method of updating character screens with reasonable optimization.
This implementation is "new curses" (ncurses) and is the approved
replacement for 4.4BSD classic curses, which has been discontinued.
- This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.2 (patch 20201205).
+ This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 6.2 (patch 20201212).
The <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> library emulates the curses library of System V Release 4
UNIX, and XPG4 (X/Open Portability Guide) curses (also known as XSI
standard place. For example, if <STRONG>TERM</STRONG> is set to <STRONG>att4424</STRONG>, then the com-
piled terminal definition is found in
- <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/a/att4424</STRONG>.
+ <STRONG>/usr/local/ncurses/lib/terminfo/a/att4424</STRONG>.
(The <STRONG>a</STRONG> is copied from the first letter of <STRONG>att4424</STRONG> to avoid creation of
huge directories.) However, if <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> is set to <STRONG>$HOME/myterms</STRONG>,
and if that fails, it then checks
- <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo/a/att4424</STRONG>.
+ <STRONG>/usr/local/ncurses/lib/terminfo/a/att4424</STRONG>.
This is useful for developing experimental definitions or when write
- permission in <STRONG>/usr/share/terminfo</STRONG> is not available.
+ permission in <STRONG>/usr/local/ncurses/lib/terminfo</STRONG> is not available.
The integer variables <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> and <STRONG>COLS</STRONG> are defined in <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG> and will
be filled in by <STRONG>initscr</STRONG> with the size of the screen. The constants
<STRONG>o</STRONG> /usr/local/ncurses/share/terminfo:/usr/share/terminfo (corre-
sponding to the TERMINFO_DIRS variable)
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> /usr/share/terminfo (corresponding to the TERMINFO variable)
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> /usr/local/ncurses/lib/terminfo (corresponding to the TER-
+ MINFO variable)
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-TERMINFO_DIRS">TERMINFO_DIRS</a></H3><PRE>
- Specifies a list of locations to search for terminal descriptions.
- Each location in the list is a terminal database as described in the
- section on the <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> variable. The list is separated by colons
+ Specifies a list of locations to search for terminal descriptions.
+ Each location in the list is a terminal database as described in the
+ section on the <STRONG>TERMINFO</STRONG> variable. The list is separated by colons
(i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX.
There is no corresponding feature in System V terminfo; it is an exten-
</PRE><H3><a name="h3-TERMPATH">TERMPATH</a></H3><PRE>
- If <STRONG>TERMCAP</STRONG> does not hold a file name then <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> checks the <STRONG>TERMPATH</STRONG>
- environment variable. This is a list of filenames separated by spaces
+ If <STRONG>TERMCAP</STRONG> does not hold a file name then <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> checks the <STRONG>TERMPATH</STRONG>
+ environment variable. This is a list of filenames separated by spaces
or colons (i.e., ":") on Unix, semicolons on OS/2 EMX.
- If the <STRONG>TERMPATH</STRONG> environment variable is not set, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> looks in the
+ If the <STRONG>TERMPATH</STRONG> environment variable is not set, <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> looks in the
files
/etc/termcap, /usr/share/misc/termcap and $HOME/.termcap,
in that order.
The library may be configured to disregard the following variables when
- the current user is the superuser (root), or if the application uses
+ the current user is the superuser (root), or if the application uses
setuid or setgid permissions:
$TERMINFO, $TERMINFO_DIRS, $TERMPATH, as well as $HOME.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-ALTERNATE-CONFIGURATIONS">ALTERNATE CONFIGURATIONS</a></H2><PRE>
Several different configurations are possible, depending on the config-
- ure script options used when building <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>. There are a few main
- options whose effects are visible to the applications developer using
+ ure script options used when building <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>. There are a few main
+ options whose effects are visible to the applications developer using
<STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>:
--disable-overwrite
<STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><curses.h></STRONG>
- This option is used to avoid filename conflicts when <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> is
+ This option is used to avoid filename conflicts when <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> is
not the main implementation of curses of the computer. If <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG>
- is installed disabling overwrite, it puts its headers in a subdi-
+ is installed disabling overwrite, it puts its headers in a subdi-
rectory, e.g.,
<STRONG>#include</STRONG> <STRONG><ncurses/curses.h></STRONG>
- It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you to use
+ It also omits a symbolic link which would allow you to use
<STRONG>-lcurses</STRONG> to build executables.
--enable-widec
- The configure script renames the library and (if the <STRONG>--dis-</STRONG>
- <STRONG>able-overwrite</STRONG> option is used) puts the header files in a differ-
+ The configure script renames the library and (if the <STRONG>--dis-</STRONG>
+ <STRONG>able-overwrite</STRONG> option is used) puts the header files in a differ-
ent subdirectory. All of the library names have a "w" appended to
them, i.e., instead of
<STRONG>-lncursesw</STRONG>
- You must also enable the wide-character features in the header
- file when compiling for the wide-character library to use the
- extended (wide-character) functions. The symbol which enables
+ You must also enable the wide-character features in the header
+ file when compiling for the wide-character library to use the
+ extended (wide-character) functions. The symbol which enables
these features has changed since XSI Curses, Issue 4:
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> Originally, the wide-character feature required the symbol
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Originally, the wide-character feature required the symbol
<STRONG>_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED</STRONG> but that was only valid for XPG4
(1996).
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> Later, that was deemed conflicting with <STRONG>_XOPEN_SOURCE</STRONG> defined
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Later, that was deemed conflicting with <STRONG>_XOPEN_SOURCE</STRONG> defined
to 500.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> As of mid-2018, none of the features in this implementation
- require a <STRONG>_XOPEN_SOURCE</STRONG> feature greater than 600. However,
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> As of mid-2018, none of the features in this implementation
+ require a <STRONG>_XOPEN_SOURCE</STRONG> feature greater than 600. However,
X/Open Curses, Issue 7 (2009) recommends defining it to 700.
- <STRONG>o</STRONG> Alternatively, you can enable the feature by defining
- <STRONG>NCURSES_WIDECHAR</STRONG> with the caveat that some other header file
- than <STRONG>curses.h</STRONG> may require a specific value for <STRONG>_XOPEN_SOURCE</STRONG>
+ <STRONG>o</STRONG> Alternatively, you can enable the feature by defining
+ <STRONG>NCURSES_WIDECHAR</STRONG> with the caveat that some other header file
+ than <STRONG>curses.h</STRONG> may require a specific value for <STRONG>_XOPEN_SOURCE</STRONG>
(or a system-specific symbol).
- The <STRONG>curses.h</STRONG> file which is installed for the wide-character
- library is designed to be compatible with the normal library's
- header. Only the size of the <STRONG>WINDOW</STRONG> structure differs, and very
+ The <STRONG>curses.h</STRONG> file which is installed for the wide-character
+ library is designed to be compatible with the normal library's
+ header. Only the size of the <STRONG>WINDOW</STRONG> structure differs, and very
few applications require more than a pointer to <STRONG>WINDOW</STRONG>s.
- If the headers are installed allowing overwrite, the wide-charac-
- ter library's headers should be installed last, to allow applica-
- tions to be built using either library from the same set of head-
+ If the headers are installed allowing overwrite, the wide-charac-
+ ter library's headers should be installed last, to allow applica-
+ tions to be built using either library from the same set of head-
ers.
--with-pthread
- The configure script renames the library. All of the library
- names have a "t" appended to them (before any "w" added by
+ The configure script renames the library. All of the library
+ names have a "t" appended to them (before any "w" added by
<STRONG>--enable-widec</STRONG>).
The global variables such as <STRONG>LINES</STRONG> are replaced by macros to allow
read-only access. At the same time, setter-functions are provided
- to set these values. Some applications (very few) may require
+ to set these values. Some applications (very few) may require
changes to work with this convention.
--with-shared
--with-debug
--with-profile
- The shared and normal (static) library names differ by their suf-
- fixes, e.g., <STRONG>libncurses.so</STRONG> and <STRONG>libncurses.a</STRONG>. The debug and pro-
- filing libraries add a "_g" and a "_p" to the root names respec-
+ The shared and normal (static) library names differ by their suf-
+ fixes, e.g., <STRONG>libncurses.so</STRONG> and <STRONG>libncurses.a</STRONG>. The debug and pro-
+ filing libraries add a "_g" and a "_p" to the root names respec-
tively, e.g., <STRONG>libncurses_g.a</STRONG> and <STRONG>libncurses_p.a</STRONG>.
--with-termlib
- Low-level functions which do not depend upon whether the library
+ Low-level functions which do not depend upon whether the library
supports wide-characters, are provided in the tinfo library.
- By doing this, it is possible to share the tinfo library between
- wide/normal configurations as well as reduce the size of the
+ By doing this, it is possible to share the tinfo library between
+ wide/normal configurations as well as reduce the size of the
library when only low-level functions are needed.
Those functions are described in these pages:
<STRONG>o</STRONG> <STRONG><A HREF="curs_util.3x.html">curs_util(3x)</A></STRONG> - miscellaneous <STRONG>curses</STRONG> utility routines
--with-trace
- The <STRONG>trace</STRONG> function normally resides in the debug library, but it
+ The <STRONG>trace</STRONG> function normally resides in the debug library, but it
is sometimes useful to configure this in the shared library. Con-
- figure scripts should check for the function's existence rather
+ figure scripts should check for the function's existence rather
than assuming it is always in the debug library.
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-FILES">FILES</a></H2><PRE>
/usr/share/tabset
- directory containing initialization files for the terminal capa-
- bility database /usr/share/terminfo terminal capability database
+ directory containing initialization files for the terminal capa-
+ bility database /usr/local/ncurses/lib/terminfo terminal capabil-
+ ity database
</PRE><H2><a name="h2-SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></H2><PRE>
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff