curs_insch(3X)

💖 curs_insch(3X) — the "scoot over, bestie" of curses 💖

okay so this is a Library calls page from the curses family, and it's all about insch, winsch, mvinsch, and mvwinsch — the four girlies who insert a character into a window and make everybody else shuffle right. no cap. 🫶

---

✨ NAME ✨

insch, winsch, mvinsch, mvwinsch — insert a curses character in a window 🌸

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <curses.h>

int insch(chtype ch);
int winsch(WINDOW * win, chtype ch);
int mvinsch(int y, int x, chtype ch);
int mvwinsch(WINDOW * win, int y, int x, chtype ch);

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so winsch inserts the curses character ch at the cursor position in the window win. that's the whole vibe. 💅

the character that was previously sitting at the cursor — plus every single one to its right — gets moved one cell to the right. and the character that used to be the rightmost one on the line? discarded. gone. bye bestie. 😭

here's the plot twist tho: unlike addch(3X), winsch does not advance the cursor. it stays exactly where it is. icon behaviour honestly. ✨

and if you wanna know all about the variants of this function, ncurses(3X) describes them. iykyk. 💜

---

✨ RETURN VALUE ✨

these functions return OK on success and ERR on failure. that's it, that's the whole thing. 🎀

in ncurses, they return ERR if:

• the curses screen has not been initialized, or 🌚
• (for functions taking a WINDOW pointer argument) win is a null pointer. 💀

also!! functions prefixed with “mv” first perform cursor movement, and they fail if the position (y, x) is outside the window boundaries. stay in your lane or get ERR'd, periodt. 👑

---

✨ NOTES ✨

• insch, mvinsch, and mvwinsch may be implemented as macros. so like… they might not be real functions. sneaky. 🙈
• curses does not necessarily employ the terminal's insert_character (ich1) capability to achieve insertion. don't assume, bestie. 🦋

---

✨ PORTABILITY ✨

X/Open Curses Issue 4 describes these functions. and it specifies no error conditions for them. zero. none. not a single one. 💀

SVr4 describes a successful return value only as “an integer value other than ERR”. that's the entire definition. so vague. so mysterious. main character energy fr fr. ✨

---

✨ HISTORY ✨

SVr2 (1984) introduced these functions. vintage. iconic. a classic for the girlies. 👑

---

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• curs_ins_wch(3X) — describes comparable functions in the wide-character curses configuration 🌈
• curses(3X)
• terminfo(5)

---

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🎀 this was ncurses 6.6, dated 2025-03-08, and it's the curs_insch(3X) manual page. go insert some characters, don't advance that cursor, and stay slaying. 💖✨🦋🌸💅🫶