unibi_dump(3)

💖 unibi_dump(3) — the unibilium girlies' guide to dumping terminfo 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to unibi_dump from the unibilium manual, section 3. this is the glow-up-your-terminal-object-into-compiled-terminfo function and honestly? she ate. 🍓

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✨ NAME ✨

unibi_dump — convert a terminal object to compiled terminfo data 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <unibilium.h>

size_t unibi_dump(const unibi_term *ut, char *p, size_t n);

like, that's it. three args. slay. 💅

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so what this queen does: she takes your terminal object ut and creates a compiled terminfo entry out of it. ✨

where does it go? into p, bestie. and p must have room for at least n bytes — no squeezing, no negotiating, n bytes minimum or it's not happening. 🎀

now here's the lowkey iconic part — the format depends on your numbers:

• if all numeric properties in ut have values that fit in 15 bits, she uses the traditional ncurses terminfo format, which starts with the bytes "1A 01" 🧚
• otherwise? she switches to the newer "wide integer" format, which starts with the bytes "1E 02" 🔥

two vibes, one function. iykyk. 💜

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⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

"unibi_dump" returns the number of bytes required to store the terminfo data. 📏

but listen:

if that number exceeds n, literally nothing is written to p. like, p stays untouched. no partial spills, no half-finished mess. periodt.

and if the terminal object can't be represented in terminfo format at all — for example because the string table would be too large — the return value is "SIZE_MAX". 😭 dramatic, but fair.

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💀 ERRORS 💀

• "EINVAL" — ut can't be converted to terminfo format. not me crying over an unconvertible terminal object 🙈
• "EFAULT" — the resulting terminfo entry would be longer than n bytes. buffer said no. 💅

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• unibilium.h(3)
• unibi_destroy(3)
• unibi_from_mem(3)

go read those too, bestie, they're all part of the same friend group 🌈

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and that's the whole page, no cap 💖 this was unibilium-2.1.4, dated 2026-09-07 — catch you in the next manpage, mwah 😭👑✨