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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.195 2016/12/11 00:41:03 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.
201 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
202 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
204 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
205 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
206 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
207 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
209 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
210 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
211 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
213 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
214 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
215 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
216 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
218 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
219 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
220 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
221 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
222 be installed before the terminfo data can be
224 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
226 ############################################################################
227 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
228 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
229 # before you install ncurses. #
230 ############################################################################
232 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
233 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
234 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
235 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
236 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
238 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
239 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
240 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
241 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
242 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
244 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
245 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
246 undefined symbols at link time.
248 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
249 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
250 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
251 so you can use ncurses applications.
253 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
254 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
255 wide terminfo tree instead.
257 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
259 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
260 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
261 compile and run the demo.
263 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
266 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
267 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
268 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
269 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
272 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
273 ----------------------------
275 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
279 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
280 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
282 --enable and --with options recognized:
284 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
287 --disable-assumed-color
288 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
289 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
290 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
291 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
292 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
293 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
294 convention, using this configure option.
297 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
298 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
299 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
300 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
301 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
303 --disable-big-strings
304 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
305 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
309 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
310 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
311 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
312 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
313 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus
317 Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features
318 for packages, as done with --without-progs.
321 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
322 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
323 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
326 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
329 --disable-home-terminfo
330 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
331 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
332 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
333 option to disable the feature altogether.
336 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
338 --disable-lib-suffixes
339 Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added
340 to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options.
342 --disable-libtool-version
343 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
344 are used for constructing the library name.
346 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
347 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
348 build using --with-shared.
350 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
351 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
353 Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure
354 script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used
358 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
359 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
361 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
362 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
363 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
364 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
365 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build a
366 debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
367 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
368 the remainder and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs
369 use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
371 Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not
372 normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet
373 unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the
374 library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_"
378 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
379 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
380 compatibility with older releases).
382 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
383 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
384 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
387 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
388 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
389 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
392 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
393 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
394 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
395 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
396 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
397 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
398 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
399 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
401 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
402 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
403 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
404 header would be included using
406 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
407 #include <ncurses/term.h>
409 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
411 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
412 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
414 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
415 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
416 curses header files from the same directory.
418 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
419 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
420 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
421 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
424 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
425 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
426 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
427 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
428 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
429 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
430 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
433 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
434 rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
435 copy whatever the linked produced.
437 This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
439 --disable-root-environ
440 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
441 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
442 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
443 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
446 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
447 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
448 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
449 to suppress the feature.
451 --disable-scroll-hints
452 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
453 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
455 --disable-tic-depends
456 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
457 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
458 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
459 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
460 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
461 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
462 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
463 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
464 configure option to do that.
466 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
468 --disable-tparm-varargs
469 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
470 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
471 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
473 --disable-wattr-macros
474 The 6.0 ABI adds support for extended colors and for extended mouse.
475 The former is a noticeable problem when developers inadvertantly
476 compile using the ncurses6 header files and link with an ncurses5
477 library, because the wattr* macros use a new field in the WINDOW
478 structure. These macros are used in several applications.
480 Since ncurses provides an actual function for each of these macros,
481 suppressing them from the curses.h header allows the ncurses5 libraries
482 to be used in most applications.
484 NOTE: The extended colors also are used in the cchar_t structure, but
485 fewer applications use that.
487 NOTE: This workaround does not help with mismatches in the ncurses
488 mouse version. The extended mouse feature uses one less fewer bit for
489 each button, so that only the first button will work as expected with
490 a mismatch between header and library. Again, most applications will
491 work, since most use only the first button.
494 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
495 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
497 --enable-broken_linker
498 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
499 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
500 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
501 changes several data references to functions to work around this
504 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
505 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
506 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
507 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
511 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
512 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
515 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
516 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
517 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
518 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
521 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
522 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
523 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
524 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
525 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
526 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
527 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
528 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
529 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
530 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
531 in the interface, but at a lower level.
533 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
534 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
535 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
536 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
540 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
541 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
542 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
543 to see the options that are used).
546 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
547 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
550 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
551 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
554 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
555 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
556 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
559 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
560 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
561 similar X terminal emulators.
563 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
564 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
565 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
568 Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather
569 than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by
570 differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can
571 still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of
572 ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by
573 calling applications).
576 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
577 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
578 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
581 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
582 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
583 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
586 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
588 --enable-getcap-cache
589 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
591 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
592 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
593 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
594 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
595 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
596 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
599 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
600 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
601 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
605 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
606 for the form-library.
609 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
610 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
611 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
612 checks the current filesystem.
615 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
616 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
617 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
621 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
622 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
625 --enable-pthreads-eintr
626 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
627 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
630 Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
631 library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also
632 set if --with-pthread is used.
634 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
635 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
638 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
639 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
640 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
643 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
644 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
645 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
646 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
647 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
648 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
650 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
651 extra assumptions about rpath.
653 --enable-safe-sprintf
654 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
655 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
656 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
659 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
660 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
661 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
662 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
666 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
667 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
668 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
669 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
670 alteration without patching the source code.
673 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
674 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
677 --enable-string-hacks
678 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
679 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
680 is weakly standardized.
682 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
686 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
687 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
691 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
692 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
693 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
694 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
697 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
698 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
699 library with different terminal drivers.
702 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
703 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
704 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
706 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
707 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
708 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
709 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
713 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
715 --enable-weak-symbols
716 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
717 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
718 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
719 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
720 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
722 --enable-wgetch-events
723 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
726 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
727 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
730 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
731 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
732 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
734 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
735 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
736 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
737 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
738 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
741 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
743 --with-abi-version=NUM
744 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
745 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
746 special requirements for compatibility.
748 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
749 release major/minor numbers.
751 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
752 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
754 --with-ada-include=DIR
755 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
756 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
758 --with-ada-objects=DIR
759 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
762 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
764 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
765 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
766 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
769 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
770 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
771 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
775 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
776 but is not directly used by ncurses.
779 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
780 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
781 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
782 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
784 --with-build-cflags=XXX
785 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
786 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
789 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
792 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
793 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
794 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
797 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
800 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
801 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
802 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
805 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
808 --with-build-libs=XXX
809 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
810 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
812 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
816 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
817 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
818 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
819 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
820 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
821 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
824 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
825 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
826 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
829 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
830 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
831 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
832 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
833 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
834 script supplies "unsigned").
837 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
838 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
839 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
840 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
843 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
844 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
845 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
849 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
850 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
853 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
854 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
856 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
857 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
858 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
861 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
862 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
864 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
865 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
866 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
867 symbols which are part of the ABI.
869 --with-extra-suffix[=XXX]
870 Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify
871 installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a
872 different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the
873 include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given.
876 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
877 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
880 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
881 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
884 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
885 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
886 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
887 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
890 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
892 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
894 See also --without-dlsym
896 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
897 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
898 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
901 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
902 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
903 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
904 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
905 "--enable-compat185".
907 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
908 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
909 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
910 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
911 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
912 or hashed database respectively.
914 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
915 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
917 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
919 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
920 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
921 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
924 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
925 /usr/include/db4/db.h
926 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
928 See also the --enable-getcap option.
930 --with-install-prefix=XXX
931 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
932 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
933 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
934 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
936 make install DESTDIR=XXX
937 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
939 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
940 option probably will not work for those configurations.
942 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
943 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
944 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
945 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
946 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
947 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
948 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
949 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
950 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
953 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
954 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
955 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
956 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
957 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
958 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
960 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
961 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
962 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
964 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
965 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
966 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
967 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
968 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
970 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
971 Specify additional libtool options.
973 --with-manpage-aliases
974 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
975 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
976 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
977 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
978 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
979 rather than symbolic links.
981 --with-manpage-format=XXX
982 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
983 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
984 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
985 attempts to determine which is the case.
987 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
988 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
989 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
990 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
991 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
993 --with-manpage-symlinks
994 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
995 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
996 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
997 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
998 copying the man-page for each alias.
1001 Tell the configure script that you wish to preprocess the manpages
1002 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
1006 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
1007 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
1008 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
1009 with 64-bit executables.
1012 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
1014 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
1015 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
1016 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
1020 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
1021 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
1022 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
1023 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
1024 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
1025 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
1026 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
1027 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
1028 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
1029 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
1030 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1032 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
1033 If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the files
1034 and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations.
1035 If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added.
1037 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
1038 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
1040 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
1041 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1045 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1046 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1049 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1050 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1051 for multithreaded applications.
1054 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1056 --with-rel-version=NUM
1057 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1058 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1059 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1060 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1063 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1064 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1065 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1067 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1068 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1071 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1072 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1073 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1074 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1075 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1076 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1078 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1079 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1081 ./misc/shlib make install
1083 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1084 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1085 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1086 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1087 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1088 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1089 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1090 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1091 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1093 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1094 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1095 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1097 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1098 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1099 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1100 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1103 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1105 --with-system-type=XXX
1106 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1107 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1108 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1109 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1112 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1113 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1114 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1116 This is a colon-separated list, like the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
1119 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1120 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1121 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1122 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1123 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1125 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1126 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1127 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1128 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1129 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1133 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1134 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1137 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1138 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1139 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1141 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1142 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1143 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1145 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1146 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1147 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1148 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1151 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1152 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1153 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1154 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1155 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1156 tparm's interface was defined.
1158 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1161 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1162 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1164 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1165 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1166 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1167 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1169 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1171 The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map"
1172 file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1174 a) comments are not accepted
1175 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1176 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1178 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1179 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1180 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1181 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1182 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1184 The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files are generated using a set of
1185 scripts which build several configurations for each release version,
1186 checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. In
1187 addition to the ncurses libraries and programs, the symbols used
1188 by the "tack" program are made global.
1190 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1191 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1192 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1195 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1196 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1197 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1200 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1201 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1204 For testing, compile with debug option.
1205 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1207 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1208 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1209 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1210 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1211 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1212 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1213 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1214 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1215 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1216 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1219 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1220 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1223 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1224 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1227 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1230 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1231 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1232 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1233 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1234 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1235 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1236 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1238 --without-cxx-binding
1239 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1240 C++ binding and related demo.
1243 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1244 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1247 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1250 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1253 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1254 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1255 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1258 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1262 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1263 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1264 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1267 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1268 --------------------------------------------
1270 Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
1271 That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
1272 documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
1273 or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
1274 We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
1275 the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
1278 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1279 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1285 + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
1293 --with-chtype=uint32_t
1294 --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
1295 --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
1297 + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
1298 half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
1300 + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
1301 when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
1305 + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
1307 + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
1309 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1316 Removed internal functions:
1319 Modified internal functions:
1320 _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
1321 _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
1322 _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
1323 _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
1329 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1330 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1331 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1334 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1335 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1336 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1337 functionally identical with the originals.
1339 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1340 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1343 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1344 are no related interface changes.
1346 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1348 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1352 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1353 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1355 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1364 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1370 Removed internal functions:
1371 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1373 Modified internal functions:
1380 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1383 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1386 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1387 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1388 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1389 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1391 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1392 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1394 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1395 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1397 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1398 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1399 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1400 several internal functions.
1402 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1403 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1404 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1405 API, there is no ABI change.
1407 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1408 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1409 of the internal functions.
1413 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1414 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1415 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1416 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1417 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1418 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1420 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1421 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1422 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1423 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1425 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1426 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1429 Added internal functions:
1440 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1441 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1442 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1447 Removed internal functions:
1450 Modified internal functions:
1456 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1458 _nc_update_screensize
1460 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1468 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1471 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1473 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1476 and (for libncursesw)
1484 Added internal functions:
1498 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1513 Removed internal functions:
1516 Modified internal functions:
1523 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1526 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1527 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1529 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1530 still use ncurses 4.2).
1532 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1533 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1534 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1537 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1538 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1539 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1540 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1541 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1544 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1545 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1546 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1547 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1549 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1550 wide-character configuration.
1552 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1555 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1557 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1558 multicolumn characters.
1560 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1561 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1563 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1564 corresponds to the default-color.
1566 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1567 to an unsigned char.
1570 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1571 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1574 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1575 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1576 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1577 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1579 Added internal functions:
1583 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1584 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1587 Removed internal functions:
1590 Modified internal functions:
1595 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1598 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1599 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1600 --enable-widec option.
1604 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1607 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1609 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1610 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1612 + change some interfaces to use const:
1624 Added internal functions:
1627 _nc_is_charable() wide
1628 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1631 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1633 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1634 _nc_unicode_locale()
1636 Removed internal functions:
1640 Modified internal functions:
1642 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1644 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1647 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1648 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1650 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1651 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1652 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1656 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1657 assume_default_colors() extension.
1663 Added internal functions:
1664 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1666 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1667 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1669 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1674 Removed internal functions:
1677 Modified internal functions:
1680 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1683 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1684 --with-ospeed configure option).
1689 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1690 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1691 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1693 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1696 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1699 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1701 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1704 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1706 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1708 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1711 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1712 parameter according to XSI.
1714 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1715 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1716 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1717 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1720 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1722 Terminfo database changes:
1724 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1725 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1727 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1729 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1730 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1731 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1732 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1735 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1736 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1737 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1738 is a bug in the older versions:
1740 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1741 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1742 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1743 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1746 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1747 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1748 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1749 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1750 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1752 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1753 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1754 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1755 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1757 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1758 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1760 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1761 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1762 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1763 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1764 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1765 initialize that terminal type.
1767 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1768 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1769 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1771 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1772 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1773 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1774 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1775 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1777 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1778 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1779 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1780 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1781 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1782 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1783 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1784 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1789 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1791 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1792 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1794 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1797 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1799 Terminfo database changes:
1801 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1806 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1807 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1808 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1810 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1811 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1812 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1813 colors in the latter.
1815 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1817 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
1818 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1819 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1820 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1822 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1824 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1827 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1828 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1829 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1831 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1832 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1833 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1834 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1837 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1838 available only as macros.
1840 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1842 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1843 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1845 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1848 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1849 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1851 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1853 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1855 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1858 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1860 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1861 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1862 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1863 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1864 specification was available only in draft form.
1866 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1867 incorrect color scheme.
1870 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1871 ------------------------------
1873 Configuration and Installation:
1875 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1876 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
1877 that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
1879 FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
1881 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1882 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1884 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1885 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1886 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1887 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1890 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1891 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1892 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1893 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1894 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1895 you recompile and relink them!).
1897 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1898 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1899 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1900 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1901 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1903 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1904 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1905 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1906 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1910 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1911 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1912 mappings that will set this up:
1914 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1915 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1916 shift keycode 15 = F26
1917 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1919 Naming the Console Terminal
1921 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1922 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1923 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1924 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1925 be called `console'.
1927 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1928 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1929 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1930 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1931 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1932 conventions for choosing type names.
1934 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1936 linux -- Linux console driver
1941 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1942 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
1943 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1944 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1947 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1948 ---------------------
1950 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1951 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1952 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1953 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1954 are unable to update your system.
1957 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1958 ----------------------------
1960 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1961 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1962 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1963 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1964 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
1965 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
1967 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1968 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1969 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1970 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1971 entry is accessible.
1973 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1974 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1975 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1976 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
1977 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1978 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1980 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1981 might use the commands
1984 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1986 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1988 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
1990 The first three parameters of the script are normally supplied by
1991 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
1994 1) the location of the terminfo database
1995 2) the source for the terminfo entries
1996 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
1999 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
2000 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
2002 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2004 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2008 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
2009 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
2010 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
2011 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
2012 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
2013 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
2016 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
2017 --------------------
2019 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
2020 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
2021 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
2022 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
2023 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
2025 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
2026 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
2027 in the package README file.)
2029 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
2032 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2034 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
2035 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
2036 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
2037 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
2038 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
2040 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
2041 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
2042 through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
2043 down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
2045 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
2046 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
2047 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
2048 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
2049 faster) terminfo fetch.
2051 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
2052 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
2053 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
2054 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
2055 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
2057 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
2058 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
2059 compilation is expensive).
2061 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
2062 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
2064 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
2065 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
2066 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
2067 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
2070 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
2071 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
2072 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
2073 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
2075 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
2076 terminfo directory directly.
2078 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2080 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
2081 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
2082 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
2083 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
2085 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
2086 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2087 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
2088 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2089 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2090 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2091 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2092 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2093 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2095 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2097 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2099 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2100 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2102 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
2104 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
2105 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2106 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2107 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2108 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2109 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2110 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2112 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2113 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2114 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2115 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2117 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2118 will be made if you use
2122 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2123 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2126 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2127 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2128 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2129 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
2130 "make install.data" portion.
2132 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2133 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
2134 be from the most current version of ncurses.
2137 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2138 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2139 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2140 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2142 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2143 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.