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-<TITLE>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</TITLE>
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-<BODY>
-
-<H1>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</H1>
-
-The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
-curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
-supports pads and color
-and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key mapping,
-and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD curses.<P>
-
-In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
-considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
-Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
-ncurses.<P>
-
-The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It should port easily to
-any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!<P>
-
-The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
-terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
-and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full manual pages are provided for
-the library and tools.<P>
-
-The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
-the GNU distribution site
-<A HREF="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses</A>.
-<br>It is also available at
-<A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>.
-
-<H1>Release Notes</H1>
-
-This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and 5.1;
-very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
-These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.1 release.
-<p>
-Interface changes:
-<ul>
- <li>change type of <code>ospeed</code> variable back to
- <code>short</code> to match its use in legacy applications. It was
- altered after ncurses 4.2 to <code>speed_t</code> to repair a type
- mismatch which was introduced after 1.9.4 in 1995. The principal
- users of termcap continued to use <code>short</code>, which is
- not the same size.
- <p>
- <em>NOTE</em>: A few applications will have to be recompiled
- (about 1% of the programs in a typical Linux distribution,
- 10% of the programs that use ncurses). These are easy to
- identify with <code>nm</code> or <code>strings</code>.
-
- <li>remove a private function <code>_nc_can_clear_with()</code>, which
- was built with the configure --enable-expanded option but not used.
-
- <li>add several private functions (prefixed with "_nc_") for tracing
- <code>chtype</code> values in the debug library, and for better
- access and buffer limit checking.
-</ul>
-New features and improvements:
-<ul>
- <li>rewrote <code>tgoto()</code> to make it better support existing
- termcap applications which use hardcoded strings rather than obtain
- all of their information from the termcap file. If the string does
- not appear to be a terminfo string (i.e., does not refer to a "%p"
- parameter, or terminfo-style padding), and termcap support is configured, <code>tgoto()</code>
- will interpret it as termcap. Otherwise, as before, it will use
- <code>tparm()</code>.
-
- <li>to ensure that the <code>tgoto()</code> changes work properly,
- added checks to <code>tic</code> which report capabilities that do
- not reference the expected number of parameters.
-
- <li>new configure script options:
- <ul>
- <li>option <code>--disable-root-environ</code> adds runtime checks
- which tell ncurses to disregard $TERMINFO and similar environment
- variables if the current user is root, or running setuid/setgid.
-
- <li>option <code>--disable-assumed-color</code> allows you to use the
- pre-5.1 convention of default colors used for color-pair 0 to be
- configured (see assume_default_colors()).
-
- <li>implement configure script options that transform installed
- program names, e.g., <code>--program-prefix</code>, including the
- manpage names and cross references.
-
- <li>option <code>--with-database</code> allows you to specify a
- different terminfo source-file to install. On OS/2 EMX, the
- default is misc/emx.src, otherwise misc/terminfo.src
-
- <li>option <code>--with-default-terminfo-dir</code> allows you to
- specify the default terminfo database directory.
-
- <li>option <code>--with-libtool</code> allows you to build with
- <code>libtool</code>. <p> <em>NOTE</em>: <code>libtool</code>
- uses a different notation for numbering shared library versions
- from the existing ncurses configuration.
-
- <li>option <code>--with-manpage-tbl</code> causes the manpages to be
- preprocessed by tbl(1) prior to installation,
-
- <li>option <code>--without-curses-h</code> causes the installation
- process to install curses.h as ncurses.h and make appropriate
- changes to headers and manpages.
- </ul>
-
- <li>modified configure script options:
- <ul>
- <li>change symbol used by the <code>--install-prefix</code> configure
- option from <code>INSTALL_PREFIX</code> to <code>DESTDIR</code>
- (the latter has become common usage although the name is
- misleading).
-
- <li>modify <code>ld -rpath</code> options (e.g., Linux, and Solaris)
- to use an absolute pathname for the build tree's lib directory,
- avoiding confusion with directories relative to the current one
- with the installed programs.
-
- <li>modified <code>misc/run_tic.in</code> to use
- <code>tic -o</code>, to eliminate dependency on
- <code>$TERMINFO</code> variable for installs.
- </ul>
-
- <li>terminfo database:
- <ul>
- <li>updated xterm terminfo entries to match XFree86 xterm patch #146.
-
- <li>added amiga-vnc,
- Matrix Orbital, and
- QNX qansi to misc/terminfo.src.
-
- <li>added os2 entry to misc/emx.src.
-
- <li>add S0 and E0 extensions to <code>screen</code>'s terminfo entry
- since otherwise the FreeBSD port makes it pass termcap equivalents
- to <code>tgoto</code>, which would be misinterpreted by older
- versions of ncurses.
- </ul>
-
- <li>improvements to program usability:
- <ul>
- <li>modify programs to use <code>curses_version()</code> string to
- report the version of ncurses with which they are compiled rather
- than the NCURSES_VERSION string. The function returns the patch
- level in addition to the major and minor version numbers.
-
- <li>modify <code>tput</code> program so it can be renamed or invoked via a link as
- 'reset' or 'init', producing the same effect as <code>tput reset</code> or <code>tput init</code>.
-
- <li>add error checking to infocmp's -v and -m options to ensure that
- the option value is indeed a number.
- </ul>
-
- <li>improved performance:
- <ul>
- <li>replace a lookup table in lib_vidattr.c used to decode
- <code>no_color_video</code> with a logic expression which is faster.
- </ul>
-
-</ul>
-Major bug fixes:
-<ul>
- <li>correct <code>manlinks.sed</code> script introduced in ncurses 5.1
- to avoid using ERE "\+", which is not understood by standard versions
- of <code>sed</code>. This happens to work with GNU <code>sed</code>,
- but is not portable, and was the initial motivation for this release.
-
- <li>remove "hpux10.*" case from CF_SHARED_OPTS configure script macro.
- This differed from the "hpux*" case by using reversed symbolic
- links, which made the 5.1 version not match the configuration of
- 5.0 shared libraries.
-
- <li>guard against corrupt terminfo data:
- <ul>
- <li>modify <code>tparm()</code> to disallow arithmetic on strings,
- analyze the varargs list to read strings as strings and numbers as
- numbers.
-
- <li>modify <code>tparm()</code>'s internal function
- <code>spop()</code> to treat a null pointer as an empty string.
-
- <li>modify <code>parse_format()</code> in lib_tparm.c to ignore
- precision if it is longer than 10000.
-
- <li>rewrote limit checks in lib_mvcur.c using new functions
- <code>_nc_safe_strcat()</code>, etc. Made other related changes to
- check lengths used for <code>strcat()</code> and
- <code>strcpy()</code>.
- </ul>
-
- <li>corrections to screen optimization:
- <ul>
- <li>added special case in lib_vidattr.c to reset underline and
- standout for devices that have no sgr0 defined.
-
- <li>change handling of <code>non_dest_scroll_region</code> in
- tty_update.c to clear text after it is shifted in rather than before
- shifting out. Also correct row computation.
-
- <li>modify <code>rs2</code> capability in xterm-r6 and similar entries
- where cursor save/restore bracketed the sequence for resetting video
- attributes. The cursor restore would undo that.
- </ul>
-
- <li>UTF-8 support:
- <ul>
- <li>when checking LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables
- for UTF-8 locale, ignore those which are set to an empty value, as
- per SUSV2.
-
- <li>encode 0xFFFD in UTF-8 with 3 bytes, not 2.
-
- <li>modify <code>_nc_utf8_outch()</code> to avoid sign-extension when
- checking for out-of-range value.
- </ul>
-
- <li>other library fixes:
- <ul>
- <li>added checks for an empty <code>$HOME</code> environment
- variable, to avoid retrieving terminfo descriptions from
- <code>./.terminfo</code> .
-
- <li>change functions <code>_nc_parse_entry()</code> and
- <code>postprocess_termcap()</code> to avoid using
- <code>strtok()</code>, because it is non-reentrant.
-
- <li>initialize <code>fds[]</code> array to 0's in
- <code>_nc_timed_wait()</code>; apparently <code>poll()</code> only
- sets the <code>revents</code> members of that array when there is
- activity corresponding to the related file.
-
- <li>add a check for null pointer in <code>Make_Enum_Type()</code>.
-
- <li>fix a heap problem with the c++ binding.
-
- <li>correct missing includes for <string.h> in several places,
- including the C++ binding. This is not noted by gcc unless we use
- the <code>-fno-builtin</code> option.
- </ul>
-
- <li>several fixes for tic:
- <ul>
- <li>add a check for empty buffers returned by <code>fgets()</code> in
- comp_scan.c <code>next_char()</code> function, in case
- <code>tic</code> is run on a non-text file (fixes a core dump).
-
- <li>modify <code>tic</code> to verify that its inputs are really files,
- in case someone tries to read a directory (or
- <code>/dev/zero</code>).
-
- <li>correct an uninitialized parameter to <code>open_tempfile()</code>
- in tic.c which made "tic -I" give an ambiguous error message about
- <code>tmpnam</code>.
-
- <li>correct logic in <code>adjust_cancels()</code>, which did not check
- both alternatives when reclassifying an extended name between
- boolean, number and string, causing an infinite loop in
- <code>tic</code>.
- </ul>
-
- <li>using new checks in <code>tic</code> for parameter counts in
- capability strings, found/fixed several errors both in the
- terminfo database and in the include/Caps file.
- <ul>
- <li>modified several terminfo capability strings, including the
- definitions for setaf, setab, in include/Caps to indicate that the
- entries are parameterized. This information is used to tell which
- strings are translated when converting to termcap. This fixes a
- problem where the generated termcap would contain a spurious "%p1"
- for the terminfo "%p1%d".
-
- <li>correct parameter counts in include/Caps for dclk as well as some
- printer-specific capabilities: csnm, defc, scs, scsd, smgtp, smglp.
- </ul>
-
- <li>various fixes for install scripts used to support configure
- <code>--srcdir</code> and <code>--with-install-prefix</code>.
-
- <li>correct several mismatches between manpage filename and ".TH"
- directives, renaming dft_fgbg.3x to default_colors.3x and
- menu_attribs.3x to menu_attributes.3x.
-</ul>
-
-Portability:
-<ul>
- <li>configure script:
- <ul>
- <li>newer config.guess, config.sub, including changes to support OS/2
- EMX. The configure script for OS/2 EMX still relies on a patch
- since there is no (working) support for that platform in the main
- autoconf distribution.
-
- <li>make configure script checks on variables <code>$GCC</code> and
- <code>$GXX</code> consistently compare against 'yes' rather than
- test if they are nonnull, since either may be set to the
- corresponding name of the C or C++ compiler.
-
- <li>change configure script to use AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM rather than
- AC_CANONICAL_HOST, which means that <code>configure --target</code>
- will set a default program-prefix.
-
- <li>modify the check for big-core to force a couple of memory
- accesses, which may work as needed for older/less-capable machines
- (if not, there's still the explicit configure option).
-
- <li>modify configure test for <code>tcgetattr()</code> to allow for
- old implementations, e.g., on BeOS, which only defined it as a
- macro.
-
- <li>add configure check for filesystems (such as OS/2 EMX) which do
- not distinguish between upper/lowercase filenames, use this to fix
- tags rules in makefiles.
-
- <li>add MKncurses_def.sh to generate fallback definitions for
- ncurses_cfg.h, to quiet gcc -Wundef warnings, modified ifdef's in
- code to consistently use "#if" rather than "#ifdef".
-
- <li>change most remaining unquoted parameters of <code>test</code> in
- configure script to use quotes, for instance fixing a problem in the
- <code>--disable-database</code> option.
-
- <li>modify scripts so that "make install.data" works on OS/2 EMX.
-
- <li>modify scripts and makefiles so the Ada95 directory builds on
- OS/2 EMX.
- </ul>
-
- <li>library:
- <ul>
- <li>replaced case-statement in <code>_nc_tracebits()</code> for CSIZE
- with a table to simplify working around implementations that define
- random combinations of the related macros to zero.
-
- <li>improved OS/2 mouse support by retrying as a 2-button mouse if code
- fails to set up a 3-button mouse.
-
- <li>added private entrypoint <code>_nc_basename()</code>, used to
- consolidate related code in progs, as well as accommodating OS/2 EMX
- pathnames.
-
- <li>alter definition of NCURSES_CONST to make it non-empty.
-
- <li>redefine 'TEXT' in menu.h for AMIGA, since it is reported to have
- an (unspecified) symbol conflict.
- </ul>
-
- <li>programs:
- <ul>
- <li>modified progs/tset.c and tack/sysdep.c to build with sgttyb
- interface if neither termio or termios is available. Tested this
- with FreeBSD 2.1.5 (which does have termios - but the sgttyb does
- work).
- </ul>
-
-</ul>
-
-<H1>Features of Ncurses</H1>
-
-The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:
-
-<UL>
-<LI>All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
-<LI>Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
-forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition of keypad
-and function keys.
-<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting
-a stack of windows with backing store, is included.
-<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting
-a uniform but flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
-<LI>An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting
-data collection through on-screen forms, is included.
-<LI>Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1) implementation
-are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format SVr4 curses uses.
-<LI>The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
-entries for use with less capable <STRONG>curses</STRONG>/<STRONG>terminfo</STRONG>
-versions such as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</UL>
-
-The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
-
-<UL>
-<LI>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).
-<LI>Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner
-of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character capability.
-<LI>Ada95 and C++ bindings.
-<LI>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2 console windows.
-<LI>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
-<LI>The function <CODE>wresize()</CODE> allows you to resize windows, preserving
-their data.
-<LI>The function <CODE>use_default_colors()</CODE> allows you to
-use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
-achieving the effect of transparent colors.
-<LI>The functions <CODE>keyok()</CODE>
-and <CODE>define_key()</CODE> allow
-you to better control 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.
-<LI>Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
-<LI>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
-cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
-or System V's.
-<LI>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code incorporates
-a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it to make optimal
-use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and line-deletion
-for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more powerful than
-the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
-<LI>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
-screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the magic-
-cookie unattributed spaces required just before the beginning and
-after the end would step on a non-space character. It will
-automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so would make it
-possible to draw the highlight without changing the visual appearance
-of the screen.
-<LI>It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
-fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal types even
-when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible (this may be useful
-for support of screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user mode).
-<LI>The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the
-ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
-AT&T extension sets.
-<LI>A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
-<LI>The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
-entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
-if it exists and the user has no write access to the system directory.
-This feature makes it easier for users to have personal terminfo entries
-without giving up access to the system terminfo directory.
-<LI>You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
-descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
-generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System V.)
-<LI>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
-other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
-compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the user's
-$HOME/.terminfo directory.
-<LI>A script (<STRONG>capconvert</STRONG>) is provided to help BSD users
-transition from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a
-TERMCAP environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file
-and converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under $HOME/.terminfo.
-<LI>Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
-when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is neither
-fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have to,
-but it's there.
-<LI>The table-of-entries utility <STRONG>toe</STRONG> makes it easy for users to
-see exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
-<LI>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry
-point have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
-prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
-<CODE>#undef</CODE>.
-<LI>An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document provides
-a narrative introduction to the curses programming interface.
-</UL>
-
-<H1>State of the Package</H1>
-
-Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the
-library is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
-`dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
-according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks and
-arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.<P>
-
-The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
-including (versions starting with those noted):
-<DL>
-<DT> cdk
-<DD> Curses Development Kit
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html">http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html</a>
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html">http://dickey.his.com/cdk</A>.
-<DT> ded
-<DD> directory-editor
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html">http://dickey.his.com/ded</A>.
-<DT> dialog
-<DD> the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis
-for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html">http://dickey.his.com/dialog</A>.
-<DT> lynx
-<DD> the character-screen WWW browser
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/release/">http://lynx.isc.org/release</A>.
-<DT> Midnight Commander 4.1
-<DD> file manager
-<br>
-<A HREF="www.gnome.org/mc/">www.gnome.org/mc/</A>.
-<DT> mutt
-<DD> mail utility
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org">http://www.mutt.org</A>.
-<DT> ncftp
-<DD> file-transfer utility
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.ncftp.com">http://www.ncftp.com</A>.
-<DT> nvi
-<DD> New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and later.
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.bostic.com/vi/">http://www.bostic.com/vi/</A>.
-<DT> tin
-<DD> newsreader, supporting color, MIME
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.tin.org">http://www.tin.org</A>.
-<DT> taper
-<DD> tape archive utility
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/">http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/</A>.
-<DT> vh-1.6
-<DD> Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html">http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html</A>.
-</DL>
-as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
-<DL>
-<DT> minicom
-<DD> terminal emulator
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html">http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html</A>.
-<DT> vile
-<DD> vi-like-emacs
-<br>
-<A HREF="http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html">http://dickey.his.com/vile</A>.
-</DL>
-<P>
-
-The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including
-a few games).
-
-<H2>Who's Who and What's What</H2>
-
-The original developers of ncurses are <A
-HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim</A> and
-<A HREF="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html">Eric S. Raymond</A>.
-Ongoing work is being done by
-<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
-and
-<A HREF="mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net">Jürgen Pfeifer</A>.
-<A HREF="mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com">Thomas Dickey</A>
-acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the
-copyright on ncurses.
-Contact the current maintainers at
-<A HREF="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</A>.
-<P>
-
-To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
-<CODE>bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</CODE> containing the line:
-<PRE>
- subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
-</PRE>
-
-This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
-testing of this package.<P>
-
-Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made available at
-<A HREF="ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses">ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses</A>.
-
-<H2>Future Plans</H2>
-<UL>
-<LI>Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization support.
-<LI>Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
-</UL>
-We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in working
-on them, please join the ncurses list.
-
-<H2>Other Related Resources</H2>
-
-The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
-terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
-<A HREF="http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo">http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo</A>.<P>
-
-You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
-not covered in the terminfo file at
-<A HREF="http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html">Richard Shuford's
-archive</A>.
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+<html>
+<head>
+ <meta name="generator" content=
+ "HTML Tidy for HTML5 for Linux version 5.6.0">
+ <title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
+ <link rel="author" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
+ "text/html; charset=us-ascii">
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+ font-size: 10pt;
+ }
+ </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+ <h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-overview" id="h2-overview">Overview</a></h2>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> (new curses)
+ library is a free software emulation of curses in System V
+ Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo format, supports
+ pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters and
+ function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
+ enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of
+ X/Open Curses.</p>
+
+ <p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
+ that he considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the
+ keepers of <span class="main-name">unix</span> releases such as
+ BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span>.</p>
+
+ <p>Since 1995, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has been
+ ported to many systems:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel
+ (aside from some embedded applications).</li>
+
+ <li>It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD
+ and MacOS.</li>
+
+ <li>It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The
+ first of these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.</li>
+
+ <li>It is used (though usually not as the <em>system</em>
+ curses) on all of the vendor <span class=
+ "main-name">unix</span> systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO,
+ Solaris, Tru64.</li>
+
+ <li>It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming
+ <span class="main-name">unix</span>.</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>The distribution includes the library and support utilities,
+ including</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion
+ tool</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/clear.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the
+ screen</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo
+ entries</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal
+ capabilities in shell scripts</li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tset</span></a>, to initialize the terminal</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.</p>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution is
+ available at <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>' <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/">homepage</a>:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/</a>
+ or<br>
+ <a href=
+ "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/</a> .</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>It is also available at the GNU distribution site</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a> .</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-release-notes" id="h2-release-notes">Release
+ Notes</a></h2>
+
+ <p>These notes are for <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
+ @VERSION@, released <strong>April 27, 2024</strong>.</p>
+
+ <p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
+ <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.4; providing
+ extensions to the application binary interface (ABI). Although
+ the source can still be configured to support the <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> 5 ABI, the reason for the release is
+ to reflect improvements to the <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> 6 ABI and the supporting utility
+ programs.</p>
+
+ <p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in
+ this announcement.</p>
+
+ <p>The most <a href="#h3-bug-fixes">important
+ bug-fixes/improvements</a> dealt with robustness issues. The
+ release notes also mention some other bug-fixes, but are focused
+ on new features and improvements to existing features since
+ <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 6.4 release.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-library" id="h3-library">Library improvements</a></h3>
+
+ <h4><a name="h4-new-library" id="h4-new-library">New features</a></h4>
+
+ <p>These are new features:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>The low-level terminfo and termcap interfaces are used
+ both by the higher-level curses library, as well as by many
+ applications.</p>
+
+ <p>The functions which convert parameterized terminal
+ capability strings for output to the terminal
+ (<code>tiparm</code> and <code>tparm</code>) analyze the
+ capability string to determine which parameters are strings
+ (i.e., addresses), versus numbers (not addresses).</p>
+
+ <p>The library's analysis of a capability string may differ
+ from the calling application's design if environment
+ variables are used to point to an invalid terminal database.
+ This is a longstanding problem with <em>all</em>
+ implementations of terminfo, dating from the early 1980s.</p>
+
+ <p>Two new functions address this problem: by providing a
+ function which allows the calling application to tell ncurses
+ how many string-parameters to expect:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><code>tiscan_s</code> helps applications check
+ formatting capabilities that would be passed to
+ <code>tiparm_s</code>.</li>
+
+ <li><code>tiparm_s</code> provides applications a way to
+ tell ncurses what the expected parameters are for a
+ capability.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The ncurses library supports a compile-time feature
+ (enabled with the configure <code>--enable-check-size</code>
+ option) which simplifies initialization with terminals which
+ do not negotiate window (screen) size. This is done in
+ <code>setupterm</code>, by providing for using ANSI
+ cursor-position report (in user6/user7 terminfo capabilities)
+ to obtain the screen size if neither environment variables or
+ ioctl is used.</p>
+
+ <p>The ncurses test-program with options
+ “<code>-E -T</code>” demonstrates this
+ feature.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>add functions to query tty-flags in
+ <code>SCREEN</code></li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>This release drops compatibility with obsolete versions of
+ <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack/">tack</a>, e.g., pre-1.08</p>
+
+ <h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
+ improvements</a></h4>
+
+ <p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>In addition to the new, safer function
+ <code>tiparm_s</code>, ncurses adds checks to make the older
+ <code>tiparm</code>, <code>tparm</code> and
+ <code>tgoto</code> functions safer:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>the terminfo functions <code>tiparm</code> and
+ <code>tparm</code> ensure that the capability string
+ comes from the terminal description which ncurses loads,
+ rather than from random data which the application
+ happens to have.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>the <code>tgoto</code> function disallows capabilities
+ which its analysis shows will attempt to use string
+ parameters.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>ncurses uses internal functions which correspond to
+ <code>tiparm</code>, and <code>tgoto</code> which ensure
+ that the capability strings which are passed to these
+ functions come from the loaded terminal description.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improve check in <code>lib_tparm.c</code>, ensuring that a
+ char* fits into a <code>TPARM_ARG</code></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>_nc_syserr_abort</code> to use
+ <code>_nc_env_access</code>, rather than only checking root
+ uid</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improve thread lock in <code>lib_trace.c</code></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>flushinp</code> to use file descriptors in
+ <code>SCREEN</code>, rather than from <code>TERMINAL</code>,
+ and check if they are for a terminal, like SVr4</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>mcprint</code> to use file descriptor in
+ <code>SCREEN</code>, for consistency</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify internal function <code>_nc_read_file_entry</code>
+ to show relevant filename in warnings</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improve checks in internal function
+ <code>convert_string</code> for corrupt terminfo entry</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>review/improve handling of out-of-memory conditions</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>limit delays to 30 seconds, i.e., padding delays in
+ terminfo, as well as <code>napms</code> and
+ <code>delay_output</code> functions</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>fix reallocation loop for <code>vsnprintf</code> in
+ <code>_nc_sprintf_string</code> by copying the va_list
+ variable</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>delscreen</code> to limit the windows which
+ it creates to just those associated with the screen</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>endwin</code> to return an error if it is
+ called again without an intervening screen update</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>wenclose</code> to handle pads</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>eliminate use of <code>PATH_MAX</code> in
+ <code>lib_trace.c</code></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>provide for any <code>CCHARW_MAX</code> greater than 1</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>correct loop termination condition in
+ <code>waddnstr</code> and <code>waddnwstr</code></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improve parsing in internal function
+ <code>_nc_msec_cost</code>, allowing a single decimal
+ point</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>amend parameter check for entire string versus specific
+ length in <code>winsnstr</code> and <code>wins_nwstr</code>
+ to match Solaris; make similar correction to
+ <code>wins_nwstr</code></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>correct internal function <code>wadd_wch_literal</code>
+ when adding a non-spacing character to a double-width
+ character</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>correct definition of <code>Charable</code> macro for
+ non-wide ncurses library .</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
+ improvements</a></h3>
+
+ <p id="h4-utilities">Several improvements were made to the
+ utility programs. Some were done to make the <code>infocmp</code>
+ option “<tt>-u</tt>” option help refactor the
+ terminal database.</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html">infocmp</a></span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>add limit checks for processing extended capabilities
+ with the “<code>-u</code>” option</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>correct initial alignment of extended capabilities, so
+ that the “<code>-u</code>” option can be used
+ for more than two terminal types</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify “<code>-u</code>” option to not
+ report cancels for strings which were already cancelled
+ in a use'd chunk.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>correct an assignment “<code>-u</code>”
+ for detecting if a boolean is unset in a base entry and
+ set in a use'd chunk, i.e., if it was cancelled.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html">tic</a></span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>correct limit-check when dumping tc/use clause via
+ “<code>-I</code>”</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>check return value of <code>_nc_save_str</code>, in
+ special case where extended capabilities are processed
+ but the terminal description was not initialized</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify check for multiply defined aliases to report
+ problems within the current runtime rather than for
+ conflicts with pre-existing terminal descriptions.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>disallow using <code>$TERMINFO</code> or
+ <code>$HOME/.terminfo</code> when
+ “<code>-o</code>” option is used</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html">tput</a></span> and <span class=
+ "part-name"><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html">tset</a></span></dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>add “<code>-v</code>” option to tput, to
+ show warnings</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <em>reset</em> command to avoid altering clocal
+ if the terminal uses a modem</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <em>reset</em> feature to avoid 1-second sleep
+ if running in a pseudo-terminal</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4>
+
+ <p>Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made
+ to the <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>test_tparm</code> to account for extended
+ capabilities</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>corrected mouse mask in <code>test/testcurs.c</code></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>test/clip_printw.c</code> to optionally test
+ non-wrapped updates</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>test/test_mouse.c</code> to use curses api
+ for raw/noraw</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <code>test/clip_printw.c</code> to optionally test
+ non-wrapped updates</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>There is one new demo/test programs:</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt><span class="part-name"><em>test/test_endwin.c</em></span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>This program shows the return-status from
+ <code>endwin</code> with different combinations of
+ <code>endwin</code> (repeated), <code>initscr</code>,
+ <code>newterm</code>.</p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal database</a></h3>
+
+ <p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ansi_apparrows"><tt>ansi+apparrows</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-contour"><tt>contour</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux_kbs"><tt>linux+kbs</tt></a>
+ for terminals which imitate xterm's behavior with Linux</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-rio"><tt>rio</tt></a>,
+ <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-rio-direct"><tt>rio-direct</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-mostlike"><tt>mostlike</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ms-vt100-16color"><tt>ms-vt100-16color</tt></a>,
+ <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-winconsole"><tt>winconsole</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt100_noapp"><tt>vt100+noapp</tt></a>,
+ <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt100_noapp_pc"><tt>vt100+noapp+pc</tt></a>,
+ <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_app_pc"><tt>xterm+app+pc</tt></a>,
+ <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_decedit"><tt>xterm+decedit</tt></a>
+ from <a href="@WEBSITE@/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_389">xterm
+ #389</a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty_cursor"><tt>putty+cursor</tt></a>
+ to reflect amending of modified cursor-keys in 2021</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-wezterm"><tt>wezterm</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
+ were updates to several descriptions, using the
+ <code>infocmp</code> “<code>-u</code>” option in a
+ script to determine which <em>building-block</em> entries could
+ be used to replace multiple capability settings (and trim
+ redundant information).</p>
+
+ <p>Other changes include:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#toc-_X_T_E_R_M__Extensions_">document</a>
+ XF, kxIN and kxOUT</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add note on <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-sun"><tt>sun</tt></a>
+ regarding wscons/cmdtool/shelltool</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>remove DECCOLM+DECSCLM from <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-foot"><tt>foot</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add xterm+focus to <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-foot_base"><tt>foot+base</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add ecma+strikeout to <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty"><tt>putty</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>use CSI 3J in <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vte-2017"><tt>vte-2017</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>use oldxterm+sm+1006 in <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vte-2014"><tt>vte-2014</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xgterm"><tt>xgterm</tt></a>
+ to work around line-drawing bug</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add xterm focus mode 1004 to <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_focus"><tt>xterm+focus</tt></a>
+ as fe/fd capabilities, like vim.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add xterm+focus to <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-alacritty_common"><tt>alacritty+common</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add XR/xr, to work with vim, and use RV/rv to denote DA2
+ and its response</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add XF flag to <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_focus"><tt>xterm+focus</tt></a>
+ so that termcap applications can be aware of terminals which
+ may support focus in/out</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>use xterm+focus in <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-p370"><tt>xterm-p370</tt></a>
+ and <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-tmux"><tt>tmux</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>remove xterm+sm+1006 from <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-tmux"><tt>tmux</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>NetBSD-related fixes for <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-x68k"><tt>x68k</tt></a> and
+ <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-wsvt25"><tt>wsvt25</tt></a></p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-documentation" id=
+ "h3-documentation">Documentation</a></h3>
+
+ <p>As usual, this release</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>improves documentation by describing new features,</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>attempts to improve the description of features which
+ users have found confusing</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were
+ described in the <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html">NEWS</a> file
+ but treated sketchily in manual pages.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>In addition to providing background information to explain
+ these features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
+ clarifications, etc.:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>Corrections:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>add assignment in <code>CF_MAN_PAGES</code> to fill in
+ value for <code>TERMINFO_DIRS</code> in ncurses, terminfo
+ and tic manpages.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>clarify interaction of <code>-R</code> option versus
+ <code>-C</code>, <code>-I</code> and <code>-r</code> in
+ <code>infocmp</code> manpage.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>correct manpage description of panel_hidden.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improve manpage description for addch versus unctrl
+ format used for non-printable characters.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improve manpages discussing file descriptors in
+ low-level functions.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>improve description of search rules for terminal
+ descriptions in terminfo manpage.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify dist.mk to avoid passing developer's comments
+ in manpages into the generated html documentation.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify test-package "ncurses6-doc" to use
+ manpage-aliases, which in turn required a change to the
+ configure script to factor in the extra-suffix option
+ when deriving alias names.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>New/improved history and portability sections:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>add information about "ttycap", termcap's forerunner,
+ to tset.1</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>document limitations of tparm, and error-returns in
+ curs_terminfo.3x</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>document limitations of tgoto, and error-returns in
+ curs_termcap.3x</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Other improvements:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>This release has many changes to improve the
+ formatting and style of the manpages.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Manpages now use consistent section-naming, page
+ headers and footers (including the modification date for
+ each page).</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Table layout has been revised.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates
+ are to existing pages).</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
+ bug-fixes</a></h3>
+
+ <p>The changes to <tt>tparm</tt>, <tt>tgoto</tt> which improve
+ the design of the low-level interfaces are <em>interesting</em>,
+ but are not bug-fixes <em>per se</em>.</p>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-config-config" id=
+ "h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a></h3>
+
+ <h4><a name="h4-config-major" id="h4-config-major">Major
+ changes</a></h4>
+
+ <p>These are the major changes (aside from introducing <a href=
+ "#h4-new-library"><tt>tiparm_s</tt></a>):</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>use wide-character (ncursesw) by default</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>use opaque typedefs by default</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>However, most of the work on configure scripts was done to
+ reduce warnings within the configure script:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>intrusive warnings from GNU grep regarding fgrep and
+ egrep</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>fatal errors in compile-checks, arising from recent
+ “Modern C” efforts by some developers which
+ caused longstanding configure checks to fail.</p>
+
+ <p>After repairing the configure script, none of that
+ activity affected ncurses because stricter warnings are used
+ routinely in development.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Other improvements made to configure checks include</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>use <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/INSTALL.html#option:enable-string-hacks">string-hacks</a>
+ in alloc_entry.c, alloc_type.c and hardscroll.c, overlooked
+ due to compiler changes in recent OpenBSD releases</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>revise progs.priv.h to provide for NC_ISATTY reuse</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>configure check for MB_LEN_MAX provides warning as
+ needed</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>trim a space after some "-R" options, fixing builds for
+ applications built using clang and ncurses on Solaris</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>work around misconfiguration of MacPorts gcc13, which
+ exposes invalid definition of <tt>MB_LEN_MAX</tt> in gcc's
+ fallback copy of <tt>limits.h</tt></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modified experimental Windows driver works with xterm
+ mouse protocol</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h4><a name="h4-config-options" id=
+ "h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4>
+
+ <p>There are a few new configure options:</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/INSTALL.html#option:disable-setuid-environ"><tt>--disable-setuid-environ</tt></a>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>Compile with environment restriction, so certain
+ environment variables are not available when running via a
+ setuid/setgid application. These are (for example
+ <tt>$TERMINFO</tt>) those that allow the search path for the
+ terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.</p>
+
+ <p>A setuid/setgid application inherits its environment
+ variables from the current user, in contrast to sudo which
+ may limit the environment variables that ncurses uses.</p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/INSTALL.html#option:enable-check-size"><tt>--enable-check-size</tt></a>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>Compile-in feature to detect screensize for terminals
+ which do not advertise their screensize, e.g., serial
+ terminals.</p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/INSTALL.html#option:with-abi-altered"><tt>--with-abi-altered=<em>NUM</em></tt></a>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>Override the displayed (rather than compiled-in) ABI. Only
+ packagers who have created configurations where the ABI
+ differs from ncurses should be interested in this option.</p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/INSTALL.html#option:with-strip-program"><tt>--with-strip-program=<em>XXX</em></tt></a>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>When stripping executables during install, use the
+ specified program rather than “strip” overriding
+ program chosen by the install program for stripping
+ executables.</p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <p>These configure options are modified:</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/INSTALL.html#option:with-pkg-config-libdir"><tt>--with-pkg-config-libdir[=<em>DIR</em>]</tt></a>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>The optional <em>DIR</em> parameter can now be
+ “auto” to automatically use pkg-config's library
+ directory.</p>
+
+ <p>The default is <tt>$(libdir)</tt>.</p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/INSTALL.html#option:with-xterm-kbs"><tt>--with-xterm-kbs[=<em>XXX</em>]</tt></a>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>The default is “auto” which tells the
+ configure script to choose BS or DEL according to platform
+ defaults.</p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <h3><a name="h3-portability" id="h3-portability">Portability</a></h3>
+
+ <p>Many of the portability changes are implemented via the
+ configure script:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>add/use configure check for <code>clock_gettime</code>, to
+ supersede <code>gettimeofday</code>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify configure script check for pkg-config library
+ directory to take into account an older version 0.15.0 which
+ used PKG_CONFIG_PATH but not PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>allow for MinGW32-/64-bit configurations to use
+ _DEFAULT_SOURCE</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify CF_XOPEN_SOURCE macro's amend default case to avoid
+ undefining _XOPEN_SOURCE if _POSIX_C_SOURCE is defined</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>updated configure script macro CF_XOPEN_SOURCE, for
+ uClibc-ng</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify version-check for gcc/g++, now works for msys2</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>build-fixes related to configure-options and/or
+ platform:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>fix for <tt>--enable-fvisibility</tt></li>
+
+ <li>fix for unusual values of
+ <tt>--with-rel-version</tt></li>
+
+ <li>fix for unusual values of
+ <tt>--with-abi-version</tt></li>
+
+ <li>fix for <tt>--disable-tcap-names</tt></li>
+
+ <li>fix for termcap in <tt>nc_access.h</tt></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>other configure-script improvements:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>recent msys2 headers work with
+ <tt>_DEFAULT_SOURCE</tt>; amend check</li>
+
+ <li>use <tt>$ac_includes_default</tt> in most cases where
+ stdlib.h should work</li>
+
+ <li>use <tt>#error</tt> consistently vs "make an
+ error"</li>
+
+ <li>add configure macro for <tt>gettimeofday</tt> vs inline
+ check</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Here are some of the other portability fixes:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>modify configure scripts/makefiles to omit
+ <tt>KEY_RESIZE</tt> if the corresponding <tt>SIGWINCH</tt>
+ feature is disabled</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>increase <tt>MB_CUR_MAX</tt> to 16, matching glibc's
+ <tt>MB_LEN_MAX</tt></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>add BSD <tt>erase2</tt> to characters handled by
+ tset/reset</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>use <tt>getauxval</tt> when available, to improve
+ <tt>setuid</tt>/<tt>setgid</tt> checks</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>set <tt>dwShareMode</tt> in calls to
+ <tt>CreateConsoleScreenBuffer</tt></p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>use <tt>CreateFile</tt> with "<tt>CONIN$</tt>",
+ "<tt>CONOUT$</tt>" rather than <tt>GetStdHandle</tt> to
+ obtain a handle on the actual console, avoiding redirection
+ in the MinGW/Win32 configurations</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify MinGW driver to return <tt>KEY_BACKSPACE</tt> when
+ an unmodified <tt>VK_BACK</tt> virtual key is entered</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>modify MinGW configuration to provide for running in
+ MSYS/MSYS2 shells, assuming ConPTY support</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <hr>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-features" id="h2-features">Features of
+ <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package is fully
+ upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
+ documented).</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports the
+ features of SVr4 curses including keyboard mapping, color,
+ form drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition
+ of keypad and function keys.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> provides work-alike
+ replacements of SVr4 supplemental libraries based on curses,
+ but which were not specified by X/Open Curses:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>the panel library, supporting a stack of windows with
+ backing store</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>the menu library, supporting a uniform but flexible
+ interface for menu programming</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>the form library, supporting data collection through
+ on-screen forms</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span>'s terminal database
+ is fully compatible with that used by SVr4 curses.</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports
+ user-defined capabilities that it can see, but which are
+ hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
+ <em>same</em> terminal database.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>It can be optionally configured to match the format
+ used in related systems such as AIX and Tru64.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Alternatively, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
+ can be configured to use hashed databases rather than the
+ directory of files used by SVr4 curses.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> utilities have
+ options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with
+ less capable <em>curses</em>/<em>terminfo</em> versions such
+ as the HP-UX and AIX ports.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package also has
+ many useful extensions over SVr4:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the
+ X/Open Curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it
+ implements all <em>BASE</em> level features, and almost all
+ <em>EXTENDED</em> 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).</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Unlike SVr3 curses, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
+ can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if
+ your terminal has an insert-character capability.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
+ FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
+ package.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
+ windows, preserving their data.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
+ use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
+ achieving the effect of transparent colors.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
+ <code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use
+ of function keys, e.g., disabling the <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more
+ than one control sequence to map to a given key code.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Support for direct-color terminals, such as modern
+ xterm.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
+ and <em>modern xterm</em>.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
+ features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
+ than either BSD's or System V's.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
+ incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that
+ enables it to make optimal use of hardware scrolling,
+ line-insertion, and line-deletion for screen-line movements.
+ This algorithm is more powerful than the 4.4BSD curses
+ <code>quickch</code> routine.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch.
+ The screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight
+ if the magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before
+ the beginning and after the end would step on a non-space
+ character. It will automatically shift highlight boundaries
+ when doing so would make it possible to draw the highlight
+ without changing the visual appearance of the screen.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>It is possible to generate the library with a list of
+ pre-loaded fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve
+ those terminal types even when no terminfo tree or termcap
+ file is accessible (this may be useful for support of
+ screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user
+ mode).</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tic</span></a>/<a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a> utility
+ provided with <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has the
+ ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
+ AT&T extension sets.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>A BSD-like <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">tset</span></a> utility is provided.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> library and
+ utilities will automatically read terminfo entries from
+ $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
+ if it exists and the user has no write access to the system
+ directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
+ personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the
+ system terminfo directory.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>You may specify a path of directories to search for
+ compiled descriptions with the environment variable
+ TERMINFO_DIRS (this generalizes the feature provided by
+ TERMINFO under stock System V.)</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not
+ just to other entries in the same source file (as in System
+ V) but also to compiled entries in either the system terminfo
+ directory or the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>The table-of-entries utility <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
+ "part-name">toe</span></a> makes it easy for users to see
+ exactly what terminal types are available on the system.</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>X/Open Curses permits most functions it specifies to be
+ made available as macros as well. ncurses does this</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>to improve performance, e.g., for operations composed
+ of simpler functions such as cursor movement following by
+ adding text to the screen,</li>
+
+ <li>to simplify the implementation by reusing functions
+ which use common parameters, e.g., the standard screen
+ <code>stdscr</code>, and</li>
+
+ <li>to provide functions that return values via their
+ parameters</li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>Except for the last case, ncurses provides a non-macro
+ implementation of the function. If the macro definition is
+ disabled with <code>#undef</code>, or by defining
+ <code>NCURSES_NOMACROS</code> the function may be linked (and
+ its calls will be checked against the prototype).</p>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>Extensive documentation is provided (see the <em><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">Additional
+ Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html"><span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> FAQ</a></em> for online
+ documentation).</p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-who-uses" id="h2-who-uses">Applications using
+ <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
+
+ <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution
+ includes a selection of test programs (including a few games).
+ These are available separately as <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a></p>
+
+ <p>The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
+ applications including:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <dl>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">aptitude</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude">https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">cdk</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>Curses Development Kit</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/cdk/">@WEBSITE@/cdk/</a><br>
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">ded</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>directory-editor</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/ded/">@WEBSITE@/ded/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">dialog</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup,
+ and the basis for similar install/configure applications on
+ many systems.</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/dialog/">@WEBSITE@/dialog/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">lynx</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>the text WWW browser</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://lynx.invisible-island.net/">https://lynx.invisible-island.net/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">mutt</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>mail utility</p>
+
+ <p><a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">ncftp</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>file-transfer utility</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://www.ncftp.com/">https://www.ncftp.com/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">nvi</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>New vi uses ncurses.</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/the-berkeley-vi-editor-home-page">
+ https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/the-berkeley-vi-editor-home-page</a><br>
+
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">ranger</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>A console file manager with VI key bindings in
+ <em>Python</em>.</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://ranger.github.io/">https://ranger.github.io/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">tin</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>newsreader, supporting color, MIME</p>
+
+ <p><a href="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">vifm</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>File manager with vi like keybindings</p>
+
+ <p><a href="https://vifm.info/">https://vifm.info/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>as well as some that use <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> for the terminfo support alone:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <dl>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">minicom</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>terminal emulator for serial modem connections</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicom">https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicom</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">mosh</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>a replacement for <code>ssh</code>.</p>
+
+ <p><a href="https://mosh.org/">https://mosh.org/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">tack</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>terminfo action checker</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">tmux</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>terminal multiplexor</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki">https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">vile</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p><em>vi-like-emacs</em> may be built to use the terminfo,
+ termcap or curses interfaces.</p>
+
+ <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/vile/">@WEBSITE@/vile/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <dl>
+ <dt><span class="part-name">emacs</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>text editor</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">less</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>The most commonly used <em>pager</em> (a program that
+ displays text files).</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/">http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">screen</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>terminal multiplexor</p>
+
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><span class="part-name">vim</span>
+ </dt>
+
+ <dd>
+ <p>text editor</p>
+
+ <p><a href="https://www.vim.org/">https://www.vim.org/</a></p>
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-development" id="h2-development">Development
+ activities</a></h2>
+
+ <p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
+ from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S.
+ Raymond continued development. Jürgen Pfeifer wrote most of
+ the form and menu libraries.</p>
+
+ <p>Ongoing development work is done by <a href=
+ "mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas E. Dickey</a>. Thomas
+ E. Dickey has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software
+ Foundation, which held a <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html">copyright on ncurses</a> for
+ releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following the release of ncurses 6.1,
+ effective as of release 6.2, copyright for ncurses reverted to
+ Thomas E. Dickey (see the <a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#relicensed">ncurses FAQ</a> for
+ additional information).</p>
+
+ <p>Contact the current maintainers at</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <a href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <a href=
+ "mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org">bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</a>
+ </blockquote>
+ containing the line:
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><code>subscribe</code>
+ <em><name>@<host.domain></em></p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
+ development and testing of this package.</p>
+
+ <p>Beta versions of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> are
+ made available at</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/</a>
+ and<br>
+ <a href=
+ "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/</a> .</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>Patches to the current release are made available at</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.4/">https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.4/</a>
+ and<br>
+ <a href=
+ "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.4/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.4/</a> .</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p><a href=
+ "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a> .</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-this-stuff" id="h2-this-stuff">Related
+ resources</a></h2>
+
+ <p>The release notes make scattered references to these pages,
+ which may be interesting by themselves:</p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html"><span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span> licensing</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol versioning
+ in <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-slang.html">Comments on
+ <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> versus <span class=
+ "main-name">slang</span> (S-Lang)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-openbsd.html">Comments on
+ <span class="main-name">OpenBSD</span></a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack – terminfo action
+ checker</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tctest.html">tctest – termcap
+ library checker</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href=
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database">Terminal
+ Database</a></li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <h2><a name="h2-other-stuff" id="h2-other-stuff">Other
+ resources</a></h2>
+
+ <p>The distribution provides a newer version of the
+ terminfo-format terminal description file once maintained by
+ <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric
+ Raymond</a> . Unlike the older version, the termcap and
+ terminfo data are provided in the same file, which also provides
+ several user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open Curses
+ specification.</p>
+
+ <p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
+ not covered in the terminfo file in <a href=
+ "https://shuford.invisible-island.net/">Richard Shuford's
+ archive</a> (<a href=
+ "http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">original</a>).
+ The collection of computer manuals at <a href=
+ "http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/">bitsavers.org</a> has also been
+ useful.</p>
+
+ <div class="nav">
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#h2-overview">Overview</a></li>
+
+ <li>
+ <a href="#h2-release-notes">Release Notes</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <a href="#h3-library">Library improvements</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#h4-new-library">New features</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h4-fixes-library">Other
+ improvements</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>
+ <a href="#h3-programs">Program improvements</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#h4-utilities">Utilities</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h4-examples">Examples</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h3-database">Terminal database</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h3-documentation">Documentation</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h3-bug-fixes">Interesting bug-fixes</a></li>
+
+ <li>
+ <a href="#h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#h4-config-major">Major changes</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h4-config-options">Configuration
+ options</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h3-portability">Portability</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-features">Features of <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-who-uses">Applications using <span class=
+ "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-development">Development activities</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-this-stuff">Related resources</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#h2-other-stuff">Other resources</a></li>
+ </ul>
+ </div>
+</body>
+</html>
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