reentrant  versions  of  as  many  functions as possible are
         used. This  includes  using  getpwuid_r()  and  getpwnam_r()
         instead  of  getpwuid()  and  getpwnam() when looking up the
         home directories of specific users in the password file (for
         ~user/  expansion), and readdir_r() instead of readdir() for
         reading directory entries when  doing  filename  completion.
         The  reentrant  version  of  the  library  is usually called
         libtecla_r.a instead of libtecla.a, so if only the latter is
         available,  it  probably  isn't  the correct version to link
         with threaded programs.

         Reentrant functions for iterating through the password  file
         aren't  available,  so  when  the  library is compiled to be
         reentrant, TAB completion of incomplete usernames in  ~user-
         name/  expressions  is disabled. This doesn't disable expan-
         sion of complete ~username expressions, which  can  be  done
         reentrantly,  or  expansion  of  the parts of filenames that
         follow them, so this doesn't remove much functionality.

         The terminfo functions setupterm(),  tigetstr(),  tigetnum()
         and  tputs()  also  aren't  reentrant, but very few programs
         will want to  interact  with  multiple  terminals,  so  this
         shouldn't  prevent  this library from being used in threaded
         programs.

## LIBRARY VERSION NUMBER

         The version number of the library can be queried  using  the
         following function.

          void libtecla_version(int *major, int *minor, int *micro);

         On return, this function records the three components of the
         libtecla  version number in *major, *minor, *micro. The for-
         mal meaning of the three components is as follows.

          major - Incrementing this number implies that a change has
                  been made to the library's public interface, which
                  makes it binary incompatible  with programs that
                  were linked with previous shared versions of the
                  tecla library.

          minor - This number is incremented by one whenever
                  additional functionality, such as new functions or
                  modules, are added to the library.

          micro - This is incremented whenever modifications to the
                  library are made which make no changes to the
                  public interface, but which fix bugs and/or improve
                  the behind-the-scenes implementation.

## TRIVIA

         In Spanish, a "tecla" is the key of a keyboard.  Since  this
         library  centers  on  keyboard input, and given that I wrote
         much of the library while working in Chile, this seemed like
         a suitable name.

## FILES

         libtecla.a    -   The tecla library.
         libtecla.h    -   The tecla header file.
         ~/.teclarc    -   The tecla personal customization file.

## SEE ALSO

         gl_get_line(3),   ef_expand_file(3),   cpl_complete_word(3),
         pca_lookup_file(3), enhance(3)

## AUTHOR

         Martin Shepherd  (mcs@astro.caltech.edu)

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

         Markus Gyger  - Lots of assistance, including help with
                         shared libraries, configuration information,
                         particularly for Solaris; modifications to
                         support C++ compilers, improvements for ksh
                         users, faster cursor motion, output
                         buffering, and changes to make gl_get_line()
                         8-bit clean.
         Mike MacFaden - Suggestions, feedback and testing that led
                         to many of the major new functions that were
                         added in version 1.4.0.
         Tim Eliseo    - Many vi-mode bindings and fixes.