Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
The ncurses distribution is available at ncurses' homepage:
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/">homepage:-ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/ + "https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/ or
https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/ .
It is also available via anonymous FTP at the GNU distribution - site
+It is also available at the GNU distribution site
+ "https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
These notes are for ncurses - @VERSION@, released January 27, 2018.
+ @VERSION@, released April 27, 2024.This release is designed to be source-compatible with - ncurses 5.0 through 6.0; providing + ncurses 5.0 through 6.4; providing extensions to the application binary interface (ABI). Although the source can still be configured to support the ncurses 5 ABI, the intent of the release is to - provide extensions to the ncurses - 6 ABI:
- -improve integration of tput - and tset
-provide support for extended numeric capabilities.
-There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in this announcement.
-The release notes also mention some bug-fixes, but are focused +
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 6.0 release.
+ ncurses 6.4 release. -The improved integration of tput and tset - made only small changes to the libraries. However, supporting - extended numeric capabilities required a few changes:
+These are new features:
The TERMINAL structure in
- <term.h> is now opaque. Doing that allowed
- making the structure larger, to hold the extended numeric
- data.
A few applications required changes during development of - ncurses 6.1 because those - applications misused the members of that structure, e.g., - directly modifying it rather than using - def_prog_mode.
-Having made TERMINAL opaque (and because none
- of the library functions use anything except a pointer to
- TERMINAL), it was possible to increase the size
- of the structure, adding to the end.
The low-level terminfo and termcap interfaces are used + both by the higher-level curses library, as well as by many + applications.
-Existing applications which were linked to the
- ncurses 6.0 high-level
- (ncurses, ncursesw) and low-level
- (tinfo, tinfo) libraries should not require
- re-linking since the binary interface did not change, nor did
- the structure offsets with TERMINAL change.
The functions which convert parameterized terminal
+ capability strings for output to the terminal
+ (tiparm and tparm) analyze the
+ capability string to determine which parameters are strings
+ (i.e., addresses), versus numbers (not addresses).
A few applications use the inner TERMTYPE
- structure's offsets to refer to terminfo capabilities within
- that structure. Again, those do not require modification
- because their offsets within TERMINAL did not
- change.
The library's analysis of a capability string may differ + from the calling application's design if environment + variables are used to point to an invalid terminal database. + This is a longstanding problem with all + implementations of terminfo, dating from the early 1980s.
-When configured for wide-characters, i.e.,
- “ncursesw” the TERMINAL structure is
- extended.
Two new functions address this problem: by providing a + function which allows the calling application to tell ncurses + how many string-parameters to expect:
-The new data in TERMINAL holds the same
- information as TERMTYPE, but with larger numbers
- (“int” versus “short”). It is named
- TERMTYPE2.
tiscan_s helps applications check
+ formatting capabilities that would be passed to
+ tiparm_s.The library uses this structure internally in preference
- to TERMTYPE, referring to TERMTYPE
- only to initialize it for applications that use the
- capabilities defined in <term.h>
tiparm_s provides applications a way to
+ tell ncurses what the expected parameters are for a
+ capability.When configured for 8-bit (narrow) characters, the
- TERMTYPE2 structure is not used.
The motivation for making this extension came from noticing - that - termcap applications could (though not - realistically) use larger numbers than would fit in 16-bits, - and the fact that the number of color pairs for a 256-color xterm - could not be expressed in terminfo (i.e., 32767 versus 65536). - Also, a few terminals support direct-colors, which could use the - extension.
- -Generally speaking, applications that use internal details of
- a library are unsupported. There was exactly one exception for
- ncurses: the tack program used the internal
- details of TERMINAL, because it provides an
- ncurses-specific feature for interactively modifying a terminfo
- description and writing the updated description to a text-file.
- It was possible to not only separate tack from these internal
- details of ncurses, but to
- generalize it so that the program works with Unix curses
- (omitting the ncurses-specific feature). That was released as
-
- tack 1.08 in July
- 2017.
While making changes to tack to - eliminate its dependency upon ncurses internals, the publicly-visible - details of those internals were reviewed, and some symbols were - moved to private header files, while others were marked - explicitly as ncurses internals. - Future releases of ncurses may - eliminate some of those symbols (such as those used by - tack 1.07) because they are - neither part of the API or the ABI.
- -Using the TERMTYPE2 extended numeric
- capabilities, it is possible to support both color pair values
- and color values past 32767. Taking compatibility into account,
- developers readily understand that neither function signatures
- nor structure offsets change. Also, existing functions have to
- operate with the extended numbers. Most of that work is internal
- to the library. For the external interfaces, a hybrid approach
- was used:
The ncurses library supports a compile-time feature
+ (enabled with the configure --enable-check-size
+ option) which simplifies initialization with terminals which
+ do not negotiate window (screen) size. This is done in
+ setupterm, by providing for using ANSI
+ cursor-position report (in user6/user7 terminfo capabilities)
+ to obtain the screen size if neither environment variables or
+ ioctl is used.
X/Open Curses defined function prototypes such as
- wattr_set with an unused parameter, for
- “future” use. After 25 years, the future is here:
- ncurses uses the parameter to
- augment color pair values as described in the
- manual page.
The ncurses test-program with options
+ “-E -T” demonstrates this
+ feature.
Other functions such as those defining color pairs did not
- have a corresponding reserved parameter. For those,
- ncurses defines extended
- versions such as init_extended_pair (versus
- init_pair), init_extended_color
- (versus init_color).
SCREENAdditionally, to improve performance other changes (and - extensions) are provided in this release:
- -Several new functions simplify management of large sets of
- color pairs: reset_color_pairs,
- alloc_pair, find_pair and
- free_pair.
New "RGB" extension capability for direct-color support is
- used to improve performance of
- color_content.
The internal colorpair_t is now a struct,
- eliminating an internal 8-bit limit on colors
Allocation for SCREEN's color-pair table
- starts small, grows on demand up to the limit given in the
- terminal description.
setcchar and getcchar now treat
- a negative color-pair as an error.
This release drops compatibility with obsolete versions of + tack, e.g., pre-1.08
These are new or revised features:
- -modify c++/etip.h.in to accommodate
- deprecation of throw and throws in c++17
add new function unfocus_current_field
add option to preserve leading whitespace in form - fields
-add a macro for is_linetouched and adjust the
- function's return value to make it possible for most
- applications to check for an error-return.
add build-time utility report_offsets to help
- show when the various configurations of tinfo library are
- compatible or not.
These were done to limit or ultimately deprecate features:
- -drop two symbols obsoleted in 2004:
- _nc_check_termtype, and
- _nc_resolve_uses
move _nc_tracebits, _tracedump
- and _tracemouse to curses.priv.h,
- since they are not part of the suggested ABI6.
mark some structs in form/menu/panel libraries as - potentially opaque without modifying API/ABI.
-ifdef'd header-file definition of mouse_trafo
- with NCURSES_NOMACROS
remove initialization-check for calling napms
- in the term-driver configuration; none is needed.
modify trace to avoid overwriting existing
- file
These are improvements to existing features:
modify make_hash to allow building with
- address-sanitizer, assuming that --disable-leaks
- is configured.
move SCREEN field for use_tioctl
- data before the ncursesw fields, and limit that to the
- sp-funcs configuration to improve termlib compatibility
modify db-iterator:
+In addition to the new, safer function
+ tiparm_s, ncurses adds checks to make the older
+ tiparm, tparm and
+ tgoto functions safer:
ignore zero-length files in db-iterator; these are
- useful for instance to suppress
- $HOME/.terminfo when not wanted.
the terminfo functions tiparm and
+ tparm ensure that the capability string
+ comes from the terminal description which ncurses loads,
+ rather than from random data which the application
+ happens to have.
modify update_getenv to ensure that
- environment variables which are not initially set will be
- checked later if an application happens to set them
the tgoto function disallows capabilities
+ which its analysis shows will attempt to use string
+ parameters.
modify _nc_outc_wrapper to use the standard
- output if the screen was not initialized, rather than
- returning an error.
improve checks for low-level terminfo functions when the - terminal has not been initialized.
-modify set_curterm to update
- ttytype[] data used by longname/p>
modify _nc_get_screensize to allow for
- use_env and use_tioctl state to be
- per-screen when sp-funcs are configured, better matching the
- behavior when using the term-driver configuration.
ncurses uses internal functions which correspond to
+ tiparm, and tgoto which ensure
+ that the capability strings which are passed to these
+ functions come from the loaded terminal description.
remove an early-return from _nc_do_color,
- which can interfere with data needed by bkgd
- when ncurses is configured
- with extended colors
improve check in lib_tparm.c, ensuring that a
+ char* fits into a TPARM_ARG
incorporate A_COLOR mask into
- COLOR_PAIR, in case user application provides an
- out-of-range pair number
modify _nc_syserr_abort to use
+ _nc_env_access, rather than only checking root
+ uid
modify logic for endwin-state to be able to
- detect the case where the screen was never initialized, using
- that to trigger a flush of ncurses' buffer for mvcur,
- e.g., in the sample program dots_mvcur for the term-driver
- configuration.
improve thread lock in lib_trace.c
These are corrections to existing features:
- -fixes for writing extended color pairs in
- putwin.
modify flushinp to use file descriptors in
+ SCREEN, rather than from TERMINAL,
+ and check if they are for a terminal, like SVr4
modify no-leaks code for lib_cur_term.c to
- account for the tgetent cache.
modify mcprint to use file descriptor in
+ SCREEN, for consistency
amend handling of the repeat_char capability
- in EmitRange to avoid scope creep: translate the
- character to the alternate character set when the alternate
- character set is enabled, and do not use
- repeat_char for characters past 255.
modify internal function _nc_read_file_entry
+ to show relevant filename in warnings
improve wide-character implementation of
- myADDNSTR in frm_driver.c, which
- was inconsistent with the normal implementation.
improve checks in internal function
+ convert_string for corrupt terminfo entry
modify winnstr and winchnstr to
- return error if the output pointer is null, as well as adding
- a null pointer check of the window pointer for better
- compatibility with other implementations.
review/improve handling of out-of-memory conditions
modify setupterm to save original tty-modes
- so that erasechar works as expected. Also modify
- _nc_setupscreen to avoid redundant calls to get
- original tty-modes.
limit delays to 30 seconds, i.e., padding delays in
+ terminfo, as well as napms and
+ delay_output functions
modify wattr_set and wattr_get
- to return ERR if win-parameter is null,
- as documented.
fix reallocation loop for vsnprintf in
+ _nc_sprintf_string by copying the va_list
+ variable
correct order of initialization for traces in
- use_env and use_tioctl versus first
- _tracef calls.
modify delscreen to limit the windows which
+ it creates to just those associated with the screen
correct parameters for copywin call in
- _nc_Synchronize_Attributes
modify endwin to return an error if it is
+ called again without an intervening screen update
flush the standard output in _nc_flush for
- the case where SP is zero, e.g., when called via
- putp. This fixes a scenario where
- “tput flash” did not work after changes in
- 20130112.
modify wenclose to handle pads
amend internal use of tputs to consistently
- use the number of lines affected, e.g., for insert/delete
- character operations. While merging terminfo source early in
- 1995, several descriptions used the
- “*” proportional delay for these
- operations, prompting a change in doupdate.
eliminate use of PATH_MAX in
+ lib_trace.c
correct return-value of extended putwin.
provide for any CCHARW_MAX greater than 1
double-width multibyte characters were not counted
- properly in winsnstr and
- wins_nwstr.
These are corrections to existing features:
+amend fix for _nc_ripoffline from 20091031 to
- make test/ditto.c work in threaded
- configuration.
correct loop termination condition in
+ waddnstr and waddnwstr
modify _nc_viscbuf2 and
- _tracecchar_t2 to trace wide-characters as a
- whole rather than their multibyte equivalents.
improve parsing in internal function
+ _nc_msec_cost, allowing a single decimal
+ point
minor fix in wadd_wchnstr to ensure that each
- cell has nonzero width.
amend parameter check for entire string versus specific
+ length in winsnstr and wins_nwstr
+ to match Solaris; make similar correction to
+ wins_nwstr
move PUTC_INIT calls next to
- wcrtomb calls, to avoid carry-over of error
- status when processing Unicode values which are not
- mapped.
correct internal function wadd_wch_literal
+ when adding a non-spacing character to a double-width
+ character
add missing assignment in lib_getch.c to make
- notimeout work
correct definition of Charable macro for
+ non-wide ncurses library .
While reviewing user feedback, it became apparent that the - differences between - reset (an alias for - tset) and “tput reset” were confusing:
- -On further investigation, it turned out that the differences - were largely an accident due to the way those programs had - evolved.
- -This release eliminates the unnecessary differences, using the - same approach for tput's - init (initialization), reset and clear - operations as the separate - reset and - clear programs. Doing this does not change the - command-line options; existing scripts are unaffected.
- -These are the user-visible changes for the three programs - (tput, tset and clear):
+Several improvements were made to the
+ utility programs. Some were done to make the infocmp
+ option “-u” option help refactor the
+ terminal database.
add the terminal-mode parts of “reset” (aka tset) to the “tput
- reset” command, making the two almost the same
- except for window-size.
improve tput's check for - being called as “init” or “reset” to - allow for transformed names.
-add “clear” as a possible link/alias to - tput.
-amend changes for tput to - reset tty modes to “sane” if the program is run - as “reset”, like tset. Likewise, ensure that tset sends either reset- or - init-strings.
-add -x option to clear/tput
- to make the E3 extension optional
add functionality of
- “tset -w” to tput, like the
- “-c” feature this is not optional in
- tput.
add limit checks for processing extended capabilities
+ with the “-u” option
add options -T and -V to
- clear command for
- compatibility with tput.
correct initial alignment of extended capabilities, so
+ that the “-u” option can be used
+ for more than two terminal types
drop long-obsolete “-n” option
- from tset.
modify “-u” option to not
+ report cancels for strings which were already cancelled
+ in a use'd chunk.
modify tset's assignment to
- TERM in its output to reflect the name by which
- the terminal description is found, rather than the primary
- name. That was an unnecessary part from the initial
- conversion of tset from
- termcap to terminfo. The termcap library in 4.3BSD did this
- to avoid using the short 2-character name
correct an assignment “-u”
+ for detecting if a boolean is unset in a base entry and
+ set in a use'd chunk, i.e., if it was cancelled.
remove a restriction in tput's support for termcap names which - omitted capabilities normally not shown in termcap - translations
-add usage message to clear - command
-correct limit-check when dumping tc/use clause via
+ “-I”
improve usage messages for tset and tput.
-check return value of _nc_save_str, in
+ special case where extended capabilities are processed
+ but the terminal description was not initialized
Other user-visible improvements and new features include:
+modify check for multiply defined aliases to report + problems within the current runtime rather than for + conflicts with pre-existing terminal descriptions.
+modify tic/infocmp display of numeric values to use - hexadecimal when they are "close" to a power of two, making - the result more readable.
-disallow using $TERMINFO or
+ $HOME/.terminfo when
+ “-o” option is used
add “-W” option to tic/infocmp
- to force long strings to wrap.
This is in addition to the
- “-w” option which attempts to
- fit capabilities into a given line-length.
add “-v” option to tput, to
+ show warnings
If “-f” option splits line,
- do not further split it with
- “-W”.
modify reset command to avoid altering clocal + if the terminal uses a modem
Begin a new line when adding
- “use=” after a wrapped line.
modify reset feature to avoid 1-second sleep + if running in a pseudo-terminal
add “-q” option to infocmp to suppress the
- “Reconstructed from” comment from
- the header, and a corresponding option to tic to suppress all comments from the
- “tic -I” output.
Sorted options in usage message for infocmp, to make it simpler to see unused - letters.
-Updated usage message for tic, adding “-0”
- option.
add infocmp/tic “-Q” option,
- which allows one to dump the compiled form of the terminal
- entry, in hexadecimal or base64:
b64:” prefix in the
- TERMINFO variable tells the terminfo reader to
- use base64 according to RFC-3548 as well as RFC-4648
- url/filename-safe format.hex:” prefix tells the
- terminfo reader to accept hexadecimal data as generated by
- “infocmp -0qQ1”.Other less-visible improvements and new features include:
+Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made + to the ncurses-examples:
modify utility headers such as tic.h to make
- it clearer which are externals that are used by tack.
add “reset” to list of programs
- whose names might change in manpages due to
- program-transformation configure options.
modify “-T” option of
- clear and tput to call use_tioctl to
- obtain the operating system's notion of the screensize if
- possible.
add check in tput for - init/reset operands to ensure those use a terminal.
+modify test_tparm to account for extended
+ capabilities
modify programs clear, - tabs, tput and tset to pass the actual tty file - descriptor to setupterm rather than the standard output or - error, making padding work.
+corrected mouse mask in test/testcurs.c
change tset's
- initialization to allow it to get settings from the standard
- input as well as /dev/tty, to be more effective
- when output or error are redirected.
modify test/clip_printw.c to optionally test
+ non-wrapped updates
amend check in tput,
- tabs and clear to allow those to use the
- database-only features in cron
- if a “-T” option gives a suitable
- terminal name.
modify test/test_mouse.c to use curses api
+ for raw/noraw
improve error message from tset/reset - when both stderr/stdout are redirected to a file or pipe.
+modify test/clip_printw.c to optionally test
+ non-wrapped updates
Several of the less apparent features deal with translation of - terminfo to termcap (and the reverse), with corresponding checks - by tic:
- -modify check in fmt_entry to handle a
- cancelled reset string. Make similar fixes in other parts of
- dump_entry.c and tput.c
correct read of terminfo entry in which all strings are - absent or explicitly cancelled. Before this fix, the result - was that all were treated as only absent.
-modify infocmp to suppress
- mixture of absent/cancelled capabilities that would only show
- as “NULL, NULL”, unless the
- “-q” option is used, e.g., to show
- “-, @” or “@,
- -”.
correct a warning from tic - about keys which are the same, to skip over missing/cancelled - values.
-add check in tic for use of
- bold, etc., video attributes in the color capabilities,
- accounting whether the feature is listed in
- ncv.
There is one new demo/test programs:
-add check in tic for
- unnecessary use of “2” to denote a
- shifted special key.
improve check in tic for - delays by also warning about beep/flash when a delay is not - embedded, or if those use the VT100 reverse video escape - without using a delay.
-This program shows the return-status from
+ endwin with different combinations of
+ endwin (repeated), initscr,
+ newterm.
improve checks in trim_sgr0, comp_parse.c and
- parse_entry.c, for cancelled string capabilities.
add check in tic for some - syntax errors of delays, as well as use of proportional - delays for non-line capabilities.
-There are several new terminal descriptions:
+add check in tic for
- conflict between ritm, rmso,
- rmul versus sgr0.
add check in _nc_parse_entry for invalid
- entry name, setting the name to
- “invalid” to avoid problems storing
- entries.
improve _nc_tparm_analyze, using that to
- extend the checks made by tic
- for reporting inconsistencies between the expected number of
- parameters for a capability and the actual.
linux+kbs + for terminals which imitate xterm's behavior with Linux
remove tic warning about
- “^?” in string capabilities, which
- was marked as an extension; however all Unix implementations
- support this and X/Open Curses does not address it. On the
- other hand,
- BSD termcap did not support this feature (until the
+
rio, - mid-1990s).
- -in _nc_infotocap, added a check to ensure
- that terminfo “^?” is not written to
- termcap.
modify sscanf calls in
- _nc_infotocap for patterns
- “%{number}%+%c” and
- “%'char'%+%c” to check that the
- final character is really “c”,
- avoiding a case in icl6404 which cannot be converted to
- termcap.
in _nc_tic_expand and
- _nc_infotocap, improved string-length check when
- deciding whether to use “^X” or
- “\xxx” format for control
- characters, to make the output of tic/infocmp
- more predictable.
limited termcap “%d” width to 2
- digits on input, and use “%2” in
- preference to “%02” on output.
correct terminfo/termcap conversion of
- “%02” and
- “%03” into
- “%2” and
- “%3”; the result repeated the last
- character.
Along with the library and utilities, many improvements were - made to the ncurses-examples.
- -These changes were made to demonstrate new extensions in - ncurses:
- -add demo_new_pair program,
- to demonstrate
- alloc_pair,
- find_pair and
- free_pair functions.
This program iterates over the possible color - combinations, allocating or initializing color pairs. For - best results, choose screen-width dividing evenly into the - number of colors. e.g.,
- ----
-- - -- - 32x64,32x128256 colors -- - -- - 24x44,24x8888 colors -- -- - 32x64,24x12816 colors -
add extended_color program, - like the older color_set - program, but using the extended color functions, with and - without the SP-functions interface.
-add picsmap program to fill - in some testing issues not met by dots, using this as the third example in a - comparison of the - ncurses versus slang libraries.
- -The program can directly read X bitmap and pixmap files, - displaying a picture. It can read other image files using - ImageMagick's convert program to translate the image - into text.
- -For 16-, 88- and 256-color terminal descriptions,
- picsmap can load a palette
- file which tells it which color palette entries to use. For
- direct-colors, the terminal descriptions use the
- RGB extension capability.
There are other new example programs and a few scripts:
- -add dots_xcurses program to - illustrate a different approach used for extended colors - which can be contrasted with dots_curses.
-add list_keys program show - function keys for one or more terminal descriptions. It uses - ncurses's convention of - modifiers for special keys, based on xterm.
-add padview program, to - compare pads with direct updates in the view program.
-add sp_tinfo program to - exercise the SP-functions extension of the low-level terminfo - library.
-add test-programs for termattrs and
- term_attrs functions.
add test_sgr program to - exercise all combinations of the sgr capability.
-add tput-colorcube demo - script, imitating xterm's 88- and 256-color scripts using - tput.
-add tput-initc script to - demonstrate how tput may be - used to initialize a color palette from a data file.
-A variety of improvements were made to existing programs, both - new features as well as options added to make the set of programs - more consistent.
- -The ncurses program is the - largest; a proportionately large number of changes were made to - it:
- -modify a/A screens to make exiting on an escape character - depend on the start of keypad and timeout modes, to allow - better testing of function-keys.
- -add “t” toggle for
- notimeout function.
modify layout of b/B screens to allow for additional - annotation on the right margin; some terminals with partial - support did not display well.
-modify c/C screens to allow for extended color pairs.
- -add z/Z zoom feature to make extended color pairs - easier to test.
- -modify test-screens to take advantage of wide screens, - reducing the number of lines used for 88- and 256-colors.
-modify “d” edit-color screen to
- optionally read xterm color palette directly from terminal,
- as well as handling KEY_RESIZE and
- screen-repainting with control/L and control/R.
add examples to “F” screen for
- WACS_D_PLUS and WACS_T_PLUS.
improve “g” screen, correcting
- ifdef which made the legend not reflect changes to keypad-
- and scroll-modes. Added check for return-value of
- putwin.
make “s” test easier to
- understand which subtests are available
add a corresponding “S”
- wide-character overlap test-screen.
add “v” screen to show
- baudrate and other values.
These changes were made to the other examples:
- -modify blue program to use - Unicode values for card-glyphs when available, as well as - improving the check for CP437 and CP850.
-improve demo_menus program,
- allowing mouse-click on the menu-headers to switch the active
- menu. This requires a new extension option
- O_MOUSE_MENU to tell the menu driver to put
- mouse events which do not apply to the active menu back into
- the queue so that the application can handle the event.
correct logic in demo_terminfo program for
- “-f” option
modify ditto program to
- allow $XTERM_PROG environment variable to
- override "xterm" as the name of the program to run in the
- threaded configuration.
add several options to the “dots” - test-programs.
-modify filter program:
- -getnstr, that
- polls for input while updating a clock on the right margin
- as well as responding to window size-changes.--keep-tite” option for
- filter program as the "-a"
- option. When set, filter
- attempts to suppress the alternate screen.modify knight program to
- provide the "slow" solution for small screens using
- “R”, noting that Warnsdorf's method
- is easily done with “a”.
modify the savescreen - program to add test patterns that exercise 88-, 256-, etc., - colors.
-add options to test_arrays, - for selecting termcap vs terminfo, etc.
-modify the view - program:
- --n” option by
- simply reading the whole file.SIGWINCH example; just
- use KEY_RESIZE.improve animation in xmas
- program by adding a time-delay in blinkit.
modify several test-programs which call
- use_default_colors to consistently do this only
- if the “-d” option is given.
modify the install-rule for ncurses-examples to put the
- data files in the data directory, e.g.,
- /usr/share/ncurses-examples.
modify several test programs to use new
- popup_msgs function, adapted from the
- help-screen used in the edit_field program.
modify test data for xterm palettes to use the newer - color4/color12 values.
-improve the tracemunch - script:
- -add_wch,
- color_content and pair_content to
- dummy parameters.There are several new terminal descriptions:
- --- -- -
dumb-emacs-ansi,dvtm, -dvtm-256color,fbterm, -iterm2,linux-m1minitel - entries,putty-noapp,viewdata, - andvt100+4bsdbuilding-block.- -
xterm+noalt,xterm+titlestack, -xterm+alt1049,xterm+alt+title- building blocks andxterm+direct, -xterm+indirect,xterm-direct. from - xterm - patch #331.several other “
--direct” - descriptions to address the differences of other terminal - emulators versusxterm-direct.
There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some - were updates to several descriptions:
- -xterm+sm+1006 in several terminal
- descriptions which were validated as supporting the extended
- mouse feature for their respective terminal emulators.while others affected specific descriptions. These were - retested, to take into account new/undocumented changes by their - developers:
- --- --
iterm,minitel,st, -viewdata,nsterm
while these are specific fixes based on user reports, or - warnings from tic:
- -ansi building blocksansi+idc to better match original
- ansiterm+idc, add alias
- ansitermicl6402icl6402 and
- m2-naminterix^? for kdch1linuxlinux3.0 entry the default
- linux entrylinux2.6 entry to improve
- line-drawing so that the linux3.0 entry can be
- used in non-UTF-8 modelinux
- and wyse entries to put the delay between the
- reverse/normal escapes rather than afterlinux-16color to not mask dim,
- standout or reverse with the ncv capabilitypccon entriespccon* entriespccon+sgr+acs and
- pccon-basepccon+keystmuxscreen's "standout" code rather than the
- standard code.xterm-keys
- option to reflect upcoming change to make that option
- "on" by defaultvt100vt100 rs2 string to reset
- vt52 mode and scrolling regionsvt100-namvt100+4bsd, e.g.,
- delay in sgr for consistencyvtevte-2014 to
- vte-2012xtermxterm-new, available
- since
- late 1996.xterm+256color and
- xterm+256setaf to use correct number of color
- pairs.xterm-16color,
- xterm-88color and xterm-256color
- to reset palette using oc string as in
- linux entry.xterm-256colorxterm+256color, allowing palette reset for
- xtermxterm+256setafxterm-r5, xterm-r6 and
- xterm-xf86-v32 to use xterm+kbs
- to match
- xterm #272, reflecting packager's changesxterm-new, to reflect vt220-style responses
- that could be returned.xterm-pcolor sgr consistent
- with other capabilitiesA few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal - capabilities):
- -tmux and xterm-basicAs 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 particular,
- -Since the underlying features for - tset, - tput, and - clear have been better - integrated, the documentation now includes information on how - those tools evolved.
- -In addition to explaining the improved integration of the - tools, the manual pages made it easier to see how the tools - are similar and how they are different.
-The addch manual page has additional
- information on
- portability and differences from other
- implementations.
The discussion of color-pairs in the attributes - manual page is improved in its - history section.
-The documentation of the chtype,
- cchar_t types and the attribute values which can
- be stored in those types, in particular the
- history and
- portability sections of the attributes manual
- page, has been improved.
improve discussion of - portability in the mouse manual.
-The pad manual page has a section on the - origin and portability of pads.
-Differences between SVr4 and X/Open Curses soft-keys are - discussed in a new section on - portability.
-There are updated/improved notes on portability in the - - resizeterm and - wresize manual pages.
-In addition to providing background information to explain - these features and show how they evolved, there are corrections, - clarifications, etc.:
- -add note in the - addch manual about line-drawing when it depends - upon UTF-8.
-improve discussion of line-drawing characters in the +
vt100+noapp, - add_wch manual.
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vt100_noapp_pc">vt100+noapp+pc, + xterm+app+pc, + xterm+decedit + from xterm + #389explain in - clear's manual page that - it writes to the standard output.
+putty+cursor + to reflect amending of modified cursor-keys in 2021
improve description of - endwin.
+There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
+ were updates to several descriptions, using the
+ infocmp “-u” option in a
+ script to determine which building-block entries could
+ be used to replace multiple capability settings (and trim
+ redundant information).
Other changes include:
+improve discussion of field validation in the - form driver manual page.
+document + XF, kxIN and kxOUT
clarify the use of wint_t vs
- wchar_t in
- get_wstr manual page.
add note on sun + regarding wscons/cmdtool/shelltool
clarify in the
- getch manual that the keypad mode affects an
- application's ability to read KEY_MOUSE codes,
- but does not affect KEY_RESIZE.
trim some obsolete/incorrect wording about
- EINTR from the getch manual page
improve manual pages for
- getch and
- get_wch to point out that they might return
- user-defined values which have no predefined names in
- <curses.h>
remove DECCOLM+DECSCLM from foot
improve description of the -R option in the
-
- infocmp manual page
add xterm+focus to foot+base
clarify in the
- resizeterm manual page how
- KEY_RESIZE is pushed onto the input stream.
add ecma+strikeout to putty
document return value of
- use_extended_names
use CSI 3J in vte-2017
document differences in
- ESCDELAY versus AIX's implementation in the
- variables manual page.
use oldxterm+sm+1006 in vte-2014
The _nc_free_tinfo function is now documented
- in the
- memory-leaks manual page, because it could be
- used in tack for memory-leak
- checking.
modify xgterm + to work around line-drawing bug
add a note to the - tic manual page about -W versus -f options.
+add xterm focus mode 1004 to xterm+focus + as fe/fd capabilities, like vim.
improve terminfo manual description of - terminfo syntax.
- -improve terminfo manual page discussion of - control- and graphics- characters.
- -improve - color-handling section in terminfo manual page
+add xterm+focus to alacritty+common
clarify description in - tput manual page regarding - support for termcap names
- -update - tput manual page to - reflect changes to manipulate terminal modes by sharing - functions with tset.
+add XR/xr, to work with vim, and use RV/rv to denote DA2 + and its response
clarify in manual pages that the optional verbose option - level of - tic and - infocmp is available only - when ncurses is configured for - tracing.
+add XF flag to xterm+focus + so that termcap applications can be aware of terminals which + may support focus in/out
improve manual page description of tset/reset - versus window-size.
+use xterm+focus in xterm-p370 + and tmux
improve description of - tgoto parameters
+remove xterm+sm+1006 from tmux
There are new manual pages:
- -- scr_dump documents the screen-dump format.
+Some of the improvements are more subtle, relating to the way - the information is presented:
+As usual, this release
Made minor fixes to manpage NAME/SYNOPSIS - sections to consistently use rule that either all functions - which are prototyped in SYNOPSIS are listed in the - NAME section, or the manual-page name is the sole - item listed in the NAME section. The latter is used - to reduce clutter, e.g., for the top-level library manual - pages as well as for certain feature-pages such as - SP-funcs and - threading.
+improves documentation by describing new features,
improve manual pages for utilities with respect to POSIX - versus X/Open Curses.
+attempts to improve the description of features which + users have found confusing
improve organization of the - attributes and color manual - pages.
+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.:
modify toe to not exit if - unable to read a terminal description, e.g., if there is a - permission problem.
+Corrections:
+ +add assignment in CF_MAN_PAGES to fill in
+ value for TERMINFO_DIRS in ncurses, terminfo
+ and tic manpages.
clarify interaction of -R option versus
+ -C, -I and -r in
+ infocmp manpage.
correct manpage description of panel_hidden.
+improve manpage description for addch versus unctrl + format used for non-printable characters.
+improve manpages discussing file descriptors in + low-level functions.
+improve description of search rules for terminal + descriptions in terminfo manpage.
+modify dist.mk to avoid passing developer's comments + in manpages into the generated html documentation.
+modify test-package "ncurses6-doc" to use + manpage-aliases, which in turn required a change to the + configure script to factor in the extra-suffix option + when deriving alias names.
+correct 20100515 change for weak signals versus - sigprocmask
-New/improved history and portability sections:
+ +add information about "ttycap", termcap's forerunner, + to tset.1
+document limitations of tparm, and error-returns in + curs_terminfo.3x
+gprconfig to specify the C compiler to be
- used by gnatmake, and conditionally suppressing
- Library_Options line for static libraries.document limitations of tgoto, and error-returns in + curs_termcap.3x
+There were, as well, several bug-fixes to handle illegal - input for tic. Because those - did not correspond to useful terminal descriptions, most - users are unaffected.
+Other improvements:
+ +This release has many changes to improve the + formatting and style of the manpages.
+Manpages now use consistent section-naming, page + headers and footers (including the modification date for + each page).
+Table layout has been revised.
+There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates + are to existing pages).
+ +The changes to tparm, tgoto which improve + the design of the low-level interfaces are interesting, + but are not bug-fixes per se.
+This release provides a new binary format for terminal - descriptions that use extended numeric capabilities. Applications - built with the wide-character ncursesw library can use - these extended numbers.
+These are the major changes (aside from introducing tiparm_s):
This includes utilities such as tic and infocmp, because (as noted in New features), the feature - relies upon an extension to the low-level tinfo - library.
+use wide-character (ncursesw) by default
A few software packagers use a configuration option of - ncurses which allows the - low-level tinfo library to be shared between the - high-level ncurses and ncursesw libraries. - This new feature was designed to work in that configuration - as well.
+use opaque typedefs by default
Other applications (i.e., using the 8-bit ncurses - library) which read the extended terminal descriptions see those - numeric capabilities set to the maximum value for a signed 16-bit - number.
- -Older versions of ncurses' - tic accept out-of-range numeric - capabilities, storing those as the maximum value for a signed - 16-bit number. Other implementations of curses (mentioned in the - discussion of - picsmap) give zero for these - out-of-range capabilities.
- -These changes provide support for tack 1.08, released in - July 2017:
+However, most of the work on configure scripts was done to + reduce warnings within the configure script:
add --without-tack configure option to refine
- --with-progs configure option. Normally
- tack is built outside the
- ncurses tree, but a few
- packagers combine it during the build. If
- term_entry.h is installed, there is no advantage
- to in-tree builds.
intrusive warnings from GNU grep regarding fgrep and + egrep
adjust configure-script to define
- HAVE_CURSES_DATA_BOOLNAMES symbol needed for
- tack 1.08 when built in-tree.
- Rather than relying upon internal "_nc_" functions,
- tack now uses the boolean,
- number and string capability name-arrays provided by
- ncurses and SVr4 Unix curses.
- It still uses term_entry.h for the definitions
- of the extended capability arrays.
fatal errors in compile-checks, arising from recent + “Modern C” efforts by some developers which + caused longstanding configure checks to fail.
-add dependency upon ncurses_cfg.h to tic's header-files; any program using - tic-library will have to - supply this file. Legacy tack - versions supply this file; ongoing tack development has dropped the - dependency upon tic-library - and new releases will not be affected.
+After repairing the configure script, none of that + activity affected ncurses because stricter warnings are used + routinely in development.
Other changes to the configure-script and generated files - include
+Other improvements made to configure checks include
add configure options to disable checks for form, menu and - panel libraries so that ncurses-examples can be built with - non-SVr4 curses implementations.
+use string-hacks + in alloc_entry.c, alloc_type.c and hardscroll.c, overlooked + due to compiler changes in recent OpenBSD releases
add configure option --enable-opaque-curses
- for ncurses library and similar options for the
- other libraries.
revise progs.priv.h to provide for NC_ISATTY reuse
add configure option --disable-wattr-macros
- for use in cases where one wants to use the same headers for
- ncurses5/ncurses6 development, by suppressing the
- wattr* macros which differ due to the introduction
- of extended colors
configure check for MB_LEN_MAX provides warning as + needed
modify configure macro for shared-library rules to use
- -Wl,-rpath rather than -rpath to
- work around a bug in scons
trim a space after some "-R" options, fixing builds for + applications built using clang and ncurses on Solaris
improve ncurses-examples' configure script to define as
- needed NCURSES_WIDECHAR for platforms where
- _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED does not work. Also
- modified the test program to ensure that if building with
- ncurses, that the
- cchar_t type is checked, since that is normally
- (since 20111030)
- ifdef'd depending on this test.
work around misconfiguration of MacPorts gcc13, which + exposes invalid definition of MB_LEN_MAX in gcc's + fallback copy of limits.h
modify configure script to handle the case where
- tic-library is renamed, but
- the --with-debug option is used by itself
- without normal or shared libraries
modified experimental Windows driver works with xterm + mouse protocol
modify editing script which generates resulting.map to - work with the clang configuration on recent FreeBSD, which - gives an error on an empty "local" section.
-improve configure check for setting the
- WILDCARD_SYMS variable; on ppc64 the variable is
- in the Data section rather than
- Text.
There are a few new configure options:
-correct result of configure option
- --without-fallbacks, which caused FALLBACK_LIST
- to be set to "no"
modify --with-pkg-config-libdir option to
- make it possible to install “.pc” files even if
- pkg-config is not found. Limit
- this change, to suppress the actual install if it is not
- overridden to a valid directory at install time.
Compile with environment restriction, so certain + environment variables are not available when running via a + setuid/setgid application. These are (for example + $TERMINFO) those that allow the search path for the + terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
+ +A setuid/setgid application inherits its environment + variables from the current user, in contrast to sudo which + may limit the environment variables that ncurses uses.
+disallow “no” as a possible value for
- --with-shlib-version option, overlooked in
- cleanup-changes for 20000708.
Compile-in feature to detect screensize for terminals + which do not advertise their screensize, e.g., serial + terminals.
+Override the displayed (rather than compiled-in) ABI. Only + packagers who have created configurations where the ABI + differs from ncurses should be interested in this option.
+When stripping executables during install, use the + specified program rather than “strip” overriding + program chosen by the install program for stripping + executables.
+These configure options are modified:
+ +The optional DIR parameter can now be + “auto” to automatically use pkg-config's library + directory.
+ +The default is $(libdir).
+The default is “auto” which tells the + configure script to choose BS or DEL according to platform + defaults.
+Many of the portability changes are implemented via the configure script:
improve configure script's CF_CC_ENV_FLAGS
- macro to allow for compiler wrappers such as ccache. This change moves only the
- preprocessor, optimization and warning flags to
- CPPFLAGS and CFLAGS, leaving the
- residue in CC. That happens to work for
- gcc's various
- “model” options, but may require tuning for other
- compilers.
add/use configure check for clock_gettime, to
+ supersede gettimeofday.
modify ncurses-examples' configure script to use - pkg-config for the extra - form/menu/panel libraries, to be more consistent with the - handling of the curses/ncurses library.
+modify configure script check for pkg-config library + directory to take into account an older version 0.15.0 which + used PKG_CONFIG_PATH but not PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR
add configuration checks to build with NetBSD
- curses, which for example lacks
- use_env.
allow for MinGW32-/64-bit configurations to use + _DEFAULT_SOURCE
change ncurses-examples to use attr_t vs
- chtype to follow X/Open documentation more
- closely since Solaris xpg4-curses uses different values for
- WA_xxx vs A_xxx
- that rely on attr_t being an unsigned short. Tru64 aka OSF1,
- HPUX, AIX did as ncurses does,
- equating the two sets.
modify CF_XOPEN_SOURCE macro's amend default case to avoid + undefining _XOPEN_SOURCE if _POSIX_C_SOURCE is defined
modify several test programs to reflect that ncurses honors existing signal handlers in - initscr, while other implementations do not.
+updated configure script macro CF_XOPEN_SOURCE, for + uClibc-ng
add configure check for openpty to
- ncurses-examples' configure script, for ditto.
modify version-check for gcc/g++, now works for msys2
improve check for working poll function by
- using posix_openpt as a fallback in case there
- is no valid terminal on the standard input
modify ncurses-examples' configure script to check for - pthread dependency of - ncursest or ncursestw library when building - the ncurses examples, e.g., in - case weak symbols are used.
-add checks in ncurses-examples' configure script for some - functions neither in 4.3BSD curses, nor based on X/Open - Curses:
+build-fixes related to configure-options and/or + platform:
modify a loop limit in firework.c to work around - absense of limit checks in some libraries.
-fill the last row of a window with
- “?” in firstlast if waddch does
- not return ERR on the lower-right
- corner.
build-fixes for the Portland Group (PGI) compilers
- -accept whitespace in sed expression for generating - expanded.c
-modify configure check that g++ compiler warnings are - not used.
-add configure check for -fPIC option needed for shared - libraries.
-modify configure script for clang as used on FreeBSD, to - work around clang's differences in exit codes vs gcc.
-fixes for configure/build using clang on OSX
+other configure-script improvements:
do not redefine “inline” in
- ncurses_cfg.h; this was originally to solve
- a problem with gcc/g++, but is aggravated by clang's
- misuse of symbols to pretend it is gcc.
add braces to configure script to prevent unwanted
- addition of “-lstdc++” option to
- the CXXLIBS symbol.
improve/update test-program used for checking - existence of stdc++ library.
-if $CXXLIBS is set, the linkage test uses
- that in addition to $LIBS.
fixes for OS/2:
- -use button instead of kbuf[0] in
- EMX-specific part of lib_mouse.c
support building with libtool on OS/2
-use stdc++ library with OS/2 kLIBC
-Here are some of the other portability fixes:
-clear configure script's cf_XOPEN_SOURCE
- for OS/2, to work with its header files
modify configure scripts/makefiles to omit + KEY_RESIZE if the corresponding SIGWINCH + feature is disabled
add “newer” baudrate symbols to the
- baudrate function in the ncurses library as
- well as to a corresponding table in tset.
increase MB_CUR_MAX to 16, matching glibc's + MB_LEN_MAX
modify ncurses-examples savescreen to work with AIX and HPUX.
+add BSD erase2 to characters handled by + tset/reset
define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN for MinGW port,
- making builds faster.
use getauxval when available, to improve + setuid/setgid checks
add a configure check for wcwidth versus the - ncurses line-drawing - characters, to use in special-casing systems such as Solaris. - Solaris, however, requires a special case that maps Unicode - line-drawing characters into the acsc string for non-Unicode - locales. Solaris also has a misconfigured wcwidth which marks - all of the line drawing characters as double-width.
+set dwShareMode in calls to + CreateConsoleScreenBuffer
string-hacks (non-standard):
- -fix configure script to record when
- strlcat is found on OpenBSD.
add --enable-string-hacks option to
- ncurses-examples' configure script.
completed string-hacks for sprintf, etc., - including the ncurses-examples programs.
-make --enable-string-hacks option work
- with Debian by checking for the "bsd" library and its
- associated "<bsd/string.h>" header.
use CreateFile with "CONIN$", + "CONOUT$" rather than GetStdHandle to + obtain a handle on the actual console, avoiding redirection + in the MinGW/Win32 configurations
workaround for Debian's antique/unmaintained version of - mawk:
- -see Debian #65617, which was fixed in mawk's upstream releases in - 2009.
-modify MinGW driver to return KEY_BACKSPACE when + an unmodified VK_BACK virtual key is entered
+related fixes when building link_test.
-modify MinGW configuration to provide for running in + MSYS/MSYS2 shells, assuming ConPTY support
ncurses supports all of the - for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color, - forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition +
ncurses supports the + features of SVr4 curses including keyboard mapping, color, + form 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):
+ncurses provides work-alike + replacements of SVr4 supplemental libraries based on curses, + but which were not specified by X/Open Curses:
the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with - backing store.
+the panel library, supporting a stack of windows with + backing store
the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible - interface for menu programming.
+the menu library, supporting a uniform but flexible + interface for menu programming
the form library, supporting data collection through - on-screen forms.
+ on-screen formsncurses supports - user-defined capabilities which it can see, but which are + user-defined capabilities that it can see, but which are hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the same terminal database.
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.
+ as the HP-UX and AIX ports.The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the - X/OPEN curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it - implements all BASE level features, and most EXTENDED - features). It includes many function calls not supported - under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is documented - so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
+ X/Open Curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it + implements all BASE level features, and almost all + EXTENDED features). It includes many function calls + not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls + is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).Support for direct-color terminals, such as modern + xterm.
+Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
The - tic/captoinfo - utility provided with ncurses - has the ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, - IBM and AT&T extension sets.
+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 utility is provided.
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html">tsetThe table-of-entries utility - toe makes it easy for users to see exactly what - terminal types are available on the system.
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html">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 prototype-checked) if the macro definition is
- disabled with #undef.
X/Open Curses permits most functions it specifies to be + made available as macros as well. ncurses does this
+ +stdscr, andExcept for the last case, ncurses provides a non-macro
+ implementation of the function. If the macro definition is
+ disabled with #undef, or by defining
+ NCURSES_NOMACROS the function may be linked (and
+ its calls will be checked against the prototype).
Extensive documentation is provided (see the - Additional Reading section of the - ncurses FAQ for online documentation).
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">Additional + Reading section of the ncurses FAQ for online + documentation).The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs (including a few games). These are available separately as ncurses-examples
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examplesThe ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of applications including:
+ containing the line:-
- aptitude
+- aptitude +
- -
FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager
@@ -2596,37 +1368,38 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } "https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude">https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude- cdk
+- cdk +
- -
Curses Development Kit
-- ded
+- ded +
- -
directory-editor
- +- dialog
+- dialog +
- -
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the basis for similar install/configure applications on many systems.
- +- lynx
+- lynx +
- -
the text WWW browser
@@ -2635,16 +1408,17 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } "https://lynx.invisible-island.net/">https://lynx.invisible-island.net/- mutt
+- mutt +
- -
mail utility
- +- ncftp
+- ncftp +
- -
file-transfer utility
@@ -2653,17 +1427,21 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } "https://www.ncftp.com/">https://www.ncftp.com/- nvi
+- nvi +
- -
New vi uses ncurses.
https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi
+ "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/the-berkeley-vi-editor-home-page"> + https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/the-berkeley-vi-editor-home-page
+- ranger
+- ranger +
- -
A console file manager with VI key bindings in @@ -2673,16 +1451,17 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } "https://ranger.github.io/">https://ranger.github.io/
- tin
+- tin +
- -
newsreader, supporting color, MIME
- +- vifm
+- vifm +
File manager with vi like keybindings
@@ -2697,34 +1476,36 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; }@@ -2749,7 +1530,8 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; }-
- minicom
+- minicom +
- -
terminal emulator for serial modem connections
+ "https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicom">https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicom- mosh
+- mosh +
- -
a replacement for
- +ssh.- tack
+- tack +
- -
terminfo action checker
- +- tmux
+- tmux +
- -
terminal multiplexor
@@ -2733,14 +1514,14 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } "https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki">https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki- vile
+- vile +
- -
vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, termcap - or curses interfaces.
+vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, + termcap or curses interfaces.
- +@@ -2794,12 +1578,18 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; }-
- emacs
+- emacs +
- -
text editor
@@ -2758,7 +1540,8 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/- less
+- less +
- -
The most commonly used pager (a program that @@ -2768,7 +1551,8 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } "http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/">http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/
- screen
+- screen +
- -
terminal multiplexor
@@ -2777,13 +1561,13 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } "https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/- vim
+- vim +
text editor
- +Zeyd Ben-Halim started ncurses from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Jürgen Pfeifer wrote most of - the form and menu libraries. Ongoing development work is done by - Thomas Dickey. - Thomas Dickey also acts as the maintainer for the Free Software - Foundation, which holds the copyright - on ncurses.
+ the form and menu libraries. + +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
@@ -2812,8 +1602,8 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; }bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org -containing the line: - +
@@ -2822,24 +1612,32 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; }
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
+Beta versions of ncurses are + made available at
+ +ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/ + "https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/ and
+ "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/ . +
https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/ .Patches to the current release are made available at
+ ++https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.4/ + and
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.4/ .There is an archive of the mailing list here:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses - (also https)
+ "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses .Related @@ -2849,30 +1647,28 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } which may be interesting by themselves:
-
- - ncurses licensing
+- ncurses licensing
-- Symbol - versioning in ncurses
+- Symbol versioning + in ncurses
-- Comments - on ncurses versus Comments on + ncurses versus slang (S-Lang)
-- tack – - terminfo action checker
+- Comments on + OpenBSD
-- tctest - – termcap library checker
+- tack – terminfo action + checker
+ +- tctest – termcap + library checker
- - Terminal Database
+ "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database">Terminal + DatabaseOther @@ -2883,13 +1679,17 @@ p,li { max-width:700px; } 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 + several user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open Curses specification.
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics - not covered in the terminfo file at - Richard Shuford's archive .
+ not covered in the terminfo file in Richard Shuford's + archive (original). + The collection of computer manuals at bitsavers.org has also been + useful.