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28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.145 2010/06/05 20:08:29 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 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
530 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
531 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
532 checks the current filesystem.
535 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
536 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
537 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
541 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
542 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
545 --enable-pthreads-eintr
546 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
547 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
550 Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
551 library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also
552 set if --with-pthread is used.
555 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
556 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
557 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
560 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
561 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
562 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
563 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
564 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
565 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
567 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
568 extra assumptions about rpath.
570 --enable-safe-sprintf
571 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
572 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
573 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
576 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
577 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
578 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
579 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
583 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
584 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
585 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
586 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
587 alteration without patching the source code.
590 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
591 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
595 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
596 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
597 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
598 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
601 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
602 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
603 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
606 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
608 --enable-weak-symbols
609 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
610 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
611 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
612 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
613 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
615 --enable-wgetch-events
616 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
619 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
620 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
623 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
624 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
625 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
627 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
628 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
629 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
630 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
631 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
634 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
636 --with-abi-version=NUM
637 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
638 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
639 special requirements for compatibility.
641 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
642 release major/minor numbers.
644 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
645 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
647 --with-ada-include=DIR
648 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
649 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
651 --with-ada-objects=DIR
652 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
655 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
656 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
657 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
661 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
662 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
663 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
664 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
666 --with-build-cflags=XXX
667 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
668 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
671 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
674 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
675 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
676 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
679 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
682 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
683 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
684 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
687 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
690 --with-build-libs=XXX
691 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
692 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
694 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
698 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
699 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
700 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
701 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
702 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
703 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
706 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
707 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
708 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
711 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
712 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
713 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
714 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
718 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
719 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
720 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
724 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
725 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
728 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
729 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
731 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
732 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
733 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
736 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
737 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
740 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
741 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
744 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
745 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
748 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
749 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
750 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
751 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
754 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
756 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
758 See also --without-dlsym
760 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
761 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
762 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
765 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
766 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
767 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
768 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
769 "--enable-compat185".
771 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
772 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
773 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
774 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
775 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
776 or hashed database respectively.
778 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
779 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
781 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
783 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
784 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
787 See also the --enable-getcap option.
789 --with-install-prefix=XXX
790 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
791 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
792 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
793 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
795 make install DESTDIR=XXX
796 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
798 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
799 option probably will not work for those configurations.
802 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
803 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
804 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
805 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
806 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
807 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
809 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
810 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
811 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
813 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
814 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
815 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
816 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
817 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
819 --with-manpage-aliases
820 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
821 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
822 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
823 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
824 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
825 rather than symbolic links.
827 --with-manpage-format=XXX
828 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
829 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
830 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
831 attempts to determine which is the case.
833 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
834 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
835 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
836 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
837 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
839 --with-manpage-symlinks
840 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
841 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
842 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
843 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
844 copying the man-page for each alias.
847 Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
848 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
852 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
853 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
854 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
855 with 64-bit executables.
858 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
860 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
861 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
862 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
866 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
867 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
868 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
869 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
870 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
871 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
872 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
873 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
874 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
875 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
876 (or system, in general) may or may not.
878 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
879 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
882 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
886 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
887 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
888 for multithreaded applications.
891 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
893 --with-rel-version=NUM
894 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
895 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
896 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
897 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
900 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
901 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
902 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
904 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
905 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
908 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
909 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
910 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
911 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
912 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
913 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries. In that
914 case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it sets
915 $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
916 ./misc/shlib make install
918 --with-shlib-version=XXX
919 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
920 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
921 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
924 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
926 --with-system-type=XXX
927 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
928 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
929 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
930 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
933 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
934 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
935 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
938 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
939 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
940 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
941 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
943 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
944 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
945 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
946 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
947 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
951 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
952 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
955 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
956 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
957 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
959 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
960 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
961 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
963 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
964 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
965 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
966 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
970 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
971 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
974 For testing, compile with debug option.
975 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
977 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
978 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
979 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
980 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
981 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
982 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
983 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
984 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
985 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
986 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
989 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
990 Ada95 binding and related demo.
993 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
994 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
998 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
999 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1000 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1001 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1002 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1003 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1004 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1006 --without-cxx-binding
1007 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1008 C++ binding and related demo.
1011 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1012 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1015 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1018 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1021 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1022 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1023 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1026 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1027 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1028 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1031 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1032 --------------------------------------------
1034 Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
1035 is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
1036 Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
1037 between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
1038 Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
1039 addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
1040 the X/Open documentation.
1042 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1043 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1046 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1049 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1052 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1053 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1054 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1055 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1057 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1058 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1060 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1061 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1063 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1064 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1065 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1066 several internal functions.
1068 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1069 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1070 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1071 API, there is no ABI change.
1073 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1074 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1075 of the internal functions.
1079 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1080 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1081 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1082 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1083 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1084 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1086 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1087 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1088 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1089 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1091 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1092 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1095 Added internal functions:
1106 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1107 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1108 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1113 Removed internal functions:
1116 Modified internal functions:
1122 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1124 _nc_update_screensize
1126 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1134 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1137 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1139 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1142 and (for libncursesw)
1150 Added internal functions:
1164 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1179 Removed internal functions:
1182 Modified internal functions:
1189 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1192 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1193 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1195 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1196 still use ncurses 4.2).
1198 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1199 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1200 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1203 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1204 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1205 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1206 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1207 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1210 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1211 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1212 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1213 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1215 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1216 wide-character configuration.
1218 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1221 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1223 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1224 multicolumn characters.
1226 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1227 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1229 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1230 corresponds to the default-color.
1232 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1233 to an unsigned char.
1236 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1237 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1240 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1241 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1242 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1243 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1245 Added internal functions:
1249 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1250 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1253 Removed internal functions:
1256 Modified internal functions:
1261 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1264 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1265 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1266 --enable-widec option.
1270 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1273 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1275 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1276 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1278 + change some interfaces to use const:
1290 Added internal functions:
1293 _nc_is_charable() wide
1294 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1297 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1299 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1300 _nc_unicode_locale()
1302 Removed internal functions:
1306 Modified internal functions:
1308 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1310 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1313 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1314 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1316 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1317 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1318 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1322 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1323 assume_default_colors() extension.
1329 Added internal functions:
1330 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1332 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1333 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1335 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1340 Removed internal functions:
1343 Modified internal functions:
1346 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1349 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1350 --with-ospeed configure option).
1355 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1356 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1357 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1359 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1362 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1365 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1367 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1370 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1372 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1374 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1377 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1378 parameter according to XSI.
1380 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1381 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1382 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1383 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1386 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1388 Terminfo database changes:
1390 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1391 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1393 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1395 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1396 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1397 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1398 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1401 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1402 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1403 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1404 is a bug in the older versions:
1406 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1407 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1408 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1409 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1412 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1413 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1414 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1415 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1416 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1418 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1419 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1420 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1421 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1423 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1424 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1426 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1427 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1428 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1429 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1430 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1431 initialize that terminal type.
1433 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1434 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1435 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1437 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1438 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1439 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1440 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1441 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1443 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1444 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1445 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1446 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1447 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1448 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1449 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1450 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1455 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1457 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1458 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1460 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1463 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1465 Terminfo database changes:
1467 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1472 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1473 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1474 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1476 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1477 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1478 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1479 colors in the latter.
1481 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1483 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
1484 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1485 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1486 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1488 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1490 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1493 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1494 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1495 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1497 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1498 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1499 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1500 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1503 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1504 available only as macros.
1506 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1508 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1509 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1511 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1514 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1515 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1517 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1519 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1521 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1524 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1526 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1527 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1528 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1529 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1530 specification was available only in draft form.
1532 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1533 incorrect color scheme.
1536 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1537 ------------------------------
1539 Configuration and Installation:
1541 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1542 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default:
1544 GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin
1546 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1547 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1549 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1550 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1551 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1552 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1555 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1556 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1557 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1558 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1559 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1560 you recompile and relink them!).
1562 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1563 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1564 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1565 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1566 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1568 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1569 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1570 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1571 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1575 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1576 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1577 mappings that will set this up:
1579 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1580 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1581 shift keycode 15 = F26
1582 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1584 Naming the Console Terminal
1586 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1587 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1588 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1589 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1590 be called `console'.
1592 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1593 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1594 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1595 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1596 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1597 conventions for choosing type names.
1599 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1601 linux -- Linux console driver
1606 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1607 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
1608 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1609 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1612 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1613 ---------------------
1615 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1616 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1617 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1618 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1619 are unable to update your system.
1622 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1623 ----------------------------
1625 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1626 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1627 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1628 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1629 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
1630 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
1632 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1633 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1634 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1635 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1636 entry is accessible.
1638 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1639 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1640 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1641 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. A configure script option
1642 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1643 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1645 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1646 would use the commands
1649 tinfo/MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
1651 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
1652 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
1654 tinfo/MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
1656 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
1657 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
1658 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
1659 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
1660 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
1661 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
1664 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
1665 --------------------
1667 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
1668 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
1669 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
1670 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
1671 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
1673 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
1674 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
1675 in the package README file.)
1677 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
1680 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1682 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
1683 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
1684 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
1685 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
1686 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
1688 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
1689 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
1690 through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
1691 slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
1694 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
1695 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
1696 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
1697 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
1698 faster) terminfo fetch.
1700 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
1701 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
1702 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
1703 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
1704 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
1706 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
1707 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
1708 compilation is expensive).
1710 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
1711 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
1713 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
1714 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
1715 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
1716 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
1719 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
1720 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
1721 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
1722 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
1724 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
1725 terminfo directory directly.
1727 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1729 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
1730 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
1731 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
1732 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
1734 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
1735 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
1736 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
1737 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
1738 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
1739 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
1740 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
1741 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
1742 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
1744 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
1746 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
1748 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
1749 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
1751 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
1753 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
1754 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
1755 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
1756 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
1757 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
1758 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
1759 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
1761 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
1762 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
1763 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
1764 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
1766 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
1767 will be made if you use
1771 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
1772 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
1775 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
1776 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
1777 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
1778 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
1779 "make install.data" portion.
1781 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
1782 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
1783 be from the most current version of ncurses.
1786 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
1787 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
1788 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
1789 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
1791 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
1792 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.