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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.192 2015/08/15 20:11:48 tom Exp $
29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
30 How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
33 ************************************************************
34 * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
35 ************************************************************
37 You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
38 d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
39 including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
40 and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
42 If you are a distribution integrator or packager, please read and act on the
43 section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR below.
45 If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
46 to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
48 If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
49 read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
51 If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
52 USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
54 If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
57 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
58 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
64 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
66 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
68 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
70 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
72 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
75 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
76 ----------------------
78 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
79 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
82 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
83 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
84 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library (see
85 "IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR"). Use --prefix=/usr to replace your
86 default curses distribution.
88 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
90 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
91 reset, clear, tput, toe, tabs
92 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
93 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
94 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
95 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
97 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
98 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
101 Do not use commands such as
103 make install prefix=XXX
105 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
106 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
108 make install DESTDIR=XXX
110 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
112 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
113 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
114 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
115 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
117 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
118 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
119 file for your system.
121 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
122 models and their associated libraries:
124 libncurses.a (normal)
126 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
127 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
129 libncurses.so (shared)
131 libncurses_g.a (debug)
133 libncurses_p.a (profile)
135 libncurses.la (libtool)
137 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
138 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
139 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
140 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
141 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
142 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
143 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
144 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
145 various systems using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
147 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
148 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
150 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
151 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
153 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
157 ./configure --with-shared
159 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
161 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
163 If you want only shared libraries, type
165 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
167 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
168 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on
169 several systems, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
170 work on other systems.
172 If you have libtool installed, you can type
174 ./configure --with-libtool
176 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
177 platform using libtool.
179 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
180 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
181 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
182 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
183 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
185 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
186 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
187 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
188 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
189 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
191 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
192 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
193 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
196 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
197 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
198 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
199 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.
201 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
202 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
204 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
205 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
206 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
207 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
209 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
210 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
211 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
213 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
214 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
215 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
216 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
218 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
219 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
220 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
221 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
222 be installed before the terminfo data can be
224 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
226 ############################################################################
227 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
228 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
229 # before you install ncurses. #
230 ############################################################################
232 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
233 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
234 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
235 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
236 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
238 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
239 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
240 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
241 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
242 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
244 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
245 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
246 undefined symbols at link time.
248 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
249 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
250 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
251 so you can use ncurses applications.
253 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
254 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
255 wide terminfo tree instead.
257 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
259 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
260 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
261 compile and run the demo.
263 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
266 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
267 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
268 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
269 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
272 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
273 ----------------------------
275 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
279 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
280 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
282 --enable and --with options recognized:
284 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
287 --disable-assumed-color
288 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
289 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
290 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
291 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
292 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
293 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
294 convention, using this configure option.
297 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
298 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
299 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
300 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
301 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
303 --disable-big-strings
304 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
305 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
309 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
310 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
311 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
312 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
313 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus
317 Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features
318 for packages, as done with --without-progs.
321 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
322 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
323 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
326 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
329 --disable-home-terminfo
330 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
331 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
332 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
333 option to disable the feature altogether.
336 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
338 --disable-lib-suffixes
339 Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added
340 to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options.
342 --disable-libtool-version
343 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
344 are used for constructing the library name.
346 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
347 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
348 build using --with-shared.
350 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
351 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
353 Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure
354 script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used
358 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
359 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
361 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
362 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
363 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
364 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
365 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build a
366 debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
367 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
368 the remainder and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs
369 use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
371 Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not
372 normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet
373 unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the
374 library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_"
378 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
379 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
380 compatibility with older releases).
382 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
383 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
384 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
387 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
388 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
389 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
392 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
393 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
394 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
395 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
396 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
397 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
398 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
399 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
401 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
402 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
403 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
404 header would be included using
406 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
407 #include <ncurses/term.h>
409 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
411 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
412 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
414 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
415 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
416 curses header files from the same directory.
418 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
419 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
420 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
421 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
424 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
425 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
426 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
427 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
428 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
429 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
430 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
433 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
434 rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
435 copy whatever the linked produced.
437 This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
439 --disable-root-environ
440 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
441 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
442 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
443 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
446 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
447 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
448 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
449 to suppress the feature.
451 --disable-scroll-hints
452 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
453 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
455 --disable-tic-depends
456 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
457 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
458 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
459 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
460 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
461 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
462 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
463 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
464 configure option to do that.
466 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
468 --disable-tparm-varargs
469 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
470 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
471 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
474 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
475 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
477 --enable-broken_linker
478 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
479 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
480 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
481 changes several data references to functions to work around this
484 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
485 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
486 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
487 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
491 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
492 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
495 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
496 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
497 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
498 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
501 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
502 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
503 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
504 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
505 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
506 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
507 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
508 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
509 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
510 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
511 in the interface, but at a lower level.
513 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
514 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
515 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
516 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
520 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
521 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
522 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
523 to see the options that are used).
526 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
527 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
530 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
531 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
534 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
535 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
536 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
539 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
540 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
541 similar X terminal emulators.
543 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
544 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
545 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
548 Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather
549 than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by
550 differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can
551 still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of
552 ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by
553 calling applications).
556 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
557 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
558 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
561 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
562 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
563 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
566 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
568 --enable-getcap-cache
569 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
571 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
572 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
573 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
574 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
575 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
576 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
579 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
580 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
581 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
585 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
586 for the form-library.
589 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
590 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
591 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
592 checks the current filesystem.
595 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
596 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
597 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
601 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
602 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
605 --enable-pthreads-eintr
606 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
607 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
610 Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
611 library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also
612 set if --with-pthread is used.
614 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
615 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
618 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
619 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
620 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
623 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
624 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
625 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
626 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
627 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
628 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
630 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
631 extra assumptions about rpath.
633 --enable-safe-sprintf
634 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
635 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
636 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
639 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
640 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
641 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
642 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
646 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
647 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
648 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
649 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
650 alteration without patching the source code.
653 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
654 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
657 --enable-string-hacks
658 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
659 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
660 is weakly standardized.
662 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
666 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
667 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
671 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
672 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
673 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
674 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
677 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
678 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
679 library with different terminal drivers.
682 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
683 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
684 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
686 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
687 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
688 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
689 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
693 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
695 --enable-weak-symbols
696 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
697 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
698 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
699 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
700 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
702 --enable-wgetch-events
703 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
706 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
707 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
710 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
711 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
712 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
714 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
715 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
716 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
717 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
718 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
721 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
723 --with-abi-version=NUM
724 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
725 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
726 special requirements for compatibility.
728 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
729 release major/minor numbers.
731 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
732 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
734 --with-ada-include=DIR
735 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
736 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
738 --with-ada-objects=DIR
739 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
742 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
744 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
745 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
746 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
749 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
750 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
751 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
755 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
756 but is not directly used by ncurses.
759 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
760 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
761 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
762 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
764 --with-build-cflags=XXX
765 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
766 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
769 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
772 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
773 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
774 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
777 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
780 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
781 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
782 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
785 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
788 --with-build-libs=XXX
789 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
790 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
792 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
796 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
797 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
798 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
799 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
800 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
801 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
804 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
805 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
806 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
809 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
810 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
811 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
812 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
813 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
814 script supplies "unsigned").
817 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
818 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
819 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
820 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
823 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
824 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
825 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
829 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
830 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
833 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
834 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
836 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
837 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
838 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
841 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
842 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
844 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
845 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
846 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
847 symbols which are part of the ABI.
849 --with-extra-suffix[=XXX]
850 Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify
851 installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a
852 different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the
853 include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given.
856 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
857 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
860 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
861 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
864 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
865 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
866 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
867 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
870 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
872 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
874 See also --without-dlsym
876 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
877 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
878 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
881 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
882 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
883 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
884 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
885 "--enable-compat185".
887 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
888 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
889 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
890 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
891 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
892 or hashed database respectively.
894 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
895 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
897 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
899 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
900 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
901 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
904 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
905 /usr/include/db4/db.h
906 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
908 See also the --enable-getcap option.
910 --with-install-prefix=XXX
911 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
912 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
913 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
914 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
916 make install DESTDIR=XXX
917 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
919 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
920 option probably will not work for those configurations.
922 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
923 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
924 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
925 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
926 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
927 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
928 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
929 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
930 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
933 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
934 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
935 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
936 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
937 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
938 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
940 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
941 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
942 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
944 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
945 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
946 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
947 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
948 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
950 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
951 Specify additional libtool options.
953 --with-manpage-aliases
954 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
955 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
956 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
957 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
958 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
959 rather than symbolic links.
961 --with-manpage-format=XXX
962 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
963 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
964 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
965 attempts to determine which is the case.
967 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
968 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
969 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
970 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
971 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
973 --with-manpage-symlinks
974 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
975 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
976 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
977 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
978 copying the man-page for each alias.
981 Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
982 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
986 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
987 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
988 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
989 with 64-bit executables.
992 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
994 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
995 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
996 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
1000 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
1001 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
1002 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
1003 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
1004 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
1005 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
1006 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
1007 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
1008 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
1009 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
1010 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1012 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
1013 If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the files
1014 and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations.
1015 If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added.
1017 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
1018 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
1020 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
1021 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1025 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1026 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1029 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1030 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1031 for multithreaded applications.
1034 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1036 --with-rel-version=NUM
1037 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1038 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1039 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1040 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1043 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1044 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1045 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1047 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1048 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1051 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1052 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1053 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1054 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1055 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1056 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1058 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1059 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1061 ./misc/shlib make install
1063 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1064 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1065 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1066 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1067 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1068 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1069 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1070 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1071 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1073 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1074 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1075 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1077 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1078 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1079 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1080 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1083 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1085 --with-system-type=XXX
1086 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1087 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1088 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1089 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1092 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1093 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1094 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1096 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1097 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1098 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1099 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1100 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1102 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1103 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1104 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1105 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1106 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1110 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1111 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1114 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1115 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1116 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1118 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1119 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1120 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1122 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1123 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1124 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1125 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1128 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1129 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1130 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1131 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1132 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1133 tparm's interface was defined.
1135 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1138 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1139 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1141 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1142 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1143 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1144 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1146 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1148 The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map"
1149 file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1151 a) comments are not accepted
1152 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1153 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1155 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1156 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1157 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1158 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1159 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1161 The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files are generated using a set of
1162 scripts which build several configurations for each release version,
1163 checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. In
1164 addition to the ncurses libraries and programs, the symbols used
1165 by the "tack" program are made global.
1167 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1168 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1169 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1172 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1173 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1174 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1177 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1178 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1181 For testing, compile with debug option.
1182 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1184 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1185 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1186 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1187 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1188 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1189 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1190 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1191 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1192 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1193 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1196 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1197 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1200 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1201 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1204 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1207 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1208 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1209 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1210 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1211 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1212 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1213 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1215 --without-cxx-binding
1216 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1217 C++ binding and related demo.
1220 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1221 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1224 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1227 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1230 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1231 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1232 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1235 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1239 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1240 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1241 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1244 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1245 --------------------------------------------
1247 Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
1248 That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
1249 documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
1250 or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
1251 We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
1252 the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
1255 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1256 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1262 + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
1270 --with-chtype=uint32_t
1271 --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
1272 --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
1274 + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
1275 half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
1277 + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
1278 when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
1282 + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
1284 + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
1286 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1293 Removed internal functions:
1296 Modified internal functions:
1297 _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
1298 _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
1299 _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
1300 _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
1306 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1307 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1308 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1311 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1312 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1313 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1314 functionally identical with the originals.
1316 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1317 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1320 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1321 are no related interface changes.
1323 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1325 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1329 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1330 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1332 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1341 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1347 Removed internal functions:
1348 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1350 Modified internal functions:
1357 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1360 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1363 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1364 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1365 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1366 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1368 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1369 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1371 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1372 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1374 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1375 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1376 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1377 several internal functions.
1379 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1380 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1381 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1382 API, there is no ABI change.
1384 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1385 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1386 of the internal functions.
1390 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1391 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1392 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1393 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1394 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1395 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1397 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1398 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1399 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1400 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1402 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1403 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1406 Added internal functions:
1417 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1418 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1419 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1424 Removed internal functions:
1427 Modified internal functions:
1433 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1435 _nc_update_screensize
1437 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1445 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1448 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1450 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1453 and (for libncursesw)
1461 Added internal functions:
1475 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1490 Removed internal functions:
1493 Modified internal functions:
1500 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1503 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1504 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1506 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1507 still use ncurses 4.2).
1509 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1510 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1511 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1514 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1515 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1516 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1517 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1518 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1521 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1522 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1523 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1524 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1526 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1527 wide-character configuration.
1529 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1532 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1534 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1535 multicolumn characters.
1537 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1538 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1540 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1541 corresponds to the default-color.
1543 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1544 to an unsigned char.
1547 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1548 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1551 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1552 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1553 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1554 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1556 Added internal functions:
1560 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1561 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1564 Removed internal functions:
1567 Modified internal functions:
1572 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1575 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1576 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1577 --enable-widec option.
1581 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1584 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1586 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1587 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1589 + change some interfaces to use const:
1601 Added internal functions:
1604 _nc_is_charable() wide
1605 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1608 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1610 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1611 _nc_unicode_locale()
1613 Removed internal functions:
1617 Modified internal functions:
1619 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1621 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1624 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1625 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1627 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1628 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1629 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1633 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1634 assume_default_colors() extension.
1640 Added internal functions:
1641 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1643 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1644 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1646 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1651 Removed internal functions:
1654 Modified internal functions:
1657 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1660 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1661 --with-ospeed configure option).
1666 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1667 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1668 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1670 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1673 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1676 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1678 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1681 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1683 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1685 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1688 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1689 parameter according to XSI.
1691 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1692 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1693 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1694 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1697 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1699 Terminfo database changes:
1701 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1702 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1704 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1706 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1707 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1708 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1709 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1712 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1713 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1714 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1715 is a bug in the older versions:
1717 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1718 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1719 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1720 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1723 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1724 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1725 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1726 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1727 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1729 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1730 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1731 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1732 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1734 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1735 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1737 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1738 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1739 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1740 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1741 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1742 initialize that terminal type.
1744 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1745 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1746 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1748 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1749 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1750 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1751 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1752 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1754 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1755 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1756 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1757 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1758 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1759 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1760 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1761 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1766 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1768 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1769 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1771 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1774 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1776 Terminfo database changes:
1778 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1783 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1784 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1785 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1787 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1788 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1789 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1790 colors in the latter.
1792 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1794 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
1795 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1796 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1797 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1799 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1801 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1804 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1805 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1806 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1808 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1809 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1810 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1811 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1814 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1815 available only as macros.
1817 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1819 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1820 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1822 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1825 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1826 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1828 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1830 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1832 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1835 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1837 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1838 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1839 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1840 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1841 specification was available only in draft form.
1843 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1844 incorrect color scheme.
1847 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1848 ------------------------------
1850 Configuration and Installation:
1852 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1853 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
1854 that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
1856 FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
1858 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1859 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1861 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1862 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1863 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1864 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1867 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1868 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1869 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1870 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1871 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1872 you recompile and relink them!).
1874 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1875 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1876 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1877 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1878 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1880 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1881 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1882 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1883 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1887 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1888 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1889 mappings that will set this up:
1891 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1892 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1893 shift keycode 15 = F26
1894 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1896 Naming the Console Terminal
1898 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1899 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1900 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1901 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1902 be called `console'.
1904 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1905 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1906 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1907 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1908 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1909 conventions for choosing type names.
1911 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1913 linux -- Linux console driver
1918 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1919 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
1920 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1921 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1924 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1925 ---------------------
1927 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1928 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1929 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1930 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1931 are unable to update your system.
1934 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1935 ----------------------------
1937 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1938 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1939 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1940 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1941 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
1942 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
1944 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1945 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1946 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1947 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1948 entry is accessible.
1950 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1951 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1952 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1953 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
1954 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1955 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1957 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1958 might use the commands
1961 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1963 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1965 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
1967 The first three parameters of the script are normally supplied by
1968 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
1971 1) the location of the terminfo database
1972 2) the source for the terminfo entries
1973 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
1976 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
1977 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
1979 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1981 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1985 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
1986 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
1987 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
1988 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
1989 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
1990 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
1993 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
1994 --------------------
1996 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
1997 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
1998 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
1999 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
2000 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
2002 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
2003 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
2004 in the package README file.)
2006 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
2009 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2011 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
2012 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
2013 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
2014 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
2015 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
2017 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
2018 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
2019 through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
2020 down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
2022 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
2023 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
2024 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
2025 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
2026 faster) terminfo fetch.
2028 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
2029 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
2030 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
2031 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
2032 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
2034 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
2035 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
2036 compilation is expensive).
2038 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
2039 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
2041 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
2042 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
2043 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
2044 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
2047 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
2048 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
2049 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
2050 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
2052 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
2053 terminfo directory directly.
2055 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2057 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
2058 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
2059 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
2060 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
2062 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
2063 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2064 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
2065 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2066 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2067 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2068 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2069 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2070 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2072 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2074 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2076 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2077 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2079 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
2081 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
2082 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2083 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2084 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2085 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2086 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2087 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2089 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2090 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2091 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2092 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2094 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2095 will be made if you use
2099 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2100 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2103 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2104 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2105 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2106 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
2107 "make install.data" portion.
2109 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2110 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
2111 be from the most current version of ncurses.
2114 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2115 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2116 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2117 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2119 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2120 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.