    libtecla                                libtecla

## NAME

           libtecla - An interactive command-line input library.

## SYNOPSIS

           @CC@ ... -ltecla -lcurses

## DESCRIPTION

           The tecla library provides programs with interactive command line edit-
           ing facilities, similar to those of the unix tcsh shell. In addition to
           simple  command-line  editing, it supports recall of previously entered
           command lines, TAB completion 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 available
           externally for optional use by the calling program.

           The  various  parts  of the library are documented in the following man
           pages:

             tecla              -  Use level documentation of the
                                   command-line editing facilities
                                   provided by gl_get_line().
             gl_get_line        -  The interactive line-input module.
             gl_io_mode         -  How to use gl_get_line() in an
                                   incremental, non-blocking fashion.
             cpl_complete_word  -  The word completion module.
             ef_expand_file     -  The filename expansion module.
             pca_lookup_file    -  A directory-list based filename
                                   lookup and completion module.

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

             enhance            -  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 read-
           ing directory entries when doing  filename  completion.  The  reentrant
           version of the library is usually called libtecla_r.a instead of libte-
           cla.a, so if only the latter is available, it probably isn't  the  cor-
           rect 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 comple-
           tion  of  incomplete  usernames  in ~username/ expressions is disabled.
           This doesn't disable expansion 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 formal 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 cen-
           ters  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, tecla, gl_io_mode, ef_expand_file,
           cpl_complete_word, pca_lookup_file, enhance

## 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.

                                                           libtecla