How do interactive console programs work?

Question

I want to understand how programs like vimor manwork in a shell. How they allow the user to scroll, update the display, etc.

They seem to interact with some console library and therefore manipulate what we see. What is really going on?

Answer 1

The terminal has a so-called terminal driver . This is not a driver in terms of hardware interface, but rather interprets certain sequences of characters that force it to perform operations such as scrolling, text attributes, etc.

terminfo. , curses ( , ncurses), terminfo .

terminfo , xterm, , , , .

Answer 2

:

• http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Text-Terminal-HOWTO.html#toc6

, 17 - .