For discussion of the package internals, see hackguide.html in the misc directory. Here are some -D options you might need to compile with. The 'configure' script gets most other definitions right automatically. -DHAVE_SIGACTION if the sigaction function is present -DHAVE_USLEEP if the usleep function is present -DSVR4_ACTION if (e.g., svr4) you need _POSIX_SOURCE to have sigaction -DSVR4_TERMIO if (e.g., svr4) you need _POSIX_SOURCE to have termio -DOPT_MVCUR if you want mvcur() to cost its actions or you have a terminal that doesn't have direct cursor addressing. There are several problems with strict POSIX systems so extra flags or #define's may be needed.