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classification
Title: curses: getmaxyx() breaks when the window shrinks
Type: behavior Stage: resolved
Components: Extension Modules Versions: Python 3.1, Python 3.2, Python 2.7
process
Status: closed Resolution: not a bug
Dependencies: Superseder:
Assigned To: Nosy List: ajaksu2, akira, akuchling, chrish42, doko
Priority: normal Keywords:

Created on 2004-07-04 11:33 by doko, last changed 2022-04-11 14:56 by admin. This issue is now closed.

Messages (6)
msg21400 - (view) Author: Matthias Klose (doko) * (Python committer) Date: 2004-07-04 11:33
[forwarded from http://bugs.debian.org/257472]

When derived windows of stdscr have been created,
shrinking the terminal produces a KEY_RESIZE event, but
getmaxyx() returns the previous terminal size. Only by
increasing the window size does it return the correct
terminal dimensions.

A minimal script to show this effect is included below.

#!/usr/bin/python
import curses, sys

def init_display(stdscr):
    stdscr.clear()
    stdscr.refresh()
    size = stdscr.getmaxyx()
    sys.stderr.write("Now %u x %u\n" % (size[1],size[0]))
    rootwin = stdscr.derwin(20, 50, 0, 0)
    return rootwin

def main(stdscr):
    rootwin = init_display(stdscr)
    while 1:
        input = rootwin.getch()
        if ( input == curses.KEY_RESIZE):
            init_display(stdscr)
        elif input == ord("q"):
            sys.exit()
        rootwin.refresh()

curses.wrapper(main)


msg21401 - (view) Author: A.M. Kuchling (akuchling) * (Python committer) Date: 2004-07-07 13:19
Logged In: YES 
user_id=11375

Confirmed.  I suspect this is a problem in ncurses, and will
write a C equivalent of the test program to verify this. 
The ncurses man page for derwin says: "The  subwindow 
functions  (subwin,  derwin, ...) are flaky,   incompletely
implemented, and not well tested," so an ncurses bug seems
likely.

msg82043 - (view) Author: Daniel Diniz (ajaksu2) * (Python triager) Date: 2009-02-14 12:58
I get a different behavior, with shrinking reporting correct sizes, but
quiting with a "_curses.error: curses function returned NULL", on trunk,
KDE 3.5's Konsole._curses.error: curses function returned NULL
msg133937 - (view) Author: Akira Li (akira) * Date: 2011-04-17 19:58
The test produces a traceback while shrinking a window (increasing the window size works ok):

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "screen-resize-bug-curses.py", line 22, in <module>
    curses.wrapper(main)
  File "/.../python2.7/curses/wrapper.py", line 43, in wrapper
    return func(stdscr, *args, **kwds)
  File "screen-resize-bug-curses.py", line 17, in main
    init_display(stdscr)
  File "screen-resize-bug-curses.py", line 9, in init_display
    rootwin = stdscr.derwin(20, 50, 0, 0)
_curses.error: curses function returned NULL

Version info:

$ python2.7 -c'import curses; print curses.version'
2.2
msg216205 - (view) Author: Christian Hudon (chrish42) * Date: 2014-04-14 20:39
I get the same traceback. The traceback happens only when the window is shrunk below the size specified in derwin(). It's easy to see this by changing the first and second arguments to the derwin call to something like 2, 2, and then you can resize the window to a much smaller size without getting this exception. (My curses.version is 2.2 also. Running on OSX Mavericks.)

The getmaxyx() function reports the correct size when the window is shrunk. Also note that the upstream bug has been closed, with the comment "Not seen in python 2.7".

So I think we can close this. Maybe we want to document the behavior of derwin() and related functions of raising _curses.error when the dimensions of the terminal are smaller than that of the window, though? (Or maybe raise a better exception?) That should probably be another bug report, though.
msg216319 - (view) Author: A.M. Kuchling (akuchling) * (Python committer) Date: 2014-04-15 15:47
I agree with Chris's logic; the incorrect size seems to be a curses/ncurses bug that has gotten fixed somewhere along the line.  

You also aren't able to shrink the terminal to be smaller than the size of a derived window created with derwin(), but you seem to get an exception when you try rather than a crash.  This seems reasonable to me.  I don't think we need to document this behaviour, because that edge case would really belong in the ncurses documentation (and they might change it from version to version).
History
Date User Action Args
2022-04-11 14:56:05adminsetgithub: 40504
2014-04-15 15:47:58akuchlingsetstatus: open -> closed
resolution: not a bug
messages: + msg216319

stage: test needed -> resolved
2014-04-14 20:39:37chrish42setnosy: + chrish42
messages: + msg216205
2011-04-17 19:58:34akirasetnosy: + akira
messages: + msg133937
2010-08-19 15:05:13BreamoreBoysetversions: + Python 3.1, Python 2.7, Python 3.2, - Python 2.6
2009-02-14 12:58:57ajaksu2setnosy: + ajaksu2
stage: test needed
type: behavior
messages: + msg82043
versions: + Python 2.6, - Python 2.3
2004-07-04 11:33:05dokocreate