4 The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
5 curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
6 supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters
7 and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses
8 enhancements over BSD curses.
10 In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
11 considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
12 Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
15 The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It should port easily
16 to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2
19 The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
20 a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
21 tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
22 manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
24 The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
25 distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses. It is also
26 available at [2]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.
30 We decided to release ncurses as a new whole number release (5.0)
31 because it incorporates several interface changes, including some that
32 would invalidate existing shared libraries. These are the highlights
33 from the change-log since ncurses 4.2 release.
36 * The principal source of changes to the interface comes from the
37 release of X/Open Curses in 1997. Earlier versions of ncurses (4.0
38 and before) were based on a draft version of the specification.
39 The release version adds parameters to some functions to support
40 the evolving internationalization of curses. These summarize the
42 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version
43 of X/Open Curses (affects ABI since developers have used
45 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather
47 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
48 parameter according to XSI.
49 + correct macros for wattr_set, wattr_get, separate wattrset
50 macro from these to preserve behavior that allows attributes
51 to be combined with color pair numbers.
52 + reviewed/updated curses.h, term.h against X/Open Curses Issue
53 4 Version 2. This includes making some parameters
54 NCURSES_CONST rather than const, e.g., in termcap.h.
55 + reviewed/corrected macros in curses.h as per XSI document.
56 + add set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch to terminfo
57 structure, as per XSI and Solaris 2.5.
58 * The newest version of the X/Open Curses is implemented on Solaris
59 and other vendor's systems. It adds new features to the terminfo
61 + implement tparm %l format.
62 + implement tparm printf-style width and precision for %s, %d,
64 * We made additional changes to reduce impact by future interface
66 + rename key_names[] array to _nc_key_names since it is not
67 part of the curses interface.
68 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct
70 * modify configure script to embed ABI in shared libraries for HP-UX
71 10.x (detailed request by Tim Mooney).
72 * modify configuration of shared libraries on Digital Unix so that
73 versioning is embedded in the library, rather than implied by
74 links (patch by Tim Mooney).
77 * enable sigwinch handler by default.
78 * turn on hashmap scrolling code by default
79 * improved support for termcap applications
80 + modify tput to accept termcap names as an alternative to
82 + provide support for termcap PC variable by copying it from
83 terminfo data and using it as the padding character in tputs.
84 + provide support for termcap ospeed variable by copying it
85 from the internal cur_term member, and using ospeed as the
86 baudrate reference for the delay_output and tputs functions.
87 + change name-comparisons in lib_termcap to compare no more
89 + add configure option --enable-tcap-names, which essentially
90 allows users to define new capabilities as in termcap.
91 * add mouse support to ncurses menus.
92 * add mouse and dll support for OS/2 EMX
93 * modify terminfo parsing to accept octal and hexadecimal constants
94 * add configure option --enable-no-padding, to allow environment
95 variable $NCURSES_NO_PADDING to eliminate non-mandatory padding,
96 thereby making terminal emulators (e.g., for vt100) a little more
98 * modify lib_color.c to eliminate dependency on orig_colors and
99 orig_pair, since SVr4 curses does not require these either, but
100 uses them when they are available.
101 * add -f option to infocmp and tic, which formats the terminfo
102 if/then/else/endif so that they are readable (with newlines and
104 * modify tic to compile into %'char' form in preference to
105 %{number}, since that is a little more efficient.
108 * modify lib_tstp.c to block SIGTTOU when handling SIGTSTP, fixes a
109 problem where ncurses applications which were run via a shell
110 script would hang when given a ^Z. Also, check if the terminal's
111 process group is consistent, i.e., a shell has not taken ownership
112 of it, before deciding to save the current terminal settings in
114 * suppress sc/rc capabilities from terminal description if they
115 appear in smcup/rmcup. This affects only scrolling optimization,
116 to fix a problem reported by several people with xterm's alternate
117 screen, though the problem is more general.
118 * modify relative_move and tputs to avoid an interaction with the
119 BSD-style padding. The relative_move function could produce a
120 string to replace on the screen which began with a numeric
121 character, which was then interpreted by tputs as padding.
122 * modify setupterm so that cancelled strings are treated the same as
123 absent strings, cancelled and absent booleans false (does not
124 affect tic, infocmp).
125 * modify lib_vidattr.c to allow for terminal types (e.g.,
126 xterm-color) which may reset all attributes in the 'op'
127 capability, so that colors are set before turning on bold and
128 other attributes, but still after turning attributes off.
129 * use 'access()' to check if ncurses library should be permitted to
130 open or modify files with fopen/open/link/unlink/remove calls, in
131 case the calling application is running in setuid mode.
132 * correction to doupdate, for case where terminal does not support
133 insert/delete character. The logic did not check that there was a
134 difference in alignment of changes to old/new screens before
135 repainting the whole non-blank portion of the line. Modified to
136 fall through into logic that reduces by the portion which does not
141 The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4)
143 * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
145 * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping,
146 color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
147 recognition of keypad and function keys.
148 * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of
149 windows with backing store, is included.
150 * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but
151 flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
152 * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection
153 through on-screen forms, is included.
154 * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
155 implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
157 * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries
158 for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the
161 The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
162 * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
163 curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
164 level features, but not all EXTENDED features). Most
165 EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character
166 support are implemented, including many function calls not
167 supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is
168 documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
169 * Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
170 corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
172 * Ada95 and C++ bindings.
173 * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2
175 * Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
176 * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
178 * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
179 default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
181 * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control
182 the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
183 or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given
185 * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
186 * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
187 cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
189 * Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
190 incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
191 to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
192 line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
193 powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
194 * Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
195 screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
196 magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
197 beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character.
198 It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so
199 would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the
200 visual appearance of the screen.
201 * It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
202 fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal
203 types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
204 (this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
205 must run in single-user mode).
206 * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability
207 to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
209 * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
210 * The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
211 entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
212 directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
213 system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
214 personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system
216 * You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
217 descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
218 generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System
220 * In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
221 other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
222 compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
223 user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
224 * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition
225 from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP
226 environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and
227 converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under
229 * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
230 when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is
231 neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have
233 * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
234 exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
235 * The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
236 have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
237 prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
239 * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
240 provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
245 Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
246 is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
247 `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
248 according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
249 and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
251 The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
252 including (versions starting with those noted):
255 Curses Development Kit [3]Curses Development Kit
256 [4]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/cdk.
259 directory-editor [5]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded.
262 the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
263 basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
266 the character-screen WWW browser
268 Midnight Commander 4.1
275 file-transfer utility
278 New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
282 newsreader, supporting color, MIME
283 [6]ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff.
289 Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
291 as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
297 vi-like-emacs [7]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile.
299 The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
300 (including a few games).
302 Who's Who and What's What
304 The original developers of ncurses are [8]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [9]Eric
305 S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [10]Thomas Dickey and
306 [11]Jürgen Pfeifer. [12]Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
307 Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
308 Contact the current maintainers at [13]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
310 To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
311 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
312 subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
314 This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
315 and testing of this package.
317 Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
318 available at [14]ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses.
322 * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
324 * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
326 We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
327 working on them, please join the ncurses list.
329 Other Related Resources
331 The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
332 terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
333 [15]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
335 You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
336 covered in the terminfo file at [16]Richard Shuford's archive.
340 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses
341 2. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
342 3. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
343 4. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/cdk
344 5. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ded
345 6. ftp://ftp.akk.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/news/clients/tin-unoff
346 7. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile
347 8. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
348 9. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
349 10. mailto:dickey@clark.net
350 11. mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net
351 12. mailto:dickey@clark.net
352 13. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
353 14. ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/ncurses
354 15. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
355 16. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html