-- sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written --
-- authorization. --
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--- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.186 2015/04/12 14:41:20 tom Exp $
+-- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.194 2015/10/24 19:03:42 Tomas.Cech Exp $
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How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
---------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
- databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include
- DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
+ databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.
+
+ It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
+ A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
- It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
- A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
-
The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
############################################################################
# CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
# terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
- # before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for #
- # this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. #
+ # before you install ncurses. #
############################################################################
The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
copying the man-page for each alias.
--with-manpage-tbl
- Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
+ Tell the configure script that you wish to preprocess the manpages
by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
nroff.
Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
+ This is a colon-separated list, like the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
+ variable.
+
--with-termlib[=XXX]
When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
--------------------------------------------
- Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
- is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
- Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
- between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
- Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
- addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
- the X/Open documentation.
+ Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
+ That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
+ documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
+ or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
+ We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
+ the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
+ documentation.
Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
ncurses:
+ 6.0 (Aug 08, 2015)
+ Interface changes:
+
+ + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
+ --enable-const
+ --enable-ext-colors
+ --enable-ext-mouse
+ --enable-ext-putwin
+ --enable-interop
+ --enable-lp64
+ --enable-sp-funcs
+ --with-chtype=uint32_t
+ --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
+ --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
+
+ + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
+ half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
+
+ + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
+ when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
+
+ Added extensions:
+
+ + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
+
+ + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
+
+ Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
+ _nc_init_termtype
+ _nc_mvcur
+ _nc_putchar
+ _nc_setenv_num
+ _nc_trace_mmask_t
+
+ Removed internal functions:
+ none
+
+ Modified internal functions:
+ _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
+ _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
+ _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
+ _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
+
+ 5.9 (Apr 04, 2011)
5.8 (Feb 26, 2011)
Interface changes:
Configuration and Installation:
On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
- the configure script uses "/usr" as a default:
+ the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
+ that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
- GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin
+ FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
-Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
+Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
-through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
-slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
-terminal type!
+through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
+down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
database, the library initialization code will automatically write it