- Announcing ncurses 6.0
+ Announcing ncurses 6.5
Overview
curses in System V Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo
format, supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms
characters and function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
- enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses is better known today as
- X/Open Curses.
+ enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of X/Open
+ Curses.
In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of unix
* It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel (aside
from some embedded applications).
* It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD and
- OSX.
+ MacOS.
* It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The first of
these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.
* It is used (though usually not as the system curses) on all of the
* It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming unix.
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
- * [1]captoinfo, a termcap conversion tool
- * [2]clear, utility for clearing the screen
- * [3]infocmp, the terminfo decompiler
- * [4]tabs, set tabs on a terminal
- * [5]tic, the terminfo compiler
- * [6]toe, list (table of) terminfo entries
- * [7]tput, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities in shell
+ * 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
- * [8]tset, to initialize the terminal
+ * tset, to initialize the terminal
Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
- The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
- distribution site
+ The ncurses distribution is available at ncurses' homepage:
- [9]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/ or
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/ .
- It is also available at
+ It is also available at the GNU distribution site
- [10]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
+ https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
Release Notes
- These notes are for ncurses 6.0, released August 8, 2015.
+ These notes are for ncurses 6.5, released April 27, 2024.
This release is designed to be source-compatible with ncurses 5.0
- through 5.9; providing a new application binary interface (ABI).
- Although the source can still be configured to support the ncurses 5
- ABI, the intent of the release is to provide extensions which are
- generally useful, but binary-incompatible with ncurses 5:
- * Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
- encoded.
- * Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse
- button. That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with
- xterm or similar X terminal emulators.
-
- There are, of course, numerous other improvements, including
- * fixes made based on the Clang and Coverity static analyzers.
- * memory leak fixes using Valgrind
-
- The release notes mention some bug-fixes, but are focused on new
- features and improvements to existing features log since ncurses 5.9
- release.
-
- While the intent of the release is to provide a new stable ABI, there
- are other development activities which are summarized below.
- * The original release plan, e.g., for "5.10" was to improve the
- MinGW port. Ultimately that was completed (wide-character support,
- mouse, etc), but was deferred to focus on termcap support and
- performance issues. Also, pinpointing the problems with Console2
- took a while.
- * A review of termcap compatibility in 2011 led to several minor
- fixes in the library and improvements to utilities. To do this
- properly, a review of the various extent termcap implementations
- was needed.
- The [11]termcap library checker (tctest) (not part of ncurses) was
- one result. A followup review of performance using
- [12]ncurses-examples in 2014 led to additional improvements.
- * Output buffering provided a further, but worthwhile distraction. A
- bug report in 2012 regarding the use of signal handlers in
- ncurses) pointed out [13]a problem with the use of unsafe
- functions for handling SIGTSTP. Other signals could be addressed
- with workarounds; repairing SIGTSTP required a different approach.
- The solution required changing internal behavior of the library:
- how it handles output buffering.
- Now ncurses buffers its own output, independently of the standard
- output. A few applications relied upon the library's direct reuse
- of the standard output buffering; however that is unspecified
- behavior and has never been a recommended practice. Identifying
- these applications as well as refining the change to permit
- low-level applications to work consistently took time.
- * Since the introduction of the experimental support for 256 colors
- early in [14]2005 (released in [15]ncurses 5.5), there has been
- increased user interest. Almost all packagers continue providing
- the ncurses ABI 5 which cannot support 256 colors.
- * Symbol versioning, or the lack of it in ncurses, is the main
- reason why packagers would be reluctant to add a new ncurses ABI.
- This release provides the new ABI along with script-generated
- lists of versioned symbols which can be used for both ABI 5 and 6
- (with distinct names to keep the two separate). This took time to
- development, as reported in [16]Symbol versioning in ncurses.
+ 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
- Output buffering
-
- X/Open curses provides more than one initialization function:
- * [17]initscr (the simplest) accepts no parameters.
- * [18]newterm accepts parameters for the stream input and output
- * [19]setupterm (the low-level function) accepts a parameter for the
- file descriptor of the output.
-
- They are documented in X/Open as if initscr calls newterm using stdout
- for output stream, and in turn newterm calls setupterm using
- fileno(stdout) for the file descriptor. As long as an implementation
- acts as if it does this, it conforms. In practice, implementations do
- what is implied. This creates a problem: the low-level setupterm
- function's file descriptor is unbuffered, while newterm implies
- buffered output. X/Open Curses says that all output is done through
- the file descriptor, and does not say how the output stream is
- actually used.
-
- Initially, ncurses used the file descriptor (obtained from the output
- stream passed to newterm) for changing the terminal modes, and relied
- upon the output parameter of newterm for buffered output. Later (to
- avoid using unsafe buffered I/O in signal handlers), ncurses was
- modified to use the file descriptor (unbuffered output) when cleaning
- up on receipt of a signal. Otherwise (when not handling a signal), it
- continued to use the buffered output.
-
- That approach worked reasonably well and as a side effect, using the
- same buffered output as an application might use for printf meant that
- no flushing was needed when switching between normal- and
- screen-modes.
-
- There were a couple of problems:
- * to get good performance, curses (not only ncurses, but SVr4 curses
- in general) set an output buffer using setbuf or similar function.
- There is no standard (or portable) way to turn that output buffer
- off, and revert to line-buffering. The [20]NCURSES_NO_SETBUF
- environment variable did make it optional.
- * to handle SIGTSTP (the "stop" signal), ncurses relied upon unsafe
- functions. That is, due to the complexity of the feature, it
- relied upon reusing existing functions which should not have been
- called via the signal handler.
-
- Conveniently, solving the second problem (by making ncurses do its own
- output buffering) also fixed the first one. But there were special
- cases to resolve: [21]low-level functions such as mvcur, putp, vidattr
- explicitly use the standard output. Those functions were reused
- internally, and required modification to distinguish whether they were
- used by the high-level or low-level interfaces.
-
- Finally, there may still be a few programs which should be modified to
- improve their portability, e.g., adding an
-
-fflush(stdout);
-
- when switching from "[22]shell" mode to "[23]program" (curses) mode.
- Those are fairly rare because most programmers have learned not to mix
- printf and [24]printw.
-
- Symbol versioning
-
- This release introduces symbol-versioning to ncurses because without
- it, the change of ABI would be less successful. A lengthy discussion
- will be presented in [25]Symbol versioning in ncurses. These notes
- summarize what has changed, and what can be done with the new release.
-
- Symbol-versioning allows the developers of a library to mark each
- public symbol (both data and functions) with an identifier denoting
- the library name and the version for which it was built. By doing
- this, users of the library have a way to help ensure that applications
- do not accidentally load an incompatible library. In addition, private
- symbols can be hidden entirely.
-
- This release provides sample files for the four principal
- configurations of ncurses libraries: ncurses, ncursesw, ncursest and
- ncursestw. Each sample is given in two forms:
-
- ".map"
- These list all public symbols, together with version names.
-
- ".sym"
- These list all public symbols, without version names.
-
- The sample files are generated by scripts which take into account a
- few special cases such as [26]tack to omit many of the ncurses private
- symbols (beginning with "_nc_"). Here are counts of globals versus
- locals:
-
- Config Symbols Globals Locals "_nc_"
- ncurses 976 796 180 332
- ncursesw 1089 905 184 343
- ncursest 979 804 175 358
- ncursestw 1098 914 184 372
-
- Although only four sample configurations are presented, each is formed
- by merging symbols from several combinations of configure-script
- options, taking into account advice from downstream packagers. Because
- they are formed by merging, the sample files may list a symbol which
- is not in a given package. That is expected. The samples have been
- tested and are working with systems (such as Fedora, FreeBSD and
- Debian) which fully support this feature. There are other systems
- which do not support the feature, and a few (such as Solaris) which
- provide incomplete support.
-
- The version-naming convention used allows these sample files to build
- distinct libraries for ABI 5 and 6. Version names consist of
- * configuration name, e.g., "NCURSESW" for the wide-character
- libraries
- * ABI version (if not 5)
- * library name for two special cases which have the same interface
- across configurations: "TINFO" and "TIC"
- * release version
- * patch date (for the release version)
-
- For example, running nm -D on the libraries in the ncurses6 test
- package shows these symbol-versions:
-
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.0.19991023
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.1.20000708
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.5.20051010
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.7.20081102
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TIC_5.9.20150530
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.0.19991023
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.1.20000708
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.2.20001021
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.3.20021019
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.4.20040208
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.5.20051010
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.6.20061217
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.7.20081102
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.8.20110226
-0000000000000000 A NCURSES6_TINFO_5.9.20150530
-0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.1.20000708
-0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.3.20021019
-0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.4.20040208
-0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.5.20051010
-0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.6.20061217
-0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.7.20081102
-0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.8.20110226
-0000000000000000 A NCURSESW6_5.9.20150530
-
- As a special case, this release (which makes the final change for ABI
- 5) is marked with release version 5.9 and patch date 20150530.
-
- Miscellaneous
-
- The new release has several improvements for performance and building.
- For instance:
- * several files in ncurses- and progs-directories were modified to
- allow const data used in internal tables to be put by the linker
- into the readonly text segment.
- * various improvements were made to building the Ada95 binding, both
- in simplifying the generated files as well as improving the way it
- uses gnatmake
-
- There are also new features in the libraries:
- * added [27]use_tioctl function
- * added [28]wgetdelay to retrieve _delay member of WINDOW if it
- happens to be opaque, e.g., in the pthread configuration.
- * added [29]A_ITALIC extension.
- * added form library extension [30]O_DYNAMIC_JUSTIFY option which
- can be used to override the different treatment of justification
- for static versus dynamic fields .
- * rewrote [31]putwin and [32]getwin, making an extended version
- which is capable of reading screen-dumps between the wide/normal
- ncurses configurations. These are text files, except for a magic
- code at the beginning:
-
-0 string \210\210 Screen-dump (ncurses)
-
- * several changes to mouse support include:
- + added decoder for xterm SGR 1006 mouse mode.
- + added experimental support for "%u" format to terminfo.
- + improved behavior of wheel-mice for xterm protocol: noting
- that there are only button-presses for buttons "4" and "5",
- so there is no need to wait to combine events into
- double-clicks .
-
- There are a few new configure options dealing with library
- customization:
- * add "--enable-ext-putwin" configure option to turn on the extended
- putwin/getwin. By default, this is enabled for ABI 6 and disabled
- with ABI 5.
- * add "--enable-string-hacks" option to control whether strlcat and
- strlcpy may be used. Because ncurses already does the requisite
- buffer-limit checks, this feature is mainly of interest to quiet
- compiler-warnings on a few systems.
- * add configure option "--with-tparm-arg" to allow [33]tparm's
- parameters to be something more likely to be the same size as a
- pointer, e.g., intptr_t (again, the default is set for ABI 6).
+ 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
- Utilities
-
- Most of the termcap-related changes based on development of [34]tctest
- (termcap library checker) are implemented in the tic and infocmp
- programs rather than affecting the library. As noted in the
- [35]discussion of tctest, ncurses's ability to translate between
- terminfo and termcap formats has been improved at different times, but
- subject to feedback from "real" termcap users. There are very few of
- those. Nowadays, virtually all termcap users are using ncurses (or
- NetBSD, with its own terminfo library) and their programs are actually
- using terminfo rather than termcap data.
-
- Still, there are a few. A comment about the translation of the ASCII
- NUL character prompted a review:
- * Both terminfo and termcap store string capabilities as
- NUL-terminated strings.
- * In terminfo, a \0 in a terminal description is stored as \200.
- * There are no (known) terminals which would behave differently when
- sent \0 or \200.
- * When translating to terminfo format (or displaying a printable
- version of an entry using infocmp), ncurses shows \200 as \0.
- * It has done this since 1998 (quoting from the NEWS file):
-
-[36]980103
-...
- + modify _nc_tic_expand() to generate \0 rather than \200.
-...
- + correct translation of terminfo "^@", to \200, like \0.
-
- * However, the _nc_tic_expand function (which optionally produces
- terminfo or termcap format) did not address this special case for
- termcap. Even the later 4.4BSD [37]cgetstr interprets a \0
- literally, ending that string (rather than using the terminfo
- improvement).
-
- As a result of the review, several improvements were made to ncurses
- translation to/from termcap format -- and improving the checks made in
- tic for consistency of entries. Most of these are not of general
- interest, except for two new command-line options for tic and infocmp:
- * the "-0" option generates termcap/terminfo source on a single
- line.
- * the "-K" option provides stricter BSD-compatibility for termcap
- output.
-
- Other user-visible improvements and new features include:
- * added "-D" option to tic and infocmp, to show the database
- locations that it could use.
- * added "-s" option to toe, to sort its output.
- * extended "-c" and "-n" options of infocmp to allow comparing more
- than two entries.
- * modified toe's report when "-a" and "-s" options are combined, to
- add a column showing which entries belong to a given database.
- * modified the clear program to take into account the "E3" extended
- capability to clear the terminal's scrollback buffer.
+ 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, many improvements were made to
- the [38]ncurses-examples. Some were made to allow building (and
- comparison-testing) against NetBSD curses and PDCurses. Both lack some
- of the X/Open Curses features, necessitating customization. But this
- activity was useful because it showed some remaining performance
- issues (which have been resolved in this release).
-
- These changes were made to verify compatibility or compare performance
- of ncurses:
- * made workarounds for compiling test-programs with NetBSD curses,
- though it lacks some common functions such as [39]use_env.
- * added dots_termcap test-program
- * added dots_curses test-program, for comparison with the low-level
- examples.
- * added test_setupterm test-proram to demonstrate normal/error
- returns from the setupterm and restartterm functions.
- * added "-d", "-e" and "-q" options to the demo_terminfo and
- demo_termcap test-programs.
- * added "-y" option to demo_termcap and test/demo_terminfo
- test-programs to demonstrate behavior with/without extended
- capabilities.
- * modified demo_termcap and demo_terminfo test-programs to make
- their options more directly comparable, and add "-i" option to
- specify a terminal description filename to parse for names to
- lookup.
- * rewrote the tests for [40]mvderwin and test for recursive
- [41]mvwin in the movewindow test-program.
-
- These changes were made to help with the MinGW port:
- * added test-screens to the ncurses test-program to show
- 256-characters at a time, to help with MinGW port.
- * modified the view test-program to load UTF-8 when built with MinGW
- by using regular win32 API because the MinGW functions mblen and
- mbtowc do not work.
- * added "-s" option to the view test-program to allow it to start in
- single-step mode, reducing size of trace files when it is used for
- debugging MinGW changes.
-
- These changes were made to verify new extensions in ncurses:
- * added [42]form_driver_w entrypoint to wide-character forms
- library, as well as form_driver_w test-program.
- * modified ncurses test-program's b/B tests to display lines only
- for the attributes which a given terminal supports, to make room
- for an italics test.
- * modified ncurses test-program, adding "-E" and "-T" options to
- demonstrate use_env versus use_tioctl.
- * modified ncurses test-program's c/C tests to cycle through subsets
- of the total number of colors, to better illustrate
- 8/16/88/256-colors by providing directly comparable screens.
- * modified the ncurses test-program to also show position reports in
- 'a' test.
-
- These changes were made to make the examples more useful:
- * added scripts for building dpkg and rpm test-packages
- * modified the hanoi test-program to show the minimum number of
- moves possible for the given number of tiles.
- * modified the knight test-program to show the number of choices
- possible for each position in automove option, e.g., to allow user
- to follow Warnsdorff's rule to solve the puzzle.
+ 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
- Terminal database
+ There is one new demo/test programs:
- This release provides improvements to tic's "-c" checking option,
- which was used for example to
- * make sgr in several entries agree with other caps.
- * correct padding in some entries where earlier versions had
- miscounted the number of octal digits.
+ 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:
- * [43]mlterm is now aliased to mlterm3
- * [44]nsterm is now derived from nsterm-256color
- * [45]putty-sco
- * [46]teken is FreeBSD's "xterm" console.
- * [47]terminator
- * [48]terminology
- * [49]tmux is derived from screen.
- * several screen.XXX entries support the respective variations for
- 256 colors.
- * [50]simpleterm is now 0.5
- * [51]vte is aliased to vte-2012
- * [52]vt520ansi
-
- A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal capabilities):
- * E3, used in linux, putty and xterm-basic is tested in the
- [53]clear program to erase a terminal's scrollback.
- * TS is used in the [54]xterm+sl building block to help deprecate
- the misuse of tsl for xterm's title-string.
- * XT is used in some terminfo entries to improve usefulness for
- other applications than screen, which would like to pretend that
- xterm's title is a status-line.
- * xm is used in examples [55]xterm-1005 and [56]xterm-1006 to
- illustrate a way to make mouse handling more general
-
- A few terminals support italics and/or dim capabilities. In
- particular, screen does not. Documented that, and accommodated the
- terminals where this feature works with the A_ITALIC extension.
- * konsole, mlterm3 (italics)
- * nsterm (dim)
- * screen (dim)
- * vte (dim, italics)
- * xterm (dim, italics)
+ * 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
* attempts to improve the description of features which users have
found confusing
* fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were described
- in the [57]NEWS file but treated sketchily in manual pages.
-
- In addition, the mechanism for producing HTML versions of the
- documentation has been improved:
- * use an improved version of [58]man2html to generate html manpages.
- * regenerated [59]NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html to fix some of the
- broken html emitted by docbook.
+ 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
- * Ada95 binding:
- + modify makefile rules to ensure that the PIC option is not
- used when building a static library
- + make Ada95 build-fix for big-endian architectures such as
- sparc. This undoes one of the fixes from [60]20110319, which
- added an "Unused" member to representation clauses, replacing
- that with pragmas to suppress warnings about unused bits.
- * Color and attributes:
- + parenthesize parameter of COLOR_PAIR and PAIR_NUMBER in
- curses.h in case it happens to be a comma-expression.
- + improve [61]20021221 workaround for broken acs, handling a
- case where that ACS_xxx character is not in the acsc string
- but there is a known wide-character which can be used.
- + modify [62]init_pair to accept -1's for color value after
- [63]assume_default_colors has been called.
- + add a check in [64]start_color to limit color-pairs to 256
- when extended colors are not supported.
- * Resizing the screen:
- + propagate error-returns from wresize, i.e., the internal
- increase_size and decrease_size functions through
- [65]resize_term.
- + add check for zero/negative dimensions for resizeterm and
- resize_term.
- + modify resizeterm to always push a KEY_RESIZE onto the fifo,
- even if screensize is unchanged. Modify library to push a
- KEY_RESIZE if there was a SIGWINCH, even if it does not call
- resizeterm). These changes eliminate the case where a
- SIGWINCH is received, but ERR is returned from wgetch or
- wgetnstr because the screen dimensions did not change.
- * Low-level interfaces
- + fix an old bug in the termcap emulation; "%i" was ignored in
- tparm because the parameters to be incremented were already
- on the internal stack.
- + change "%l" behavior in tparm to push the string length onto
- the stack rather than saving the formatted length into the
- output buffer.
- + modify name-comparison for tgetstr, etc., to accommodate
- legacy applications as well as to improve compatbility with
- BSD 4.2 termcap implementations (see note for [66]980725).
- * High-level interfaces
- + modify internal recursion in wgetch which handles cooked mode
- to check if the call to wgetnstr returned an error. This can
- happen when both nocbreak and nodelay are set, for instance
- (see note for [67]960418).
- + add a check in internal function waddch_nosync to ensure that
- tab characters are treated as control characters; some broken
- locales claim they are printable.
- + modify menu library to ensure that a menu's top-row is
- adjusted as needed to ensure that the current item is on the
- screen
- + fix special case where double-width character overwrites a
- single- width character in the first column.
+ 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
- The ncurses 6.0 configure script makes changes to the default value of
- several configure options, depending on the --with-abi-version option
- (i.e., whether its value is "5" or "6"):
-
- --enable-const
- Feature introduced in [68]970405 supports the use of const
- where X/Open Curses should have, but did not. NetBSD curses
- does something similar with const.
-
- --enable-ext-colors
- Extends the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to
- be encoded. This applies only to the wide-character
- (--enable-widec) configuration.
-
- --enable-ext-mouse
- Modifies the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th
- mouse button. That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse
- with xterm or similar X terminal emulators.
-
- --enable-ext-putwin
- Modifies the file-format written by putwin to use printable
- text rather than binary files, allowing getwin to read screen
- dumps written by differently-configured ncurses libraries. The
- extended getwin can still read binary screen dumps from the
- same configuration of ncurses. This does not change the ABI
- (the binary interface seen by calling applications).
-
- --enable-interop
- Modifies the FIELDTYPE structure used for the form library to
- make it more generic.
-
- --enable-lp64
- Allows an application to define _LP64 to declare chtype and
- mmask_t as simply "unsigned" rather than the configured types
- using the --with-chtype and --with-mmask_t options.
-
- --enable-sp-funcs
- Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN
- pointer, reducing the need for juggling the global SP value
- with [69]set_term and [70]delscreen.
-
- --with-chtype=uint32_t
- Makes chtype explicitly a 32-bit unsigned value.
-
- --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
- Makes mmask_t explicitly a 32-bit unsigned value.
-
- --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
- X/Open Curses declares [71]tparm using long for each of the
- parameters aside from the formatting string, presuming that
- long and char* are the same size. This configure option uses
- intptr_t which provides a better guarantee of the sizes.
-
- The configure script no longer checks for antique compilers; c89 is
- assumed as a minimum. There are a few features from later revisions
- which are used when available. The configure script makes checks to
- turn on useful warnings from clang, gcc and icc. You should be able to
- build ncurses 6.0 with any of the current (or not so current) C
- compilers available in 2015.
-
- The configure script, by the way, makes changes which do not work with
- systems whose /bin/sh is non-POSIX. This mainly affects Solaris (the
- other vendor unix systems have followed the POSIX guidelines for the
- past twenty years). If you must build on Solaris, its [72]xpg4
- binaries suffice, e.g.,
-
- #!/bin/sh
- WHAT=`hostname|sed -e 's/\..*//'`
- OUT=configure.out
- cat >>$OUT <<EOF/
- ** `date`
- ** node: $WHAT
- ** user: `id`
- ** conf: $*
- EOF/
-
- SHELL=/bin/sh
- if test -f /usr/xpg4/bin/sh
- then
- CONFIG_SHELL=/usr/xpg4/bin/sh
- export CONFIG_SHELL
- SHELL=$CONFIG_SHELL
- fi
-
- rm -f config.status config.cache
- TOP=$HOME/$WHAT
- $SHELL ./configure --verbose \
- --disable-echo \
- --disable-overwrite \
- --enable-warnings \
- --with-warnings \
- --prefix=$TOP $* 2>&1 | tee -a $OUT
-
- Other major changes to the configure script include:
- * ABI 6 is now the default, intending that the existing ABI 5 should
- build as before using the "--with-abi-version=5" option.
- * added --with-extra-suffix option to help with installing
- nonconflicting ncurses6 packages, e.g., avoiding header- and
- library-conflicts.
- NOTE: as a side-effect, this renames
-
- adacurses-config to adacurses5-config and
- adacursesw-config to adacursesw5-config
- * the configure script looks for gnatgcc if the Ada95 binding is
- built, in preference to the default gcc/cc. The script also
- ensures that the Ada95 binding is built with the level of
- optimization as the C libraries.
- * the configure script captures define's related to -D_XOPEN_SOURCE
- from the configure check and adds those to the *-config and *.pc
- files, to simplify use for the wide-character libraries.
+ 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 several new (or extended) configure options:
+ There are a few new configure options:
- --disable-db-install
- Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit
- features for packages, as done with --without-progs. The option
- simplifies building cross-compile support packages.
+ --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.
- --disable-gnat-projects
- This option is used for regression testing
+ 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.
- --disable-lib-suffixes
- Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be
- added to the library names for the --enable-widec and
- --with-pthread options.
+ --enable-check-size
+ Compile-in feature to detect screensize for terminals which do
+ not advertise their screensize, e.g., serial terminals.
- --with-cxx-shared
- When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared
- library. This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++,
- since other compiler suites may have differences in the way
- shared libraries are built. libtool by the way has similar
- limitations.
+ --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-hashed-db
- Extended this configure option to simplify building with
- different versions of Berkeley database using FreeBSD ports.
+ --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.
- --with-pc-suffix
- If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the
- files and corresponding package names to separate unusual
- configurations. If no option value is given (or if it is
- "none"), no suffix is added. This option is used in the test
- package for ncurses6.
+ These configure options are modified:
- --with-xterm-kbs
- Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e.,
- ASCII backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127).
+ --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
- MinGW
-
- Most of the portability-related work since [73]ncurses 5.9 extended
- and improved the MinGW port introduced in [74]ncurses 5.8.
-
- The MinGW port can be readily cross-compiled:
- * modified configure script to allow creating dll's for MinGW when
- cross-compiling.
- * enforced Windows-style path-separator if cross-compiling,
- * added scripts for test-builds of cross-compiled packages for
- ncurses6 to MinGW.
- * added pc-files to the MinGW cross-compiling test-packages.
- * added script for building test-packages of binaries cross-compiled
- to MinGW using NSIS.
- * added nc_mingw.h to installed headers for MinGW port; this is
- needed for cross-compiling [75]ncurses-examples.
- * added test-packages for cross-compiling ncurses-examples using the
- MinGW test-packages.
-
- The MinGW-specific Windows driver accounts for several changes:
- * wide-character display is made usable by replacing MinGW's
- non-working wcrtomb and wctomb functions.
- * implemented some display features: [76]beep, [77]flash,
- [78]curs_set.
- * the driver handles repainting on endwin/refresh combination.
- * modified treatment of TERM variable for MinGW port to allow
- explicit use of the Windows console driver by checking if $TERM is
- set to "#win32console" or an abbreviation of that.
- * the Windows driver also matches the special TERM value "unknown"
- * the driver now returns characters for special keys, (like ansi.sys
- does), when keypad mode is off, rather than returning nothing at
- all.
- * the driver checks a new environment variable [79]NCURSES_CONSOLE2
- to optionally work around a deficiency in Console2 (and its
- descendent ConsoleZ) which hang when an application creates a
- console buffer.
-
- Finally, there are other improvements:
- * MinGW is one of the configurations where ncurses installs by
- default into /usr
- * configuration for cross-compiling uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS in
- preference to AC_PATH_PROGS when searching for ncurses*-config,
- e.g., in Ada95/configure and test/configure.
- * extend Windows support to work with MSYS2;
- + this works with a scenario where there is an ANSI-escape
- handler such as ansicon running in the console window.
- + wrap isatty calls with a macro, provide a corresponding set
- of support routines to address differences between MinGW and
- MSYS2.
- * ensure WINVER is defined in makefiles rather than using headers.
- * add check for the gnatprep "-T" option.
- * work around a bug introduced by [80]gcc 4.8.1 in MinGW which
- breaks "trace" feature.
- * add a driver-name method to each of the drivers.
-
- Other ports
-
- These changes affect certain platforms (ports):
- * the configure script knows how to build shared libraries with
- DragonFlyBSD and Interix.
- * support for AIX shared libraries is improved, tested with AIX 5.3,
- 6.1 and 7.1 with both gcc 4.2.4 and cc:
- + the shared-library suffix for AIX 5 and 6 is now ".so"
- + the -brtl option is used with AIX 5-7; it is needed to link
- with the shared libraries.
- * the configure --enable-pc-files option takes into account the
- [81]PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable.
- * the configure option --with-pkg-config-libdir provides control
- over the actual directory into which pc-files are installed.
- * the build scripts add explicit -ltinfo, etc., to the generated
- ".pc" file when ld option "--as-needed" is used, or when ncurses
- and tinfo are installed without using rpath.
- * the configure script disallows conflicting options
- "--with-termlib" and "--enable-term-driver".
- * the check for missing c++ compiler to work when no error is
- reported, and no variables set is improved (see note for
- [82]20021206).
- * the misc/gen_edit.sh script selects a "linux" entry which works
- with the current kernel rather than assuming it is always
- "linux3.0"
- * the test/configure script makes it simpler to override names of
- curses-related libraries, to help with linking with pdcurses in
- MinGW environment.
- * the configure-script/ifdef's allow the BSD OLD_TTY feature to be
- suppressed if the type of ospeed is configured using the option
- --with-ospeed to not be a short. By default, it is a short for
- termcap-compatibility.
- * the MKlib_gen.sh script works around a recent change in gcc 5
- (released [83]mid-2015) which essentially emits multiple #line
- statements for the same position in a file.
- * the configure script works with Minix3.2 (see [84]note on
- portability)
- * OS/2 redux:
- + the configure script supports OS/2 kLIBC.
- + the --with-lib-prefix option allows configuring for old/new
- flavors of OS/2 EMX.
- * improved configure-script checks for _XOPEN_SOURCE:
- + the definition works starting with Solaris 10.
- + the definition is suppressed for IRIX64, since its header
- files have a conflict versus _SGI_SOURCE.
+ 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 all of the for SVr4 curses features including
- keyboard mapping, color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and
- automatic recognition of keypad and function keys.
- * ncurses provides these SVr4 add-on libraries (not part of X/Open
- Curses):
- + the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
- backing store.
- + the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
- interface for menu programming.
+ * ncurses supports the features of SVr4 curses including keyboard
+ mapping, color, form drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
+ recognition of keypad and function keys.
+ * ncurses provides work-alike replacements of SVr4 supplemental
+ libraries based on curses, but which were not specified by X/Open
+ Curses:
+ + the panel library, supporting a stack of windows with backing
+ store
+ + the menu library, supporting a uniform but flexible interface
+ for menu programming
+ the form library, supporting data collection through
- on-screen forms.
+ on-screen forms
* ncurses's terminal database is fully compatible with that used by
SVr4 curses.
- + ncurses supports user-defined capabilities which it can see,
+ + ncurses supports user-defined capabilities that it can see,
but which are hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
same terminal database.
+ It can be optionally configured to match the format used in
curses.
* The ncurses utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
entries for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as
- the HP/UX and AIX ports.
+ the HP-UX and AIX ports.
The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
- * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
- curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
- level features, and most EXTENDED features). It includes many
- function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of
- all calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
+ * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/Open
+ Curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
+ level features, and almost all EXTENDED features). It includes
+ many function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but
+ portability of all calls is documented so you can use the SVr4
+ subset only).
* Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
capability.
use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, or by
defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key
code.
+ * Support for direct-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
* Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
* Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm.
* Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
(this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
must run in single-user mode).
- * The [85]tic/[86]captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
- ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T
- extension sets.
- * A BSD-like [87]tset utility is provided.
+ * The tic/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability to
+ translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
+ sets.
+ * A BSD-like tset utility is provided.
* The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
- * The table-of-entries utility [88]toe makes it easy for users to
- see exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
- * The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
- have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
- prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
- #undef.
- * Extensive documentation is provided (see the [89]Additional
- Reading section of the [90]ncurses FAQ for online documentation).
+ * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
+ exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
+ * X/Open Curses permits most functions it specifies to be made
+ available as macros as well. ncurses does this
+ + to improve performance, e.g., for operations composed of
+ simpler functions such as cursor movement following by adding
+ text to the screen,
+ + to simplify the implementation by reusing functions which use
+ common parameters, e.g., the standard screen stdscr, and
+ + to provide functions that return values via their parameters
+ Except for the last case, ncurses provides a non-macro
+ implementation of the function. If the macro definition is
+ disabled with #undef, or by defining NCURSES_NOMACROS the function
+ may be linked (and its calls will be checked against the
+ prototype).
+ * Extensive documentation is provided (see the Additional Reading
+ section of the ncurses FAQ for online documentation).
Applications using ncurses
The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
(including a few games). These are available separately as
- [91]ncurses-examples
+ ncurses-examples
The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
applications including:
+ aptitude
+ FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager
+
+ https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude
+
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [92]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ https://invisible-island.net/cdk/
ded
directory-editor
- [93]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+ https://invisible-island.net/ded/
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
basis for similar install/configure applications on many
systems.
- [94]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
+ https://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
the text WWW browser
- [95]http://lynx.isc.org/
-
- Midnight Commander
- file manager
-
- [96]http://www.midnight-commander.org/
+ https://lynx.invisible-island.net/
mutt
mail utility
- [97]http://www.mutt.org/
+ http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
- [98]http://www.ncftp.com/
+ https://www.ncftp.com/
nvi
New vi uses ncurses.
- [99]https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
+ https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/the-berkeley-
+ vi-editor-home-page
+
+ ranger
+ A console file manager with VI key bindings in Python.
+
+ https://ranger.github.io/
tin
newsreader, supporting color, MIME
- [100]http://www.tin.org/
+ http://www.tin.org/
+
+ vifm
+ File manager with vi like keybindings
+
+ https://vifm.info/
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
minicom
terminal emulator for serial modem connections
- [101]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+ https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicom
mosh
a replacement for ssh.
- [102]https://mosh.mit.edu/
+ https://mosh.org/
tack
terminfo action checker
- [103]http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
+ https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
tmux
terminal multiplexor
- [104]http://tmux.github.io/
+ https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki
vile
vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, termcap or
curses interfaces.
- [105]http://invisible-island.net/vile/
+ https://invisible-island.net/vile/
and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:
emacs
text editor
- [106]http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
+ https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
+
+ less
+ The most commonly used pager (a program that displays text
+ files).
+
+ http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/
screen
terminal multiplexor
- [107]http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
+ https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
vim
text editor
- [108]http://www.vim.org/
+ https://www.vim.org/
Development activities
Zeyd Ben-Halim started ncurses from a previous package pcurses,
written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development.
- Juergen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries. Ongoing
- development work is done by [109]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey also
- acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds
- the [110]copyright on ncurses.
+ Juergen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
+
+ Ongoing development work is done by Thomas E. Dickey. Thomas E. Dickey
+ has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which
+ held a copyright on ncurses for releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following
+ the release of ncurses 6.1, effective as of release 6.2, copyright for
+ ncurses reverted to Thomas E. Dickey (see the ncurses FAQ for
+ additional information).
Contact the current maintainers at
- [111]bug-ncurses@gnu.org
+ bug-ncurses@gnu.org
To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
- [112]bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org
+ bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org
containing the line:
This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
and testing of this package.
- Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
- available at
+ Beta versions of ncurses are made available at
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/ and
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/ .
+
+ Patches to the current release are made available at
- [113]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.4/ and
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.4/ .
There is an archive of the mailing list here:
- [114]http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses (also
- [115]https)
+ https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses .
Related resources
The release notes make scattered references to these pages, which may
be interesting by themselves:
- * [116]man2html
- * [117]ncurses licensing
- * [118]Symbol versioning in ncurses
- * [119]The MinGW port of ncurses
- * [120]tack - terminfo action checker
- * [121]tar versus portability
- * [122]tctest - termcap library checker
- * [123]Terminal Database
+ * ncurses licensing
+ * Symbol versioning in ncurses
+ * Comments on ncurses versus slang (S-Lang)
+ * Comments on OpenBSD
+ * tack - terminfo action checker
+ * tctest - termcap library checker
+ * Terminal Database
Other resources
The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
- terminal description file once maintained by [124]Eric Raymond .
- Unlike the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided
- in the same file, and provides several user-definable extensions
- beyond the X/Open specification.
+ terminal description file once maintained by Eric Raymond . Unlike the
+ older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the same
+ file, which also provides several user-definable extensions beyond the
+ X/Open Curses specification.
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
- covered in the terminfo file at [125]Richard Shuford's archive .
-
- * [126]Overview
- * [127]Release Notes
- + [128]Library improvements
- o [129]Output buffering
- o [130]Symbol versioning
- o [131]Miscellaneous
- + [132]Program improvements
- o [133]Utilities
- o [134]Examples
- + [135]Terminal database
- + [136]Documentation
- + [137]Interesting bug-fixes
- + [138]Configuration changes
- o [139]Major changes
- o [140]Configuration options
- + [141]Portability
- o [142]MinGW
- o [143]Other ports
- * [144]Features of ncurses
- * [145]Applications using ncurses
- * [146]Development activities
- * [147]Related resources
- * [148]Other resources
-
-References
-
- 1. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html
- 2. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html
- 3. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html
- 4. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tabs.1.html
- 5. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html
- 6. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html
- 7. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html
- 8. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html
- 9. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
- 10. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
- 11. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
- 12. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
- 13. http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2012-07/msg00029.html
- 14. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20050101
- 15. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-5.5.html
- 16. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html
- 17. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-initscr
- 18. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-newterm
- 19. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Initialization
- 20. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-NCURSES_NO_SETBUF
- 21. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html
- 22. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-reset_prog_mode_-reset_shell_mode
- 23. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-reset_prog_mode_-reset_shell_mode
- 24. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_printw.3x.html
- 25. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html
- 26. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
- 27. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-use_tioctl
- 28. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_opaque.3x.html
- 29. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_attr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY
- 30. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_field_opts.3x.html
- 31. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-putwin_getwin
- 32. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-putwin_getwin
- 33. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Formatting-Output
- 34. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
- 35. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html#my-better-translation
- 36. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t980103
- 37. https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/lib/libc/gen/getcap.c?revision=244092&view=markup#l784
- 38. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
- 39. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-use_env
- 40. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_window.3x.html#h3-derwin
- 41. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_window.3x.html#h3-mvwin
- 42. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_driver.3x.html#h3-form_driver_w
- 43. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_M_L_T_E_R_M
- 44. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm
- 45. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty-sco
- 46. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken
- 47. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_T_E_R_M_I_N_A_T_O_R
- 48. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_T_E_R_M_I_N_O_L_O_G_Y
- 49. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tmux
- 50. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#toc-_S_I_M_P_L_E_T_E_R_M
- 51. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vte
- 52. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt520ansi
- 53. http://aerie.jexium-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html
- 54. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sl
- 55. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-1005
- 56. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-1006
- 57. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html
- 58. http://invisible-island.net/scripts/man2html.html
- 59. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html
- 60. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20110319
- 61. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20021221
- 62. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-Routine-Descriptions
- 63. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/default_colors.3x.html
- 64. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-Routine-Descriptions
- 65. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/resizeterm.3x.html
- 66. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t980725
- 67. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t960418
- 68. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t970405
- 69. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-set_term
- 70. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h3-delscreen
- 71. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Formatting-Output
- 72. http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/html/817-0552/fhkpy.html
- 73. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-5.9.html
- 74. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce-5.8.html
- 75. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
- 76. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_beep.3x.html
- 77. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_beep.3x.html
- 78. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_kernel.3x.html#h3-curs_set
- 79. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-NCURSES_CONSOLE2
- 80. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20877689/gcc-4-8-1-minggw-d-option-does-not-work-as-usual
- 81. http://linux.die.net/man/1/pkg-config
- 82. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20021206
- 83. https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-5/
- 84. http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/portability-test.html
- 85. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html
- 86. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html
- 87. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html
- 88. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html
- 89. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading
- 90. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html
- 91. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html
- 92. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- 93. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
- 94. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
- 95. http://lynx.isc.org/
- 96. http://www.midnight-commander.org/
- 97. http://www.mutt.org/
- 98. http://www.ncftp.com/
- 99. https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
- 100. http://www.tin.org/
- 101. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
- 102. https://mosh.mit.edu/
- 103. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
- 104. http://tmux.github.io/
- 105. http://invisible-island.net/vile/
- 106. http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
- 107. http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
- 108. http://www.vim.org/
- 109. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net
- 110. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html
- 111. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
- 112. mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org
- 113. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
- 114. http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses
- 115. https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses
- 116. http://invisible-island.net/scripts/man2html.html
- 117. http://invisible-island.nethttp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html
- 118. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html
- 119. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mingw.html
- 120. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
- 121. http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/portability-tar.html
- 122. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html
- 123. http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html#download_database
- 124. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/
- 125. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal
- 126. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-overview
- 127. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-release-notes
- 128. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-library
- 129. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-lib-setbuf
- 130. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-lib-versioning
- 131. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-lib-other
- 132. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-programs
- 133. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-utilities
- 134. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-examples
- 135. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-database
- 136. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-documentation
- 137. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-bug-fixes
- 138. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-config-config
- 139. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-config-major
- 140. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-config-options
- 141. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h3-portability
- 142. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-port-mingw
- 143. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h4-port-systems
- 144. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-features
- 145. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-who-uses
- 146. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-development
- 147. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-this-stuff
- 148. file:///usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-6.0-20150808/doc/html/announce.html#h2-other-stuff
+ covered in the terminfo file in Richard Shuford's archive (original).
+ The collection of computer manuals at bitsavers.org has also been
+ useful.
+
+ * Overview
+ * Release Notes
+ + Library improvements
+ o New features
+ o Other improvements
+ + Program improvements
+ o Utilities
+ o Examples
+ + Terminal database
+ + Documentation
+ + Interesting bug-fixes
+ + Configuration changes
+ o Major changes
+ o Configuration options
+ + Portability
+ * Features of ncurses
+ * Applications using ncurses
+ * Development activities
+ * Related resources
+ * Other resources
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff