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29 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.229 2021/04/17 22:26:34 tom Exp $
30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
31 How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
32 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
34 ************************************************************
35 * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
36 ************************************************************
38 You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
39 d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
40 including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
41 and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
43 If you are a distribution integrator or packager, please read and act on the
44 section titled FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS below.
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 cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING WITH A CROSS-COMPILER.
54 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
55 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
61 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
63 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
65 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
67 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
69 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
72 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
73 ----------------------
75 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
76 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
79 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
80 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
81 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library (see
82 "IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR"). Use --prefix=/usr to replace your
83 default curses distribution.
85 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
87 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
88 reset, clear, tput, toe, tabs
89 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
90 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
91 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
92 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
94 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
95 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
98 Do not use commands such as
100 make install prefix=XXX
102 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
103 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
105 make install DESTDIR=XXX
107 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
109 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
110 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
111 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
112 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
114 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
115 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
116 file for your system.
118 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
119 models and their associated libraries:
121 libncurses.a (normal)
123 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
124 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
126 libncurses.so (shared)
128 libncurses_g.a (debug)
130 libncurses_p.a (profile)
132 libncurses.la (libtool)
134 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
135 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
136 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
137 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
138 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
139 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
140 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
141 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
142 various systems using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
144 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
145 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
147 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
148 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
150 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
154 ./configure --with-shared
156 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
158 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
160 If you want only shared libraries, type
162 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
164 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
165 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on
166 several systems, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
167 work on other systems.
169 If you have libtool installed, you can type
171 ./configure --with-libtool
173 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
174 platform using libtool.
176 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
177 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
178 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
179 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
180 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
182 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
183 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
184 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
185 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
186 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
188 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
189 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
190 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
193 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
194 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
195 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
196 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.
198 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
199 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
201 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
202 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
203 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
204 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
206 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
207 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
208 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
210 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
211 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
212 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
213 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
215 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
216 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
217 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
218 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
219 be installed before the terminfo data can be
221 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
223 ############################################################################
224 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
225 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
226 # before you install ncurses. #
227 ############################################################################
229 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
230 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
231 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
232 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
233 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
235 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
236 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
237 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
238 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
239 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
241 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
242 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
243 undefined symbols at link time.
245 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
246 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
247 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
248 so you can use ncurses applications.
250 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
251 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
252 wide terminfo tree instead.
254 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
256 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
257 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
258 compile and run the demo.
260 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
263 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
264 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
265 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
266 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
272 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
276 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
277 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
279 --enable and --with options recognized:
281 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
284 --disable-assumed-color
285 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
286 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
287 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
288 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
289 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
290 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
291 convention, using this configure option.
294 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
295 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
296 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
297 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
298 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
300 --disable-big-strings
301 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
302 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
306 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
307 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
308 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
309 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
310 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., tset and tput versus
314 Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features
315 for packages, as done with --without-progs.
318 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
319 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
320 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
321 to see the options that are used).
324 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
325 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
326 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
328 --disable-gnat-projects
329 Disable GNAT projects even if usable, for testing old makefile rules.
332 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
335 --disable-home-terminfo
336 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
337 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
338 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
339 option to disable the feature altogether.
342 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
345 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
346 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
348 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
349 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
350 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
351 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
352 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build a
353 debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
354 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
355 the remainder and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs
356 use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
358 Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not
359 normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet
360 unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the
361 library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_"
364 --disable-lib-suffixes
365 Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added
366 to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options.
368 --disable-libtool-version
369 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
370 are used for constructing the library name.
372 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
373 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
374 build using --with-shared.
376 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
377 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
379 Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure
380 script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used
384 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
385 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
386 compatibility with older releases).
388 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
389 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
390 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
393 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
394 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
395 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
398 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
399 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
400 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
401 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
402 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
403 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
404 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
405 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
407 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
408 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
409 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
410 header would be included using
412 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
413 #include <ncurses/term.h>
415 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
417 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
418 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
420 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
421 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
422 curses header files from the same directory.
424 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
425 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
426 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
427 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
430 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
431 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
432 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
433 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
434 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
435 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
436 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
438 In addition to the curses library, a system may provide its own
439 versions of the add-on libraries (form, menu, panel), which would
440 not be compatible with ncurses. These options allow you to rename
441 ncurses' add-on libraries to avoid conflicts when linking:
443 --with-form-libname=XXX
444 --with-menu-libname=XXX
445 --with-panel-libname=XXX
447 Rather than renaming them abitrarily, a prefix or suffix is
448 recommended. An "n" prefix provides consistency with ncurses versus
451 --with-form-libname=nform
452 --with-menu-libname=nmenu
453 --with-panel-libname=npanel
455 --disable-pkg-ldflags
456 Omit options in $LDFLAGS and $EXTRA_LDFLAGS from the pkg-config ".pc"
457 and corresponding ncurses*-config script which normally are listed via
458 the "--libs" option. These options are normally used to facilitate
459 linking to ncurses when it was configured to use the rpath feature.
461 See also --enable-rpath and --disable-rpath-hack.
464 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
465 rebuild shared libraries during install. Use this option to simply
466 copy whatever the linker produced.
468 Static libraries cannot simply be copied because tools use timestamps
469 to determine if the library's symbol table is up to date. If your
470 install program supports the "-p" (preserve timestamp) option, that
471 is used when --disable-relink is given, to avoid rebuilding the symbol
474 Finally, some tools ignore the subsecond timestamps supported by some
475 filesystems. This option adds a 1-second sleep to help those tools
476 avoid unnecessary relinking during the install process.
478 --disable-root-environ
479 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
480 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
481 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
482 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
485 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
486 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
487 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
488 to suppress the feature.
490 --disable-scroll-hints
491 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
492 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
495 Do not strip installed executables.
497 --disable-tic-depends
498 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
499 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
500 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
501 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
502 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
503 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
504 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
505 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
506 configure option to do that.
508 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
510 --disable-tparm-varargs
511 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
512 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
513 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
515 --disable-wattr-macros
516 The 6.0 ABI adds support for extended colors and for extended mouse.
517 The former is a noticeable problem when developers inadvertently
518 compile using the ncurses6 header files and link with an ncurses5
519 library, because the wattr* macros use a new field in the WINDOW
520 structure. These macros are used in several applications.
522 Since ncurses provides an actual function for each of these macros,
523 suppressing them from the curses.h header allows the ncurses5 libraries
524 to be used in most applications.
526 NOTE: The extended colors also are used in the cchar_t structure, but
527 fewer applications use that.
529 NOTE: This workaround does not help with mismatches in the ncurses
530 mouse version. The extended mouse feature uses one less fewer bit for
531 each button, so that only the first button will work as expected with
532 a mismatch between header and library. Again, most applications will
533 work, since most use only the first button.
536 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
537 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
539 --enable-broken_linker
540 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
541 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
542 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
543 changes several data references to functions to work around this
546 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
547 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
548 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
549 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
553 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
554 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
557 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
558 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
559 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
560 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
563 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
564 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
565 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
566 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
567 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
568 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
569 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
570 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
571 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
572 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
573 in the interface, but at a lower level.
575 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
576 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
577 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
578 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
582 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
583 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
586 When configuring for MinGW, use the experimental Windows 10 driver.
589 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
590 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
593 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
594 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
595 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
598 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
599 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
600 similar X terminal emulators.
602 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
603 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
604 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
607 Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather
608 than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by
609 differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can
610 still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of
611 ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by
612 calling applications).
615 Use the gcc "-fvisibility=hidden" option to make symbols which are not
616 explicitly exported, "hidden". Doing this may reduce the number of
617 symbols exported in the C++ binding; it should have less effect on the
618 C libraries when symbol-versioning is used.
621 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
622 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
623 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
626 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
627 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
628 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
631 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
633 --enable-getcap-cache
634 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
636 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
637 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
638 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
639 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
640 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
641 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
644 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
645 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
646 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
650 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
651 for the form-library.
654 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
655 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
656 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
657 checks the current filesystem.
660 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
661 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
662 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
665 --enable-opaque-curses
668 --enable-opaque-panel
669 Define symbol in curses.h which controls whether some library
670 structures are treated as "opaque". The --enable-opaque-curses option
671 is overridden by the --enable-reentrant option.
674 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
675 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
678 --enable-pthreads-eintr
679 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
680 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
683 Compile configuration which improves reentrant use of the library by
684 reducing global and static variables. This option is also set if
685 --with-pthread is used.
687 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
688 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
691 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
692 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
693 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
696 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
697 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
698 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
699 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
700 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
701 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
703 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
704 extra assumptions about rpath.
706 --enable-safe-sprintf
707 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
708 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
709 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however, and is used only on
710 very old systems which lack vsnprintf().
713 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
714 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
715 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
716 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
717 alteration without patching the source code.
720 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
721 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
722 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
723 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
727 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
728 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
732 When enabled, check if the <stdnoreturn.h> header exists, and if found
733 define GCC_NORETURN to _Noreturn rather than either the gcc-specific
734 __attribute__((noreturn)) or an empty token. Doing this may require
735 calling programs which use GCC_NORETURN in their own function
736 definitions to be modified, because _Noreturn is only accepted as
737 the first token in a declaration.
739 --enable-string-hacks
740 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
741 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
742 is weakly standardized.
744 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
748 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
749 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
753 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
754 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
755 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
756 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
759 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
760 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
761 library with different terminal drivers.
764 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
765 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
766 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
768 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
769 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
770 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
771 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
775 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
777 --enable-weak-symbols
778 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
779 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
780 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
781 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
782 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
784 --enable-wgetch-events
785 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
788 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
789 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
792 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
793 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
794 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
796 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
797 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
798 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
799 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
800 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
803 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
805 --with-abi-version=NUM
806 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
807 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
808 special requirements for compatibility.
810 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
811 release major/minor numbers.
813 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
814 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
816 --with-ada-include=DIR
817 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
818 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
820 --with-ada-libname=NAME
821 Override the name of the Ada binding (default: "AdaCurses")
823 --with-ada-objects=DIR
824 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
827 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
829 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
830 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
831 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
834 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
835 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
836 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
840 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
841 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
842 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
843 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
845 --with-build-cflags=XXX
846 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
847 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
850 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
854 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
855 but is not directly used by ncurses.
857 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
858 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
859 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
862 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
865 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
866 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
867 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
870 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
873 --with-build-libs=XXX
874 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
875 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
877 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
881 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
882 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
883 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
884 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
885 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
886 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
889 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
890 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
891 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
894 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
895 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
896 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
897 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
898 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
899 script supplies "unsigned").
901 --with-config-suffix=XXX
902 Specify a suffix for the ncursesw6-config file, etc., used to work
903 around conflicts with packages.
905 --with-cxx-libname=NAME
906 Override the basename of the ncurses++ library (default: "ncurses++")
909 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
910 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
911 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
912 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
915 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
916 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
917 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
921 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
922 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
925 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
926 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
928 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
929 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
930 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
933 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
934 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
936 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
937 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
938 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
939 symbols which are part of the ABI.
941 --with-extra-suffix[=XXX]
942 Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify
943 installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a
944 different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the
945 include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given.
948 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
949 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
951 See also "--with-tic-path" and "--with-infocmp-path".
953 --with-form-libname=NAME
954 Override the basename of the form library (default: "form")
957 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
958 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
961 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
962 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
963 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
964 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
967 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
969 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
971 See also --without-dlsym
973 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
974 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
975 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
978 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
979 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
980 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
981 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
982 "--enable-compat185".
984 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
985 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
986 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
987 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
988 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
989 or hashed database respectively.
991 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
992 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
994 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
996 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
997 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
998 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
1000 --with-hashed-db=db4
1001 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
1002 /usr/include/db4/db.h
1003 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
1005 See also the --enable-getcap option.
1007 --with-infocmp-path[=XXX]
1008 Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your
1009 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
1011 --with-install-prefix=XXX
1012 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
1013 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
1014 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
1015 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
1017 make install DESTDIR=XXX
1018 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
1020 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
1021 option probably will not work for those configurations.
1023 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
1024 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
1025 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
1026 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
1027 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
1028 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
1029 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
1030 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
1031 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
1033 --with-libtool[=XXX]
1034 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
1035 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
1036 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
1037 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
1038 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
1039 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
1041 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
1042 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
1043 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
1045 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
1046 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
1047 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
1048 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
1049 https://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
1051 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
1052 Allow user to pass additional libtool options into the library creation
1053 and link steps. The main use for this is to do something like
1054 ./configure --with-libtool-opts=-static
1055 to get the same behavior as automake-flavored
1056 ./configure --enable-static
1058 --with-manpage-aliases
1059 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
1060 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
1061 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
1062 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
1063 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
1064 rather than symbolic links.
1066 --with-manpage-format=XXX
1067 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
1068 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
1069 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
1070 attempts to determine which is the case.
1072 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
1073 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
1074 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
1075 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
1076 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
1078 --with-manpage-symlinks
1079 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
1080 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
1081 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
1082 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
1083 copying the man-page for each alias.
1086 Tell the configure script that you wish to preprocess the manpages
1087 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
1090 --with-menu-libname=NAME
1091 Override the basename of the menu library (default: "menu")
1094 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
1095 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
1096 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
1097 with 64-bit executables.
1100 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
1102 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
1103 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
1104 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
1108 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
1109 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
1110 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
1111 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
1112 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
1113 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
1114 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
1115 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
1116 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
1117 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
1118 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1120 --with-panel-libname=NAME
1121 Override the basename of the panel library (default: "panel")
1123 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
1124 If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the files
1125 and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations.
1126 If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added.
1129 Add PCRE2 (Perl-compatible regular expressions v2) to the build if it
1130 is available and the user requests it. Assume the application will
1131 otherwise use the POSIX interface.
1133 This is useful for MinGW builds because the usual POSIX interface is
1134 not supplied by the development environment, while ncurses' form
1135 library uses a regular expression feature for one of the field types.
1137 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
1138 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
1140 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
1141 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1145 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1146 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1149 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1150 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1151 for multithreaded applications.
1154 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1156 --with-rel-version=NUM
1157 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1158 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1159 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1160 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1163 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1164 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1165 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1167 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1168 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1171 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1172 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1173 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1174 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1175 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1176 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1178 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1179 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1181 ./misc/shlib make install
1183 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1184 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1185 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1186 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1187 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1188 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1189 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1190 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1191 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1193 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1194 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1195 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1197 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1198 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1199 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1200 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1203 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1205 --with-system-type=XXX
1206 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1207 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1208 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1209 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1212 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1213 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1214 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1216 This is a colon-separated list, like the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
1219 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1220 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1221 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1222 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1223 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1225 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1226 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1227 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1228 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1229 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1233 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1234 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1236 --with-tic-path[=XXX]
1237 Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your
1238 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
1241 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1242 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1243 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1245 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1246 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1247 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1249 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1250 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1251 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1252 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1255 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1256 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1257 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1258 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1259 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1260 tparm's interface was defined.
1262 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1265 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1266 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1269 For testing, compile with debug option.
1270 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1272 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1273 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1274 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1275 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1277 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1279 The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map"
1280 file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1282 a) comments are not accepted
1283 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1284 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1286 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1287 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1288 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1289 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1290 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1292 The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files are generated using a set of
1293 scripts which build several configurations for each release version,
1294 checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. In
1295 addition to the ncurses libraries and programs, the symbols used
1296 by the "tack" program before version 1.08 are made global.
1298 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1299 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1300 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1303 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1304 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1305 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1306 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1307 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1308 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1309 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1310 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1311 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1312 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1315 Provide a pathname for the X11 rgb file, used by the picsmap program.
1316 This overrides a configure check which usually works, but is needed
1317 due to the lack of standardization for X11's files.
1319 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1320 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1321 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1324 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1325 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1328 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1329 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1332 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1333 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1336 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1339 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1340 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1341 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1342 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1343 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1344 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1345 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1347 --without-cxx-binding
1348 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1349 C++ binding and related demo.
1352 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1353 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1356 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1359 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1362 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1363 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1364 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1367 Suppress build/install with tack program, if it happens to be
1368 in the same build-tree (tack was moved out of the ncurses source-tree
1372 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1376 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1377 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1378 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1381 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER RELEASES:
1382 ---------------------------------
1384 Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
1385 That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
1386 documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
1387 or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
1388 We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
1389 the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
1392 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1393 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1399 + the terminal database must be compiled with ncurses 6.2 tic;
1400 older versions of tic/infocmp will not work. Aside from that,
1401 the compiled database will work with older applications.
1403 + "*.pc" and "ncurses*-config" files give the same information.
1405 + vwprintw and vwscanw are deprecated.
1409 + These make it simpler to substitute a debug-configuration of the
1410 library for non-debug:
1415 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1417 + These provide fast-lookup of common user-defined capabilities:
1419 _nc_get_userdefs_table
1422 + This is added to work around compiler-warnings:
1425 Removed internal functions:
1427 + _nc_import_termtype
1429 Modified internal functions:
1431 + _nc_reserve_pairs no longer returns a value
1436 + X/Open Curses specifies a "reserved" void* parameter in several
1437 functions, saying that it must be NULL. In this release, if the
1438 parameter is non-NULL, it is interpreted as a point to an integer
1439 containing a color pair. In previous releases, a non-NULL parameter
1440 caused an error return. Portable applications are unaffected. Here
1441 are the functions which have been extended:
1460 + the TERMINAL structure declared in <term.h> has been made opaque,
1461 and its size increased to handle the increased size of color pair
1462 and color value, as well as other numeric capabilities.
1464 A few applications required change, e.g., to use def_prog_mode;
1465 only one application (tack) is known to have a valid reason for
1466 accessing these internal details, and that was addressed by the
1467 release of tack 1.08 in 2017. Internal functions marked as used
1468 by tack will be deprecated in future releases.
1472 + Several new functions were added to manipulate extended color pairs
1473 and color values. These include:
1475 extended_color_content
1476 extended_pair_content
1484 as well as corresponding sp-functions.
1486 + A new terminfo capability "RGB" tells the ncurses library that the
1487 color values are red/green/blue, to eliminate the need for palettes
1488 in that special case for the color_content function.
1490 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1492 _nc_export_termtype2
1500 Removed internal functions:
1504 Modified internal functions:
1506 + symbols are used by tic/infocmp/toe:
1507 _nc_align_termtype - change parameters to TERMTYPE2*
1508 _nc_check_termtype2 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1509 _nc_read_file_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1510 _nc_read_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1511 _nc_trim_sgr0 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1512 _nc_write_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1514 + symbols used only within the library:
1515 _nc_fallback - change return type to TERMTYPE2*
1516 _nc_init_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1521 + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
1529 --with-chtype=uint32_t
1530 --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
1531 --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
1533 + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
1534 half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
1536 + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
1537 when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
1541 + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
1543 + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
1545 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1552 Removed internal functions:
1555 Modified internal functions:
1556 _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
1557 _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
1558 _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
1559 _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
1565 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1566 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1567 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1570 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1571 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1572 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1573 functionally identical with the originals.
1575 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1576 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1579 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1580 are no related interface changes.
1582 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1584 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1588 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1589 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1591 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1600 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1606 Removed internal functions:
1607 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1609 Modified internal functions:
1616 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1619 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1622 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1623 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1624 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1625 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1627 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1628 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1630 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1631 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1633 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1634 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1635 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1636 several internal functions.
1638 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1639 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1640 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1641 API, there is no ABI change.
1643 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1644 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1645 of the internal functions.
1649 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1650 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1651 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1652 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1653 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1654 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1656 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1657 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1658 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1659 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1661 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1662 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1665 Added internal functions:
1676 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1677 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1678 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1683 Removed internal functions:
1686 Modified internal functions:
1692 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1694 _nc_update_screensize
1696 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1704 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1707 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1709 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1712 and (for libncursesw)
1720 Added internal functions:
1734 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1749 Removed internal functions:
1752 Modified internal functions:
1759 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1762 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1763 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1765 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1766 still use ncurses 4.2).
1768 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1769 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1770 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1773 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1774 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1775 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1776 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1777 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1780 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1781 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1782 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1783 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1785 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1786 wide-character configuration.
1788 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1791 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1793 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1794 multicolumn characters.
1796 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1797 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1799 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1800 corresponds to the default-color.
1802 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1803 to an unsigned char.
1806 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1807 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1810 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1811 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1812 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1813 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1815 Added internal functions:
1819 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1820 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1823 Removed internal functions:
1826 Modified internal functions:
1831 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1834 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1835 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1836 --enable-widec option.
1840 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1843 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1845 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1846 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1848 + change some interfaces to use const:
1860 Added internal functions:
1863 _nc_is_charable() wide
1864 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1867 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1869 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1870 _nc_unicode_locale()
1872 Removed internal functions:
1876 Modified internal functions:
1878 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1880 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1883 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1884 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1886 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1887 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1888 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1892 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1893 assume_default_colors() extension.
1899 Added internal functions:
1900 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1902 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1903 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1905 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1910 Removed internal functions:
1913 Modified internal functions:
1916 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1919 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1920 --with-ospeed configure option).
1925 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1926 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1927 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1929 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1932 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1935 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1937 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1940 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1942 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1944 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1947 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1948 parameter according to XSI.
1950 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1951 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1952 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1953 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1956 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1958 Terminfo database changes:
1960 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1961 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1963 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1965 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1966 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1967 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1968 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1971 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1972 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1973 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1974 is a bug in the older versions:
1976 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1977 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1978 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1979 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1982 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1983 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1984 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1985 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1986 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1988 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1989 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1990 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1991 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1993 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1994 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1996 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1997 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1998 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1999 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
2000 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
2001 initialize that terminal type.
2003 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
2004 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
2005 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
2007 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
2008 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
2009 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
2010 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
2011 and are invisible to the older libraries.
2013 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
2014 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
2015 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
2016 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
2017 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
2018 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
2019 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
2020 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
2025 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
2027 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
2028 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
2030 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
2033 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
2035 Terminfo database changes:
2037 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
2042 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
2043 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
2044 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
2046 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
2047 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
2048 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
2049 colors in the latter.
2051 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
2053 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
2054 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
2055 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
2056 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
2058 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
2060 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
2063 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
2064 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
2065 application's fallback for missing tparam().
2067 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
2068 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
2069 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
2070 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
2073 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
2074 available only as macros.
2076 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
2078 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
2079 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
2081 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
2084 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
2085 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
2087 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
2089 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
2091 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
2094 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
2096 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
2097 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
2098 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
2099 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
2100 specification was available only in draft form.
2102 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
2103 incorrect color scheme.
2106 FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS:
2107 ----------------------
2109 Configuration and Installation:
2111 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
2112 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
2113 that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
2115 FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
2117 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
2118 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
2120 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
2121 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
2122 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
2123 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
2126 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
2127 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
2128 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
2129 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
2130 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
2131 you recompile and relink them!).
2133 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
2134 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
2135 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
2136 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
2137 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
2139 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
2140 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
2141 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
2142 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
2146 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
2147 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
2148 mappings that will set this up:
2150 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
2151 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
2152 shift keycode 15 = F26
2153 string F26 ="\033[Z"
2155 Naming the Console Terminal
2157 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
2158 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
2159 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
2160 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
2161 be called `console'.
2163 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
2164 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
2165 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
2166 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
2167 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
2168 conventions for choosing type names.
2170 Here are some recommended primary console names:
2172 linux -- Linux console driver
2177 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
2178 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
2179 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
2180 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
2183 MODERN XTERM VERSIONS:
2184 ---------------------
2186 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
2187 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
2188 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
2189 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
2190 are unable to update your system.
2193 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
2194 ----------------------------
2196 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
2197 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
2198 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
2199 pre-fetched fallback entries.
2201 NOTE: This must be done on a machine which has ncurses' infocmp and
2202 terminfo database installed (as well as ncurses' tic and infocmp
2203 programs). That is because the fallback sources are generated and
2204 compiled into the library before the build-tree's copy of infocmp is
2207 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
2208 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
2209 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
2210 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
2211 entry is accessible.
2213 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
2214 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
2215 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
2216 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
2217 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
2218 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
2220 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
2221 might use the commands
2224 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2226 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2229 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
2231 The first four parameters of the script are normally supplied by
2232 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
2235 1) the location of the terminfo database
2236 2) the source for the terminfo entries
2237 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
2239 4) the location of the infocmp program, used to print a terminfo
2242 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
2243 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
2245 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2247 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2252 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
2253 Any non-empty fallback list is const'd and therefore lives in shareable
2254 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
2255 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
2256 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
2257 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
2260 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
2261 --------------------
2263 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
2264 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
2265 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
2266 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
2267 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
2269 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
2270 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
2271 in the package README file.)
2273 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
2276 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2278 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
2279 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
2280 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
2281 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
2282 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
2284 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
2285 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
2286 through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
2287 down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
2289 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
2290 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
2291 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
2292 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
2293 faster) terminfo fetch.
2295 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
2296 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
2297 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
2298 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
2299 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
2301 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
2302 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
2303 compilation is expensive).
2305 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
2306 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
2308 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
2309 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
2310 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
2311 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
2314 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
2315 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
2316 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
2317 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
2319 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
2320 terminfo directory directly.
2322 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2326 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2327 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
2328 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2329 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2330 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2331 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2332 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2333 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2335 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2337 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2339 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2340 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2342 https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
2345 BUILDING WITH A CROSS-COMPILER:
2346 ------------------------------
2347 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2348 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2349 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2350 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2351 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2352 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2354 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2355 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2356 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2357 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2359 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2360 will be made if you use
2364 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2365 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2368 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2369 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2370 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2371 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the "make
2372 install.data" portion.
2374 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2375 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should be
2376 from the most current version of ncurses.
2378 NOTE: the system's tic program may use a different terminfo database
2379 format than the target system. For instance, as described in term(5),
2380 the conventional terminfo layout uses a directory hierarchy with one
2381 letter names, while some platforms use two-letter names to work with
2382 case-insensitive filesystems. The configure script searches for a tic
2383 program using the AC_CHECK_TOOL macro, which will prefer programs
2384 using the canonical host prefix in their name. You can use this fact
2385 to provide a cross-compiler support utility tic, otherwise you can
2386 override the configure script's choice using --with-tic-path
2391 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2392 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2393 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2394 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2396 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2397 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.