ncurses 5.3

[ncurses.git] / INSTALL

-- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.56 2002/09/01 22:42:11 tom Exp $
---------------------------------------------------------------------
             How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
---------------------------------------------------------------------

    ************************************************************
    * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
    ************************************************************

You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
d.d is the current version number.  There should be several subdirectories,
including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
and `test'.  See the README file for a roadmap to the package.

If you are a Linux or FreeBSD or NetBSD distribution integrator or packager,
please read and act on the section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR
below.

If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.

If you are using a version of XFree86 xterm older than 3.1.2F, see the section
on RECENT XTERM VERSIONS below.

If you are trying to build GNU Emacs using ncurses for terminal support,
read the USING NCURSES WITH EMACS section below.

If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.

If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
USING NCURSES WITH AFS.

If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
CROSS-COMPILER.

If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
follow the instructions there.  The Ada95 binding is not covered below.

If you are using anything but (a) Linux, or (b) one of the 4.4BSD-based
i386 Unixes, go read the Portability section in the TO-DO file before you
do anything else.


REQUIREMENTS:
------------

You will need the following in order to build and install ncurses under UNIX:

        * ANSI C compiler  (gcc, for instance)
        * sh               (bash will do)
        * awk              (mawk or gawk will do)
        * sed
        * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)

Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.


INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
----------------------

1.  First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
    which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
    with it.

    The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
    ncurses.  The default is in subdirectories of /usr/local.  Use
    --prefix=/usr to replace your default curses distribution.  This is the
    default for Linux and BSD/OS users.

    The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:

    In $(prefix)/bin:          tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
                                reset, clear, tput, toe
    In $(prefix)/lib:          libncurses*.* libcurses.a
    In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
    In $(prefix)/include:      C header files
    Under $(prefix)/man:       the manual pages

    Note however that the configure script attempts to locate previous
    installation of ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where
    it finds the ncurses headers.

2.  Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
    configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
    Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
    the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.

    If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
    the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
    file for your system.

    The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
    models and their associated libraries:

        libncurses.a (normal)

        libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
                This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.

        libncurses.so (shared)

        libncurses_g.a (debug)

        libncurses_p.a (profile)

        libncurses.la (libtool)

    If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
    library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
    wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale.  The corresponding header files
    are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
    features are provided by ifdef's in the header files.  The wide-character
    library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
    version.  Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
    recent implementation of libiconv.  We have built this configuration on
    Linux using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.

    If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
    configured.  Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:

        ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite

    Typing

        ./configure --with-shared

    makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in

        ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite

    If you want only shared libraries, type

        ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug

    Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
    of host system and compiler.  We've been testing shared libraries on Linux
    and SunOS with gcc, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
    work on other systems.

    If you have libtool installed, you can type

        ./configure --with-libtool

    to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
    platform using libtool.

    You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
    definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap.  If you do this, the
    library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
    also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable.  See the
    section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.

3.  Type `make'.  Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
    This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
    captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
    programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
    programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.

4.  Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
    verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
    may overwrite system files.  Read the file test/README for details on
    the test programs.

    NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
    environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
    database before running the test programs.  Not all vendors' terminfo
    databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.  Exceptions include
    DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).

    It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
    A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).

    The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
    You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
    cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.

5.  Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
    the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages.  Alternately, you
    can type `make install' in each directory you want to install.  In the
    top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:

        'make install.progs'    installs tic, infocmp, etc...
        'make install.includes' installs the headers.
        'make install.libs'     installs the libraries (and the headers).
        'make install.data'     installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
                                be installed before the terminfo data can be
                                compiled).
        'make install.man'      installs the manual pages.

  ############################################################################
  #     CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing     #
  #  terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them  #
  #  before you install ncurses.  I have a file called terminfo.custom for   #
  #  this purpose.  Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done.    #
  ############################################################################

    The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
    being formatted by nroff(1).  Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
    this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
    to be sure.  You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
    with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.

    If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
    you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses.  See the discussion of
    --disable-overwrite.  If ncurses is installed outside the standard
    directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
    use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.

    If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
    compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
    undefined symbols at link time.

    IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
    and run the `capconvert' script.  This script will deduce various things
    about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
    so you can use ncurses applications.

    If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
    trees is wasted.  Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
    wide terminfo tree instead.

    See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.

6.  The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
    panels.  You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
    compile and run the demo.

    Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
    and demo.

    If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
    the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
    which may be supported by C++.  IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
    YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.


SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
----------------------------

    The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type

        ./configure --help

    The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
    generated with autoconf.  Those are all listed before the line

        --enable and --with options recognized:

    The other options are specific to this package.  We list them in alphabetic
    order.

    --disable-assumed-color
        With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
        which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
        background color are assumed to be.  Most color applications use
        full-screen color; but a few do not color the background.  While the
        assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
        you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
        convention, using this configure option.

    --disable-big-core
        Assume machine has little memory.  The configure script attempts to
        determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
        terminfo database without writing portions to disk.  Some allocators
        return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
        script.  Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.

    --disable-database
        Use only built-in data.  The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
        and termcap data from disk.  You can configure ncurses to have a
        built-in database, aka "fallback" entries.  Embedded applications may
        have no need for an external database.  Some, but not all of the
        programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus
        infocmp and tic.

    --disable-ext-funcs
        Disable function-extensions.  Configure ncurses without the functions
        that are not specified by XSI.  See ncurses/modules for the exact
        list of library modules that would be suppressed.

    --disable-hashmap
        Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code.  This algorithm is
        the default.

    --disable-leaks
        For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
        be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.

    --disable-macros
        For testing, use functions rather than macros.  The program will run
        more slowly, but it is simpler to debug.  This makes a header file
        "nomacros.h".  See also the --enable-expanded option.

    --disable-overwrite
        If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
        development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
        for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
        -lcurses.  The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
        Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
        installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
        rather than the include directory.  This makes it simpler to avoid
        compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h

    --disable-root-environ
        Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
        are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
        application.  These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
        search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.

    --disable-scroll-hints
        Compile without scroll-hints code.  This option is ignored when
        hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.

    --enable-add-ons=DIR...
        This is used to check if this package is a glibc add-on.  This is used
        only by the glibc makefiles.

    --enable-assertions
        For testing, compile-in assertion code.  This is used only for a few
        places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.

    --enable-broken_linker
        A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker:  it cannot link
        objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
        files, but requires a function reference.  This configure option
        changes several data references to functions to work around this
        problem.

        NOTE:  With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
        told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
        different type of reference which behaves as described above.  We have
        explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
        problem.

    --enable-bsdpad
        Recognize BSD-style prefix padding.  Some ancient BSD programs (such as
        nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.

    --enable-colorfgbg
        Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code.  That environment variable
        is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
        advertising the default foreground and background colors.  During
        initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.

    --enable-const
        The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
        including features that precede ANSI C.  The prototypes generally do
        not make effective use of "const".  When using stricter compilers (or
        gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
        between const and non-const data.  We provide a configure option which
        changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
        reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely.  The ncurses
        library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
        and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
        warning.  There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
        in the interface, but at a lower level.

        NOTE:  configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
        portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
        places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them.  Similar
        issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
        fewer places.

    --enable-echo
        Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
        suppressing the display of the compile and link commands.  This makes
        it easier to see the compiler warnings.  (You can always use "make -n"
        to see the options that are used).

    --enable-expanded
        For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
        as such to the debugger.  See also the --disable-macros option.

    --enable-getcap
        Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
        fetch termcap entries.  Entries read in this way cannot use (make
        cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
        /etc/termcap.

    --enable-getcap-cache
        Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo

        NOTE:  this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time. 
        But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
        entries that are not up to date.  If you configure with this option and
        forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
        application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
        generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.

    --enable-hard-tabs
        Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs.  We would make
        this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
        may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
        of tabs.

    --enable-no-padding
        Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
        which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
        terminfo entries.  This is the default, unless you have disabled the
        extended functions.

    --enable-rpath
        Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and with some
        restrictions when linking the corresponding programs.  This applies
        mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the manpage).

    --enable-safe-sprintf
        Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code.  You may consider using
        this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
        vsnprintf() or vsprintf().  It is slow, however.

    --enable-sigwinch
        Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler.  If your application has
        its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own.  The ncurses
        handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
        changes.  This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
        extended functions.

    --enable-symlinks
        If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
        rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
        terminfo database.

    --enable-tcap-names
        Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities.  Use the
        -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
        capabilities as user-defined strings.  This option is the default,
        unless you have disabled the extended functions.

    --enable-termcap
        Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
        match is found in the terminfo database.  See also the --enable-getcap
        and --enable-getcap-cache options.

    --enable-warnings
        Turn on GCC compiler warnings.  There should be only a few.

    --enable-widec
        Compile with experimental wide-character code.  This makes a different
        version of the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores
        characters as wide-characters,

        NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
        with those built for 8-bit characters.  You cannot simply make a
        symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so

        NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
        ncurses library, but you must decide which:  the binding installs the
        same set of files for either version.  Currently (2002/6/22) it does
        not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
        probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.

    --enable-xmc-glitch
        Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.

    --with-ada-compiler=CMD
        Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")

    --with-ada-include=DIR
        Tell where to install the Ada includes (default: 
        PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)

    --with-ada-objects=DIR
        Tell where to install the Ada objects (default:  PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)

    --with-bool=TYPE
        If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
        declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
        correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
        sizes).

    --with-build-cc=XXX
        If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
        compile a few utilties which generate source modules for ncurses.
        If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
        $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.

    --with-build-cflags=XXX
        If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags.  You might need
        to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
        host compiler.

    --with-build-cppflags=XXX
        If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocesor-flags.  You might
        need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
        the host compiler.

    --with-build-ldflags=XXX
        If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags.  You might need to
        do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
        compiler.

    --with-build-libs=XXX
        If cross-compiling, the host libraries.  You might need to do this if
        the target environment requires unusual libraries.

    --with-caps=XXX
        Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
        configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX".  A few systems, e.g.,
        AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
        data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
        legacy applications.  For those systems, you can configure ncurses
        to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
        applications.

    --with-database=XXX
        Specify the terminfo source file to install.  Usually you will wish
        to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src).  Certain systems
        have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
        source file.

    --with-dbmalloc
        For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.

    --with-debug
        Generate debug-libraries (default).  These are named by adding "_g"
        to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a

    --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
        Specify the default terminfo database directory.  This is normally
        DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.

    --with-develop
        Enable experimental/development options.  This does not count those
        that change the interface, such as --enable-widec.

    --with-dmalloc
        For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.

    --with-fallbacks=XXX
        Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
        compiled into the ncurses library.  See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.

    --with-gpm
        use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
        Linux console.

    --with-install-prefix=XXX
        Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
        after building it.  The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
        install location.  This simplifies making binary packages.

        NOTE:  a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
        option probably will not work for those configurations.

     --with-libtool
        Generate libraries with libtool.  If this option is selected, then
        it overrides all other library model specifications.

    --with-manpage-format=XXX
        Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages.  The
        option value must be one of these:  gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
        formatted.  If you do not give this option, the configure script
        attempts to determine which is the case.

    --with-manpage-renames=XXX
        Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
        installing.  Currently the only distribution which does this is
        the Linux Debian.  The option value specifies the name of a file
        that lists the renamed files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames

    --with-manpage-symlinks
        Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
        man-directory for aliases to the man-pages.  This is the default, but
        can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically.  Doing
        this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
        copying the man-page for each alias.

    --with-manpage-tbl
        Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
        by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
        nroff.

    --with-ospeed=TYPE
        Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
        compatibility interface.  In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
        for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
        but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13. 
        However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
        38400bd.  A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
        compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
        cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason).  In practice,
        applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
        those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds.  Your application
        (or system, in general) may or may not.

    --with-normal
        Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).

    --with-profile
        Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
        e.g., libncurses_p.a

    --with-rcs-ids
        Compile-in RCS identifiers.  Most of the C files have an identifier.

    --with-shared
        Generate shared-libraries.  The names given depend on the system for
        which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
        symbolic links that refer to the release version.
        
        NOTE:  Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
        environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
        option.

    --with-shlib-version=XXX
        Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
        This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
        which you are building on.  We use it for testing the configure script.

    --with-system-type=XXX
        For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
        decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
        libraries.  This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
        system which you are building on.  We use it for testing the configure
        script.

    --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
        Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
        into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)

    --with-termlib
        When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts:  the
        curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
        (libtinfo).  This is done to accommodate applications that use only
        the latter.  The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.

    --with-termpath=XXX
        Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
        ncurses library (default:  /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)

    --without-ada
        Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
        Ada95 binding and related demo.

    --without-curses-h
        Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h".  Rather,
        install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
        accordingly.

    --without-cxx
        XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface.  C++ also declares
        "bool".  Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
        insist on the same name.  We chose to accommodate this by making the
        configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
        that your C++ compiler uses for booleans.  If you do not wish to use
        ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
        adjust ncurses bool to match C++.

    --without-cxx-binding
        Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
        C++ binding and related demo.

    --without-progs
        Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
        programs (e.g., tic).  The test applications will still be built if you
        type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".


COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
--------------------------------------------

    Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
    is fairly stable.  That does not mean the interface does not change.
    Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
    between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
    Solaris).  We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
    addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
    the X/Open documentation.

    Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
    you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
    ncurses:

    5.3 (pre-release)
        Interface changes:

        + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
          is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.

        + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
          These are only available if the library is configured using the
          --enable-widec option.  Missing functions are
                pecho_wchar()
                slk_wset()

        + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
          assume_default_colors() extension.

        Added extensions:
                is_term_resized()
                resize_term()
        Added internal functions:
                _nc_altcharset_name()   debug
                _nc_rootname()
                _nc_trace_ttymode()     debug
                _nc_varargs()           debug
                _nc_wgetch()
        Removed internal functions:
                _nc_background()
        Modified internal functions:
                _nc_freeall()           debug

    5.2 (October 21, 2000)
        Interface changes:

        + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
          --with-ospeed configure option).

    5.1 (July 8, 2000)
        Interface changes:

        + made the extended terminal capabilities
          (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature.  This should
          be transparent to applications that do not require it.

        + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
          production library.

        + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
          with C++ STL.

        Added extensions:  assume_default_colors().

    5.0 (October 23, 1999)
        Interface changes:

        + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.

        + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat

        + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
          attr_t.

        + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
          parameter according to XSI.

        + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
          Curses:  [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
          parameters.  Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
          erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr().  Some developers have used
          attr_get().

        Added extensions:  keybound(), curses_version().

        Terminfo database changes:

        + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
          the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.

        The problems are subtler in recent releases.

        a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
           terminal capability extensions, like termcap.  To accomplish this,
           we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h).  Very few
           applications use this struct.  They must be recompiled to work with
           the 5.0 library.

        a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
           --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
           entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses.  This
           is a bug in the older versions:

           + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
             arrays.  The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
             specified by X/Open.  ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
             extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
             entries.

           + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
             call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
             string array.  This happens when the number of strings in the
             terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
             specified and obsolete or extended strings.

           + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
             990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
             set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch).  This makes the indices for
             the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.

           + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
             and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.

             When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
             causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
             terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
             past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few.  The
             library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
             initialize that terminal type.

           FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description.  They are
           obsolete, not used by ncurses.  (It appears that the feature was
           added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).

           This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
           create a terminfo database with extended names.  Note that the
           user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
           since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
           and are invisible to the older libraries.

        c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
           configure --without-cxx option.  This causes problems if someone
           uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
           determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
           both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool.  Calling ncurses
           functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
           errors.  In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
           which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.

    4.2 (March 2, 1998)
        Interface changes:

        + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.

        + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
          term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.

        + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
          SVr4 headers.

        New extensions: keyok() and define_key().

        Terminfo database changes:

        + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
          rather than 'i'.

    4.1 (May 15, 1997)

        We added these extensions:  use_default_colors().  Also added
        configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
        X/Open should have, but did not, specify.

        The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
        most entries that use ANSI colors.  SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
        and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
        colors in the latter.

    4.0 (December 24, 1996)

        We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released dynamic loader
        (ld.so.1.8.5) on Linux did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
        versions were inconsistent.  At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
        REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.

    1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)

        This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
        changes:

        + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
          some termcap.  tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
          application's fallback for missing tparam().

        + turn off hardware echo in initscr().  This changes the sense of the
          echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
          nonechoing (the latter is specified).  There were several other
          corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
          behave differently.

        + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
          available only as macros.

        + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).

        + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
          has_color, immedok() and idcok().

        + corrected misspelled getbkgd().  Some applications used the
          misspelled name.

        + added _yoffset to WINDOW.  The size of WINDOW does not impact
          applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.

        These changes were made to the terminfo database:

        + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.

        We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
        mcprint().

    1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)

        not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
        menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
        Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
        only on a black background.  When this was released, the X/Open
        specification was available only in draft form.

        Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
        incorrect color scheme.


IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
------------------------------

    Beginning with 1.9.9, the ncurses distribution includes both a tset
    utility and /usr/share/tabset directory.  If you are installing ncurses,
    it is no longer either necessary or desirable to install tset-jv.

    Configuration and Installation:

        Configure with --prefix=/usr to make the install productions put
        libraries and headers in the correct locations (overwriting any
        previous curses libraries and headers).  This will put the terminfo
        hierarchy under /usr/share/terminfo; you may want to override this with
        --datadir=/usr/share/misc; terminfo and tabset are installed under the
        data directory.

        Please configure the ncurses library in a pure-terminfo mode; that
        is, with the --disable-termcap option.   This will make the ncurses
        library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
        emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications
        that use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win
        (providing you recompile and relink them!).

        If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also
        wish to use the --enable-getcap option.  This option speeds up
        termcap-based startups, at the expense of not allowing personal
        termcap entries to reference the terminfo tree.  See the code in
        ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for details.

        Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
        to locate termcap data.  In particular, running from xterm will
        set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
        If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.

    Keyboard Mapping:

        The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
        reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I.  Here are the loadkeys -d
        mappings that will set this up:

                keycode  15 = Tab             Tab
                        alt     keycode  15 = Meta_Tab
                        shift   keycode  15 = F26
                string F26 ="\033[Z"

    Naming the Console Terminal

        In various Linuxes (and possibly elsewhere) there has been a practice
        of designating the system console driver type as `console'.  Please
        do not do this any more!  It complicates peoples' lives, because it
        can mean that several different terminfo entries from different
        operating systems all logically want to be called `console'.

        Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
        in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent.  Send the entry to the
        terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
        in the terminfo file, if it's not already there.  See the
        term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
        conventions for choosing type names.

        Here are some recommended primary console names:

                linux   -- Linux console driver
                freebsd -- FreeBSD
                netbsd  -- NetBSD
                bsdos   -- BSD/OS

        If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
        distribution, please either use the recommended name or get back
        to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
        that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.


RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
---------------------

        The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
        are running an XFree86 xterm based on X11R6 (i.e., xterm-r6).  The
        earlier X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided as well.

        If you are running XFree86 version 3.2 (actually 3.1.2F and up), you
        should consider using the xterm-xf86-v32 (or later, the most recent
        version is always named "xterm-xfree86") entry, which adds ANSI color
        and the VT220 capabilities which have been added in XFree86.  If you
        are running a mixed network, however, where this terminal description
        may be used on an older xterm, you may have problems, since
        applications that assume these capabilities will produce incorrect
        output on the older xterm (e.g., highlighting is not cleared).


CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
----------------------------

        In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
        tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
        time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
        pre-fetched fallback entries.

        These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
        fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
        have been tried and failed.  Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
        shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
        entry is accessible.

        By default, there are no entries on the fallback list.  After you
        have built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change
        the list (the process needs infocmp(1)).  To do so, use the script
        MKfallback.sh.  A configure script option --with-fallbacks does this
        (it accepts a comma-separated list of the names you wish, and does
        not require a rebuild).

        If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
        would use the commands

                cd ncurses;
                MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c

        Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
        You can restore the default empty fallback list with

                MKfallback.sh >fallback.c

        The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
        Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
        text space.  You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
        the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
        fallbacks.  A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
        each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.


BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
--------------------

        If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
        want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option.  What this does
        is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
        capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
        There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").

        (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
        an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
        in the package README file.)

        The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
        --enable-termcap.

------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------

If you are installing this application privately (either because you
have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.

Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
through it, and the system termcap file.  However, in order to avoid
slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
terminal type!

The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo.  After
that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
faster) terminfo fetch.

Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them.  If anyone
ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.

The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
compilation is expensive).

If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
you can skip the rest of this dissertation.

If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
first time around.

Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
under $HOME/terminfo.  If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.

To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
terminfo directory directly.

------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------

USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
        AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
        can't hard-link across them.  The --enable-symlinks option copes
        with this by making tic use symbolic links.

USING NCURSES WITH EMACS:
        GNU Emacs has its own termcap support.  By default, it uses a mixture
        of those functions and code linked from the host system's libraries.
        You need to foil this and shut out the GNU termcap library entirely.

        In order to do this, hack the Linux config file (s/linux.h) to contain
        a #define TERMINFO and set the symbol LIBS_TERMCAP to "-lncurses".

        We have submitted such a change for the 19.30 release, so it may
        already be applied in your sources -- check for the #define TERMINFO.

USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
        Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
        which is used on Linux console.  Be aware that GPM is commonly
        installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
        wgetch() function (libcurses.o).  Some integrators have simplified
        linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so (the BSD
        curses) into the libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with
        ncurses (specifically the wgetch function).  You may be able to work
        around this problem by linking as follows:

                cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses

        but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
        A patched version of gpm is available:

                dickey.his.com:/ncurses/gpm-1.10-970125.tar.gz

        This patch is incorporated in gpm 1.12; however some integrators
        are slow to update this library.  Current distributions of gpm can
        be configured properly using the --without-curses option.

BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
        Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler.  Some parts must be built
        with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
        (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
        that are compiled into the ncurses library.  You should set the
        BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and run the
        configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.

        Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
        will be made if you use

                make sources

        This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
        support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
        Bourne-shell.

BUGS:
        Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
        bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
        bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
        subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>

        The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
        on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.