beep(3NCURSES) Library calls beep(3NCURSES)
NAME
beep, flash - ring the (visual) bell of the terminal with curses
SYNOPSIS
#include <curses.h>
int beep(void);
int flash(void);
DESCRIPTION
beep and flash alert the terminal user: the former by sounding the ter-
minal's audible alarm, and the latter by visibly attracting attention.
Commonly, a terminal implements a visual bell by momentarily reversing
the character foreground and background colors on the entire display;
even a monochrome device can do this. These functions each attempt the
other alert type if the one requested is unavailable. If neither is
available, curses performs no action. Nearly all terminals have an au-
dible alert mechanism such as a bell or piezoelectric buzzer, but only
some can flash the screen.
RETURN VALUE
These functions return OK on success and ERR on failure.
In ncurses, beep and flash return OK if the terminal type supports the
corresponding capability: bell (bel) for beep and flash_screen (flash)
for flash. Otherwise they return ERR.
EXTENSIONS
In ncurses, these functions can return ERR.
PORTABILITY
X/Open Curses Issue 4 describes these functions. It specifies no error
conditions for them.
On SVr4 curses, they always return OK, and X/Open Curses specifies them
as doing so.
HISTORY
SVr2 (1984) introduced beep and flash.
SEE ALSO
ncurses(3NCURSES), terminfo(5)
ncurses 6.5 2025-02-01 beep(3NCURSES)
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