ncurses Cheat Sheet¶

Shout out to Naman Kumar for his A Handy Ncurses Cheatsheet, from which this was derived.

Initialization Functions¶

Function	Description
initscr()	Initializes the terminal in cursor mode. It must be called first to do any manupulation with ncurses package.
refresh()	Tell the curses system to dump the contents on the screen. It checks the window and updates only the portion which has been changed.
wrefresh()	Tell the curses system to dump the contents on the given window. It checks the given window and updates only the portion which has been changed.
endwin()	Ends the terminal cursor mode.
raw()	Disable inline buffering. Control characters are directly passed to the program without generating a signal.
cbreak()	Disable inline buffering. Control characters are interpreted as any other character by the terminal driver.
echo()	Switch on echo.
noecho()	Switch off echo.
keypad(stdscr, TRUE)	Enable reading of fucntion keys.
halfdelay()	Enable the half−delay mode, it waits for ‘X’ tenths of a second for input and then returns ERR, if no input is available

Function	Description
clear()	Clear the stdscr window.
wclear()	Clear the given window.
move(y, x)	Move the cursor to the x,y position on the window.
wmove(win, y, x)	Move the cursor to the x,y position on the given window.
getmaxyx(stdscr, y, x)	Get the boundaries of the screeen i.e. number of rows and columns.
getyx(stdscr, y, x)	Get the current cusor position.

Function	Description
addch()	Print a character with given attributes at the current cursor position and advance the position of the cursor.
mvaddch()	Move the cursor to a given position and then print as by addch().
waddch()	Print a character as by addch() but into the given window.
mvwaddch()	Move the cursor to a given position and then print as by addch() but into the given window.
printw()	Print similar to printf() but at any position on the window i.e. current cursor position and advance the position of the cursor.
mvprintw()	Move the cursor to a given position and then print as by printw().
wprintw()	Print as by printw() but into the given window.
mvwprintw()	Move the cursor to a given position and then print as by printw() but into the given window.
addstr()	Print a character string with given attributes at the current cursor position and advance the position of the cursor.
mvaddstr()	Move the cursor to a given position and then print as by addstr().
waddstr()	Print a character string as by addstr() but into the given window.
mvwaddstr()	Move the cursor to a given position and then print as by addstr() but into the given window.

Function	Description
getch()	Input a character with given attributes from the current cursor position and advance the position of the cursor.
mvgetch()	Move the cursor to a given position and then input as by getch().
whetch()	Input a character as by getch() but from the given window.
mvwgetch()	Move the cursor to a given position and then input as by getch() but into the given window.
scanw()	Takes input similar to scanf() but from any position on the window i.e. current cursor position and advance the position of the cursor.
mvscanw()	Move the cursor to a given position and then input as by scanw().
wscanw()	Takes input as by scanw() but from the given window.
mvwscanw()	Move the cursor to a given position and then input as by scanw() but from the given window.
getstr()	Input a character string with given attributes from the current cursor position and advance the position of the cursor.
mvgetstr()	Move the cursor to a given position and then input as by getstr().
wgetstr()	Input a character string as by getstr() but from the given window.
mvwgetstr()	Move the cursor to a given position and then input as by getstr() but from the given window.

Function	Description
box()	Draw border around windows.
newwin()	Creates a new Window.
create_newwin()	Creates a new window with newwin() and displays a border around it with box().
delwin()	Deallocate memory related to the window.
destroy_win()	Erases the window from the screena dn then delete it by calling delwin()
wborder()	Draws a border around the window by the characters given to it.

Function	Description
attron()	Switches on attribute(s) given to it.
wattron()	Switches on attribute(s) given to it, in the given window.
attrset()	Fully overrides whatever attributes the window previously had and sets it to the new attribute(s).
wattrset()	Fully overrides whatever attributes the given window previously had and sets it to the new attribute(s).
attroff()	Switches off the attribute(s) given to it.
wattroff()	Switches off the attribute(s) given to it, in the given window.
standend()	Turns off all attributes and brings you to normal mode.
attr_get()	Gets the current attributes and color pair of the window.
wattr_get()	Gets the current attributes and color pair of the given window.
chgat()	Change attribute(s) for characters that are already on the screen.
mvchgat()	Move the cursor to the given position and then perform the work as by chgat().
wchgat()	Perform the work done as by chgat() on the given window.
mvwchgat()	Move the cursor to the given position and then perform the work as by chgat() on the given window.

We can OR (|) any number of attributes to get a combined effect.

Function	Description
A_NORMAL	Normal display (no highlight).
A_STANDOUT	Best highlighting mode of the terminal.
A_UNDERLINE	Underlining.
A_REVERSE	Reverse video.
A_BLINK	Blinking.
A_DIM	Half bright.
A_BOLD	Extra bright or bold.
A_PROTECT	Protected mode.
A_INVIS	Invisible or blank mode.
A_ALTCHARSET	Alternate character set.
A_CHARTEXT	Bit−mask to extract a character.
COLOR_PAIR(n)	Color−pair number n.

Function	Description
start_color()	Needed to be called before using colors.
has_colors()	Check whether terminal has color capabilities.
init_pair()	Initiate a color pair number n with foreground and background color, which can be used in COLOR_PAIR(n).
init_color()	Change the rgb values for the colors defined by curses initially.
can_change_color()	Check whether the terminal has the capability of changing color.

The following colors are defined in curses.h. You can use these as parameters for various color functions.