userptr(3MENU)

💖 userptr — bestie, let's attach ur data to a menu 💖

okay so this is userptr(3MENU) from the Library calls section, and it's literally the chillest little pair of functions you'll ever meet. no cap. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

set_menu_userptr, menu_userptr — associate application data with a menu item 🫶

like… you get to store your own stuff on a menu. that's it. that's the vibe.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <menu.h>

int set_menu_userptr(MENU *menu, void *userptr);
void *menu_userptr(const MENU *menu);

look at that. two little lines. iconic. 👑

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so listen bestie 💅 — every menu and every menu item has a field that's just… sitting there, waiting for you to put application-specific data in it. and when I say yours, I mean yours, because the menu-driver code leaves it alone. it does not touch it. it does not look at it. it is not nosy. it's giving respectful. 😌

so like, if you want to stash a pointer to your own struct, or a string, or honestly whatever your heart desires — that field is where it goes. ✨

and these two functions? they get and set the menu user pointer field. that's the whole job. get it, set it, slay. 🦋

heads up tho — the description says every menu and every menu item has this field. these particular functions are the menu ones, bestie. menu item user pointers live in their own manpage. iykyk. 🙈

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✨ RETURN VALUE ✨

• menu_userptr returns a pointer (which may be NULL 💀). and importantly — it does not set errno. so don't go blaming errno for anything, it's innocent, it wasn't even there. 🌸
• set_menu_userptr returns E_OK — that's success, babe. it worked. periodt. ✅

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✨ PORTABILITY ✨

okay so the lore 📜: these routines emulate the System V menu library. they were not supported on Version 7 or BSD versions. so if you're on some ancient BSD vibe, sorry bestie, no userptr for you. 😭

and here's the tea about the pointer type 🫖 — the user pointer is a void pointer. they made a whole deliberate choice here: we chose not to leave it as a char pointer for SVr4 compatibility. so yeah, void *, on purpose, for the compatibility. not a typo, not a glow-up gone wrong, it's intentional. 💅

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✨ AUTHORS ✨

Juergen Pfeifer. 💜

Manual pages and adaptation for new curses by Eric S. Raymond. 🌈

absolute legends, fr fr. give them their flowers. 💐

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• ncurses(3NCURSES) ⭐
• menu(3MENU) 🎀

go read those next, bestie, they're part of the same friend group.

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and that's the whole page!! ✨ this was ncurses 6.6, dated 2024-12-28, and yeah it's literally the userptr(3MENU) page — thanks for reading, ily, go store some pointers responsibly 🫶💖🎀