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28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.202 2018/01/15 19:22:55 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.
456 Do not strip installed executables.
458 --disable-tic-depends
459 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
460 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
461 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
462 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
463 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
464 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
465 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
466 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
467 configure option to do that.
469 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
471 --disable-tparm-varargs
472 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
473 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
474 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
476 --disable-wattr-macros
477 The 6.0 ABI adds support for extended colors and for extended mouse.
478 The former is a noticeable problem when developers inadvertantly
479 compile using the ncurses6 header files and link with an ncurses5
480 library, because the wattr* macros use a new field in the WINDOW
481 structure. These macros are used in several applications.
483 Since ncurses provides an actual function for each of these macros,
484 suppressing them from the curses.h header allows the ncurses5 libraries
485 to be used in most applications.
487 NOTE: The extended colors also are used in the cchar_t structure, but
488 fewer applications use that.
490 NOTE: This workaround does not help with mismatches in the ncurses
491 mouse version. The extended mouse feature uses one less fewer bit for
492 each button, so that only the first button will work as expected with
493 a mismatch between header and library. Again, most applications will
494 work, since most use only the first button.
497 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
498 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
500 --enable-broken_linker
501 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
502 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
503 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
504 changes several data references to functions to work around this
507 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
508 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
509 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
510 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
514 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
515 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
518 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
519 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
520 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
521 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
524 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
525 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
526 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
527 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
528 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
529 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
530 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
531 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
532 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
533 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
534 in the interface, but at a lower level.
536 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
537 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
538 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
539 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
543 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
544 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
545 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
546 to see the options that are used).
549 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
550 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
553 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
554 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
557 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
558 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
559 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
562 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
563 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
564 similar X terminal emulators.
566 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
567 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
568 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
571 Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather
572 than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by
573 differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can
574 still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of
575 ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by
576 calling applications).
579 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
580 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
581 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
584 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
585 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
586 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
589 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
591 --enable-getcap-cache
592 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
594 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
595 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
596 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
597 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
598 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
599 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
602 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
603 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
604 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
608 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
609 for the form-library.
612 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
613 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
614 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
615 checks the current filesystem.
618 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
619 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
620 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
623 --enable-opaque-curses
626 --enable-opaque-panel
627 Define symbol in curses.h which controls whether some library
628 structures are treated as "opaque". The --enable-opaque-curses option
629 is overridden by the --enable-reentrant option.
632 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
633 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
636 --enable-pthreads-eintr
637 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
638 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
641 Compile configuration which improves reentrant use of the library by
642 reducing global and static variables. This option is also set if
643 --with-pthread is used.
645 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
646 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
649 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
650 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
651 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
654 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
655 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
656 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
657 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
658 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
659 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
661 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
662 extra assumptions about rpath.
664 --enable-safe-sprintf
665 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
666 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
667 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
670 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
671 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
672 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
673 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
677 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
678 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
679 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
680 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
681 alteration without patching the source code.
684 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
685 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
688 --enable-string-hacks
689 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
690 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
691 is weakly standardized.
693 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
697 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
698 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
702 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
703 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
704 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
705 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
708 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
709 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
710 library with different terminal drivers.
713 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
714 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
715 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
717 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
718 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
719 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
720 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
724 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
726 --enable-weak-symbols
727 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
728 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
729 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
730 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
731 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
733 --enable-wgetch-events
734 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
737 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
738 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
741 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
742 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
743 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
745 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
746 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
747 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
748 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
749 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
752 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
754 --with-abi-version=NUM
755 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
756 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
757 special requirements for compatibility.
759 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
760 release major/minor numbers.
762 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
763 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
765 --with-ada-include=DIR
766 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
767 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
769 --with-ada-objects=DIR
770 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
773 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
775 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
776 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
777 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
780 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
781 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
782 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
786 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
787 but is not directly used by ncurses.
790 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
791 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
792 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
793 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
795 --with-build-cflags=XXX
796 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
797 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
800 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
803 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
804 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
805 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
808 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
811 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
812 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
813 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
816 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
819 --with-build-libs=XXX
820 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
821 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
823 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
827 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
828 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
829 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
830 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
831 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
832 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
835 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
836 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
837 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
840 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
841 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
842 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
843 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
844 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
845 script supplies "unsigned").
848 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
849 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
850 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
851 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
854 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
855 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
856 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
860 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
861 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
864 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
865 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
867 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
868 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
869 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
872 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
873 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
875 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
876 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
877 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
878 symbols which are part of the ABI.
880 --with-extra-suffix[=XXX]
881 Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify
882 installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a
883 different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the
884 include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given.
887 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
888 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
891 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
892 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
895 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
896 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
897 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
898 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
901 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
903 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
905 See also --without-dlsym
907 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
908 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
909 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
912 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
913 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
914 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
915 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
916 "--enable-compat185".
918 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
919 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
920 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
921 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
922 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
923 or hashed database respectively.
925 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
926 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
928 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
930 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
931 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
932 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
935 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
936 /usr/include/db4/db.h
937 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
939 See also the --enable-getcap option.
941 --with-install-prefix=XXX
942 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
943 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
944 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
945 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
947 make install DESTDIR=XXX
948 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
950 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
951 option probably will not work for those configurations.
953 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
954 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
955 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
956 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
957 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
958 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
959 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
960 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
961 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
964 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
965 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
966 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
967 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
968 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
969 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
971 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
972 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
973 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
975 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
976 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
977 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
978 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
979 https://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
981 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
982 Specify additional libtool options.
984 --with-manpage-aliases
985 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
986 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
987 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
988 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
989 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
990 rather than symbolic links.
992 --with-manpage-format=XXX
993 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
994 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
995 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
996 attempts to determine which is the case.
998 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
999 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
1000 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
1001 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
1002 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
1004 --with-manpage-symlinks
1005 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
1006 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
1007 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
1008 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
1009 copying the man-page for each alias.
1012 Tell the configure script that you wish to preprocess the manpages
1013 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
1017 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
1018 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
1019 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
1020 with 64-bit executables.
1023 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
1025 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
1026 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
1027 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
1031 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
1032 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
1033 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
1034 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
1035 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
1036 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
1037 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
1038 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
1039 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
1040 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
1041 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1043 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
1044 If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the files
1045 and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations.
1046 If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added.
1048 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
1049 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
1051 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
1052 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1056 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1057 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1060 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1061 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1062 for multithreaded applications.
1065 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1067 --with-rel-version=NUM
1068 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1069 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1070 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1071 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1074 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1075 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1076 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1078 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1079 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1082 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1083 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1084 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1085 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1086 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1087 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1089 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1090 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1092 ./misc/shlib make install
1094 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1095 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1096 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1097 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1098 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1099 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1100 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1101 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1102 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1104 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1105 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1106 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1108 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1109 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1110 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1111 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1114 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1116 --with-system-type=XXX
1117 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1118 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1119 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1120 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1123 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1124 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1125 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1127 This is a colon-separated list, like the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
1130 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1131 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1132 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1133 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1134 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1136 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1137 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1138 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1139 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1140 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1144 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1145 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1148 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1149 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1150 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1152 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1153 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1154 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1156 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1157 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1158 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1159 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1162 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1163 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1164 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1165 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1166 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1167 tparm's interface was defined.
1169 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1172 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1173 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1175 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1176 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1177 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1178 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1180 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1182 The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map"
1183 file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1185 a) comments are not accepted
1186 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1187 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1189 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1190 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1191 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1192 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1193 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1195 The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files are generated using a set of
1196 scripts which build several configurations for each release version,
1197 checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. In
1198 addition to the ncurses libraries and programs, the symbols used
1199 by the "tack" program before version 1.08 are made global.
1201 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1202 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1203 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1206 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1207 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1208 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1211 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1212 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1215 For testing, compile with debug option.
1216 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1218 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1219 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1220 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1221 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1222 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1223 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1224 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1225 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1226 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1227 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1230 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1231 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1234 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1235 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1238 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1241 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1242 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1243 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1244 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1245 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1246 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1247 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1249 --without-cxx-binding
1250 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1251 C++ binding and related demo.
1254 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1255 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1258 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1261 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1264 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1265 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1266 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1269 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1273 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1274 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1275 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1278 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1279 --------------------------------------------
1281 Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
1282 That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
1283 documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
1284 or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
1285 We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
1286 the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
1289 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1290 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1296 + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
1304 --with-chtype=uint32_t
1305 --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
1306 --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
1308 + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
1309 half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
1311 + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
1312 when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
1316 + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
1318 + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
1320 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1327 Removed internal functions:
1330 Modified internal functions:
1331 _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
1332 _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
1333 _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
1334 _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
1340 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1341 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1342 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1345 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1346 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1347 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1348 functionally identical with the originals.
1350 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1351 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1354 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1355 are no related interface changes.
1357 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1359 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1363 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1364 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1366 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1375 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1381 Removed internal functions:
1382 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1384 Modified internal functions:
1391 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1394 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1397 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1398 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1399 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1400 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1402 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1403 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1405 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1406 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1408 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1409 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1410 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1411 several internal functions.
1413 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1414 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1415 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1416 API, there is no ABI change.
1418 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1419 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1420 of the internal functions.
1424 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1425 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1426 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1427 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1428 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1429 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1431 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1432 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1433 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1434 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1436 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1437 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1440 Added internal functions:
1451 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1452 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1453 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1458 Removed internal functions:
1461 Modified internal functions:
1467 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1469 _nc_update_screensize
1471 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1479 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1482 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1484 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1487 and (for libncursesw)
1495 Added internal functions:
1509 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1524 Removed internal functions:
1527 Modified internal functions:
1534 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1537 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1538 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1540 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1541 still use ncurses 4.2).
1543 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1544 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1545 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1548 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1549 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1550 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1551 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1552 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1555 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1556 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1557 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1558 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1560 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1561 wide-character configuration.
1563 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1566 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1568 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1569 multicolumn characters.
1571 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1572 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1574 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1575 corresponds to the default-color.
1577 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1578 to an unsigned char.
1581 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1582 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1585 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1586 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1587 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1588 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1590 Added internal functions:
1594 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1595 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1598 Removed internal functions:
1601 Modified internal functions:
1606 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1609 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1610 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1611 --enable-widec option.
1615 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1618 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1620 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1621 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1623 + change some interfaces to use const:
1635 Added internal functions:
1638 _nc_is_charable() wide
1639 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1642 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1644 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1645 _nc_unicode_locale()
1647 Removed internal functions:
1651 Modified internal functions:
1653 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1655 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1658 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1659 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1661 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1662 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1663 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1667 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1668 assume_default_colors() extension.
1674 Added internal functions:
1675 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1677 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1678 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1680 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1685 Removed internal functions:
1688 Modified internal functions:
1691 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1694 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1695 --with-ospeed configure option).
1700 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1701 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1702 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1704 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1707 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1710 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1712 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1715 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1717 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1719 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1722 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1723 parameter according to XSI.
1725 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1726 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1727 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1728 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1731 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1733 Terminfo database changes:
1735 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1736 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1738 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1740 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1741 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1742 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1743 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1746 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1747 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1748 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1749 is a bug in the older versions:
1751 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1752 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1753 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1754 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1757 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1758 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1759 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1760 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1761 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1763 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1764 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1765 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1766 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1768 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1769 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1771 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1772 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1773 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1774 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1775 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1776 initialize that terminal type.
1778 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1779 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1780 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1782 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1783 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1784 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1785 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1786 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1788 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1789 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1790 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1791 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1792 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1793 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1794 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1795 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1800 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1802 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1803 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1805 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1808 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1810 Terminfo database changes:
1812 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1817 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1818 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1819 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1821 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1822 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1823 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1824 colors in the latter.
1826 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1828 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
1829 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1830 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1831 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1833 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1835 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1838 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1839 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1840 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1842 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1843 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1844 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1845 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1848 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1849 available only as macros.
1851 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1853 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1854 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1856 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1859 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1860 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1862 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1864 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1866 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1869 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1871 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1872 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1873 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1874 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1875 specification was available only in draft form.
1877 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1878 incorrect color scheme.
1881 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1882 ------------------------------
1884 Configuration and Installation:
1886 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1887 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
1888 that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
1890 FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
1892 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1893 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1895 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1896 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1897 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1898 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1901 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1902 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1903 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1904 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1905 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1906 you recompile and relink them!).
1908 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1909 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1910 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1911 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1912 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1914 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1915 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1916 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1917 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1921 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1922 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1923 mappings that will set this up:
1925 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1926 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1927 shift keycode 15 = F26
1928 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1930 Naming the Console Terminal
1932 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1933 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1934 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1935 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1936 be called `console'.
1938 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1939 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1940 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1941 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1942 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1943 conventions for choosing type names.
1945 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1947 linux -- Linux console driver
1952 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1953 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
1954 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1955 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1958 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1959 ---------------------
1961 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1962 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1963 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1964 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1965 are unable to update your system.
1968 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1969 ----------------------------
1971 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1972 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1973 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1974 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1975 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
1976 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
1978 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1979 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1980 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1981 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1982 entry is accessible.
1984 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1985 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1986 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1987 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
1988 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1989 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1991 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1992 might use the commands
1995 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1997 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1999 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
2001 The first three parameters of the script are normally supplied by
2002 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
2005 1) the location of the terminfo database
2006 2) the source for the terminfo entries
2007 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
2010 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
2011 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
2013 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2015 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2019 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
2020 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
2021 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
2022 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
2023 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
2024 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
2027 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
2028 --------------------
2030 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
2031 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
2032 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
2033 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
2034 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
2036 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
2037 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
2038 in the package README file.)
2040 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
2043 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2045 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
2046 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
2047 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
2048 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
2049 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
2051 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
2052 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
2053 through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
2054 down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
2056 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
2057 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
2058 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
2059 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
2060 faster) terminfo fetch.
2062 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
2063 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
2064 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
2065 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
2066 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
2068 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
2069 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
2070 compilation is expensive).
2072 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
2073 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
2075 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
2076 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
2077 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
2078 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
2081 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
2082 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
2083 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
2084 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
2086 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
2087 terminfo directory directly.
2089 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2091 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
2092 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
2093 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
2094 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
2096 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
2097 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2098 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
2099 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2100 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2101 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2102 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2103 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2104 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2106 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2108 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2110 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2111 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2113 https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
2115 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
2116 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2117 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2118 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2119 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2120 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2121 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2123 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2124 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2125 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2126 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2128 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2129 will be made if you use
2133 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2134 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2137 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2138 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2139 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2140 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
2141 "make install.data" portion.
2143 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2144 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
2145 be from the most current version of ncurses.
2148 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2149 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2150 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2151 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2153 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2154 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.