memleaks(3NCURSES) Library calls memleaks(3NCURSES)
NAME
exit_curses, exit_terminfo - check for memory leaks in curses
SYNOPSIS
#include <curses.h>
void exit_curses(int code);
#include <term.h>
void exit_terminfo(int code);
/* deprecated (intentionally not declared in curses.h or term.h) */
void _nc_freeall(void);
void _nc_free_and_exit(int code);
void _nc_free_tinfo(int code);
DESCRIPTION
These functions are used to simplify analysis of memory leaks in the
ncurses library.
Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with a
screen, since (even after calling endwin(3NCURSES)), it must be avail-
able for use in the next call to refresh(3NCURSES). There are also
chunks of memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to
analyze curses applications for memory leaks. When using the specially
configured debugging version of the ncurses library, applications can
call functions which free those chunks of memory, simplifying the
process of memory-leak checking.
Some of the functions are named with a “_nc_” prefix because they are
not intended for use in the non-debugging library:
_nc_freeall
This frees (almost) all of the memory allocated by ncurses.
_nc_free_and_exit
This frees the memory allocated by ncurses (like _nc_freeall), and
exits the program. It is preferred over _nc_freeall since some of
that memory may be required to keep the application running. Sim-
ply exiting (with the given exit-code) is safer.
_nc_free_tinfo
Use this function if only the low-level terminfo functions (and
corresponding library) are used. Like _nc_free_and_exit, it exits
the program after freeing memory.
The functions prefixed “_nc” are normally not available; they must be
configured into the library at build time using the --disable-leaks op-
tion. That compiles-in code that frees memory that normally would not
be freed.
The exit_curses and exit_terminfo functions call _nc_free_and_exit and
_nc_free_tinfo if the library is configured to support memory-leak
checking. If the library is not configured to support memory-leak
checking, they simply call exit.
RETURN VALUE
These functions do not return a value.
PORTABILITY
These functions are not part of X/Open Curses; nor do other implementa-
tions of curses provide a similar feature.
In any implementation of X/Open Curses, an application can free part of
the memory allocated by curses:
• The portable part of exit_curses can be freed using delscreen, pass-
ing the SCREEN pointer returned by newterm.
In some implementations, there is a global variable sp which could
be used, e.g., if the screen were only initialized using initscr.
• The portable part of exit_terminfo can be freed using del_curterm.
In this case, there is a global variable cur_term which can be used
as parameter.
SEE ALSO
ncurses(3NCURSES), initscr(3NCURSES), terminfo(3NCURSES)
ncurses 6.5 2024-03-16 memleaks(3NCURSES)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Sat Oct 3 05:09:57 CEST 2026.