- 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.
-
- The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
- distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
- It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
-
- Release Notes
-
- This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0
- through 5.6; very few applications will require recompilation,
- depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
- change-log since ncurses 5.6 release.
-
- Interface changes:
- * generate linkable stubs for some macros:
- getattrs
-
- New features and improvements:
- * library
- + new flavor of the ncurses library provides rudimentary
- support for POSIX threads. Several functions are reentrant,
- but most require either a window-level or screen-level mutex.
- (This is API-compatible, but not ABI-compatible with the
- normal library).
- + add NCURSES_OPAQUE symbol to curses.h, will use to make
- structs opaque in selected configurations.
- + add NCURSES_EXT_FUNCS and NCURSES_EXT_COLORS symbols to
- curses.h to make it simpler to tell if the extended functions
- and/or colors are declared.
- + add wresize() to C++ binding
- + eliminate fixed-buffer vsprintf() calls in C++ binding.
- + add several functions to C++ binding which wrap C functions
- that pass a WINDOW* parameter.
- + adapt mouse-handling code from menu library in form-library
- + improve tracing for form library, showing created forms,
- fields, etc.
- + make $NCURSES_NO_PADDING feature work for termcap interface .
- + add check to trace-file open, if the given name is a
- directory, add ".log" to the name and try again.
- + several new manpages: curs_legacy.3x, curs_memleaks.3x,
- curs_opaque.3x and curs_threads.3x
- * programs:
- + modified three test-programs to demonstrate the threading
- support in this version: ditto, rain, worm.
- + several new test-programs: demo_panels, dots_mvcur,
- inch_wide, inchs, key_name, key_names, savescreen,
- savescreen.sh test_arrays, test_get_wstr, test_getstr,
- test_instr, test_inwstr and test_opaque.
- + add adacurses-config to the Ada95 install.
- + modify tic -f option to format spaces as \s to prevent them
- from being lost when that is read back in unformatted
- strings.
- + The tack program is now distributed separately from ncurses.
- * terminal database
- + added entries:
- o Eterm-256color, Eterm-88color and rxvt-88color
- o aterm
- o konsole-256color
- o mrxvt
- o screen.mlterm
- o screen.rxvt
- o teraterm4.59 is now the primary primary teraterm entry,
- renamed original to teraterm2.3
- o 9term terminal
- o Newbury Data entries
- + updated/improved entries:
- o gnome to version 2.22.3
- o h19, z100
- o konsole to version 1.6.6
- o mlterm, mlterm+pcfkeys
- o xterm, and building-blocks for function-keys to [3]xterm
- patch #230.
-
- Major bug fixes:
- * add logic to tic for cancelling strings in user-defined
- capabilities (this is needed for current konsole terminfo entry).
- * modify mk-1st.awk so the generated makefile rules for linking or
- installing shared libraries do not first remove the library, in
- case it is in use, e.g., libncurses.so by /bin/sh.
- * correct check for notimeout() in wgetch().
- * fix a sign-extension bug in infocmp's repair_acsc() function.
- * change winnstr() to stop at the end of the line.
- * make Ada95 demo_panels() example work.
- * fix for adding a non-spacing character at the beginning of a line.
- * fill in extended-color pair to make colors work for
- wide-characters using extended-colors.
- * improve refresh of window on top of multi-column characters,
- taking into account split characters on left/right window
- boundaries.
- * modify win_wchnstr() to ensure that only a base cell is returned
- for each multi-column character.
- * improve waddch() and winsch() handling of EILSEQ from mbrtowc() by
- using unctrl() to display illegal bytes rather than trying to
- append further bytes to make up a valid sequence.
- * restore curs_set() state after endwin()/refresh()
- * modify keyname() to use "^X" form only if meta() has been called,
- or if keyname() is called without initializing curses, e.g., via
- initscr() or newterm().
- * modify unctrl() to check codes in 128-255 range versus isprint().
- If they are not printable, and locale was set, use a "M-" or "~"
- sequence.
- * improve resizeterm() by moving ripped-off lines, and repainting
- the soft-keys.
- * modify form library to accept control characters such as newline
- in set_field_buffer(), which is compatible with Solaris.
- * use NCURSES_MOUSE_MASK() in definition of BUTTON_RELEASE(), etc.,
- to make those work properly with the --enable-ext-mouse
- configuration
- * correct some functions in Ada95 binding which were using return
- value from C where none was returned.
- * reviewed/fixed issues reported by Coverity and Klocwork tools.
-
- Portability:
- * configure script:
- + new options:
-
- --disable-big-strings
- control whether static string tables are generated
- as single large strings (to improve startup
- performance), or as array of individual strings.
-
- --disable-relink
- control whether shared libraries are relinked
- (during install) when rpath is enabled.
-
- --disable-tic-depends
- make explicit whether tic library depends on
- ncurses/ncursesw library.
-
- --enable-mixed-case
- override the configure script's check if the
- filesystem supports mixed-case filenames. This
- allows one to control how the terminal database
- maps to the filesystem. For filesystems that do not
- support mixed-case, the library uses generate
- 2-character (hexadecimal) codes for the lower-level
- of the filesystem terminfo database
-
- --enable-reentrant
- builds a different flavor of the ncurses library
- (ncursest) which improves reentrant use of the
- library by reducing global and static variables
- (see the "--with-pthread" option for the threaded
- support).
-
- --enable-weak-symbols
- use weak-symbols for linking to the POSIX thread
- library, and use the same soname for the ncurses
- shared library as the normal library (caveat: the
- ABI is for the threaded library, which makes global
- data accessed via functions).
-
- --with-pthread
- build with the POSIX thread library (tested with
- AIX, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, HPUX, IRIX64,
- Solaris, Tru64).
-
- --with-ticlib
- build/install the tic-support functions in a
- separate library
-
- + improved options:
-
- --enable-ext-colors
- requires the wide-character configuration.
-
- --with-chtype
- ignore option value "unsigned" is always added to
- the type in curses.h; do the same for
- --with-mmask-t.
-
- --with-dmalloc
- build-fix for redefinition of strndup.
-
- --with-hashed-db
- accepts a parameter which is the install-prefix of
- a given Berkeley Database.
-
- --with-hashed-db
- the $LIBS environment variable overrides the search
- for the db library.
-
- --without-hashed-db
- assumed when "--disable-database" is used.
-
- * other configure/build issues:
- + build-fixes for LynxOS
- + modify shared-library rules to allow FreeBSD 3.x to use
- rpath.
- + build-fix for FreeBSD "contemporary" TTY interface.
- + build-fixes for AIX with libtool.
- + build-fixes for Darwin and libtool.
- + modify BeOS-specific ifdef's to build on Haiku.
- + corrected gcc options for building shared libraries on
- Solaris and IRIX64.
- + change shared-library configuration for OpenBSD, make rpath
- work.
- + build-fixes for using libutf8, e.g., on OpenBSD 3.7
- + add "-e" option in ncurses/Makefile.in when generating
- source-files to force earlier exit if the build environment
- fails unexpectedly.
- + add support for shared libraries for QNX.
- + change delimiter in MKlib_gen.sh from '%' to '@', to avoid
- substitution by IBM xlc to '#' as part of its extensions to
- digraphs.
- * library:
- + rewrite wrapper for wcrtomb(), making it work on Solaris.
- This is used in the form library to determine the length of
- the buffer needed by field_buffer.
- + add/use configure script macro CF_SIG_ATOMIC_T, use the
- corresponding type for data manipulated by signal handlers.
- + set locale in misc/ncurses-config.in since it uses a range
- + disable GPM mouse support when $TERM does not happen to
- contain "linux", since Gpm_Open() no longer limits its
- assertion to terminals that it might handle, e.g., within
- "screen" in xterm.
- + reset mouse file-descriptor when unloading GPM library.
- * test programs:
- + update test programs to build/work with various UNIX curses
- for comparisons.
-
- Features of Ncurses
-
- The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4)
- curses:
- * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
- documented).
- * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping,
- color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
- recognition of keypad and function keys.
- * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of
- windows with backing store, is included.
- * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but
- flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
- * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection
- through on-screen forms, is included.
- * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
- implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
- SVr4 curses uses.
- * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries
- for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the
- HP/UX and AIX ports.
+ * captoinfo, a termcap conversion tool
+ * clear, utility for clearing the screen
+ * infocmp, the terminfo decompiler
+ * tabs, set tabs on a terminal
+ * tic, the terminfo compiler
+ * toe, list (table of) terminfo entries
+ * tput, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities in shell
+ scripts
+ * tset, to initialize the terminal
+
+ Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
+
+ The ncurses distribution is available at ncurses' homepage:
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/ or
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/ .
+
+ It is also available at the GNU distribution site
+
+ https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
+
+Release Notes
+
+ These notes are for ncurses 6.4, released December 31, 2022.
+
+ This release is designed to be source-compatible with ncurses 5.0
+ through 6.3; providing extensions to the application binary interface
+ (ABI). Although the source can still be configured to support the
+ ncurses 5 ABI, the reason for the release is to reflect improvements
+ to the ncurses 6 ABI and the supporting utility programs.
+
+ There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in this
+ announcement.
+
+ The most important bug-fixes/improvements 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
+ ncurses 6.3 release.
+
+ Library improvements
+
+ New features
+
+ There are no new features in this release.
+
+ Other improvements
+
+ These are improvements to existing features:
+ * modify delscreen to more effectively delete all windows on the
+ given screen.
+ * modify wnoutrefresh to call pnoutrefresh if its parameter is a
+ pad, rather than treating it as an error, and modify new_panel to
+ permit its window-parameter to be a pad
+ * modify curses_trace() to show the trace-mask as symbols, e.g.,
+ TRACE_ORDINARY, DEBUG_LEVEL(3).
+ * improve checks for valid mouse events when an intermediate mouse
+ state is not part of the mousemask specified by the caller
+ * allow extended-color number in opts parameter of wattr_on.
+ * improve _tracecchar_t2 formatting of base+combining character.
+ * trim out some unwanted linker options from ncurses*config and .pc
+ files seen in Fedora 36+.
+ * improve shell-scripts with shellcheck
+ * improve use of "trap" in shell scripts, using a script.
+ * modify make-tar.sh scripts to make timestamps more predictable.
+
+ These are corrections to existing features:
+ * modify misc/gen-pkgconfig.in to allow for the case where the
+ library directory does not yet exist, since this is processed
+ before doing an install
+ * set trailing null on string passed from winsnstr to wins_nwstr.
+ * modify waddch_literal to allow for double-width base character
+ when merging a combining character
+
+ Program improvements
+
+ Several improvements were made to the utility programs:
+
+ infocmp
+
+ + rewrite canonical_name function of infocmp to ensure buffer
+ size
+ + improve readability of long parameterized expressions with
+ the infocmp "-f" option by allowing split before a "%p"
+ marker.
+ + modify verbose-option of infocmp, tic, toe to enable
+ debug-tracing if that is configured.
+
+ tabs
+ limit tab-stop values to max-columns
+
+ tic
+ add consistency check in tic for u6/u7/u8/u9 and NQ
+ capabilities.
+
+ tput
+ corrected use of original tty-modes in init/reset subcommands
+
+ Examples
+
+ Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made to the
+ ncurses-examples. Most of this activity aimed at improving the
+ test-packages:
+ * add minimal -h (usage) and -V (version) getopt logic to all
+ ncurses-examples programs.
+ * fix an error in "@" command in test/ncurses.c F-menu
+ * add curses_trace to ifdef's for START_TRACE in test/test.priv.h
+ * improve pthread-configuration for test/worm.c
+ * add setlocale call to several test-programs.
+ * workaround in test/picsmap.c for use of floating point for rgb
+ values by ImageMagick 6.9.11, which appears to use the wrong upper
+ limit.
+ * use static libraries for AdaCurses test-package for Mageia, since
+ no gprbuild package is available.
+ * install Ada95 sample programs in libexecdir, adding a wrapper
+ script to invoke those.
+ * install ncurses-examples programs in libexecdir, adding a wrapper
+ script to invoke those.
+
+ There are other new demo/test programs and reusable examples:
+
+ test/combine
+ demonstrate combining characters
+
+ test/test_delwin
+ demonstrate deleting a window
+
+ test/test_mouse
+ observe mouse events in the raw terminal or parsed ncurses
+ modes
+
+ test/test_unget_wch
+ demonstrate the unget_wch and unget functions
+
+ Terminal database
+
+ There are several new terminal descriptions:
+ * mosh
+ * mosh-256color
+ * teken-16color
+ * teken-sc
+ * teken-vt
+ * xgterm
+
+ There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some were
+ updates to several descriptions:
+ * make description-fields distinct
+ * fix errata in description fields
+ * add/use several building-blocks:
+ + aixterm+sl
+ + ansi+cpr
+ + apollo+vt132
+ + decid+cpr
+ + ncr260vp+sl
+ + wyse+sl
+ + x10term+sl
+ + xterm+acs
+ + xterm+alt47
+
+ while others affected specific descriptions. These were retested, to
+ take into account changes by their developers:
+ * kitty
+ * teken
+
+ while these are specific fixes based on reviewing documentation, user
+ reports, or warnings from tic:
+
+ att610+cvis0
+ amended note as per documentation for att610, att620, att730
+
+ kon, kon2, jfbterm
+ revise to undo "linux2.6" change to smacs/rmacs/enacs
+
+ st-0.6
+ add dim, ecma+strikeout
+
+ foot+base
+ add xterm+sl-alt
+
+ dec+sl
+ correct dsl in dec+sl
+
+ mintty and tmux
+ correct setal in mintty/tmux entries, add to vte-2018
+
+ nsterm
+ modify nsterm to use xterm+alt1049
+
+ putty
+ modify putty to use xterm+alt1049
+
+ vte-2018
+ add blink and setal
+
+ A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal capabilities):
+ * use ansi+enq and decid+cpr in cases where the terminal probably
+ supported the u6-u9 extension
+ * remove u6-u9 from teken-2018
+ * use NQ to flag entries where the terminal does not support query
+ and response
+ * add/use bracketed+paste to help identify terminals supporting this
+ xterm feature
+ * modify samples for xterm mouse 1002/1003 modes to use 1006 mode,
+ and also provide for focus in/out responses
+ * xterm patch #371 supports DEC-compatible status-line. add dec+sl
+ to xterm-new, per xterm #371, add xterm-p371, add xterm-p370, for
+ use in older terminals, and set "xterm-new" to "xterm-p370" (to
+ ease adoption).
+
+ Documentation
+
+ As usual, this release
+ * improves documentation by describing new features,
+ * attempts to improve the description of features which users have
+ found confusing
+ * fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were described
+ in the NEWS file but treated sketchily in manual pages.
+
+ In addition to providing background information to explain these
+ features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
+ clarifications, etc.:
+ * Corrections:
+ + remove a stray '/' from description of %g in terminfo(5).
+ + correct/improve font-formatting in curs_getch.3x, as well as
+ other manual pages.
+ * New/improved history and portability sections:
+ + add portability notes for delscreen and delwin in manual.
+ + improve curs_slk.3x discussion of extensions and portability
+ * Other improvements:
+ + improve curs_bkgd.3x, explaining that bkgdset can affect
+ results for bkgd
+ + add note on portable memory-leak checking in curs_memleaks.3x
+ + expanded description in resizeterm.3x
+ + add section on releasing memory to curs_termcap.3x and
+ curs_terminfo.3x manpages.
+ + add clarification of the scope of dynamic variables in
+ terminfo(5).
+ + improve formatting of ncurses-intro.html and hackguide.html
+ + improve curs_clear.3x links to other pages
+ + update ncurses-howto, making documentation fixes along with
+ corrections to example programs.
+ + use newer version 1.36 of gnathtml for generating Ada html
+ files.
+ + update external links in Ada95.html
+
+ There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates are to
+ existing pages).
+
+ Interesting bug-fixes
+
+ While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses 6.4,
+ only a few (the reason for this release) were both important and
+ interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues which did not
+ affect compatibility across releases. Since those are detailed in the
+ NEWS file no elaboration is needed here.
+
+ The interesting bugs were those dealing with memory leaks and buffer
+ overflows. Although the utilities are designed for text files (which
+ they do properly), some choose to test them with non-text files.
+ * Text files contain no embedded nulls. Also, they end with a
+ newline. Feeding tic non-text files exposed a few cases where the
+ program did not check for those issues. As a result, further
+ processing of the input found limit-checks whose assumptions were
+ invalid.
+ * Fixing the limit-checks (first) found a problem with tic managing
+ the list of strings in a terminal description. In merging two
+ terminal descriptions (i.e., the "use=" feature), tic was not
+ allocating a complete copy. A quick repair for that introduced a
+ memory leak.
+ * The checks for non-text files are improved (i.e., embedded nulls
+ in the input file will cause tic to reject it rather than
+ attempting to process it).
+ * The string allocations in tic are likewise improved.
+
+ Configuration changes
+
+ Major changes
+
+ There are no major changes. No new options were added. Several
+ improvements were made to configure checks.
+
+ Configuration options
+
+ There are a few new/modified configure options:
+
+ --with-abi-version
+ add ABI 7 defaults to configure script.
+
+ --with-caps
+ add warning in configure script if file specified for
+ "--with-caps" does not exist.
+
+ --with-manpage-format
+ bzip2 and xz compression are now supported
+
+ --with-xterm-kbs
+ add check/warning in configure script if option
+ "--with-xterm-kbs" is missing or inconsistent
+
+ Portability
+
+ Many of the portability changes are implemented via the configure
+ script:
+ * amend configure option's auto-search to account for systems where
+ none of the directories known to pkg-config exist
+ * corrected regex needed for older pkg-config used in Solaris 10
+ * improve handling of --with-pkg-config-libdir option, allowing for
+ the case where either $PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR or the option value has a
+ colon-separated list of directories
+ * if the --with-pkg-config-libdir option is not given, use
+ ${libdir}/pkgconfig as a default
+ * improve search-path check for pkg-config, e.g., for Debian testing
+ which installs pkg-config with architecture-prefixes.
+ * build-fix for cross-compiling to MingW, conditionally add -lssp
+ * improve configure check for getttynam
+ * fixes to build with dietlibc:
+ + add configure check for fpathconf
+ + add configure check for math sine/cosine, needed in
+ test/tclock, and eliminate pow() from test/hanoi
+ + use wcsnlen as an alternative to wmemchr if it is not found
+ * modify configure macro CF_BUILD_CC to check if the build-compiler
+ works, rather than that it is different from the cross-compiler,
+ e.g., to accommodate a compiler which can be used for either
+ purpose with different flags
+ * modify configure/scripts to work around interference by GNU grep
+ 3.8
+
+ Here are some of the other portability fixes:
+ * change man_db.renames to template, to handle ncurses*-config
+ script with the --extra-suffix configure option.
+ * update CF_XOPEN_SOURCE macro, adding variants "gnueabi" and
+ "gnueabihf" to get _DEFAULT_SOURCE special case, as well as adding
+ GNU libc suffixes for "abi64", "abin32", "x32" to distinguish it
+ from other libc flavors.
+ * work around musl's nonstandard use of feature test macros by
+ adding a definition for NCURSES_WIDECHAR to the generated ".pc"
+ and *-config files.
+ * use "command -v" rather than "type" in Ada95/gen/Makefile.in to
+ fix a portability issue.
+ _________________________________________________________________
+
+Features of ncurses
+
+ The ncurses package is fully upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V
+ Release 4) curses:
+ * All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
+ * ncurses supports all of the for SVr4 curses features including
+ keyboard mapping, color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and
+ automatic recognition of keypad and function keys.
+ * ncurses provides these SVr4 add-on libraries (not part of X/Open
+ Curses):
+ + the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
+ backing store.
+ + the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
+ interface for menu programming.
+ + the form library, supporting data collection through
+ on-screen forms.
+ * ncurses's terminal database is fully compatible with that used by
+ SVr4 curses.
+ + ncurses supports user-defined capabilities which it can see,
+ but which are hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
+ same terminal database.
+ + It can be optionally configured to match the format used in
+ related systems such as AIX and Tru64.
+ + Alternatively, ncurses can be configured to use hashed
+ databases rather than the directory of files used by SVr4
+ curses.
+ * The ncurses utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
+ entries for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as
+ the HP-UX and AIX ports.