- Announcing ncurses 5.5
+ Announcing ncurses 5.7
The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
Release Notes
This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0
- through 5.4; very few applications will require recompilation,
+ through 5.6; very few applications will require recompilation,
depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
- change-log since ncurses 5.4 release.
+ change-log since ncurses 5.6 release.
Interface changes:
- * terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
- "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
- * terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
- still use ncurses 4.2).
- * modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
- initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
- still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
- compilers.
- * modify parameter type in c++ binding for insch() and mvwinsch() to
- be consistent with underlying ncurses library (was char, is
- chtype).
- * change NCursesWindow::err_handler() to a virtual function.
- * form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
- Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
- FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw,
- since that no longer points to an array of char. The
- set_field_buffer() and field_buffer() functions translate to/from
- the actual field data.
- * add symbol to curses.h which can be used to suppress include of
- stdbool.h, e.g.,
- #define NCURSES_ENABLE_STDBOOL_H 0
- #include <curses.h>
-
- * change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure
- that libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason
- for this is that the corresponding data which belongs to the
- upper-level ncurses library has a different size in each model.
- * winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
- wide-character configuration.
- * assume_default_colors() no longer requires that
- use_default_colors() be called first.
- * data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
- * slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
- multicolumn characters.
- * start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
- start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
- * pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if
- it corresponds to the default-color.
- * unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond to
- an unsigned char.
+ * generate linkable stubs for some macros:
+ getattrs
New features and improvements:
* library
- + environment variable NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS supports
- miscellaneous terminal emulators which ignore alternate
- character set escape sequences when in UTF-8 mode.
- + modify initialization of key lookup table so that if an
- extended capability (tic -x) string is defined, and its name
- begins with 'k', ncurses will automatically treat it as a
- key.
- + change GPM initialization, using dl library to load it
- dynamically at runtime.
- + form, menu and panel libraries support debug-tracing.
- * add NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html by Pradeep Padala (see
- http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO/).
+ + new flavor of the ncurses library provides rudimentary
+ support for POSIX threads. Several functions are reentrant,
+ but most require either a window-level or screen-level mutex.
+ (This is API-compatible, but not ABI-compatible with the
+ normal library).
+ + add NCURSES_OPAQUE symbol to curses.h, will use to make
+ structs opaque in selected configurations.
+ + add NCURSES_EXT_FUNCS and NCURSES_EXT_COLORS symbols to
+ curses.h to make it simpler to tell if the extended functions
+ and/or colors are declared.
+ + add wresize() to C++ binding
+ + eliminate fixed-buffer vsprintf() calls in C++ binding.
+ + add several functions to C++ binding which wrap C functions
+ that pass a WINDOW* parameter.
+ + adapt mouse-handling code from menu library in form-library
+ + improve tracing for form library, showing created forms,
+ fields, etc.
+ + make $NCURSES_NO_PADDING feature work for termcap interface .
+ + add check to trace-file open, if the given name is a
+ directory, add ".log" to the name and try again.
+ + several new manpages: curs_legacy.3x, curs_memleaks.3x,
+ curs_opaque.3x and curs_threads.3x
* programs:
- * infocmp:
- + The -i option now matches 8-bit controls against its table
- entries, e.g., so it can analyze the xterm-8bit entry.
- + add "-x" option to infocmp like tic's "-x", for use in "-F"
- comparisons. This modifies infocmp to only report extended
- capabilities if the -x option is given, making this more
- consistent with tic. Some scripts may break, since infocmp
- previous gave this information without an option.
- * tic:
- + modify termcap-parsing to retain 2-character aliases at the
- beginning of an entry if the "-x" option is used in tic.
- + filter out long extended names when translating to termcap
- format. Only two characters are permissible for termcap
- capability names.
- + correct translation of "%%" in terminfo format to termcap,
- e.g., using "tic -C".
- + modify the "-c -v" options to ignore delays when comparing
- strings. Also modify it to ignore a canceled sgr string,
- e.g., for terminals which cannot properly combine attributes
- in one control sequence.
- + add a check for improperly ended strings, i.e., where a
- following line begins in column 1.
- + add a check in tic for terminfo entries having an sgr0 but no
- sgr string. This confuses Tru64 and HPUX curses when combined
- with color, e.g., making them leave line-drawing characters
- in odd places.
- + add check (with debug configuration) that provides about the
- runtime changes that would be made to sgr0 for termcap
- applications.
- * tset:
- + add -c and -w options to allow user to suppress ncurses'
- resizing of the terminal emulator window in the special case
- where it is not able to detect the true size.
+ + modified three test-programs to demonstrate the threading
+ support in this version: ditto, rain, worm.
+ + several new test-programs: demo_panels, dots_mvcur,
+ inch_wide, inchs, key_name, key_names, savescreen,
+ savescreen.sh test_arrays, test_get_wstr, test_getstr,
+ test_instr, test_inwstr and test_opaque.
+ + add adacurses-config to the Ada95 install.
+ + modify tic -f option to format spaces as \s to prevent them
+ from being lost when that is read back in unformatted
+ strings.
+ + The tack program is now distributed separately from ncurses.
+ * terminal database
+ + added entries:
+ o Eterm-256color, Eterm-88color and rxvt-88color
+ o aterm
+ o konsole-256color
+ o mrxvt
+ o screen.mlterm
+ o screen.rxvt
+ o teraterm4.59 is now the primary primary teraterm entry,
+ renamed original to teraterm2.3
+ o 9term terminal
+ o Newbury Data entries
+ + updated/improved entries:
+ o gnome to version 2.22.3
+ o h19, z100
+ o konsole to version 1.6.6
+ o mlterm, mlterm+pcfkeys
+ o xterm, and building-blocks for function-keys to [3]xterm
+ patch #230.
Major bug fixes:
- * improve logic in tgetent() which adjusts the termcap "me" string
- to work with ISO-2022 string used in xterm-new. This is a feature
- that was incompletely implemented in ncurses 5.3. ncurses attempts
- to provide termcap clients with the portion of the sgr0 (termcap
- "me") string that does not reset line-drawing.
- * cells in the WINDOW which are continuations of a multicolumn
- character are encoded differently, making repainting more
- reliable.
- * amend change to setupterm() in ncurses 5.4 (20030405) which would
- reuse the value of cur_term if the same output was selected. This
- now reuses it only when setupterm() is called from tgetent(),
- which has no notion of separate SCREENs. Note that tgetent() must
- be called after initscr() or newterm() to use this feature.
- * make setcchar() now works when its wchar_t* parameter is pointing
- to a string which contains more data than can be converted.
- * win_wchnstr() now works for more than one cell.
- * resizeterm() now processes all levels of window hierarchy.
- * disable GPM mouse support when $TERM happens to be prefixed with
- "xterm". Gpm_Open() would otherwise assert that it can deal with
- mouse events in this case.
- * add SP->_screen_acs_map[], used to ensure that mapping of missing
- line-drawing characters is handled properly. For example,
- ACS_DARROW is absent from xterm-new, and it was coincidentally
- displayed the same as ACS_BTEE.
+ * add logic to tic for cancelling strings in user-defined
+ capabilities (this is needed for current konsole terminfo entry).
+ * modify mk-1st.awk so the generated makefile rules for linking or
+ installing shared libraries do not first remove the library, in
+ case it is in use, e.g., libncurses.so by /bin/sh.
+ * correct check for notimeout() in wgetch().
+ * fix a sign-extension bug in infocmp's repair_acsc() function.
+ * change winnstr() to stop at the end of the line.
+ * make Ada95 demo_panels() example work.
+ * fix for adding a non-spacing character at the beginning of a line.
+ * fill in extended-color pair to make colors work for
+ wide-characters using extended-colors.
+ * improve refresh of window on top of multi-column characters,
+ taking into account split characters on left/right window
+ boundaries.
+ * modify win_wchnstr() to ensure that only a base cell is returned
+ for each multi-column character.
+ * improve waddch() and winsch() handling of EILSEQ from mbrtowc() by
+ using unctrl() to display illegal bytes rather than trying to
+ append further bytes to make up a valid sequence.
+ * restore curs_set() state after endwin()/refresh()
+ * modify keyname() to use "^X" form only if meta() has been called,
+ or if keyname() is called without initializing curses, e.g., via
+ initscr() or newterm().
+ * modify unctrl() to check codes in 128-255 range versus isprint().
+ If they are not printable, and locale was set, use a "M-" or "~"
+ sequence.
+ * improve resizeterm() by moving ripped-off lines, and repainting
+ the soft-keys.
+ * modify form library to accept control characters such as newline
+ in set_field_buffer(), which is compatible with Solaris.
+ * use NCURSES_MOUSE_MASK() in definition of BUTTON_RELEASE(), etc.,
+ to make those work properly with the --enable-ext-mouse
+ configuration
+ * correct some functions in Ada95 binding which were using return
+ value from C where none was returned.
+ * reviewed/fixed issues reported by Coverity and Klocwork tools.
Portability:
* configure script:
+ new options:
- --enable-largefile
- set compiler and linker flags to use largefile
- support.
+ --disable-big-strings
+ control whether static string tables are generated
+ as single large strings (to improve startup
+ performance), or as array of individual strings.
+
+ --disable-relink
+ control whether shared libraries are relinked
+ (during install) when rpath is enabled.
+
+ --disable-tic-depends
+ make explicit whether tic library depends on
+ ncurses/ncursesw library.
+
+ --enable-mixed-case
+ override the configure script's check if the
+ filesystem supports mixed-case filenames. This
+ allows one to control how the terminal database
+ maps to the filesystem. For filesystems that do not
+ support mixed-case, the library uses generate
+ 2-character (hexadecimal) codes for the lower-level
+ of the filesystem terminfo database
+
+ --enable-reentrant
+ builds a different flavor of the ncurses library
+ (ncursest) which improves reentrant use of the
+ library by reducing global and static variables
+ (see the "--with-pthread" option for the threaded
+ support).
+
+ --enable-weak-symbols
+ use weak-symbols for linking to the POSIX thread
+ library, and use the same soname for the ncurses
+ shared library as the normal library (caveat: the
+ ABI is for the threaded library, which makes global
+ data accessed via functions).
+
+ --with-pthread
+ build with the POSIX thread library (tested with
+ AIX, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, HPUX, IRIX64,
+ Solaris, Tru64).
+
+ --with-ticlib
+ build/install the tic-support functions in a
+ separate library
+
+ + improved options:
--enable-ext-colors
- Allow encoding of 256 foreground and background
- colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
- xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6
- because it changes the size of cchar_t.
-
- --enable-ext-mouse
- This defines NCURSES_MOUSE_VERSION 2, and modifies
- the encoding of mouse events to support wheel mice,
- which may transmit buttons 4 and 5. This works with
- xterm and similar terminal emulators. This requires
- ABI 6 because it changes the encoding of mouse
- events.
+ requires the wide-character configuration.
--with-chtype
- overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of chtype
-
- --with-mmask-t
- overriding of the non-LP64 model's use of mmask_t
-
- --without-xterm-new
- Installs "xterm-old" as the "xterm" entry of the
- terminfo database.
-
- + The --with-termlib option now accepts a value which sets the
- name of the terminfo library. This would allow a packager to
- build libtinfow.so renamed to coincide with libtinfo.so
- + fixes/improvements for cross-compiling:
- o suppress $suffix in misc/run_tic.sh when
- cross-compiling. This allows cross-compiles to use the
- host's tic program to handle the "make install.data"
- step.
- o correct BUILD_CPPFLAGS substitution in
- ncurses/Makefile.in, to allow cross-compiling from a
- separate directory tree.
+ ignore option value "unsigned" is always added to
+ the type in curses.h; do the same for
+ --with-mmask-t.
+
+ --with-dmalloc
+ build-fix for redefinition of strndup.
+
+ --with-hashed-db
+ accepts a parameter which is the install-prefix of
+ a given Berkeley Database.
+
+ --with-hashed-db
+ the $LIBS environment variable overrides the search
+ for the db library.
+
+ --without-hashed-db
+ assumed when "--disable-database" is used.
+
+ * other configure/build issues:
+ + build-fixes for LynxOS
+ + modify shared-library rules to allow FreeBSD 3.x to use
+ rpath.
+ + build-fix for FreeBSD "contemporary" TTY interface.
+ + build-fixes for AIX with libtool.
+ + build-fixes for Darwin and libtool.
+ + modify BeOS-specific ifdef's to build on Haiku.
+ + corrected gcc options for building shared libraries on
+ Solaris and IRIX64.
+ + change shared-library configuration for OpenBSD, make rpath
+ work.
+ + build-fixes for using libutf8, e.g., on OpenBSD 3.7
+ + add "-e" option in ncurses/Makefile.in when generating
+ source-files to force earlier exit if the build environment
+ fails unexpectedly.
+ + add support for shared libraries for QNX.
+ + change delimiter in MKlib_gen.sh from '%' to '@', to avoid
+ substitution by IBM xlc to '#' as part of its extensions to
+ digraphs.
* library:
- + add ifdef's for _LP64 in curses.h to avoid using wasteful
- 64-bits for chtype and mmask_t, but add configure option
- --disable-lp64 in case anyone used that configuration.
- + modify C++ binding to use some C internal functions to make
- it compile properly on Solaris (and other platforms).
- + remove check in newwin() that prevents allocating windows
- that extend beyond the screen (Solaris does this).
- + check for nl_langinfo(CODESET), use it if available. This
- replaces ad hoc tests of environment variables to check if
- the terminal is setup for UTF-8 encoding. Applications which
- do not call setlocale() should be corrected, to make them
- work properly with UTF-8 encoding.
- In particular, applications which assume (and do not call
- setlocale()) that Latin-1 codes are printable will no longer
- work in a UTF-8 locale since the ad hoc check of environment
- variables to see if the locale was UTF-8 is not used when
- nl_langinfo(CODESET) is available.
- + use setlocale() to query the program's current locale rather
- than using getenv(). This supports applications which rely
- upon legacy treatment of 8-bit characters when the locale is
- not initialized.
+ + rewrite wrapper for wcrtomb(), making it work on Solaris.
+ This is used in the form library to determine the length of
+ the buffer needed by field_buffer.
+ + add/use configure script macro CF_SIG_ATOMIC_T, use the
+ corresponding type for data manipulated by signal handlers.
+ + set locale in misc/ncurses-config.in since it uses a range
+ + disable GPM mouse support when $TERM does not happen to
+ contain "linux", since Gpm_Open() no longer limits its
+ assertion to terminals that it might handle, e.g., within
+ "screen" in xterm.
+ + reset mouse file-descriptor when unloading GPM library.
+ * test programs:
+ + update test programs to build/work with various UNIX curses
+ for comparisons.
Features of Ncurses
The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
* The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
- level features, but not all EXTENDED features). Most
- EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character
- support are implemented, including many function calls not
- supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is
- documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
+ level features, and most EXTENDED features). It includes many
+ function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of
+ all calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
* Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
capability.
* Ada95 and C++ bindings.
- * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2
- console windows.
+ * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and FreeBSD
+ and OS/2 console windows.
* Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
* The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
their data.
the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given
key code.
- * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
+ * Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when
+ configured using the --enable-ext-colors option.
+ * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm.
* Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
or System V's.
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- [4]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
+ [4]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ [5]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
ded
directory-editor
- [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+ [6]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
- [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
+ [7]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
the character-screen WWW browser
- [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ [8]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
Midnight Commander
file manager
- [8]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
+ [9]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
mutt
mail utility
- [9]http://www.mutt.org/
+ [10]http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
- [10]http://www.ncftp.com/
+ [11]http://www.ncftp.com/
nvi
New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
later.
- [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/
+ [12]http://www.bostic.com/vi/
pinfo
Lynx-like info browser.
- [12]http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
+ [13]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
tin
- newsreader, supporting color, MIME [13]http://www.tin.org/
-
- vh-1.6
- Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
- [14]http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
+ newsreader, supporting color, MIME [14]http://www.tin.org/
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
minicom
terminal emulator
- [15]http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html
+ [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
vile
vi-like-emacs
Other Related Resources
The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
- terminal description file maintained by [20]Eric Raymond . Unlike the
- older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the same
- file.
+ terminal description file once maintained by [20]Eric Raymond . Unlike
+ the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the
+ same file, and provides several user-definable extensions beyond the
+ X/Open specification.
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
covered in the terminfo file at [21]Richard Shuford's archive .
1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
- 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- 4. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
- 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
- 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
- 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
- 8. http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
- 9. http://www.mutt.org/
- 10. http://www.ncftp.com/
- 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
- 12. http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
- 13. http://www.tin.org/
- 14. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
- 15. http://www.netsonic.fi/~walker/minicom.html
+ 3. http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_230
+ 4. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ 5. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
+ 6. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+ 7. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
+ 8. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ 9. http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
+ 10. http://www.mutt.org/
+ 11. http://www.ncftp.com/
+ 12. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
+ 13. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
+ 14. http://www.tin.org/
+ 15. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
16. http://invisible-island.net/vile/
17. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net
18. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff