https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/
curs_refresh(3x) Library calls curs_refresh(3x)
doupdate, redrawwin, refresh, wnoutrefresh, wredrawln, wrefresh -
refresh curses windows or lines thereupon
#include <curses.h>
int refresh(void);
int wrefresh(WINDOW *win);
int wnoutrefresh(WINDOW *win);
int doupdate(void);
int redrawwin(WINDOW *win);
int wredrawln(WINDOW *win, int beg_line, int num_lines);
The refresh and wrefresh routines (or wnoutrefresh and doupdate) must
be called to get actual output to the terminal, as other routines
merely manipulate data structures. The routine wrefresh copies the
named window to the physical screen, taking into account what is
already there to do optimizations. The refresh routine is the same,
using stdscr as the default window. Unless leaveok(3x) has been
enabled, the physical cursor of the terminal is left at the location of
the cursor for that window.
The wnoutrefresh and doupdate routines allow multiple updates with more
efficiency than wrefresh alone. In addition to all the window
structures, curses keeps two data structures representing the terminal
screen:
o a physical screen, describing what is actually on the screen, and
o a virtual screen, describing what the programmer wants to have on
the screen.
The routine wrefresh works by
o first calling wnoutrefresh, which copies the named window to the
virtual screen, and
o then calling doupdate, which compares the virtual screen to the
physical screen and does the actual update.
If the programmer wishes to output several windows at once, a series of
calls to wrefresh results in alternating calls to wnoutrefresh and
doupdate, causing several bursts of output to the screen. By first
calling wnoutrefresh for each window, it is then possible to call
doupdate once, resulting in only one burst of output, with fewer total
characters transmitted and less CPU time used.
If the win argument to wrefresh is the physical screen (i.e., the
global variable curscr), the screen is immediately cleared and
repainted from scratch.
The phrase "copies the named window to the virtual screen" above is
ambiguous. What actually happens is that all touched (changed) lines
in the window are copied to the virtual screen. This affects programs
that use overlapping windows; it means that if two windows overlap, you
can refresh them in either order and the overlap region will be
modified only when it is explicitly changed. (But see the section on
PORTABILITY below for a warning about exploiting this behavior.)
The wredrawln routine indicates to curses that some screen lines are
corrupted and should be thrown away before anything is written over
them. It touches the indicated lines (marking them changed). The
routine redrawwin touches the entire window.
These routines return the integer ERR upon failure and OK
In this implementation
wnoutrefresh
returns ERR if the window pointer is null, or if the window is
really a pad.
wredrawln
return ERR if the associated call to touchln returns ERR.
refresh and redrawwin may be implemented as macros.
X/Open Curses Issue 4 describes these functions. It specifies no error
conditions for them.
SVr4 describes a successful return value only as "an integer value
other than ERR".
Whether wnoutrefresh copies to the virtual screen the entire contents
of a window or just its changed portions has never been well-documented
in historic curses versions (including SVr4). It might be unwise to
rely on either behavior in programs that might have to be linked with
other curses implementations. Instead, you can do an explicit touchwin
before the wnoutrefresh call to guarantee an entire-contents copy
anywhere.
curses(3x), curs_outopts(3x), curs_variables(3x)
ncurses 6.5 2025-01-18 curs_refresh(3x)