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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.151 2011/01/23 00:06:15 tom Exp $
29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
30 How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
33 ************************************************************
34 * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
35 ************************************************************
37 You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
38 d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
39 including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
40 and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
42 If you are a distribution integrator or packager, please read and act on the
43 section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR below.
45 If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
46 to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
48 If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
49 read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
51 If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
52 USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
54 If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
57 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
58 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
64 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
66 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
68 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
70 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
72 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
75 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
76 ----------------------
78 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
79 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
82 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
83 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
84 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library (see
85 "IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR"). Use --prefix=/usr to replace your
86 default curses distribution.
88 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
90 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
91 reset, clear, tput, toe, tabs
92 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
93 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
94 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
95 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
97 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
98 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
101 Do not use commands such as
103 make install prefix=XXX
105 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
106 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
108 make install DESTDIR=XXX
110 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
112 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
113 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
114 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
115 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
117 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
118 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
119 file for your system.
121 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
122 models and their associated libraries:
124 libncurses.a (normal)
126 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
127 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
129 libncurses.so (shared)
131 libncurses_g.a (debug)
133 libncurses_p.a (profile)
135 libncurses.la (libtool)
137 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
138 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
139 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
140 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
141 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
142 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
143 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
144 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
145 various systems using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
147 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
148 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
150 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
151 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
153 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
157 ./configure --with-shared
159 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
161 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
163 If you want only shared libraries, type
165 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
167 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
168 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on
169 several systems, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
170 work on other systems.
172 If you have libtool installed, you can type
174 ./configure --with-libtool
176 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
177 platform using libtool.
179 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
180 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
181 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
182 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
183 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
185 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
186 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
187 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
188 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
189 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
191 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
192 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
193 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
196 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
197 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
198 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
199 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include
200 DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
202 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
203 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
204 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
205 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
207 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
208 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
210 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
211 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
212 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
214 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
215 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
216 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
217 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
219 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
220 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
221 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
222 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
223 be installed before the terminfo data can be
225 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
227 ############################################################################
228 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
229 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
230 # before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for #
231 # this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. #
232 ############################################################################
234 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
235 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
236 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
237 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
238 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
240 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
241 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
242 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
243 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
244 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
246 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
247 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
248 undefined symbols at link time.
250 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
251 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
252 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
253 so you can use ncurses applications.
255 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
256 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
257 wide terminfo tree instead.
259 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
261 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
262 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
263 compile and run the demo.
265 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
268 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
269 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
270 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
271 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
274 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
275 ----------------------------
277 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
281 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
282 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
284 --enable and --with options recognized:
286 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
289 --disable-assumed-color
290 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
291 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
292 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
293 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
294 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
295 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
296 convention, using this configure option.
299 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
300 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
301 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
302 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
303 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
305 --disable-big-strings
306 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
307 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
311 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
312 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
313 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
314 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
315 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus
319 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
320 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
321 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
324 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
327 --disable-home-terminfo
328 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
329 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
330 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
331 option to disable the feature altogether.
334 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
336 --disable-libtool-version
337 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
338 are used for constructing the library name.
340 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
341 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
342 build using --with-shared.
344 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
345 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
348 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
349 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
351 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
352 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
353 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
354 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
355 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build
356 a debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
357 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
358 the remainder on exit. The ncurses utility and test programs use this
359 feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
362 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
363 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
364 compatibility with older releases).
366 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
367 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
368 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
371 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
372 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
373 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
376 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
377 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
378 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
379 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
380 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
381 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
382 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
383 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
386 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
387 rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
388 copy whatever the linked produced.
390 This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
392 --disable-root-environ
393 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
394 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
395 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
396 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
399 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
400 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
401 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
402 to suppress the feature.
404 --disable-scroll-hints
405 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
406 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
408 --disable-tic-depends
409 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
410 depend upon the ncurses library (and in turn, on the term-library if
411 the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and term-libraries
412 ABI does not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
413 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged
414 by using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
415 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
416 ncurses (or ncursesw) library. Use this configure option to do that.
418 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
420 --disable-tparm-varargs
421 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
422 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
423 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
426 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
427 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
429 --enable-broken_linker
430 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
431 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
432 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
433 changes several data references to functions to work around this
436 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
437 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
438 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
439 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
443 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
444 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
447 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
448 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
449 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
450 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
453 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
454 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
455 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
456 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
457 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
458 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
459 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
460 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
461 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
462 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
463 in the interface, but at a lower level.
465 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
466 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
467 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
468 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
472 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
473 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
474 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
475 to see the options that are used).
478 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
479 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
482 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
483 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
486 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
487 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
488 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
491 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
492 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
493 similar X terminal emulators.
495 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
496 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
497 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
500 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
501 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
502 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
505 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
506 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
507 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
510 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
512 --enable-getcap-cache
513 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
515 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
516 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
517 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
518 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
519 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
520 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
523 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
524 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
525 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
529 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
530 for the form-library.
533 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
534 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
535 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
536 checks the current filesystem.
539 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
540 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
541 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
545 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
546 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
549 --enable-pthreads-eintr
550 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
551 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
554 Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
555 library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also
556 set if --with-pthread is used.
559 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
560 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
561 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
564 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
565 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
566 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
567 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
568 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
569 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
571 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
572 extra assumptions about rpath.
574 --enable-safe-sprintf
575 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
576 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
577 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
580 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
581 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
582 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
583 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
587 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
588 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
589 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
590 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
591 alteration without patching the source code.
594 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
595 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
599 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
600 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
604 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
605 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
606 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
607 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
610 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
611 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
612 library with different terminal drivers.
615 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
616 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
617 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
620 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
622 --enable-weak-symbols
623 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
624 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
625 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
626 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
627 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
629 --enable-wgetch-events
630 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
633 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
634 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
637 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
638 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
639 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
641 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
642 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
643 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
644 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
645 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
648 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
650 --with-abi-version=NUM
651 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
652 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
653 special requirements for compatibility.
655 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
656 release major/minor numbers.
658 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
659 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
661 --with-ada-include=DIR
662 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
663 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
665 --with-ada-objects=DIR
666 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
669 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
672 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
673 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
674 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
678 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
679 but is not directly used by ncurses.
682 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
683 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
684 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
685 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
687 --with-build-cflags=XXX
688 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
689 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
692 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
695 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
696 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
697 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
700 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
703 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
704 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
705 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
708 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
711 --with-build-libs=XXX
712 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
713 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
715 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
719 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
720 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
721 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
722 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
723 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
724 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
727 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
728 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
729 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
732 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
733 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
734 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
735 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
739 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
740 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
741 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
745 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
746 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
749 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
750 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
752 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
753 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
754 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
757 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
758 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
761 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
762 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
765 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
766 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
769 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
770 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
771 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
772 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
775 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
777 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
779 See also --without-dlsym
781 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
782 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
783 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
786 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
787 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
788 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
789 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
790 "--enable-compat185".
792 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
793 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
794 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
795 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
796 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
797 or hashed database respectively.
799 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
800 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
802 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
804 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
805 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
808 See also the --enable-getcap option.
810 --with-install-prefix=XXX
811 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
812 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
813 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
814 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
816 make install DESTDIR=XXX
817 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
819 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
820 option probably will not work for those configurations.
823 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
824 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
825 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
826 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
827 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
828 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
830 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
831 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
832 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
834 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
835 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
836 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
837 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
838 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
840 --with-manpage-aliases
841 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
842 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
843 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
844 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
845 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
846 rather than symbolic links.
848 --with-manpage-format=XXX
849 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
850 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
851 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
852 attempts to determine which is the case.
854 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
855 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
856 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
857 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
858 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
860 --with-manpage-symlinks
861 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
862 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
863 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
864 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
865 copying the man-page for each alias.
868 Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
869 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
873 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
874 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
875 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
876 with 64-bit executables.
879 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
881 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
882 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
883 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
887 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
888 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
889 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
890 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
891 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
892 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
893 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
894 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
895 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
896 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
897 (or system, in general) may or may not.
899 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
900 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
903 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
907 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
908 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
909 for multithreaded applications.
912 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
914 --with-rel-version=NUM
915 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
916 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
917 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
918 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
921 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
922 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
923 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
925 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
926 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
929 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
930 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
931 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
932 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
933 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
934 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries. In that
935 case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it sets
936 $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
937 ./misc/shlib make install
939 --with-shlib-version=XXX
940 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
941 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
942 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
945 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
947 --with-system-type=XXX
948 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
949 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
950 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
951 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
954 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
955 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
956 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
959 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
960 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
961 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
962 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
964 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
965 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
966 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
967 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
968 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
972 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
973 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
976 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
977 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
978 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
980 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
981 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
982 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
984 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
985 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
986 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
987 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
991 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
992 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
995 For testing, compile with debug option.
996 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
998 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
999 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1000 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1001 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1002 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1003 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1004 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1005 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1006 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1007 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1010 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1011 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1014 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1015 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1019 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1020 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1021 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1022 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1023 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1024 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1025 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1027 --without-cxx-binding
1028 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1029 C++ binding and related demo.
1032 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1033 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1036 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1039 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1042 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1043 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1044 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1047 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1051 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1052 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1053 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1056 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1057 --------------------------------------------
1059 Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
1060 is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
1061 Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
1062 between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
1063 Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
1064 addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
1065 the X/Open documentation.
1067 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1068 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1074 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1075 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1076 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1079 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1080 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1081 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1082 functionally identical with the originals.
1084 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1085 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1088 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1089 are no related interface changes.
1091 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1093 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1097 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1098 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1100 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1109 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1115 Removed internal functions:
1116 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1118 Modified internal functions:
1125 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1128 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1131 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1132 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1133 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1134 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1136 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1137 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1139 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1140 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1142 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1143 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1144 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1145 several internal functions.
1147 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1148 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1149 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1150 API, there is no ABI change.
1152 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1153 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1154 of the internal functions.
1158 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1159 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1160 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1161 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1162 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1163 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1165 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1166 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1167 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1168 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1170 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1171 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1174 Added internal functions:
1185 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1186 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1187 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1192 Removed internal functions:
1195 Modified internal functions:
1201 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1203 _nc_update_screensize
1205 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1213 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1216 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1218 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1221 and (for libncursesw)
1229 Added internal functions:
1243 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1258 Removed internal functions:
1261 Modified internal functions:
1268 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1271 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1272 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1274 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1275 still use ncurses 4.2).
1277 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1278 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1279 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1282 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1283 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1284 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1285 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1286 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1289 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1290 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1291 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1292 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1294 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1295 wide-character configuration.
1297 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1300 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1302 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1303 multicolumn characters.
1305 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1306 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1308 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1309 corresponds to the default-color.
1311 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1312 to an unsigned char.
1315 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1316 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1319 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1320 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1321 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1322 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1324 Added internal functions:
1328 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1329 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1332 Removed internal functions:
1335 Modified internal functions:
1340 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1343 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1344 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1345 --enable-widec option.
1349 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1352 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1354 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1355 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1357 + change some interfaces to use const:
1369 Added internal functions:
1372 _nc_is_charable() wide
1373 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1376 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1378 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1379 _nc_unicode_locale()
1381 Removed internal functions:
1385 Modified internal functions:
1387 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1389 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1392 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1393 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1395 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1396 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1397 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1401 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1402 assume_default_colors() extension.
1408 Added internal functions:
1409 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1411 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1412 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1414 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1419 Removed internal functions:
1422 Modified internal functions:
1425 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1428 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1429 --with-ospeed configure option).
1434 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1435 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1436 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1438 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1441 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1444 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1446 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1449 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1451 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1453 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1456 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1457 parameter according to XSI.
1459 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1460 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1461 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1462 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1465 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1467 Terminfo database changes:
1469 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1470 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1472 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1474 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1475 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1476 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1477 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1480 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1481 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1482 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1483 is a bug in the older versions:
1485 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1486 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1487 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1488 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1491 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1492 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1493 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1494 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1495 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1497 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1498 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1499 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1500 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1502 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1503 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1505 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1506 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1507 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1508 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1509 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1510 initialize that terminal type.
1512 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1513 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1514 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1516 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1517 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1518 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1519 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1520 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1522 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1523 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1524 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1525 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1526 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1527 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1528 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1529 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1534 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1536 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1537 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1539 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1542 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1544 Terminfo database changes:
1546 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1551 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1552 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1553 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1555 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1556 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1557 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1558 colors in the latter.
1560 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1562 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
1563 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1564 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1565 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1567 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1569 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1572 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1573 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1574 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1576 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1577 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1578 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1579 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1582 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1583 available only as macros.
1585 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1587 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1588 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1590 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1593 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1594 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1596 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1598 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1600 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1603 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1605 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1606 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1607 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1608 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1609 specification was available only in draft form.
1611 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1612 incorrect color scheme.
1615 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1616 ------------------------------
1618 Configuration and Installation:
1620 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1621 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default:
1623 GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin
1625 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1626 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1628 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1629 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1630 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1631 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1634 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1635 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1636 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1637 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1638 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1639 you recompile and relink them!).
1641 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1642 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1643 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1644 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1645 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1647 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1648 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1649 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1650 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1654 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1655 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1656 mappings that will set this up:
1658 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1659 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1660 shift keycode 15 = F26
1661 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1663 Naming the Console Terminal
1665 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1666 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1667 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1668 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1669 be called `console'.
1671 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1672 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1673 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1674 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1675 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1676 conventions for choosing type names.
1678 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1680 linux -- Linux console driver
1685 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1686 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
1687 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1688 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1691 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1692 ---------------------
1694 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1695 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1696 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1697 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1698 are unable to update your system.
1701 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1702 ----------------------------
1704 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1705 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1706 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1707 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1708 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
1709 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
1711 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1712 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1713 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1714 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1715 entry is accessible.
1717 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1718 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1719 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1720 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. A configure script option
1721 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1722 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1724 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1725 would use the commands
1728 tinfo/MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
1730 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
1731 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
1733 tinfo/MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
1735 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
1736 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
1737 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
1738 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
1739 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
1740 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
1743 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
1744 --------------------
1746 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
1747 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
1748 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
1749 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
1750 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
1752 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
1753 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
1754 in the package README file.)
1756 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
1759 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1761 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
1762 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
1763 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
1764 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
1765 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
1767 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
1768 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
1769 through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
1770 slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
1773 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
1774 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
1775 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
1776 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
1777 faster) terminfo fetch.
1779 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
1780 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
1781 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
1782 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
1783 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
1785 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
1786 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
1787 compilation is expensive).
1789 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
1790 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
1792 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
1793 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
1794 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
1795 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
1798 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
1799 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
1800 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
1801 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
1803 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
1804 terminfo directory directly.
1806 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1808 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
1809 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
1810 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
1811 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
1813 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
1814 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
1815 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
1816 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
1817 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
1818 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
1819 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
1820 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
1821 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
1823 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
1825 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
1827 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
1828 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
1830 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
1832 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
1833 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
1834 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
1835 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
1836 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
1837 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
1838 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
1840 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
1841 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
1842 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
1843 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
1845 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
1846 will be made if you use
1850 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
1851 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
1854 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
1855 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
1856 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
1857 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
1858 "make install.data" portion.
1860 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
1861 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
1862 be from the most current version of ncurses.
1865 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
1866 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
1867 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
1868 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
1870 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
1871 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.
projects / ncurses.git / blob