1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 -- Copyright (c) 1998-2013,2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc. --
4 -- Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a --
5 -- copy of this software and associated documentation files (the --
6 -- "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including --
7 -- without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, --
8 -- distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell copies --
9 -- of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished --
10 -- to do so, subject to the following conditions: --
12 -- The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included --
13 -- in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. --
15 -- THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS --
16 -- OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF --
17 -- MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN --
18 -- NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, --
19 -- DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR --
20 -- OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE --
21 -- USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. --
23 -- Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright --
24 -- holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the --
25 -- sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written --
27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.170 2014/04/12 23:10:33 tom Exp $
29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
30 How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
33 ************************************************************
34 * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
35 ************************************************************
37 You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
38 d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
39 including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
40 and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
42 If you are a distribution integrator or packager, please read and act on the
43 section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR below.
45 If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
46 to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
48 If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
49 read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
51 If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
52 USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
54 If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
57 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
58 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
64 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
66 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
68 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
70 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
72 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
75 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
76 ----------------------
78 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
79 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
82 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
83 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
84 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library (see
85 "IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR"). Use --prefix=/usr to replace your
86 default curses distribution.
88 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
90 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
91 reset, clear, tput, toe, tabs
92 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
93 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
94 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
95 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
97 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
98 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
101 Do not use commands such as
103 make install prefix=XXX
105 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
106 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
108 make install DESTDIR=XXX
110 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
112 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
113 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
114 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
115 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
117 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
118 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
119 file for your system.
121 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
122 models and their associated libraries:
124 libncurses.a (normal)
126 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
127 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
129 libncurses.so (shared)
131 libncurses_g.a (debug)
133 libncurses_p.a (profile)
135 libncurses.la (libtool)
137 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
138 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
139 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
140 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
141 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
142 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
143 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
144 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
145 various systems using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
147 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
148 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
150 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
151 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
153 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
157 ./configure --with-shared
159 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
161 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
163 If you want only shared libraries, type
165 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
167 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
168 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on
169 several systems, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
170 work on other systems.
172 If you have libtool installed, you can type
174 ./configure --with-libtool
176 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
177 platform using libtool.
179 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
180 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
181 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
182 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
183 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
185 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
186 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
187 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
188 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
189 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
191 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
192 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
193 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
196 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
197 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
198 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
199 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include
200 DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
202 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
203 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
204 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
205 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
207 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
208 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
210 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
211 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
212 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
214 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
215 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
216 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
217 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
219 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
220 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
221 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
222 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
223 be installed before the terminfo data can be
225 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
227 ############################################################################
228 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
229 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
230 # before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for #
231 # this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. #
232 ############################################################################
234 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
235 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
236 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
237 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
238 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
240 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
241 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
242 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
243 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
244 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
246 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
247 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
248 undefined symbols at link time.
250 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
251 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
252 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
253 so you can use ncurses applications.
255 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
256 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
257 wide terminfo tree instead.
259 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
261 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
262 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
263 compile and run the demo.
265 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
268 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
269 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
270 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
271 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
274 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
275 ----------------------------
277 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
281 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
282 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
284 --enable and --with options recognized:
286 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
289 --disable-assumed-color
290 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
291 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
292 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
293 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
294 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
295 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
296 convention, using this configure option.
299 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
300 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
301 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
302 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
303 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
305 --disable-big-strings
306 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
307 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
311 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
312 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
313 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
314 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
315 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus
319 Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features
320 for packages, as done with --without-progs.
323 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
324 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
325 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
328 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
331 --disable-home-terminfo
332 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
333 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
334 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
335 option to disable the feature altogether.
338 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
340 --disable-libtool-version
341 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
342 are used for constructing the library name.
344 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
345 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
346 build using --with-shared.
348 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
349 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
352 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
353 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
355 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
356 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
357 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
358 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
359 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build
360 a debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
361 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
362 the remainder on exit. The ncurses utility and test programs use this
363 feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
366 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
367 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
368 compatibility with older releases).
370 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
371 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
372 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
375 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
376 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
377 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
380 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
381 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
382 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
383 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
384 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
385 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
386 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
387 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
390 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
391 rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
392 copy whatever the linked produced.
394 This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
396 --disable-root-environ
397 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
398 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
399 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
400 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
403 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
404 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
405 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
406 to suppress the feature.
408 --disable-scroll-hints
409 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
410 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
412 --disable-tic-depends
413 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
414 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
415 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
416 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
417 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
418 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
419 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
420 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
421 configure option to do that.
423 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
425 --disable-tparm-varargs
426 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
427 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
428 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
431 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
432 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
434 --enable-broken_linker
435 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
436 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
437 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
438 changes several data references to functions to work around this
441 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
442 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
443 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
444 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
448 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
449 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
452 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
453 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
454 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
455 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
458 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
459 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
460 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
461 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
462 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
463 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
464 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
465 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
466 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
467 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
468 in the interface, but at a lower level.
470 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
471 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
472 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
473 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
477 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
478 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
479 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
480 to see the options that are used).
483 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
484 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
487 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
488 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
491 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
492 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
493 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
496 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
497 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
498 similar X terminal emulators.
500 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
501 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
502 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
505 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
506 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
507 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
510 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
511 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
512 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
515 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
517 --enable-getcap-cache
518 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
520 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
521 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
522 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
523 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
524 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
525 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
528 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
529 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
530 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
534 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
535 for the form-library.
538 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
539 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
540 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
541 checks the current filesystem.
544 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
545 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
546 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
550 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
551 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
554 --enable-pthreads-eintr
555 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
556 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
559 Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
560 library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also
561 set if --with-pthread is used.
563 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
564 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
567 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
568 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
569 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
572 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
573 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
574 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
575 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
576 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
577 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
579 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
580 extra assumptions about rpath.
582 --enable-safe-sprintf
583 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
584 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
585 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
588 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
589 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
590 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
591 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
595 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
596 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
597 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
598 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
599 alteration without patching the source code.
602 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
603 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
606 --enable-string-hacks
607 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
608 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
609 is weakly standardized.
611 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
615 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
616 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
620 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
621 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
622 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
623 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
626 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
627 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
628 library with different terminal drivers.
631 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
632 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
633 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
635 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
636 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
637 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
638 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
642 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
644 --enable-weak-symbols
645 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
646 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
647 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
648 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
649 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
651 --enable-wgetch-events
652 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
655 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
656 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
659 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
660 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
661 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
663 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
664 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
665 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
666 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
667 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
670 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
672 --with-abi-version=NUM
673 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
674 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
675 special requirements for compatibility.
677 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
678 release major/minor numbers.
680 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
681 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
683 --with-ada-include=DIR
684 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
685 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
687 --with-ada-objects=DIR
688 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
691 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
693 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
694 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
695 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
698 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
699 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
700 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
704 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
705 but is not directly used by ncurses.
708 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
709 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
710 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
711 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
713 --with-build-cflags=XXX
714 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
715 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
718 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
721 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
722 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
723 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
726 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
729 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
730 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
731 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
734 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
737 --with-build-libs=XXX
738 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
739 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
741 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
745 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
746 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
747 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
748 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
749 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
750 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
753 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
754 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
755 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
758 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
759 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
760 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
761 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
762 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
763 script supplies "unsigned").
766 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
767 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
768 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
769 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
772 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
773 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
774 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
778 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
779 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
782 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
783 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
785 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
786 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
787 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
790 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
791 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
794 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
795 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
798 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
799 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
802 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
803 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
804 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
805 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
808 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
810 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
812 See also --without-dlsym
814 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
815 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
816 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
819 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
820 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
821 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
822 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
823 "--enable-compat185".
825 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
826 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
827 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
828 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
829 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
830 or hashed database respectively.
832 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
833 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
835 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
837 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
838 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
839 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
842 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
843 /usr/include/db4/db.h
844 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
846 See also the --enable-getcap option.
848 --with-install-prefix=XXX
849 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
850 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
851 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
852 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
854 make install DESTDIR=XXX
855 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
857 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
858 option probably will not work for those configurations.
860 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
861 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
862 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
863 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
864 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
865 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
866 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
867 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
868 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
871 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
872 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
873 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
874 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
875 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
876 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
878 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
879 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
880 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
882 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
883 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
884 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
885 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
886 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
888 --with-manpage-aliases
889 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
890 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
891 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
892 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
893 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
894 rather than symbolic links.
896 --with-manpage-format=XXX
897 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
898 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
899 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
900 attempts to determine which is the case.
902 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
903 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
904 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
905 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
906 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
908 --with-manpage-symlinks
909 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
910 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
911 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
912 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
913 copying the man-page for each alias.
916 Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
917 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
921 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
922 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
923 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
924 with 64-bit executables.
927 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
929 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
930 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
931 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
935 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
936 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
937 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
938 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
939 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
940 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
941 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
942 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
943 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
944 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
945 (or system, in general) may or may not.
947 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
948 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
950 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
951 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
955 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
959 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
960 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
961 for multithreaded applications.
964 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
966 --with-rel-version=NUM
967 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
968 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
969 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
970 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
973 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
974 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
975 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
977 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
978 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
981 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
982 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
983 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
984 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
985 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
986 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries. In that
987 case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it sets
988 $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
989 ./misc/shlib make install
991 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
992 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
993 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
995 --with-shlib-version=XXX
996 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
997 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
998 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1001 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1003 --with-system-type=XXX
1004 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1005 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1006 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1007 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1010 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1011 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1012 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1014 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1015 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1016 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1017 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1018 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1020 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1021 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1022 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1023 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1024 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1028 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1029 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1032 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1033 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1034 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1036 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1037 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1038 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1040 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1041 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1042 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1043 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1046 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1047 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1048 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1049 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1050 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1051 tparm's interface was defined.
1053 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1056 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1057 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1059 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1060 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1061 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1064 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1065 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1068 For testing, compile with debug option.
1069 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1071 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1072 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1073 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1074 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1075 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1076 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1077 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1078 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1079 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1080 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1083 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1084 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1087 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1088 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1091 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1094 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1095 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1096 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1097 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1098 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1099 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1100 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1102 --without-cxx-binding
1103 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1104 C++ binding and related demo.
1107 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1108 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1111 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1114 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1117 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1118 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1119 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1122 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1126 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1127 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1128 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1131 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1132 --------------------------------------------
1134 Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
1135 is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
1136 Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
1137 between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
1138 Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
1139 addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
1140 the X/Open documentation.
1142 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1143 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1149 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1150 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1151 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1154 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1155 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1156 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1157 functionally identical with the originals.
1159 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1160 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1163 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1164 are no related interface changes.
1166 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1168 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1172 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1173 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1175 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1184 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1190 Removed internal functions:
1191 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1193 Modified internal functions:
1200 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1203 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1206 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1207 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1208 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1209 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1211 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1212 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1214 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1215 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1217 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1218 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1219 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1220 several internal functions.
1222 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1223 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1224 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1225 API, there is no ABI change.
1227 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1228 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1229 of the internal functions.
1233 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1234 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1235 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1236 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1237 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1238 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1240 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1241 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1242 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1243 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1245 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1246 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1249 Added internal functions:
1260 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1261 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1262 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1267 Removed internal functions:
1270 Modified internal functions:
1276 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1278 _nc_update_screensize
1280 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1288 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1291 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1293 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1296 and (for libncursesw)
1304 Added internal functions:
1318 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1333 Removed internal functions:
1336 Modified internal functions:
1343 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1346 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1347 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1349 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1350 still use ncurses 4.2).
1352 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1353 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1354 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1357 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1358 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1359 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1360 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1361 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1364 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1365 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1366 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1367 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1369 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1370 wide-character configuration.
1372 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1375 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1377 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1378 multicolumn characters.
1380 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1381 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1383 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1384 corresponds to the default-color.
1386 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1387 to an unsigned char.
1390 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1391 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1394 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1395 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1396 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1397 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1399 Added internal functions:
1403 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1404 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1407 Removed internal functions:
1410 Modified internal functions:
1415 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1418 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1419 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1420 --enable-widec option.
1424 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1427 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1429 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1430 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1432 + change some interfaces to use const:
1444 Added internal functions:
1447 _nc_is_charable() wide
1448 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1451 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1453 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1454 _nc_unicode_locale()
1456 Removed internal functions:
1460 Modified internal functions:
1462 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1464 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1467 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1468 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1470 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1471 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1472 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1476 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1477 assume_default_colors() extension.
1483 Added internal functions:
1484 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1486 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1487 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1489 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1494 Removed internal functions:
1497 Modified internal functions:
1500 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1503 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1504 --with-ospeed configure option).
1509 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1510 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1511 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1513 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1516 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1519 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1521 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1524 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1526 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1528 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1531 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1532 parameter according to XSI.
1534 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1535 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1536 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1537 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1540 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1542 Terminfo database changes:
1544 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1545 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1547 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1549 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1550 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1551 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1552 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1555 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1556 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1557 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1558 is a bug in the older versions:
1560 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1561 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1562 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1563 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1566 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1567 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1568 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1569 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1570 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1572 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1573 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1574 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1575 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1577 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1578 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1580 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1581 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1582 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1583 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1584 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1585 initialize that terminal type.
1587 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1588 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1589 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1591 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1592 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1593 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1594 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1595 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1597 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1598 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1599 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1600 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1601 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1602 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1603 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1604 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1609 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1611 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1612 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1614 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1617 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1619 Terminfo database changes:
1621 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1626 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1627 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1628 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1630 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1631 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1632 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1633 colors in the latter.
1635 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1637 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
1638 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1639 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1640 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1642 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1644 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1647 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1648 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1649 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1651 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1652 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1653 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1654 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1657 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1658 available only as macros.
1660 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1662 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1663 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1665 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1668 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1669 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1671 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1673 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1675 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1678 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1680 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1681 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1682 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1683 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1684 specification was available only in draft form.
1686 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1687 incorrect color scheme.
1690 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1691 ------------------------------
1693 Configuration and Installation:
1695 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1696 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default:
1698 GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin
1700 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1701 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1703 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1704 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1705 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1706 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1709 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1710 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1711 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1712 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1713 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1714 you recompile and relink them!).
1716 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1717 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1718 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1719 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1720 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1722 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1723 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1724 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1725 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1729 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1730 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1731 mappings that will set this up:
1733 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1734 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1735 shift keycode 15 = F26
1736 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1738 Naming the Console Terminal
1740 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1741 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1742 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1743 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1744 be called `console'.
1746 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1747 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1748 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1749 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1750 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1751 conventions for choosing type names.
1753 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1755 linux -- Linux console driver
1760 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1761 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
1762 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1763 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1766 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1767 ---------------------
1769 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1770 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1771 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1772 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1773 are unable to update your system.
1776 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1777 ----------------------------
1779 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1780 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1781 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1782 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1783 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
1784 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
1786 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1787 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1788 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1789 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1790 entry is accessible.
1792 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1793 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1794 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1795 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
1796 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1797 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1799 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1800 might use the commands
1803 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1805 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1807 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
1809 The first three parameters of the script are normally supplied by
1810 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
1813 1) the location of the terminfo database
1814 2) the source for the terminfo entries
1815 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
1818 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
1819 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
1821 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1823 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1827 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
1828 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
1829 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
1830 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
1831 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
1832 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
1835 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
1836 --------------------
1838 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
1839 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
1840 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
1841 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
1842 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
1844 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
1845 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
1846 in the package README file.)
1848 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
1851 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1853 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
1854 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
1855 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
1856 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
1857 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
1859 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
1860 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
1861 through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
1862 slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
1865 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
1866 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
1867 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
1868 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
1869 faster) terminfo fetch.
1871 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
1872 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
1873 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
1874 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
1875 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
1877 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
1878 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
1879 compilation is expensive).
1881 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
1882 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
1884 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
1885 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
1886 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
1887 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
1890 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
1891 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
1892 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
1893 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
1895 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
1896 terminfo directory directly.
1898 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1900 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
1901 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
1902 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
1903 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
1905 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
1906 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
1907 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
1908 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
1909 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
1910 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
1911 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
1912 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
1913 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
1915 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
1917 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
1919 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
1920 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
1922 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
1924 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
1925 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
1926 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
1927 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
1928 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
1929 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
1930 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
1932 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
1933 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
1934 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
1935 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
1937 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
1938 will be made if you use
1942 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
1943 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
1946 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
1947 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
1948 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
1949 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
1950 "make install.data" portion.
1952 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
1953 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
1954 be from the most current version of ncurses.
1957 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
1958 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
1959 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
1960 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
1962 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
1963 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.