- Announcing ncurses 5.6
+ Announcing ncurses 6.4
+
+Overview
The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
- curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
- supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters
- and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses
- enhancements over BSD curses.
+ curses in System V Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo
+ format, supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms
+ characters and function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
+ enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of X/Open
+ Curses.
In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
- considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of Unix
+ considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of unix
releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to ncurses.
- The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It has been in use for
- some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library, and on FreeBSD
- and NetBSD as an external package. It should port easily to any
- ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!
+ Since 1995, ncurses has been ported to many systems:
+ * It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel (aside
+ from some embedded applications).
+ * It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD and
+ MacOS.
+ * It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The first of
+ these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.
+ * It is used (though usually not as the system curses) on all of the
+ vendor unix systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO, Solaris,
+ Tru64.
+ * It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming unix.
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
- a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
- tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
- manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
-
- 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 5.5; very few applications will require recompilation,
- depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
- change-log since ncurses 5.5 release.
-
- Interface changes:
- * generate linkable stubs for some macros:
- getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
- getpary, getpary,
- and (for libncursesw)
- wgetbkgrnd
-
- New features and improvements:
- * library
- + support hashed databases for the terminal descriptions. This
- uses the Berkeley database, has been tested for several
- versions on different platforms.
- + add use_legacy_coding() function to support lynx's
- font-switching feature.
- + add extension nofilter(), to cancel a prior filter() call.
- + add/install a package config script, e.g., ncurses5-config or
- ncursesw5-config, according to configuration options.
- + provide ifdef for NCURSES_NOMACROS which suppresses most
- macro definitions from curses.h, i.e., where a macro is
- defined to override a function to improve performance.
- + make ifdef's consistent in curses.h for the extended colors
- so the header file can be used for the normal curses library.
- The header file installed for extended colors is a variation
- of the wide-character configuration.
- + improve tgetstr() by making the return value point into the
- user's buffer, if provided.
- + add ifdef's allowing ncurses to be built with tparm() using
- either varargs (the existing status), or using a
- fixed-parameter list (to match X/Open).
- + widen the test for xterm kmous a little to allow for other
- strings than "\E[M", e.g., for xterm-sco functionality in
- xterm.
- + modify wgetnstr() to return KEY_RESIZE if a sigwinch occurs.
- + move prototypes for wide-character trace functions from
- curses.tail to curses.wide to avoid accidental reference to
- those if _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED is defined without ensuring
- that <wchar.h> is included.
- + change the way shared libraries (other than libtool) are
- installed. Rather than copying the build-tree's libraries,
- link the shared objects into the install directory. This
- makes the --with-rpath option work except with $(DESTDIR).
- + several improvements for rendering in hpterm. These are only
- available if the library is configured using
- --enable-xmc-glitch.
- + Add NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS and NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE
- environment variables to allow runtime suppression of the
- related hard-tabs and xmc-glitch features.
- * programs:
- + add new test programs: chgat.c, demo_altkeys.c, echochar.c,
- foldkeys.c, movewindow.c, redraw.c, (noting that existing
- test programs also were modified to test additional
- features).
- + modify tack to test extended capability function-key strings.
- + modify toe to access termcap data, e.g., via cgetent()
- functions, or as a text file if those are not available.
- + improve infocmp/tic -f option formatting.
- + add toe -a option, to show all databases. This uses new
- private interfaces in the ncurses library for iterating
- through the list of databases.
- + modify MKfallback.sh to use tic -x when constructing fallback
- tables to allow extended capabilities to be retrieved from a
- fallback entry.
- * terminal database
- + add terminfo entries for xfce terminal (xfce) and multi gnome
- terminal (mgt)
- + add nsterm-16color entry
- + updated mlterm terminfo entry
- + add kon, kon2 and jfbterm terminfo entry
- + remove invis capability from klone+sgr, mainly used by linux
- entry, since it does not really do this
- + add ka2, kb1, kb3, kc2 to vt220-keypad as an extension
- + add shifted up/down arrow codes to xterm-new as kind/kri
- strings
- + add hpterm-color terminfo entry
- + add 256color variants of terminfo entries for programs which
- are reported to implement this feature
- + correct order of use-clauses in rxvt-basic entry which made
- codes for f1-f4 vt100-style rather than vt220-style.
-
- Major bug fixes:
- * correct a typo in configure --with-bool option for the case where
- --without-cxx is used.
- * move assignment from environment variable ESCDELAY from initscr()
- down to newterm() so the environment variable affects timeouts for
- terminals opened with newterm() as well.
- * modify werase to clear multicolumn characters that extend into a
- derived window.
- * modify wchgat() to mark updated cells as changed so a refresh will
- repaint those cells.
- * correct logic in wadd_wch() and wecho_wch(), which did not guard
- against passing the multi-column attribute into a call on
- waddch(), e.g., using data returned by win_wch()
- * fix redrawing of windows other than stdscr using wredrawln() by
- touching the corresponding rows in curscr.
- * reduce memory leaks in repeated calls to tgetent() by remembering
- the last TERMINAL* value allocated to hold the corresponding data
- and freeing that if the tgetent() result buffer is the same as the
- previous call.
- * modify read_termtype() so the term_names data is always allocated
- as part of the str_table, a better fix for a memory leak.
- * fix wins_nwstr(), which did not handle single-column non-8bit
- codes.
- * modify wbkgrnd() to avoid clearing the A_CHARTEXT attribute bits
- since those record the state of multicolumn characters.
- * improve SIGWINCH handling by postponing its effect during
- newterm(), etc., when allocating screens.
- * remove 970913 feature for copying subwindows as they are moved in
- mvwin().
- * add checks in waddchnstr() and wadd_wchnstr() to stop copying when
- a null character is found.
- * add some checks to ensure current position is within scrolling
- region before scrolling on a new line.
- * add a workaround to ACS mapping to allow applications such as
- test/blue.c to use the "PC ROM" characters by masking them with
- A_ALTCHARSET. This worked up til 5.5, but was lost in the revision
- of legacy coding.
-
- Portability:
- * configure script:
- + new options:
-
- --with-hashed-db
- Use Berkeley hashed database for storing terminfo
- data rather than storing each compiled entry in a
- separate binary file within a directory tree.
-
- --without-dlsym
- Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
-
- --with-valgrind
- Simplify building for testing with valgrind.
-
- --enable-wgetch-events
- Compile with experimental wgetch-events code.
-
- --enable-signed-char
- Store booleans in "signed char" rather than "char".
-
- + improved options:
-
- --disable-largefile
- make the option work both ways.
-
- --with-gpm
- The option now accepts a parameter, i.e., the name
- of the dynamic GPM library to load via dlopen()
-
- --disable-symlinks
- The option now allows one to disable symlink() in
- tic even when link() does not work.
-
- * other configure/build issues:
- + remove special case for Darwin in CF_XOPEN_SOURCE configure
- macro.
- + add configure check to ensure that SIGWINCH is defined on
- platforms such as OS X which exclude that when _XOPEN_SOURCE,
- etc., are defined
- + use ld's -search_paths_first option on Darwin to work around
- odd search rules on that platform.
- + improve ifdef's for _POSIX_VDISABLE in tset to work with Mac
- OS X.
- + modify configure script to ensure that if the C compiler is
- used rather than the loader in making shared libraries, the
- $(CFLAGS) variable is also used.
- + use ${CC} rather than ${LD} in shared library rules for
- IRIX64, Solaris to help ensure that initialization sections
- are provided for extra linkage requirements, e.g., of C++
- applications.
- + improve some shared-library configure scripting for Linux,
- FreeBSD and NetBSD to make --with-shlib-version work.
- + split up dependency of names.c and codes.c in
- ncurses/Makefile to work with parallel make.
- + modify MKlib_gen.sh to change preprocessor-expanded _Bool
- back to bool.
- + modify progs/Makefile.in to make tput init work properly with
- cygwin, i.e., do not pass a .exe in the reference string used
- in check_aliases.
- * library:
- + ignore wide-acs line-drawing characters that wcwidth() claims
- are not one-column. This is a workaround for Solaris' broken
- locale support.
- + reduce name-pollution in term.h by removing #define's for
- HAVE_xxx symbols.
- + fix #ifdef in c++/internal.h for QNX 6.1
- * test programs:
- + modify test/configure script to allow building test programs
- with PDCurses/X11.
- + modified test programs to allow some to work with NetBSD
- curses. Several do not because NetBSD curses implements a
- subset of X/Open curses, and also lacks much of SVr4
- additions. But it is enough for comparison.
- + improved test/configure to build test/ncurses on HPUX 11
- using the vendor curses.
- + change configure script to produce test/Makefile from data
- file.
-
- 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.
The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
* The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
* Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and FreeBSD
and OS/2 console windows.
* Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
- * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
+ * The function wresize allows you to resize windows, preserving
their data.
- * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
+ * The function use_default_colors allows you to use the terminal's
default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
transparent colors.
- * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control
- the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
- or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given
- key code.
+ * The functions keyok and define_key allow you to better control the
+ use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, or by
+ defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key
+ code.
+ * Support for direct-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
+ * Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
* Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm.
* Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
- powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
+ powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch routine.
* Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
(this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
must run in single-user mode).
- * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability
- to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
+ * The tic/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability to
+ translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
sets.
- * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
+ * A BSD-like tset utility is provided.
* The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
- * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition
- from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP
- environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and
- converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under
- $HOME/.terminfo.
- * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
- when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is
- neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have
- to, but it's there.
* The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
* The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
- have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
+ has a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
#undef.
- * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
- provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
- interface.
+ * Extensive documentation is provided (see the Additional Reading
+ section of the ncurses FAQ for online documentation).
+
+Applications using ncurses
- State of the Package
+ The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
+ (including a few games). These are available separately as
+ ncurses-examples
- Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
- is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
- `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
- according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
- and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
+ The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
+ applications including:
- The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
- including (versions starting with those noted):
+ aptitude
+ FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager
+
+ https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- [4]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/cdk/
ded
directory-editor
- [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/ded/
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
- basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
- [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
+ basis for similar install/configure applications on many
+ systems.
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
- the character-screen WWW browser
- [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ the text WWW browser
- Midnight Commander
- file manager
- [8]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
+ https://lynx.invisible-island.net/
mutt
mail utility
- [9]http://www.mutt.org/
+
+ http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
- [10]http://www.ncftp.com/
+
+ https://www.ncftp.com/
nvi
- New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
- later.
- [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/
+ New vi uses ncurses.
+
+ https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi
- pinfo
- Lynx-like info browser.
- [12]http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
+ ranger
+ A console file manager with VI key bindings in Python.
+
+ https://ranger.github.io/
tin
- newsreader, supporting color, MIME [13]http://www.tin.org/
+ newsreader, supporting color, MIME
+
+ http://www.tin.org/
+
+ vifm
+ File manager with vi like keybindings
- vh-1.6
- Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
- [14]http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
+ https://vifm.info/
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
minicom
- terminal emulator
- [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+ terminal emulator for serial modem connections
+
+ https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+
+ mosh
+ a replacement for ssh.
+
+ https://mosh.org/
+
+ tack
+ terminfo action checker
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
+
+ tmux
+ terminal multiplexor
+
+ https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki
vile
- vi-like-emacs
- [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile/
+ vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, termcap or
+ curses interfaces.
- The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
- (including a few games).
+ https://invisible-island.net/vile/
+
+ and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:
+
+ emacs
+ text editor
+
+ https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
+
+ less
+ The most commonly used pager (a program that displays text
+ files).
+
+ http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/
+
+ screen
+ terminal multiplexor
+
+ https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
+
+ vim
+ text editor
+
+ https://www.vim.org/
-Who's Who and What's What
+Development activities
- Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by
- Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Juergen Pfeifer
- wrote most of the form and menu libraries. Ongoing work is being done
- by [17]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
- Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
- Contact the current maintainers at [18]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
+ Zeyd Ben-Halim started ncurses from a previous package pcurses,
+ written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development.
+ Juergen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
- To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
- bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
- subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
+ Ongoing development work is done by Thomas E. Dickey. Thomas E. Dickey
+ has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which
+ held a copyright on ncurses for releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following
+ the release of ncurses 6.1, effective as of release 6.2, copyright for
+ ncurses reverted to Thomas E. Dickey (see the ncurses FAQ for
+ additional information).
+
+ Contact the current maintainers at
+
+ bug-ncurses@gnu.org
+
+ To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
+
+ bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org
+
+ containing the line:
+
+ subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
and testing of this package.
- Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
- available at [19]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
+ Beta versions of ncurses are made available at
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/ and
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/ .
+
+ Patches to the current release are made available at
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/ and
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/ .
+
+ There is an archive of the mailing list here:
-Future Plans
+ http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses (also https)
- * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
- support.
- * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
+Related resources
- We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
- working on them, please join the ncurses list.
+ The release notes make scattered references to these pages, which may
+ be interesting by themselves:
+ * ncurses licensing
+ * Symbol versioning in ncurses
+ * Comments on ncurses versus slang (S-Lang)
+ * Comments on OpenBSD
+ * tack - terminfo action checker
+ * tctest - termcap library checker
+ * Terminal Database
-Other Related Resources
+Other resources
The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
- terminal description file once maintained by [20]Eric Raymond . Unlike
- the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the
- same file, and provides several user-definable extensions beyond the
+ terminal description file once maintained by Eric Raymond . Unlike the
+ older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the same
+ file, which also provides several user-definable extensions beyond the
X/Open specification.
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
- covered in the terminfo file at [21]Richard Shuford's archive .
-
-References
-
- 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
- 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
- 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- 4. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
- 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
- 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
- 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
- 8. http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
- 9. http://www.mutt.org/
- 10. http://www.ncftp.com/
- 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
- 12. http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
- 13. http://www.tin.org/
- 14. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
- 15. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
- 16. http://invisible-island.net/vile/
- 17. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net
- 18. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
- 19. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
- 20. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/
- 21. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
+ covered in the terminfo file at Richard Shuford's archive . The
+ collection of computer manuals at bitsavers.org has also been useful.
+
+ * Overview
+ * Release Notes
+ + Library improvements
+ o New features
+ o Other improvements
+ + Program improvements
+ o Utilities
+ o Examples
+ + Terminal database
+ + Documentation
+ + Interesting bug-fixes
+ + Configuration changes
+ o Major changes
+ o Configuration options
+ + Portability
+ * Features of ncurses
+ * Applications using ncurses
+ * Development activities
+ * Related resources
+ * Other resources