- a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
- tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
- manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
-
- The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
- distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
- It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
-
- Release Notes
-
- This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0
- through 5.7; very few applications will require recompilation,
- depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
- change-log since ncurses 5.7 release.
-
-Interface changes
-
- * turn on _XOPEN_CURSES definition in curses.h.
- * change _nc_has_mouse to has_mouse, reflect its use in C++ and
- Ada95.
- * add is_pad and is_subwin functions for opaque access to the WINDOW
- structure.
- * add tiparm, based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
-
-New features and improvements
-
- Library Improvements
-
- * add a terminal driver for Windows console, which supports a MinGW
- port to Windows.
- * add extended functions which specify the SCREEN pointer for
- several curses functions which use the global SP.
- * improve the NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS feature by adding a check for an
- extended terminfo capability U8.
- * improve performance of tigetstr, etc., by using hashing code from
- tic.
- * add WACS_xxx definitions to wide-character configuration for
- thick- and double-lines.
- * modify init_pair to allow caller to create extra color pairs
- beyond the color_pairs limit, which use default colors.
-
- Improvements to Programs
-
- * add tabs program.
- * modify tic's -I/-C dump to reformat acsc strings into canonical
- form (sorted, unique mapping).
- * add checks in tic for inconsistent cursor-movement controls, and
- for inconsistent printer-controls.
- * add special case to _nc_infotocap (used by tic and infocmp) to
- recognize the setaf/setab strings from xterm+256color and
- xterm+88color, and provide a reduced version which works with
- termcap.
-
- Terminal Database
-
- * added entries:
- + bterm terminfo entry, based on bogl 0.1.18
- + cons25-debian entry
- + eterm-color entry
- + linux-16color
- + mlterm+256color entry, for mlterm 3.0.0
- + several screen-bce.xxx entries
- + screen.Eterm terminfo entry
- + vwmterm entry
- + xterm-utf8 entry as a demo of the U8 feature
- * updated/improved entries:
- + use extended capabilities:
- o add U8 feature to denote entries for terminal emulators
- which do not support VT100 SI/SO when processing UTF-8
- encoding
- o add XT capability to entries for terminals that support
- both xterm-style mouse- and title-controls, for screen
- which special-cases TERM beginning with xterm or rxvt
- + improvements based on new checks in tic:
- +
- o fill in no-parameter forms of cursor-movement where a
- parameterized form is available
- o fill in missing cursor controls where the form of the
- controls is ANSI
- o add parameterized cursor-controls to linux-basic
- o modify nsterm, xnuppc and tek4115 to make sgr/sgr0
- consistent
- o change several terminfo entries to make consistent use
- of ANSI clear-all-tabs
- + extend ansi.sys pfkey capability from kf1-kf10 to kf1-kf48,
- moving function key definitions from emx-base for
- consistency.
- + correct missing final 'p' in pfkey capability of
- ansi.sys-old.
- + rename atari and st52 terminfo entries to atari-old,
- st52-old, use newer entries from FreeMiNT.
- + repurpose gnome terminfo entries as vte, retaining gnome
- variants for compatibility, but generally deprecating those
- since the VTE library is what actually defines the behavior
- of "gnome", etc., since 2003.
- + improve interix smso terminfo capability by using reverse
- rather than bold.
- + correct initc capability of linux-c-nc end-of-range, make
- similar change for dg+ccc and dgunix+ccc.
- + update minix terminfo entry.
- + updated nsterm* entries.
- + remove unnecessary kcan assignment to ^C from putty.
- + suppress ncv in screen and konsole-base entries, allowing
- underline.
- + change ncv and op capabilities in sun-color terminfo entry to
- match Sun's entry for this.
- + fix typo in rmso for tek4106 entry.
- + improve acsc string for vt52, show arrow keys.
- + add hard-reset for rs2 to wsvt25 to help ensure that reset
- ends the alternate character set.
- + add ccc and initc capabilities to xterm-16color.
-
-Major bug fixes
-
- * ncurses library
- + wide character support
- o modify length returned by getcchar to count the trailing
- null which is documented in X/Open.
- o fix an infinite recursion when adding a legacy-coding
- 8-bit value using insch.
- o improve a workaround in adding wide-characters, when a
- control character is found. The library uses unctrl to
- obtain a printable version of the control character, but
- was not passing color or video attributes.
- o modify waddch_literal, updating line-pointer after a
- multicolumn character is found to not fit on the current
- row, and wrapping is done. Since the line-pointer was
- not updated, the wrapped multicolumn character was
- written to the beginning of the current row.
- o fixes in wins_nwstr and related functions to ensure that
- special characters, i.e., control characters are handled
- properly with the wide-character configuration.
- o correct internal _nc_insert_ch to use _nc_insert_wch
- when inserting wide characters, since the wins_wch
- function that it used did not update the cursor
- position.
- + mouse
- o add check if Gpm_Open returns a -2, e.g., for "xterm".
- This is normally suppressed but can be overridden using
- $NCURSES_GPM_TERMS. Ensure that Gpm_Close is called in
- this case.
- o add check in mouse-driver to disable connection if GPM
- returns a zero, indicating that the connection is
- closed.
- o modify getmouse to act as its documentation implied,
- returning on each call the preceding event until none
- are left. When no more events remain, it will return
- ERR.
- + miscellaneous
- o improve handling of color-pairs embedded in attributes
- for the extended-colors configuration.
- o add check for failure to open hashed-database needed for
- db4.6.
- o modify use of $CC environment variable which is defined
- by X/Open as a curses feature, to ignore it if it is not
- a single character.
- o modify declaration of cur_term when broken-linker is
- used, but enable-reentrant is not, to match pre-5.7.
- o correct limit-checks in derwin.
- o remove old check in mvderwin which prevented moving a
- derived window whose origin happened to coincide with
- its parent's origin.
- o correct limit-checks in newwin, to ensure that windows
- have nonzero size.
- o modify set_curterm to make broken-linker configuration
- work with changes from 20090228.
- o modify wgetch to ensure it checks SIGWINCH when it gets
- an error in non-blocking mode.
- o correct limit-check in wredrawln, accounting for
- begy/begx values.
- o fix a null-pointer check in _nc_format_slks in
- lib_slk.c, from 20070704 changes.
- o correct translation of "^" in _nc_infotocap, used to
- transform terminfo to termcap strings.
- o modify _nc_wgetch to check for a -1 in the fifo, e.g.,
- after a SIGWINCH, and discard that value, to avoid
- confusing application.
- * other libraries
- + correct transfer of multicolumn characters in multirow
- field_buffer, which stopped at the end of the first row due
- to filling of unused entries in a cchar_t array with nulls.
- + correct buffer-size after internal resizing of wide-character
- set_field_buffer, broken in 20081018 changes.
- + correct layout of working window used to extract data in
- wide-character configured by set_field_buffer
-
-Portability
-
- * configure script:
- + new options:
-
- --disable-libtool-version
- use the "-version-number" feature which was added
- in libtool 1.5. The default value for the option
- uses the newer feature, which makes libraries
- generated using libtool compatible with the
- standard builds of ncurses.
-
- --disable-rpath-hack
- disable a feature which adds rpath options for
- libraries in unusual places.
-
- --enable-interop
- integrate changes for generic/interop support to
- form-library.
-
- --enable-pc-files
- generate ".pc" files for each of the libraries, and
- install them in pkg-config's library directory.
-
- --enable-pthreads-eintr
- control whether to allow EINTR to interrupt a read
- operation in wgetch. This applies only to the
- pthread configuration
-
- --enable-sp-funcs
- compile-in support for extended functions which
- accept a SCREEN pointer, reducing the need for
- juggling the global SP value with set_term and
- delscreen.
-
- --enable-term-driver
- compile with terminal-driver. That is used in the
- MinGW port, and (being somewhat more complicated)
- is an experimental alternative to the conventional
- termlib internals. Currently, it requires the
- sp-funcs feature to be enabled.
-
- --with-ncurses-wrap-prefix
- allows setting the prefix for functions used to
- wrap global variables to something other than
- "_nc_".
-
- --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
- check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its
- path.
-
- --without-manpages
- tells the configure script to suppress the install
- of ncurses' manpages.
-
- --without-tests
- suppress building test programs.
-
- + improved options:
- o correct logic for --with-database, which was coded as an
- enable-type switch.
- o omit the opaque-functions from lib_gen.o when
- --disable-ext-funcs is used.
- * packaging:
- + *-config scripts:
- o modify adacurses-config to look for ".ali" files in the
- adalib directory.
- o correct install for the Ada95 tree, which omitted
- libAdaCurses.a used in adacurses-config.
- o change install for adacurses-config to provide
- additional flavors such as adacursesw-config, for
- ncursesw.
- o modify scripts to generate ncurses*-config and pc-files
- to add dependency for tinfo library.
- o use ncurses*-config scripts if available for
- test/configure.
- o correct name for termlib in ncurses*-config, e.g., if it
- is renamed to provide a single file for ncurses/ncursesw
- libraries.
- o generate manpages for the *-config scripts, adapted from
- help2man.
- o modify install-rule for manpages so that *-config
- manpages will install when building with --srcdir.
- o build-fixes for OpenSolaris aka Solaris 11, for
- wide-character configuration as well as for rpath
- feature in *-config scripts.
- o use $includedir symbol in misc/ncurses-config.in, add
- --includedir option.
- o improve install-rules for pc-files.
- o create the pkg-config library directory if needed.
- o fix typo "==" where "=" is needed in ncurses-config.in
- and gen-pkgconfig.in files.
- o modify gen-pkgconfig.in to eliminate a dependency on
- rpath when deciding whether to add $LIBS to --libs
- output; that should be shown for the ncurses and tinfo
- libraries without taking rpath into account.
- o modify handling of $PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR to use only the
- first item in a possibly colon-separated list.
- + other packaging issues
- o add make-tar.sh scripts to Ada95 and test subdirectories
- to help with making those separately distributable.
- o add Ada95/configure script, to use in tar-file created
- by Ada95/make-tar.sh.
- o remove tar-copy.sh and related configure/Makefile
- chunks, since the Ada95 binding is now installed using
- rules in Ada95/src.
- * cross-compiling:
- + improve configure checks for location of tic and infocmp
- programs used for installing database and for generating
- fallback data, e.g., for cross-compiling.
- + modify #define's for build-compiler to suppress cchar_t
- symbol from compile of make_hash and make_keys, improving
- cross-compilation of ncursesw.
- + simplify include-dependencies of make_hash and make_keys, to
- reduce the need for setting BUILD_CPPFLAGS in cross-compiling
- when the build- and target-machines differ.
- + correct cross-compiling configure check for CF_MKSTEMP macro,
- by adding a check cache variable set by AC_CHECK_FUNC.
- * library dependencies:
- + revise wadd_wch and wecho_wchar to eliminate dependency on
- unctrl.
- + adjust configure script so that "t" is not added to library
- suffix when weak-symbols are used, allowing the pthread
- configuration to more closely match the non-thread naming.
- * building the Ada95 tree:
- + changes to use gnatmake project files in the Ada95 tree.
- + add/use configure check to turn on project rules for
- Ada95/src.
- + old gnatmake (3.15) does not produce libraries using
- project-file; work around by adding script to generate
- alternate makefile.
- + add configure --with-ada-sharedlib option, for the test_make
- rule.
- + move Ada95-related logic into aclocal.m4, since additional
- checks will be needed to distinguish old/new implementations
- of gnat.
- + add test_make / test_clean / test_install rules in Ada95/src
- + change install-path for adainclude directory to
- /usr/share/ada (was /usr/lib/ada).
- * other configure/build issues:
- + make CCHARW_MAX value configurable, noting that changing this
- would change the size of cchar_t, and would be
- ABI-incompatible.
- + improve comparison of program-names when checking for linked
- flavors such as "reset" by ignoring the executable suffix.
- + drop mkdirs.sh, use "mkdir -p".
- + drop misc/ncu-indent and misc/jpf-indent; they are provided
- by an external package [3]cindent.
- + change makefiles to use $ARFLAGS rather than $AR_OPTS,
- provide a configure check to detect whether a "-" is needed
- before "ar" options.
- + modify CF_DISABLE_LEAKS configure macro so that the
- --enable-leaks option is not the same as --disable-leaks.
- + improve configure script macros CF_HEADER_PATH and
- CF_LIBRARY_PATH by adding CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS, LIBS
- values to the search-lists.
- + improve configure macros CF_GCC_VERSION and CF_GCC_WARNINGS
- to work with gcc 4.x's c89 alias, which gives warning
- messages for cases where older versions would produce an
- error.
- + modify CF_WITH_LIBTOOL configure check to allow unreleased
- libtool version numbers (e.g. which include alphabetic chars,
- as well as digits, after the final '.').
- + improve use of symbolic links in makefiles by using "-f"
- option if it is supported, to eliminate temporary removal of
- the target
- + add a configure-time check to pick a suitable value for
- CC_SHARED_OPTS for Solaris.
- + add -shared option to MK_SHARED_LIB when -Bsharable is used,
- for *BSD's, without which "main" might be one of the shared
- library's dependencies.
- + modify configure script to allow building shared libraries
- with gcc on AIX 5 or 6.
- + suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker flags for
- gcc on Solaris 10, since gcc is confused by absence of static
- libc, and does not switch back to dynamic mode before
- finishing the libraries.
- + suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker flags for
- gcc on Darwin.
- + modify misc/run_tic.in to create parent directory, in case
- this is a new install of hashed database.
- + modify configure check for tic program, used for fallbacks,
- to a warning if not found. This makes it simpler to use
- additonal scripts to bootstrap the fallbacks code using tic
- from the build tree.
- * test programs:
- + add test/demo_terminfo, for comparison with demo_termcap.
- + improve test/ncurses.c 'F' test, show combining characters in
- color.
- + fix logic for 'V' in test/ncurses.c tests f/F.
- + improve test/ncurses.c 'a test to put mouse droppings in the
- proper window.
- + modify ncurses 'F' test to demo wborder_set with colored
- lines.
- + modify ncurses 'f' test to demo wborder with colored lines.
- + improve test/ncurses.c 'a' test, using unctrl more
- consistently to display meta-characters.
- + correct use of key_name in test/ncurses.c 'A' test, which
- only displays wide-characters, not key-codes since 20070612.
- + add test/clip_printw.c to illustrate how to use printw
- without wrapping.
- + modify test-programs, e.g,. test/view.c, to address subtle
- differences between Tru64/Solaris and HPUX/AIX getcchar
- return values.
- + add some test programs (and make these use the same special
- keys by sharing linedata.h functions): test/test_addstr.c
- test/test_addwstr.c test/test_addchstr.c
- test/test_add_wchstr.c
- + add test/xterm-256color.dat
- + modify test programs to allow them to be built with NetBSD
- curses.
- + fixes for test programs to build/work on HPUX and AIX, etc.
-
- Features of Ncurses
-
- The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4)
- curses:
- * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
- documented).
- * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping,
- color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
+ * captoinfo, a termcap conversion tool
+ * clear, utility for clearing the screen
+ * infocmp, the terminfo decompiler
+ * tabs, set tabs on a terminal
+ * tic, the terminfo compiler
+ * toe, list (table of) terminfo entries
+ * tput, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities in shell
+ scripts
+ * tset, to initialize the terminal
+
+ Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
+
+ The ncurses distribution is available at ncurses' homepage:
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/ or
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/ .
+
+ It is also available at the GNU distribution site
+
+ https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
+
+Release Notes
+
+ These notes are for ncurses 6.5, released April 27, 2024.
+
+ This release is designed to be source-compatible with ncurses 5.0
+ through 6.4; providing extensions to the application binary interface
+ (ABI). Although the source can still be configured to support the
+ ncurses 5 ABI, the reason for the release is to reflect improvements
+ to the ncurses 6 ABI and the supporting utility programs.
+
+ There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in this
+ announcement.
+
+ The most important bug-fixes/improvements dealt with robustness
+ issues. The release notes also mention some other bug-fixes, but are
+ focused on new features and improvements to existing features since
+ ncurses 6.4 release.
+
+ Library improvements
+
+ New features
+
+ These are new features:
+ * The low-level terminfo and termcap interfaces are used both by the
+ higher-level curses library, as well as by many applications.
+ The functions which convert parameterized terminal capability
+ strings for output to the terminal (tiparm and tparm) analyze the
+ capability string to determine which parameters are strings (i.e.,
+ addresses), versus numbers (not addresses).
+ The library's analysis of a capability string may differ from the
+ calling application's design if environment variables are used to
+ point to an invalid terminal database. This is a longstanding
+ problem with all implementations of terminfo, dating from the
+ early 1980s.
+ Two new functions address this problem: by providing a function
+ which allows the calling application to tell ncurses how many
+ string-parameters to expect:
+ + tiscan_s helps applications check formatting capabilities
+ that would be passed to tiparm_s.
+ + tiparm_s provides applications a way to tell ncurses what the
+ expected parameters are for a capability.
+ * The ncurses library supports a compile-time feature (enabled with
+ the configure --enable-check-size option) which simplifies
+ initialization with terminals which do not negotiate window
+ (screen) size. This is done in setupterm, by providing for using
+ ANSI cursor-position report (in user6/user7 terminfo capabilities)
+ to obtain the screen size if neither environment variables or
+ ioctl is used.
+ The ncurses test-program with options "-E -T" demonstrates this
+ feature.
+ * add functions to query tty-flags in SCREEN
+
+ This release drops compatibility with obsolete versions of tack, e.g.,
+ pre-1.08
+
+ Other improvements
+
+ These are improvements to existing features:
+ * In addition to the new, safer function tiparm_s, ncurses adds
+ checks to make the older tiparm, tparm and tgoto functions safer:
+ + the terminfo functions tiparm and tparm ensure that the
+ capability string comes from the terminal description which
+ ncurses loads, rather than from random data which the
+ application happens to have.
+ + the tgoto function disallows capabilities which its analysis
+ shows will attempt to use string parameters.
+ + ncurses uses internal functions which correspond to tiparm,
+ and tgoto which ensure that the capability strings which are
+ passed to these functions come from the loaded terminal
+ description.
+ * improve check in lib_tparm.c, ensuring that a char* fits into a
+ TPARM_ARG
+ * modify _nc_syserr_abort to use _nc_env_access, rather than only
+ checking root uid
+ * improve thread lock in lib_trace.c
+ * modify flushinp to use file descriptors in SCREEN, rather than
+ from TERMINAL, and check if they are for a terminal, like SVr4
+ * modify mcprint to use file descriptor in SCREEN, for consistency
+ * modify internal function _nc_read_file_entry to show relevant
+ filename in warnings
+ * improve checks in internal function convert_string for corrupt
+ terminfo entry
+ * review/improve handling of out-of-memory conditions
+ * limit delays to 30 seconds, i.e., padding delays in terminfo, as
+ well as napms and delay_output functions
+ * fix reallocation loop for vsnprintf in _nc_sprintf_string by
+ copying the va_list variable
+ * modify delscreen to limit the windows which it creates to just
+ those associated with the screen
+ * modify endwin to return an error if it is called again without an
+ intervening screen update
+ * modify wenclose to handle pads
+ * eliminate use of PATH_MAX in lib_trace.c
+ * provide for any CCHARW_MAX greater than 1
+
+ These are corrections to existing features:
+ * correct loop termination condition in waddnstr and waddnwstr
+ * improve parsing in internal function _nc_msec_cost, allowing a
+ single decimal point
+ * amend parameter check for entire string versus specific length in
+ winsnstr and wins_nwstr to match Solaris; make similar correction
+ to wins_nwstr
+ * correct internal function wadd_wch_literal when adding a
+ non-spacing character to a double-width character
+ * correct definition of Charable macro for non-wide ncurses library
+ .
+
+ Program improvements
+
+ Several improvements were made to the utility programs. Some were done
+ to make the infocmp option "-u" option help refactor the terminal
+ database.
+
+ infocmp
+
+ + add limit checks for processing extended capabilities with
+ the "-u" option
+ + correct initial alignment of extended capabilities, so that
+ the "-u" option can be used for more than two terminal types
+ + modify "-u" option to not report cancels for strings which
+ were already cancelled in a use'd chunk.
+ + correct an assignment "-u" for detecting if a boolean is
+ unset in a base entry and set in a use'd chunk, i.e., if it
+ was cancelled.
+
+ tic
+
+ + correct limit-check when dumping tc/use clause via "-I"
+ + check return value of _nc_save_str, in special case where
+ extended capabilities are processed but the terminal
+ description was not initialized
+ + modify check for multiply defined aliases to report problems
+ within the current runtime rather than for conflicts with
+ pre-existing terminal descriptions.
+ + disallow using $TERMINFO or $HOME/.terminfo when "-o" option
+ is used
+
+ tput and tset
+
+ + add "-v" option to tput, to show warnings
+ + modify reset command to avoid altering clocal if the terminal
+ uses a modem
+ + modify reset feature to avoid 1-second sleep if running in a
+ pseudo-terminal
+
+ Examples
+
+ Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made to the
+ ncurses-examples:
+ * modify test_tparm to account for extended capabilities
+ * corrected mouse mask in test/testcurs.c
+ * modify test/clip_printw.c to optionally test non-wrapped updates
+ * modify test/test_mouse.c to use curses api for raw/noraw
+ * modify test/clip_printw.c to optionally test non-wrapped updates
+
+ There is one new demo/test programs:
+
+ test/test_endwin.c
+ This program shows the return-status from endwin with different
+ combinations of endwin (repeated), initscr, newterm.
+
+ Terminal database
+
+ There are several new terminal descriptions:
+ * ansi+apparrows
+ * contour
+ * linux+kbs for terminals which imitate xterm's behavior with Linux
+ * rio, rio-direct
+ * mostlike
+ * ms-vt100-16color, winconsole
+ * vt100+noapp, vt100+noapp+pc, xterm+app+pc, xterm+decedit from
+ xterm #389
+ * putty+cursor to reflect amending of modified cursor-keys in 2021
+ * wezterm
+
+ There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some were
+ updates to several descriptions, using the infocmp "-u" option in a
+ script to determine which building-block entries could be used to
+ replace multiple capability settings (and trim redundant information).
+
+ Other changes include:
+ * document XF, kxIN and kxOUT
+ * add note on sun regarding wscons/cmdtool/shelltool
+ * remove DECCOLM+DECSCLM from foot
+ * add xterm+focus to foot+base
+ * add ecma+strikeout to putty
+ * use CSI 3J in vte-2017
+ * use oldxterm+sm+1006 in vte-2014
+ * modify xgterm to work around line-drawing bug
+ * add xterm focus mode 1004 to xterm+focus as fe/fd capabilities,
+ like vim.
+ * add xterm+focus to alacritty+common
+ * add XR/xr, to work with vim, and use RV/rv to denote DA2 and its
+ response
+ * add XF flag to xterm+focus so that termcap applications can be
+ aware of terminals which may support focus in/out
+ * use xterm+focus in xterm-p370 and tmux
+ * remove xterm+sm+1006 from tmux
+ * NetBSD-related fixes for x68k and wsvt25
+
+ Documentation
+
+ As usual, this release
+ * improves documentation by describing new features,
+ * attempts to improve the description of features which users have
+ found confusing
+ * fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were described
+ in the NEWS file but treated sketchily in manual pages.
+
+ In addition to providing background information to explain these
+ features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
+ clarifications, etc.:
+ * Corrections:
+ + add assignment in CF_MAN_PAGES to fill in value for
+ TERMINFO_DIRS in ncurses, terminfo and tic manpages.
+ + clarify interaction of -R option versus -C, -I and -r in
+ infocmp manpage.
+ + correct manpage description of panel_hidden.
+ + improve manpage description for addch versus unctrl format
+ used for non-printable characters.
+ + improve manpages discussing file descriptors in low-level
+ functions.
+ + improve description of search rules for terminal descriptions
+ in terminfo manpage.
+ + modify dist.mk to avoid passing developer's comments in
+ manpages into the generated html documentation.
+ + modify test-package "ncurses6-doc" to use manpage-aliases,
+ which in turn required a change to the configure script to
+ factor in the extra-suffix option when deriving alias names.
+ * New/improved history and portability sections:
+ + add information about "ttycap", termcap's forerunner, to
+ tset.1
+ + document limitations of tparm, and error-returns in
+ curs_terminfo.3x
+ + document limitations of tgoto, and error-returns in
+ curs_termcap.3x
+ * Other improvements:
+ + This release has many changes to improve the formatting and
+ style of the manpages.
+ + Manpages now use consistent section-naming, page headers and
+ footers (including the modification date for each page).
+ + Table layout has been revised.
+
+ There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates are to
+ existing pages).
+
+ Interesting bug-fixes
+
+ The changes to tparm, tgoto which improve the design of the low-level
+ interfaces are interesting, but are not bug-fixes per se.
+
+ Configuration changes
+
+ Major changes
+
+ These are the major changes (aside from introducing tiparm_s):
+ * use wide-character (ncursesw) by default
+ * use opaque typedefs by default
+
+ However, most of the work on configure scripts was done to reduce
+ warnings within the configure script:
+ * intrusive warnings from GNU grep regarding fgrep and egrep
+ * fatal errors in compile-checks, arising from recent "Modern C"
+ efforts by some developers which caused longstanding configure
+ checks to fail.
+ After repairing the configure script, none of that activity
+ affected ncurses because stricter warnings are used routinely in
+ development.
+
+ Other improvements made to configure checks include
+ * use string-hacks in alloc_entry.c, alloc_type.c and hardscroll.c,
+ overlooked due to compiler changes in recent OpenBSD releases
+ * revise progs.priv.h to provide for NC_ISATTY reuse
+ * configure check for MB_LEN_MAX provides warning as needed
+ * trim a space after some "-R" options, fixing builds for
+ applications built using clang and ncurses on Solaris
+ * work around misconfiguration of MacPorts gcc13, which exposes
+ invalid definition of MB_LEN_MAX in gcc's fallback copy of
+ limits.h
+ * modified experimental Windows driver works with xterm mouse
+ protocol
+
+ Configuration options
+
+ There are a few new configure options:
+
+ --disable-setuid-environ
+ Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment
+ variables are not available when running via a setuid/setgid
+ application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow
+ the search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be
+ customized.
+
+ A setuid/setgid application inherits its environment variables
+ from the current user, in contrast to sudo which may limit the
+ environment variables that ncurses uses.
+
+ --enable-check-size
+ Compile-in feature to detect screensize for terminals which do
+ not advertise their screensize, e.g., serial terminals.
+
+ --with-abi-altered=NUM
+ Override the displayed (rather than compiled-in) ABI. Only
+ packagers who have created configurations where the ABI differs
+ from ncurses should be interested in this option.
+
+ --with-strip-program=XXX
+ When stripping executables during install, use the specified
+ program rather than "strip" overriding program chosen by the
+ install program for stripping executables.
+
+ These configure options are modified:
+
+ --with-pkg-config-libdir[=DIR]
+ The optional DIR parameter can now be "auto" to automatically
+ use pkg-config's library directory.
+
+ The default is $(libdir).
+
+ --with-xterm-kbs[=XXX]
+ The default is "auto" which tells the configure script to
+ choose BS or DEL according to platform defaults.
+
+ Portability
+
+ Many of the portability changes are implemented via the configure
+ script:
+ * add/use configure check for clock_gettime, to supersede
+ gettimeofday.
+ * modify configure script check for pkg-config library directory to
+ take into account an older version 0.15.0 which used
+ PKG_CONFIG_PATH but not PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR
+ * allow for MinGW32-/64-bit configurations to use _DEFAULT_SOURCE
+ * modify CF_XOPEN_SOURCE macro's amend default case to avoid
+ undefining _XOPEN_SOURCE if _POSIX_C_SOURCE is defined
+ * updated configure script macro CF_XOPEN_SOURCE, for uClibc-ng
+ * modify version-check for gcc/g++, now works for msys2
+ * build-fixes related to configure-options and/or platform:
+ + fix for --enable-fvisibility
+ + fix for unusual values of --with-rel-version
+ + fix for unusual values of --with-abi-version
+ + fix for --disable-tcap-names
+ + fix for termcap in nc_access.h
+ * other configure-script improvements:
+ + recent msys2 headers work with _DEFAULT_SOURCE; amend check
+ + use $ac_includes_default in most cases where stdlib.h should
+ work
+ + use #error consistently vs "make an error"
+ + add configure macro for gettimeofday vs inline check
+
+ Here are some of the other portability fixes:
+ * modify configure scripts/makefiles to omit KEY_RESIZE if the
+ corresponding SIGWINCH feature is disabled
+ * increase MB_CUR_MAX to 16, matching glibc's MB_LEN_MAX
+ * add BSD erase2 to characters handled by tset/reset
+ * use getauxval when available, to improve setuid/setgid checks
+ * set dwShareMode in calls to CreateConsoleScreenBuffer
+ * use CreateFile with "CONIN$", "CONOUT$" rather than GetStdHandle
+ to obtain a handle on the actual console, avoiding redirection in
+ the MinGW/Win32 configurations
+ * modify MinGW driver to return KEY_BACKSPACE when an unmodified
+ VK_BACK virtual key is entered
+ * modify MinGW configuration to provide for running in MSYS/MSYS2
+ shells, assuming ConPTY support
+ _________________________________________________________________
+
+Features of ncurses
+
+ The ncurses package is fully upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V
+ Release 4) curses:
+ * All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
+ * ncurses supports the features of SVr4 curses including keyboard
+ mapping, color, form drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
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