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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.120 2007/11/17 22:05:11 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 Linux or FreeBSD or NetBSD distribution integrator or packager,
43 please read and act on the section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR
46 If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
47 to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
49 If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
50 read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
52 If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
53 USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
55 If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
58 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
59 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
61 If you are using anything but (a) Linux, or (b) one of the 4.4BSD-based
62 i386 Unixes, go read the Portability section in the TO-DO file before you
69 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
71 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
73 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
75 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
77 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
80 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
81 ----------------------
83 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
84 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
87 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
88 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
89 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library, e.g.,
90 Linux, the various BSD systems and Cygwin. Use --prefix=/usr to replace
91 your default curses distribution.
93 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
95 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
96 reset, clear, tput, toe
97 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
98 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
99 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
100 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
102 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
103 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
106 Do not use commands such as
108 make install prefix=XXX
110 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
111 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
113 make install DESTDIR=XXX
115 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
117 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
118 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
119 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
120 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
122 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
123 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
124 file for your system.
126 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
127 models and their associated libraries:
129 libncurses.a (normal)
131 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
132 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
134 libncurses.so (shared)
136 libncurses_g.a (debug)
138 libncurses_p.a (profile)
140 libncurses.la (libtool)
142 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
143 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
144 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
145 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
146 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
147 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
148 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
149 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
150 Linux using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
152 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
153 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
155 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
159 ./configure --with-shared
161 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
163 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
165 If you want only shared libraries, type
167 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
169 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
170 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on Linux
171 and SunOS with gcc, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
172 work on other systems.
174 If you have libtool installed, you can type
176 ./configure --with-libtool
178 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
179 platform using libtool.
181 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
182 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
183 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
184 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
185 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
187 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
188 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
189 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
190 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
191 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
193 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
194 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
195 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
198 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
199 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
200 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
201 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include
202 DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
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 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
210 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
212 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
213 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
214 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
216 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
217 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
218 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
219 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
221 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
222 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
223 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
224 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
225 be installed before the terminfo data can be
227 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
229 ############################################################################
230 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
231 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
232 # before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for #
233 # this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. #
234 ############################################################################
236 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
237 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
238 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
239 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
240 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
242 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
243 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
244 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
245 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
246 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
248 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
249 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
250 undefined symbols at link time.
252 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
253 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
254 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
255 so you can use ncurses applications.
257 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
258 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
259 wide terminfo tree instead.
261 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
263 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
264 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
265 compile and run the demo.
267 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
270 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
271 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
272 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
273 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
276 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
277 ----------------------------
279 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
283 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
284 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
286 --enable and --with options recognized:
288 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
291 --disable-assumed-color
292 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
293 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
294 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
295 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
296 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
297 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
298 convention, using this configure option.
301 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
302 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
303 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
304 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
305 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
307 --disable-big-strings
308 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
309 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
313 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
314 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
315 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
316 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
317 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus
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.
339 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
340 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
342 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
343 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
344 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
345 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
346 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build
347 a debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
348 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
349 the remainder on exit. The ncurses utility and test programs use this
350 feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
353 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
354 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
355 compatibility with older releases).
357 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
358 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
359 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
362 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
363 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
364 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
367 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
368 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
369 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
370 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
371 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
372 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
373 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
374 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
377 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
378 rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
379 copy whatever the linked produced.
381 This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
383 --disable-root-environ
384 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
385 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
386 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
387 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
389 --disable-scroll-hints
390 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
391 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
393 --disable-tparm-varargs
394 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
395 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
396 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
399 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
400 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
402 --enable-broken_linker
403 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
404 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
405 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
406 changes several data references to functions to work around this
409 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
410 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
411 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
412 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
416 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
417 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
420 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
421 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
422 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
423 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
426 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
427 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
428 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
429 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
430 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
431 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
432 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
433 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
434 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
435 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
436 in the interface, but at a lower level.
438 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
439 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
440 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
441 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
445 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
446 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
447 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
448 to see the options that are used).
451 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
452 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
455 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
456 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
459 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
460 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
461 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
464 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
465 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
466 similar X terminal emulators.
468 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
469 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
470 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
473 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
474 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
475 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
478 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
479 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
480 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
483 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
485 --enable-getcap-cache
486 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
488 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
489 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
490 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
491 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
492 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
493 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
496 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
497 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
498 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
502 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
503 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
504 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
505 checks the current filesystem.
508 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
509 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
510 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
514 Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
515 library by reducing global and static variables.
518 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
519 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
520 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
523 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
524 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
525 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
526 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
527 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
528 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
530 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
531 extra assumptions about rpath.
533 --enable-safe-sprintf
534 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
535 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
536 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
539 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
540 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
541 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
542 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
546 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
547 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
548 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
549 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
550 alteration without patching the source code.
553 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
554 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
558 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
559 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
560 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
561 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
564 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
565 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
566 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
569 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
571 --enable-wgetch-events
572 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
575 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
576 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
579 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
580 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
581 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
583 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
584 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
585 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
586 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
587 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
590 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
592 --with-abi-version=NUM
593 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
594 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
595 special requirements for compatibility.
597 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
598 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
600 --with-ada-include=DIR
601 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
602 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
604 --with-ada-objects=DIR
605 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
608 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
609 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
610 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
614 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
615 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
616 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
617 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
619 --with-build-cflags=XXX
620 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
621 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
624 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
625 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
626 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
629 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
630 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
631 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
634 --with-build-libs=XXX
635 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
636 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
639 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
640 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
641 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
642 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
643 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
644 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
648 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
649 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
650 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
651 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
655 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
656 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
657 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
661 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
662 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
665 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
666 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
668 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
669 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
670 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
673 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
674 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
677 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
678 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
681 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
682 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
685 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
686 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
687 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
688 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
691 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
693 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
695 See also --without-dlsym
698 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
699 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
702 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
703 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
704 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
705 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
706 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
707 or hashed database respectively.
709 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
710 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
712 See also the --enable-getcap option.
714 --with-install-prefix=XXX
715 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
716 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
717 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
718 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
720 make install DESTDIR=XXX
721 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
723 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
724 option probably will not work for those configurations.
727 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
728 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
729 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
730 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
731 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
732 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
734 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
735 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
736 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
738 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
739 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
740 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
741 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
742 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
744 --with-manpage-aliases
745 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
746 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
747 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
748 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
749 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
750 rather than symbolic links.
752 --with-manpage-format=XXX
753 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
754 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
755 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
756 attempts to determine which is the case.
758 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
759 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
760 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is
761 the Linux Debian. The option value specifies the name of a file
762 that lists the renamed files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
764 --with-manpage-symlinks
765 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
766 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
767 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
768 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
769 copying the man-page for each alias.
772 Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
773 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
777 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
778 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
779 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
780 with 64-bit executables.
783 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
784 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
785 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
786 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
787 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
788 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
789 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
790 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
791 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
792 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
793 (or system, in general) may or may not.
796 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
798 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
799 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
800 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
804 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
808 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
810 --with-rel-version=NUM
811 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
812 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
813 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
814 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
817 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
818 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
819 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
821 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
822 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
825 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
826 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
827 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
828 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
829 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
830 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries. In that
831 case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it sets
832 $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
833 ./misc/shlib make install
835 --with-shlib-version=XXX
836 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
837 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
838 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
841 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
843 --with-system-type=XXX
844 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
845 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
846 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
847 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
850 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
851 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
852 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
855 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
856 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
857 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
858 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
860 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
861 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
862 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
863 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
864 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
868 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
869 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
872 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
873 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
874 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
876 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
877 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
878 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
881 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
882 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
885 For testing, compile with debug option.
886 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
889 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
890 Ada95 binding and related demo.
893 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
894 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
898 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
899 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
900 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
901 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
902 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
903 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
904 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
906 --without-cxx-binding
907 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
908 C++ binding and related demo.
911 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
912 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
915 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
918 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
919 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
920 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
923 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
924 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
925 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
928 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
929 --------------------------------------------
931 Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
932 is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
933 Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
934 between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
935 Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
936 addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
937 the X/Open documentation.
939 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
940 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
943 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
946 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
948 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
951 and (for libncursesw)
959 Added internal functions:
973 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
988 Removed internal functions:
991 Modified internal functions:
998 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1001 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1002 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1004 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1005 still use ncurses 4.2).
1007 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1008 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1009 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1012 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1013 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1014 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1015 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1016 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1019 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1020 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1021 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1022 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1024 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1025 wide-character configuration.
1027 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1030 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1032 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1033 multicolumn characters.
1035 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1036 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1038 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1039 corresponds to the default-color.
1041 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1042 to an unsigned char.
1045 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1046 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1049 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1050 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1051 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1052 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1054 Added internal functions:
1058 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1059 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1062 Removed internal functions:
1065 Modified internal functions:
1070 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1073 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1074 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1075 --enable-widec option.
1079 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1082 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1084 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1085 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1087 + change some interfaces to use const:
1099 Added internal functions:
1102 _nc_is_charable() wide
1103 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1106 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1108 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1109 _nc_unicode_locale()
1111 Removed internal functions:
1115 Modified internal functions:
1117 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1119 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1122 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1123 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1125 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1126 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1127 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1131 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1132 assume_default_colors() extension.
1138 Added internal functions:
1139 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1141 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1142 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1144 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1149 Removed internal functions:
1152 Modified internal functions:
1155 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1158 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1159 --with-ospeed configure option).
1164 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1165 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1166 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1168 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1171 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1174 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1176 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1179 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1181 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1183 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1186 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1187 parameter according to XSI.
1189 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1190 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1191 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1192 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1195 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1197 Terminfo database changes:
1199 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1200 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1202 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1204 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1205 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1206 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1207 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1210 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1211 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1212 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1213 is a bug in the older versions:
1215 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1216 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1217 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1218 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1221 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1222 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1223 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1224 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1225 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1227 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1228 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1229 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1230 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1232 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1233 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1235 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1236 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1237 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1238 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1239 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1240 initialize that terminal type.
1242 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1243 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1244 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1246 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1247 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1248 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1249 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1250 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1252 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1253 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1254 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1255 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1256 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1257 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1258 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1259 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1264 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1266 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1267 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1269 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1272 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1274 Terminfo database changes:
1276 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1281 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1282 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1283 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1285 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1286 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1287 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1288 colors in the latter.
1290 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1292 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released dynamic loader
1293 (ld.so.1.8.5) on Linux did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1294 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1295 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1297 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1299 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1302 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1303 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1304 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1306 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1307 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1308 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1309 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1312 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1313 available only as macros.
1315 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1317 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1318 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1320 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1323 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1324 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1326 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1328 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1330 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1333 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1335 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1336 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1337 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1338 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1339 specification was available only in draft form.
1341 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1342 incorrect color scheme.
1345 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1346 ------------------------------
1348 Configuration and Installation:
1350 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1351 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default:
1353 Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin
1355 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1356 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1358 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1359 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1360 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1361 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1364 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1365 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1366 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1367 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1368 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1369 you recompile and relink them!).
1371 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1372 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1373 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1374 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1375 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1377 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1378 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1379 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1380 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1384 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1385 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1386 mappings that will set this up:
1388 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1389 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1390 shift keycode 15 = F26
1391 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1393 Naming the Console Terminal
1395 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1396 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1397 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1398 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1399 be called `console'.
1401 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1402 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1403 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1404 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1405 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1406 conventions for choosing type names.
1408 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1410 linux -- Linux console driver
1415 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1416 distribution, please either use the recommended name or get back
1417 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1418 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1421 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1422 ---------------------
1424 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1425 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1426 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1427 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1428 are unable to update your system.
1431 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1432 ----------------------------
1434 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1435 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1436 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1437 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1438 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed.
1440 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1441 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1442 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1443 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1444 entry is accessible.
1446 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1447 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1448 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1449 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. A configure script option
1450 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1451 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1453 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1454 would use the commands
1457 tinfo/MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
1459 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
1460 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
1462 tinfo/MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
1464 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
1465 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
1466 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
1467 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
1468 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
1469 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
1472 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
1473 --------------------
1475 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
1476 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
1477 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
1478 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
1479 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
1481 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
1482 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
1483 in the package README file.)
1485 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
1488 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1490 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
1491 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
1492 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
1493 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
1494 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
1496 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
1497 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
1498 through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
1499 slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
1502 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
1503 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
1504 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
1505 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
1506 faster) terminfo fetch.
1508 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
1509 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
1510 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
1511 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
1512 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
1514 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
1515 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
1516 compilation is expensive).
1518 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
1519 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
1521 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
1522 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
1523 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
1524 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
1527 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
1528 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
1529 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
1530 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
1532 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
1533 terminfo directory directly.
1535 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1537 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
1538 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
1539 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
1540 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
1542 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
1543 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose
1544 Mouse) which is used on Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
1545 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
1546 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
1547 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
1548 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
1549 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
1550 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
1552 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
1554 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
1556 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
1557 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
1559 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
1561 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
1562 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
1563 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
1564 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
1565 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
1566 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
1567 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
1569 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
1570 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
1571 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
1572 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
1574 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
1575 will be made if you use
1579 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
1580 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
1583 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
1584 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
1585 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
1586 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
1587 "make install.data" portion.
1590 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
1591 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
1592 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
1593 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
1595 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
1596 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.