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29 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.221 2020/03/08 14:27:08 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 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR 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 running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
53 USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
55 If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
58 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
59 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
65 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
67 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
69 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
71 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
73 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
76 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
77 ----------------------
79 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
80 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
83 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
84 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
85 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library (see
86 "IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR"). Use --prefix=/usr to replace your
87 default curses distribution.
89 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
91 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
92 reset, clear, tput, toe, tabs
93 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
94 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
95 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
96 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
98 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
99 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
102 Do not use commands such as
104 make install prefix=XXX
106 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
107 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
109 make install DESTDIR=XXX
111 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
113 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
114 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
115 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
116 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
118 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
119 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
120 file for your system.
122 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
123 models and their associated libraries:
125 libncurses.a (normal)
127 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
128 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
130 libncurses.so (shared)
132 libncurses_g.a (debug)
134 libncurses_p.a (profile)
136 libncurses.la (libtool)
138 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
139 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
140 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
141 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
142 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
143 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
144 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
145 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
146 various systems using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
148 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
149 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
151 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
152 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
154 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
158 ./configure --with-shared
160 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
162 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
164 If you want only shared libraries, type
166 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
168 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
169 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on
170 several systems, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
171 work on other systems.
173 If you have libtool installed, you can type
175 ./configure --with-libtool
177 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
178 platform using libtool.
180 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
181 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
182 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
183 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
184 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
186 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
187 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
188 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
189 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
190 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
192 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
193 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
194 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
197 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
198 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
199 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
200 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.
202 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
203 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
205 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
206 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
207 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
208 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
210 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
211 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
212 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
214 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
215 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
216 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
217 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
219 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
220 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
221 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
222 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
223 be installed before the terminfo data can be
225 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
227 ############################################################################
228 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
229 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
230 # before you install ncurses. #
231 ############################################################################
233 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
234 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
235 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
236 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
237 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
239 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
240 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
241 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
242 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
243 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
245 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
246 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
247 undefined symbols at link time.
249 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
250 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
251 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
252 so you can use ncurses applications.
254 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
255 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
256 wide terminfo tree instead.
258 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
260 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
261 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
262 compile and run the demo.
264 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
267 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
268 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
269 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
270 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
273 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
274 ----------------------------
276 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
280 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
281 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
283 --enable and --with options recognized:
285 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
288 --disable-assumed-color
289 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
290 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
291 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
292 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
293 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
294 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
295 convention, using this configure option.
298 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
299 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
300 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
301 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
302 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
304 --disable-big-strings
305 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
306 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
310 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
311 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
312 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
313 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
314 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., tset and tput versus
318 Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features
319 for packages, as done with --without-progs.
322 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
323 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
324 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
325 to see the options that are used).
328 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
329 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
330 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
332 --disable-gnat-projects
333 Disable GNAT projects even if usable, for testing old makefile rules.
336 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
339 --disable-home-terminfo
340 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
341 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
342 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
343 option to disable the feature altogether.
346 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
349 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
350 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
352 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
353 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
354 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
355 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
356 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build a
357 debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
358 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
359 the remainder and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs
360 use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
362 Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not
363 normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet
364 unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the
365 library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_"
368 --disable-lib-suffixes
369 Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added
370 to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options.
372 --disable-libtool-version
373 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
374 are used for constructing the library name.
376 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
377 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
378 build using --with-shared.
380 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
381 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
383 Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure
384 script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used
388 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
389 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
390 compatibility with older releases).
392 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
393 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
394 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
397 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
398 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
399 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
402 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
403 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
404 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
405 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
406 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
407 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
408 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
409 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
411 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
412 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
413 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
414 header would be included using
416 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
417 #include <ncurses/term.h>
419 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
421 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
422 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
424 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
425 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
426 curses header files from the same directory.
428 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
429 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
430 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
431 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
434 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
435 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
436 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
437 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
438 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
439 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
440 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
442 In addition to the curses library, a system may provide its own
443 versions of the add-on libraries (form, menu, panel), which would
444 not be compatible with ncurses. These options allow you to rename
445 ncurses' add-on libraries to avoid conflicts when linking:
447 --with-form-libname=XXX
448 --with-menu-libname=XXX
449 --with-panel-libname=XXX
451 Rather than renaming them abitrarily, a prefix or suffix is
452 recommended. An "n" prefix provides consistency with ncurses versus
455 --with-form-libname=nform
456 --with-menu-libname=nmenu
457 --with-panel-libname=npanel
460 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
461 rebuild shared libraries during install. Use this option to simply
462 copy whatever the linker produced.
464 Static libraries cannot simply be copied because tools use timestamps
465 to determine if the library's symbol table is up to date. If your
466 install program supports the "-p" (preserve timestamp) option, that
467 is used when --disable-relink is given, to avoid rebuilding the symbol
470 Finally, some tools ignore the subsecond timestamps supported by some
471 filesystems. This option adds a 1-second sleep to help those tools
472 avoid unnecessary relinking during the install process.
474 --disable-root-environ
475 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
476 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
477 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
478 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
481 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
482 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
483 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
484 to suppress the feature.
486 --disable-scroll-hints
487 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
488 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
491 Do not strip installed executables.
493 --disable-tic-depends
494 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
495 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
496 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
497 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
498 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
499 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
500 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
501 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
502 configure option to do that.
504 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
506 --disable-tparm-varargs
507 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
508 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
509 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
511 --disable-wattr-macros
512 The 6.0 ABI adds support for extended colors and for extended mouse.
513 The former is a noticeable problem when developers inadvertently
514 compile using the ncurses6 header files and link with an ncurses5
515 library, because the wattr* macros use a new field in the WINDOW
516 structure. These macros are used in several applications.
518 Since ncurses provides an actual function for each of these macros,
519 suppressing them from the curses.h header allows the ncurses5 libraries
520 to be used in most applications.
522 NOTE: The extended colors also are used in the cchar_t structure, but
523 fewer applications use that.
525 NOTE: This workaround does not help with mismatches in the ncurses
526 mouse version. The extended mouse feature uses one less fewer bit for
527 each button, so that only the first button will work as expected with
528 a mismatch between header and library. Again, most applications will
529 work, since most use only the first button.
532 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
533 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
535 --enable-broken_linker
536 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
537 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
538 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
539 changes several data references to functions to work around this
542 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
543 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
544 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
545 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
549 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
550 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
553 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
554 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
555 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
556 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
559 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
560 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
561 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
562 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
563 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
564 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
565 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
566 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
567 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
568 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
569 in the interface, but at a lower level.
571 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
572 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
573 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
574 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
578 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
579 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
582 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
583 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
586 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
587 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
588 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
591 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
592 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
593 similar X terminal emulators.
595 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
596 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
597 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
600 Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather
601 than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by
602 differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can
603 still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of
604 ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by
605 calling applications).
608 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
609 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
610 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
613 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
614 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
615 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
618 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
620 --enable-getcap-cache
621 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
623 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
624 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
625 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
626 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
627 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
628 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
631 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
632 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
633 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
637 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
638 for the form-library.
641 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
642 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
643 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
644 checks the current filesystem.
647 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
648 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
649 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
652 --enable-opaque-curses
655 --enable-opaque-panel
656 Define symbol in curses.h which controls whether some library
657 structures are treated as "opaque". The --enable-opaque-curses option
658 is overridden by the --enable-reentrant option.
661 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
662 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
665 --enable-pthreads-eintr
666 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
667 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
670 Compile configuration which improves reentrant use of the library by
671 reducing global and static variables. This option is also set if
672 --with-pthread is used.
674 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
675 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
678 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
679 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
680 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
683 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
684 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
685 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
686 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
687 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
688 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
690 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
691 extra assumptions about rpath.
693 --enable-safe-sprintf
694 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
695 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
696 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however, and is used only on
697 very old systems which lack vsnprintf().
700 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
701 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
702 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
703 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
704 alteration without patching the source code.
707 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
708 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
709 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
710 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
714 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
715 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
718 --enable-string-hacks
719 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
720 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
721 is weakly standardized.
723 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
727 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
728 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
732 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
733 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
734 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
735 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
738 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
739 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
740 library with different terminal drivers.
743 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
744 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
745 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
747 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
748 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
749 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
750 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
754 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
756 --enable-weak-symbols
757 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
758 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
759 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
760 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
761 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
763 --enable-wgetch-events
764 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
767 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
768 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
771 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
772 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
773 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
775 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
776 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
777 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
778 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
779 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
782 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
784 --with-abi-version=NUM
785 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
786 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
787 special requirements for compatibility.
789 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
790 release major/minor numbers.
792 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
793 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
795 --with-ada-include=DIR
796 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
797 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
799 --with-ada-libname=NAME
800 Override the name of the Ada binding (default: "AdaCurses")
802 --with-ada-objects=DIR
803 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
806 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
808 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
809 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
810 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
813 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
814 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
815 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
819 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
820 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
821 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
822 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
824 --with-build-cflags=XXX
825 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
826 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
829 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
833 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
834 but is not directly used by ncurses.
836 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
837 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
838 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
841 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
844 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
845 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
846 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
849 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
852 --with-build-libs=XXX
853 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
854 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
856 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
860 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
861 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
862 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
863 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
864 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
865 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
868 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
869 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
870 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
873 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
874 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
875 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
876 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
877 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
878 script supplies "unsigned").
880 --with-config-suffix=XXX
881 Specify a suffix for the ncursesw6-config file, etc., used to work
882 around conflicts with packages.
884 --with-cxx-libname=NAME
885 Override the basename of the ncurses++ library (default: "ncurses++")
888 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
889 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
890 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
891 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
894 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
895 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
896 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
900 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
901 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
904 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
905 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
907 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
908 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
909 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
912 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
913 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
915 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
916 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
917 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
918 symbols which are part of the ABI.
920 --with-extra-suffix[=XXX]
921 Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify
922 installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a
923 different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the
924 include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given.
927 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
928 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
930 See also "--with-tic-path" and "--with-infocmp-path".
932 --with-form-libname=NAME
933 Override the basename of the form library (default: "form")
936 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
937 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
940 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
941 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
942 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
943 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
946 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
948 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
950 See also --without-dlsym
952 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
953 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
954 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
957 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
958 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
959 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
960 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
961 "--enable-compat185".
963 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
964 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
965 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
966 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
967 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
968 or hashed database respectively.
970 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
971 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
973 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
975 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
976 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
977 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
980 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
981 /usr/include/db4/db.h
982 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
984 See also the --enable-getcap option.
986 --with-infocmp-path[=XXX]
987 Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your
988 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
990 --with-install-prefix=XXX
991 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
992 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
993 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
994 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
996 make install DESTDIR=XXX
997 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
999 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
1000 option probably will not work for those configurations.
1002 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
1003 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
1004 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
1005 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
1006 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
1007 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
1008 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
1009 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
1010 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
1012 --with-libtool[=XXX]
1013 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
1014 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
1015 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
1016 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
1017 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
1018 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
1020 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
1021 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
1022 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
1024 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
1025 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
1026 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
1027 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
1028 https://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
1030 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
1031 Allow user to pass additional libtool options into the library creation
1032 and link steps. The main use for this is to do something like
1033 ./configure --with-libtool-opts=-static
1034 to get the same behavior as automake-flavored
1035 ./configure --enable-static
1037 --with-manpage-aliases
1038 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
1039 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
1040 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
1041 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
1042 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
1043 rather than symbolic links.
1045 --with-manpage-format=XXX
1046 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
1047 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
1048 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
1049 attempts to determine which is the case.
1051 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
1052 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
1053 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
1054 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
1055 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
1057 --with-manpage-symlinks
1058 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
1059 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
1060 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
1061 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
1062 copying the man-page for each alias.
1065 Tell the configure script that you wish to preprocess the manpages
1066 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
1069 --with-menu-libname=NAME
1070 Override the basename of the menu library (default: "menu")
1073 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
1074 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
1075 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
1076 with 64-bit executables.
1079 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
1081 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
1082 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
1083 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
1087 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
1088 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
1089 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
1090 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
1091 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
1092 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
1093 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
1094 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
1095 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
1096 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
1097 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1099 --with-panel-libname=NAME
1100 Override the basename of the panel library (default: "panel")
1102 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
1103 If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the files
1104 and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations.
1105 If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added.
1108 Add PCRE2 (Perl-compatible regular expressions v2) to the build if it
1109 is available and the user requests it. Assume the application will
1110 otherwise use the POSIX interface.
1112 This is useful for MinGW builds because the usual POSIX interface is
1113 not supplied by the development environment, while ncurses' form
1114 library uses a regular expression feature for one of the field types.
1116 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
1117 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
1119 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
1120 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1124 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1125 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1128 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1129 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1130 for multithreaded applications.
1133 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1135 --with-rel-version=NUM
1136 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1137 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1138 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1139 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1142 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1143 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1144 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1146 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1147 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1150 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1151 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1152 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1153 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1154 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1155 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1157 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1158 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1160 ./misc/shlib make install
1162 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1163 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1164 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1165 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1166 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1167 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1168 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1169 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1170 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1172 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1173 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1174 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1176 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1177 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1178 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1179 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1182 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1184 --with-system-type=XXX
1185 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1186 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1187 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1188 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1191 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1192 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1193 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1195 This is a colon-separated list, like the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
1198 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1199 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1200 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1201 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1202 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1204 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1205 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1206 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1207 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1208 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1212 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1213 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1215 --with-tic-path[=XXX]
1216 Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your
1217 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
1220 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1221 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1222 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1224 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1225 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1226 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1228 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1229 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1230 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1231 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1234 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1235 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1236 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1237 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1238 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1239 tparm's interface was defined.
1241 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1244 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1245 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1248 For testing, compile with debug option.
1249 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1251 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1252 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1253 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1254 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1256 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1258 The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map"
1259 file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1261 a) comments are not accepted
1262 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1263 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1265 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1266 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1267 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1268 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1269 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1271 The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files are generated using a set of
1272 scripts which build several configurations for each release version,
1273 checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. In
1274 addition to the ncurses libraries and programs, the symbols used
1275 by the "tack" program before version 1.08 are made global.
1277 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1278 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1279 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1282 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1283 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1284 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1285 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1286 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1287 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1288 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1289 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1290 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1291 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1294 Provide a pathname for the X11 rgb file, used by the picsmap program.
1295 This overrides a configure check which usually works, but is needed
1296 due to the lack of standardization for X11's files.
1298 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1299 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1300 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1303 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1304 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1307 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1308 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1311 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1312 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1315 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1318 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1319 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1320 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1321 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1322 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1323 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1324 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1326 --without-cxx-binding
1327 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1328 C++ binding and related demo.
1331 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1332 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1335 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1338 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1341 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1342 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1343 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1346 Suppress build/install with tack program, if it happens to be
1347 in the same build-tree (tack was moved out of the ncurses source-tree
1351 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1355 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1356 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1357 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1360 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1361 --------------------------------------------
1363 Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
1364 That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
1365 documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
1366 or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
1367 We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
1368 the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
1371 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1372 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1378 + the terminal database must be compiled with ncurses 6.2 tic;
1379 older versions of tic/infocmp will not work. Aside from that,
1380 the compiled database will work with older applications.
1382 + "*.pc" and "ncurses*-config" files give the same information.
1384 + vwprintw and vwscanw are deprecated.
1388 + These make it simpler to substitute a debug-configuration of the
1389 library for non-debug:
1394 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1396 + These provide fast-lookup of common user-defined capabilities:
1398 _nc_get_userdefs_table
1401 + This is added to work around compiler-warnings:
1404 Removed internal functions:
1406 + _nc_import_termtype
1408 Modified internal functions:
1410 + _nc_reserve_pairs no longer returns a value
1415 + X/Open Curses specifies a "reserved" void* parameter in several
1416 functions, saying that it must be NULL. In this release, if the
1417 parameter is non-NULL, it is interpreted as a point to an integer
1418 containing a color pair. In previous releases, a non-NULL parameter
1419 caused an error return. Portable applications are unaffected. Here
1420 are the functions which have been extended:
1439 + the TERMINAL structure declared in <term.h> has been made opaque,
1440 and its size increased to handle the increased size of color pair
1441 and color value, as well as other numeric capabilities.
1443 A few applications required change, e.g., to use def_prog_mode;
1444 only one application (tack) is known to have a valid reason for
1445 accessing these internal details, and that was addressed by the
1446 release of tack 1.08 in 2017. Internal functions marked as used
1447 by tack will be deprecated in future releases.
1451 + Several new functions were added to manipulate extended color pairs
1452 and color values. These include:
1454 extended_color_content
1455 extended_pair_content
1463 as well as corresponding sp-functions.
1465 + A new terminfo capability "RGB" tells the ncurses library that the
1466 color values are red/green/blue, to eliminate the need for palettes
1467 in that special case for the color_content function.
1469 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1471 _nc_export_termtype2
1479 Removed internal functions:
1483 Modified internal functions:
1485 + symbols are used by tic/infocmp/toe:
1486 _nc_align_termtype - change parameters to TERMTYPE2*
1487 _nc_check_termtype2 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1488 _nc_read_file_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1489 _nc_read_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1490 _nc_trim_sgr0 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1491 _nc_write_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1493 + symbols used only within the library:
1494 _nc_fallback - change return type to TERMTYPE2*
1495 _nc_init_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1500 + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
1508 --with-chtype=uint32_t
1509 --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
1510 --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
1512 + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
1513 half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
1515 + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
1516 when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
1520 + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
1522 + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
1524 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1531 Removed internal functions:
1534 Modified internal functions:
1535 _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
1536 _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
1537 _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
1538 _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
1544 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1545 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1546 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1549 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1550 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1551 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1552 functionally identical with the originals.
1554 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1555 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1558 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1559 are no related interface changes.
1561 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1563 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1567 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1568 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1570 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1579 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1585 Removed internal functions:
1586 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1588 Modified internal functions:
1595 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1598 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1601 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1602 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1603 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1604 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1606 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1607 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1609 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1610 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1612 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1613 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1614 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1615 several internal functions.
1617 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1618 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1619 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1620 API, there is no ABI change.
1622 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1623 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1624 of the internal functions.
1628 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1629 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1630 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1631 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1632 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1633 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1635 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1636 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1637 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1638 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1640 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1641 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1644 Added internal functions:
1655 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1656 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1657 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1662 Removed internal functions:
1665 Modified internal functions:
1671 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1673 _nc_update_screensize
1675 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1683 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1686 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1688 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1691 and (for libncursesw)
1699 Added internal functions:
1713 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1728 Removed internal functions:
1731 Modified internal functions:
1738 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1741 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1742 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1744 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1745 still use ncurses 4.2).
1747 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1748 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1749 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1752 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1753 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1754 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1755 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1756 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1759 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1760 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1761 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1762 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1764 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1765 wide-character configuration.
1767 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1770 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1772 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1773 multicolumn characters.
1775 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1776 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1778 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1779 corresponds to the default-color.
1781 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1782 to an unsigned char.
1785 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1786 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1789 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1790 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1791 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1792 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1794 Added internal functions:
1798 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1799 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1802 Removed internal functions:
1805 Modified internal functions:
1810 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1813 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1814 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1815 --enable-widec option.
1819 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1822 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1824 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1825 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1827 + change some interfaces to use const:
1839 Added internal functions:
1842 _nc_is_charable() wide
1843 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1846 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1848 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1849 _nc_unicode_locale()
1851 Removed internal functions:
1855 Modified internal functions:
1857 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1859 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1862 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1863 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1865 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1866 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1867 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1871 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1872 assume_default_colors() extension.
1878 Added internal functions:
1879 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1881 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1882 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1884 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1889 Removed internal functions:
1892 Modified internal functions:
1895 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1898 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1899 --with-ospeed configure option).
1904 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1905 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1906 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1908 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1911 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1914 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1916 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1919 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1921 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1923 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1926 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1927 parameter according to XSI.
1929 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1930 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1931 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1932 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1935 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1937 Terminfo database changes:
1939 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1940 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1942 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1944 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1945 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1946 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1947 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1950 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1951 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1952 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1953 is a bug in the older versions:
1955 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1956 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1957 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1958 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1961 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1962 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1963 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1964 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1965 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1967 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1968 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1969 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1970 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1972 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1973 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1975 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1976 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1977 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1978 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1979 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1980 initialize that terminal type.
1982 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1983 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1984 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1986 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1987 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1988 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1989 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1990 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1992 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1993 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1994 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1995 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1996 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1997 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1998 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1999 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
2004 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
2006 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
2007 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
2009 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
2012 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
2014 Terminfo database changes:
2016 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
2021 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
2022 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
2023 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
2025 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
2026 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
2027 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
2028 colors in the latter.
2030 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
2032 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
2033 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
2034 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
2035 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
2037 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
2039 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
2042 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
2043 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
2044 application's fallback for missing tparam().
2046 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
2047 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
2048 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
2049 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
2052 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
2053 available only as macros.
2055 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
2057 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
2058 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
2060 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
2063 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
2064 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
2066 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
2068 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
2070 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
2073 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
2075 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
2076 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
2077 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
2078 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
2079 specification was available only in draft form.
2081 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
2082 incorrect color scheme.
2085 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
2086 ------------------------------
2088 Configuration and Installation:
2090 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
2091 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
2092 that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
2094 FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
2096 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
2097 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
2099 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
2100 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
2101 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
2102 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
2105 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
2106 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
2107 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
2108 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
2109 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
2110 you recompile and relink them!).
2112 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
2113 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
2114 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
2115 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
2116 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
2118 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
2119 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
2120 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
2121 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
2125 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
2126 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
2127 mappings that will set this up:
2129 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
2130 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
2131 shift keycode 15 = F26
2132 string F26 ="\033[Z"
2134 Naming the Console Terminal
2136 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
2137 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
2138 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
2139 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
2140 be called `console'.
2142 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
2143 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
2144 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
2145 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
2146 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
2147 conventions for choosing type names.
2149 Here are some recommended primary console names:
2151 linux -- Linux console driver
2156 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
2157 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
2158 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
2159 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
2162 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
2163 ---------------------
2165 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
2166 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
2167 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
2168 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
2169 are unable to update your system.
2172 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
2173 ----------------------------
2175 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
2176 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
2177 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
2178 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
2179 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
2180 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
2182 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
2183 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
2184 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
2185 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
2186 entry is accessible.
2188 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
2189 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
2190 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
2191 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
2192 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
2193 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
2195 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
2196 might use the commands
2199 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2201 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2204 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
2206 The first four parameters of the script are normally supplied by
2207 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
2210 1) the location of the terminfo database
2211 2) the source for the terminfo entries
2212 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
2214 4) the location of the infocmp program, used to print a terminfo
2217 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
2218 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
2220 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2222 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2227 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
2228 Any non-empty fallback list is const'd and therefore lives in shareable
2229 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
2230 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
2231 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
2232 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
2235 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
2236 --------------------
2238 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
2239 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
2240 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
2241 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
2242 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
2244 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
2245 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
2246 in the package README file.)
2248 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
2251 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2253 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
2254 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
2255 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
2256 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
2257 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
2259 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
2260 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
2261 through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
2262 down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
2264 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
2265 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
2266 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
2267 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
2268 faster) terminfo fetch.
2270 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
2271 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
2272 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
2273 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
2274 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
2276 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
2277 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
2278 compilation is expensive).
2280 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
2281 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
2283 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
2284 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
2285 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
2286 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
2289 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
2290 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
2291 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
2292 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
2294 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
2295 terminfo directory directly.
2297 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2299 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
2300 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
2301 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
2302 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
2304 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
2305 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2306 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
2307 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2308 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2309 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2310 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2311 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2312 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2314 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2316 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2318 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2319 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2321 https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
2323 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
2324 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2325 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2326 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2327 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2328 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2329 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2331 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2332 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2333 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2334 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2336 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2337 will be made if you use
2341 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2342 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2345 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2346 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2347 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2348 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
2349 "make install.data" portion.
2351 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2352 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
2353 be from the most current version of ncurses.
2356 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2357 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2358 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2359 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2361 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2362 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.