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28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.223 2020/05/23 18:30:33 tom Exp $
30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
31 How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
32 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
34 ************************************************************
35 * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
36 ************************************************************
38 You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
39 d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
40 including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
41 and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
43 If you are a distribution integrator or packager, please read and act on the
44 section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR below.
46 If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
47 to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
49 If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
50 read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
52 If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
53 USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
55 If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
58 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
59 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
65 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
67 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
69 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
71 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
73 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
76 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
77 ----------------------
79 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
80 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
83 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
84 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
85 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library (see
86 "IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR"). Use --prefix=/usr to replace your
87 default curses distribution.
89 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
91 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
92 reset, clear, tput, toe, tabs
93 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
94 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
95 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
96 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
98 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
99 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
102 Do not use commands such as
104 make install prefix=XXX
106 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
107 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
109 make install DESTDIR=XXX
111 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
113 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
114 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
115 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
116 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
118 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
119 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
120 file for your system.
122 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
123 models and their associated libraries:
125 libncurses.a (normal)
127 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
128 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
130 libncurses.so (shared)
132 libncurses_g.a (debug)
134 libncurses_p.a (profile)
136 libncurses.la (libtool)
138 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
139 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
140 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
141 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
142 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
143 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
144 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
145 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
146 various systems using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
148 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
149 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
151 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
152 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
154 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
158 ./configure --with-shared
160 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
162 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
164 If you want only shared libraries, type
166 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
168 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
169 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on
170 several systems, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
171 work on other systems.
173 If you have libtool installed, you can type
175 ./configure --with-libtool
177 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
178 platform using libtool.
180 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
181 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
182 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
183 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
184 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
186 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
187 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
188 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
189 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
190 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
192 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
193 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
194 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
197 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
198 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
199 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
200 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.
202 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
203 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
205 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
206 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
207 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
208 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
210 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
211 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
212 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
214 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
215 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
216 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
217 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
219 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
220 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
221 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
222 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
223 be installed before the terminfo data can be
225 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
227 ############################################################################
228 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
229 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
230 # before you install ncurses. #
231 ############################################################################
233 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
234 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
235 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
236 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
237 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
239 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
240 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
241 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
242 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
243 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
245 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
246 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
247 undefined symbols at link time.
249 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
250 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
251 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
252 so you can use ncurses applications.
254 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
255 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
256 wide terminfo tree instead.
258 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
260 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
261 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
262 compile and run the demo.
264 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
267 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
268 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
269 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
270 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
273 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
274 ----------------------------
276 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
280 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
281 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
283 --enable and --with options recognized:
285 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
288 --disable-assumed-color
289 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
290 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
291 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
292 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
293 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
294 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
295 convention, using this configure option.
298 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
299 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
300 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
301 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
302 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
304 --disable-big-strings
305 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
306 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
310 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
311 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
312 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
313 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
314 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., tset and tput versus
318 Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features
319 for packages, as done with --without-progs.
322 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
323 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
324 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
325 to see the options that are used).
328 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
329 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
330 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
332 --disable-gnat-projects
333 Disable GNAT projects even if usable, for testing old makefile rules.
336 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
339 --disable-home-terminfo
340 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
341 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
342 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
343 option to disable the feature altogether.
346 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
349 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
350 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
352 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
353 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
354 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
355 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
356 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build a
357 debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
358 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
359 the remainder and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs
360 use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
362 Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not
363 normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet
364 unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the
365 library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_"
368 --disable-lib-suffixes
369 Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added
370 to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options.
372 --disable-libtool-version
373 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
374 are used for constructing the library name.
376 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
377 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
378 build using --with-shared.
380 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
381 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
383 Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure
384 script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used
388 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
389 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
390 compatibility with older releases).
392 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
393 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
394 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
397 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
398 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
399 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
402 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
403 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
404 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
405 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
406 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
407 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
408 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
409 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
411 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
412 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
413 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
414 header would be included using
416 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
417 #include <ncurses/term.h>
419 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
421 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
422 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
424 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
425 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
426 curses header files from the same directory.
428 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
429 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
430 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
431 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
434 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
435 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
436 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
437 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
438 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
439 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
440 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
442 In addition to the curses library, a system may provide its own
443 versions of the add-on libraries (form, menu, panel), which would
444 not be compatible with ncurses. These options allow you to rename
445 ncurses' add-on libraries to avoid conflicts when linking:
447 --with-form-libname=XXX
448 --with-menu-libname=XXX
449 --with-panel-libname=XXX
451 Rather than renaming them abitrarily, a prefix or suffix is
452 recommended. An "n" prefix provides consistency with ncurses versus
455 --with-form-libname=nform
456 --with-menu-libname=nmenu
457 --with-panel-libname=npanel
459 --disable-pkg-ldflags
460 Omit options in $EXTRA_LDFLAGS from the pkg-config ".pc" and
461 corresponding ncurses*-config script which normally are listed via
462 the "--libs" option. These options are normally used to facilitate
463 linking to ncurses when it was configured to use the rpath feature.
465 See also --enable-rpath and --disable-rpath-hack.
468 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
469 rebuild shared libraries during install. Use this option to simply
470 copy whatever the linker produced.
472 Static libraries cannot simply be copied because tools use timestamps
473 to determine if the library's symbol table is up to date. If your
474 install program supports the "-p" (preserve timestamp) option, that
475 is used when --disable-relink is given, to avoid rebuilding the symbol
478 Finally, some tools ignore the subsecond timestamps supported by some
479 filesystems. This option adds a 1-second sleep to help those tools
480 avoid unnecessary relinking during the install process.
482 --disable-root-environ
483 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
484 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
485 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
486 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
489 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
490 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
491 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
492 to suppress the feature.
494 --disable-scroll-hints
495 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
496 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
499 Do not strip installed executables.
501 --disable-tic-depends
502 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
503 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
504 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
505 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
506 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
507 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
508 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
509 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
510 configure option to do that.
512 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
514 --disable-tparm-varargs
515 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
516 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
517 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
519 --disable-wattr-macros
520 The 6.0 ABI adds support for extended colors and for extended mouse.
521 The former is a noticeable problem when developers inadvertently
522 compile using the ncurses6 header files and link with an ncurses5
523 library, because the wattr* macros use a new field in the WINDOW
524 structure. These macros are used in several applications.
526 Since ncurses provides an actual function for each of these macros,
527 suppressing them from the curses.h header allows the ncurses5 libraries
528 to be used in most applications.
530 NOTE: The extended colors also are used in the cchar_t structure, but
531 fewer applications use that.
533 NOTE: This workaround does not help with mismatches in the ncurses
534 mouse version. The extended mouse feature uses one less fewer bit for
535 each button, so that only the first button will work as expected with
536 a mismatch between header and library. Again, most applications will
537 work, since most use only the first button.
540 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
541 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
543 --enable-broken_linker
544 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
545 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
546 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
547 changes several data references to functions to work around this
550 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
551 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
552 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
553 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
557 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
558 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
561 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
562 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
563 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
564 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
567 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
568 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
569 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
570 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
571 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
572 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
573 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
574 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
575 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
576 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
577 in the interface, but at a lower level.
579 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
580 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
581 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
582 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
586 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
587 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
590 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
591 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
594 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
595 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
596 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
599 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
600 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
601 similar X terminal emulators.
603 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
604 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
605 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
608 Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather
609 than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by
610 differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can
611 still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of
612 ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by
613 calling applications).
616 Use the gcc "-fvisibility=hidden" option to make symbols which are not
617 explicitly exported, "hidden". Doing this may reduce the number of
618 symbols exported in the C++ binding; it should have less effect on the
619 C libraries when symbol-versioning is used.
622 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
623 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
624 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
627 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
628 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
629 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
632 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
634 --enable-getcap-cache
635 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
637 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
638 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
639 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
640 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
641 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
642 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
645 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
646 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
647 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
651 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
652 for the form-library.
655 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
656 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
657 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
658 checks the current filesystem.
661 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
662 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
663 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
666 --enable-opaque-curses
669 --enable-opaque-panel
670 Define symbol in curses.h which controls whether some library
671 structures are treated as "opaque". The --enable-opaque-curses option
672 is overridden by the --enable-reentrant option.
675 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
676 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
679 --enable-pthreads-eintr
680 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
681 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
684 Compile configuration which improves reentrant use of the library by
685 reducing global and static variables. This option is also set if
686 --with-pthread is used.
688 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
689 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
692 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
693 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
694 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
697 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
698 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
699 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
700 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
701 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
702 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
704 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
705 extra assumptions about rpath.
707 --enable-safe-sprintf
708 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
709 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
710 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however, and is used only on
711 very old systems which lack vsnprintf().
714 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
715 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
716 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
717 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
718 alteration without patching the source code.
721 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
722 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
723 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
724 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
728 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
729 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
732 --enable-string-hacks
733 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
734 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
735 is weakly standardized.
737 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
741 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
742 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
746 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
747 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
748 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
749 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
752 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
753 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
754 library with different terminal drivers.
757 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
758 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
759 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
761 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
762 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
763 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
764 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
768 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
770 --enable-weak-symbols
771 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
772 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
773 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
774 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
775 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
777 --enable-wgetch-events
778 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
781 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
782 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
785 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
786 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
787 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
789 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
790 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
791 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
792 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
793 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
796 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
798 --with-abi-version=NUM
799 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
800 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
801 special requirements for compatibility.
803 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
804 release major/minor numbers.
806 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
807 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
809 --with-ada-include=DIR
810 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
811 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
813 --with-ada-libname=NAME
814 Override the name of the Ada binding (default: "AdaCurses")
816 --with-ada-objects=DIR
817 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
820 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
822 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
823 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
824 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
827 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
828 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
829 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
833 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
834 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
835 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
836 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
838 --with-build-cflags=XXX
839 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
840 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
843 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
847 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
848 but is not directly used by ncurses.
850 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
851 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
852 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
855 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
858 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
859 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
860 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
863 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
866 --with-build-libs=XXX
867 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
868 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
870 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
874 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
875 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
876 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
877 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
878 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
879 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
882 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
883 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
884 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
887 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
888 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
889 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
890 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
891 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
892 script supplies "unsigned").
894 --with-config-suffix=XXX
895 Specify a suffix for the ncursesw6-config file, etc., used to work
896 around conflicts with packages.
898 --with-cxx-libname=NAME
899 Override the basename of the ncurses++ library (default: "ncurses++")
902 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
903 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
904 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
905 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
908 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
909 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
910 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
914 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
915 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
918 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
919 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
921 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
922 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
923 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
926 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
927 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
929 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
930 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
931 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
932 symbols which are part of the ABI.
934 --with-extra-suffix[=XXX]
935 Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify
936 installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a
937 different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the
938 include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given.
941 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
942 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
944 See also "--with-tic-path" and "--with-infocmp-path".
946 --with-form-libname=NAME
947 Override the basename of the form library (default: "form")
950 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
951 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
954 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
955 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
956 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
957 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
960 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
962 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
964 See also --without-dlsym
966 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
967 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
968 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
971 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
972 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
973 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
974 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
975 "--enable-compat185".
977 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
978 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
979 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
980 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
981 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
982 or hashed database respectively.
984 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
985 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
987 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
989 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
990 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
991 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
994 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
995 /usr/include/db4/db.h
996 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
998 See also the --enable-getcap option.
1000 --with-infocmp-path[=XXX]
1001 Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your
1002 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
1004 --with-install-prefix=XXX
1005 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
1006 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
1007 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
1008 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
1010 make install DESTDIR=XXX
1011 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
1013 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
1014 option probably will not work for those configurations.
1016 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
1017 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
1018 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
1019 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
1020 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
1021 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
1022 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
1023 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
1024 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
1026 --with-libtool[=XXX]
1027 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
1028 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
1029 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
1030 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
1031 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
1032 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
1034 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
1035 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
1036 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
1038 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
1039 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
1040 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
1041 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
1042 https://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
1044 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
1045 Allow user to pass additional libtool options into the library creation
1046 and link steps. The main use for this is to do something like
1047 ./configure --with-libtool-opts=-static
1048 to get the same behavior as automake-flavored
1049 ./configure --enable-static
1051 --with-manpage-aliases
1052 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
1053 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
1054 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
1055 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
1056 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
1057 rather than symbolic links.
1059 --with-manpage-format=XXX
1060 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
1061 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
1062 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
1063 attempts to determine which is the case.
1065 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
1066 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
1067 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
1068 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
1069 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
1071 --with-manpage-symlinks
1072 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
1073 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
1074 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
1075 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
1076 copying the man-page for each alias.
1079 Tell the configure script that you wish to preprocess the manpages
1080 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
1083 --with-menu-libname=NAME
1084 Override the basename of the menu library (default: "menu")
1087 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
1088 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
1089 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
1090 with 64-bit executables.
1093 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
1095 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
1096 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
1097 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
1101 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
1102 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
1103 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
1104 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
1105 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
1106 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
1107 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
1108 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
1109 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
1110 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
1111 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1113 --with-panel-libname=NAME
1114 Override the basename of the panel library (default: "panel")
1116 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
1117 If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the files
1118 and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations.
1119 If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added.
1122 Add PCRE2 (Perl-compatible regular expressions v2) to the build if it
1123 is available and the user requests it. Assume the application will
1124 otherwise use the POSIX interface.
1126 This is useful for MinGW builds because the usual POSIX interface is
1127 not supplied by the development environment, while ncurses' form
1128 library uses a regular expression feature for one of the field types.
1130 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
1131 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
1133 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
1134 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1138 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1139 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1142 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1143 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1144 for multithreaded applications.
1147 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1149 --with-rel-version=NUM
1150 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1151 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1152 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1153 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1156 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1157 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1158 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1160 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1161 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1164 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1165 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1166 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1167 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1168 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1169 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1171 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1172 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1174 ./misc/shlib make install
1176 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1177 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1178 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1179 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1180 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1181 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1182 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1183 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1184 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1186 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1187 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1188 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1190 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1191 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1192 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1193 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1196 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1198 --with-system-type=XXX
1199 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1200 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1201 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1202 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1205 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1206 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1207 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1209 This is a colon-separated list, like the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
1212 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1213 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1214 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1215 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1216 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1218 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1219 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1220 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1221 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1222 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1226 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1227 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1229 --with-tic-path[=XXX]
1230 Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your
1231 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
1234 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1235 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1236 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1238 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1239 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1240 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1242 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1243 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1244 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1245 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1248 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1249 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1250 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1251 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1252 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1253 tparm's interface was defined.
1255 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1258 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1259 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1262 For testing, compile with debug option.
1263 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1265 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1266 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1267 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1268 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1270 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1272 The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map"
1273 file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1275 a) comments are not accepted
1276 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1277 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1279 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1280 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1281 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1282 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1283 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1285 The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files are generated using a set of
1286 scripts which build several configurations for each release version,
1287 checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. In
1288 addition to the ncurses libraries and programs, the symbols used
1289 by the "tack" program before version 1.08 are made global.
1291 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1292 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1293 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1296 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1297 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1298 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1299 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1300 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1301 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1302 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1303 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1304 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1305 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1308 Provide a pathname for the X11 rgb file, used by the picsmap program.
1309 This overrides a configure check which usually works, but is needed
1310 due to the lack of standardization for X11's files.
1312 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1313 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1314 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1317 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1318 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1321 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1322 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1325 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1326 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1329 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1332 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1333 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1334 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1335 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1336 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1337 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1338 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1340 --without-cxx-binding
1341 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1342 C++ binding and related demo.
1345 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1346 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1349 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1352 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1355 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1356 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1357 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1360 Suppress build/install with tack program, if it happens to be
1361 in the same build-tree (tack was moved out of the ncurses source-tree
1365 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1369 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1370 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1371 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1374 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1375 --------------------------------------------
1377 Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
1378 That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
1379 documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
1380 or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
1381 We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
1382 the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
1385 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1386 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1392 + the terminal database must be compiled with ncurses 6.2 tic;
1393 older versions of tic/infocmp will not work. Aside from that,
1394 the compiled database will work with older applications.
1396 + "*.pc" and "ncurses*-config" files give the same information.
1398 + vwprintw and vwscanw are deprecated.
1402 + These make it simpler to substitute a debug-configuration of the
1403 library for non-debug:
1408 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1410 + These provide fast-lookup of common user-defined capabilities:
1412 _nc_get_userdefs_table
1415 + This is added to work around compiler-warnings:
1418 Removed internal functions:
1420 + _nc_import_termtype
1422 Modified internal functions:
1424 + _nc_reserve_pairs no longer returns a value
1429 + X/Open Curses specifies a "reserved" void* parameter in several
1430 functions, saying that it must be NULL. In this release, if the
1431 parameter is non-NULL, it is interpreted as a point to an integer
1432 containing a color pair. In previous releases, a non-NULL parameter
1433 caused an error return. Portable applications are unaffected. Here
1434 are the functions which have been extended:
1453 + the TERMINAL structure declared in <term.h> has been made opaque,
1454 and its size increased to handle the increased size of color pair
1455 and color value, as well as other numeric capabilities.
1457 A few applications required change, e.g., to use def_prog_mode;
1458 only one application (tack) is known to have a valid reason for
1459 accessing these internal details, and that was addressed by the
1460 release of tack 1.08 in 2017. Internal functions marked as used
1461 by tack will be deprecated in future releases.
1465 + Several new functions were added to manipulate extended color pairs
1466 and color values. These include:
1468 extended_color_content
1469 extended_pair_content
1477 as well as corresponding sp-functions.
1479 + A new terminfo capability "RGB" tells the ncurses library that the
1480 color values are red/green/blue, to eliminate the need for palettes
1481 in that special case for the color_content function.
1483 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1485 _nc_export_termtype2
1493 Removed internal functions:
1497 Modified internal functions:
1499 + symbols are used by tic/infocmp/toe:
1500 _nc_align_termtype - change parameters to TERMTYPE2*
1501 _nc_check_termtype2 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1502 _nc_read_file_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1503 _nc_read_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1504 _nc_trim_sgr0 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1505 _nc_write_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1507 + symbols used only within the library:
1508 _nc_fallback - change return type to TERMTYPE2*
1509 _nc_init_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1514 + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
1522 --with-chtype=uint32_t
1523 --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
1524 --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
1526 + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
1527 half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
1529 + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
1530 when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
1534 + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
1536 + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
1538 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1545 Removed internal functions:
1548 Modified internal functions:
1549 _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
1550 _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
1551 _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
1552 _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
1558 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1559 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1560 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1563 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1564 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1565 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1566 functionally identical with the originals.
1568 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1569 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1572 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1573 are no related interface changes.
1575 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1577 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1581 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1582 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1584 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1593 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1599 Removed internal functions:
1600 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1602 Modified internal functions:
1609 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1612 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1615 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1616 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1617 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1618 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1620 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1621 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1623 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1624 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1626 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1627 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1628 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1629 several internal functions.
1631 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1632 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1633 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1634 API, there is no ABI change.
1636 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1637 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1638 of the internal functions.
1642 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1643 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1644 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1645 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1646 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1647 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1649 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1650 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1651 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1652 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1654 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1655 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1658 Added internal functions:
1669 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1670 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1671 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1676 Removed internal functions:
1679 Modified internal functions:
1685 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1687 _nc_update_screensize
1689 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1697 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1700 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1702 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1705 and (for libncursesw)
1713 Added internal functions:
1727 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1742 Removed internal functions:
1745 Modified internal functions:
1752 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1755 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1756 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1758 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1759 still use ncurses 4.2).
1761 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1762 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1763 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1766 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1767 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1768 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1769 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1770 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1773 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1774 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1775 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1776 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1778 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1779 wide-character configuration.
1781 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1784 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1786 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1787 multicolumn characters.
1789 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1790 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1792 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1793 corresponds to the default-color.
1795 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1796 to an unsigned char.
1799 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1800 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1803 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1804 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1805 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1806 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1808 Added internal functions:
1812 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1813 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1816 Removed internal functions:
1819 Modified internal functions:
1824 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1827 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1828 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1829 --enable-widec option.
1833 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1836 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1838 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1839 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1841 + change some interfaces to use const:
1853 Added internal functions:
1856 _nc_is_charable() wide
1857 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1860 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1862 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1863 _nc_unicode_locale()
1865 Removed internal functions:
1869 Modified internal functions:
1871 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1873 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1876 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1877 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1879 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1880 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1881 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1885 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1886 assume_default_colors() extension.
1892 Added internal functions:
1893 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1895 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1896 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1898 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1903 Removed internal functions:
1906 Modified internal functions:
1909 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1912 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1913 --with-ospeed configure option).
1918 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1919 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1920 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1922 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1925 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1928 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1930 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1933 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1935 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1937 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1940 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1941 parameter according to XSI.
1943 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1944 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1945 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1946 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1949 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1951 Terminfo database changes:
1953 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1954 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1956 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1958 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1959 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1960 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1961 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1964 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1965 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1966 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1967 is a bug in the older versions:
1969 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1970 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1971 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1972 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1975 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1976 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1977 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1978 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1979 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1981 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1982 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1983 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1984 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1986 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1987 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1989 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1990 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1991 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1992 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1993 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1994 initialize that terminal type.
1996 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1997 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1998 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
2000 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
2001 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
2002 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
2003 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
2004 and are invisible to the older libraries.
2006 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
2007 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
2008 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
2009 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
2010 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
2011 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
2012 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
2013 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
2018 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
2020 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
2021 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
2023 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
2026 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
2028 Terminfo database changes:
2030 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
2035 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
2036 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
2037 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
2039 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
2040 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
2041 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
2042 colors in the latter.
2044 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
2046 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
2047 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
2048 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
2049 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
2051 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
2053 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
2056 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
2057 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
2058 application's fallback for missing tparam().
2060 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
2061 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
2062 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
2063 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
2066 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
2067 available only as macros.
2069 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
2071 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
2072 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
2074 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
2077 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
2078 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
2080 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
2082 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
2084 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
2087 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
2089 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
2090 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
2091 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
2092 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
2093 specification was available only in draft form.
2095 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
2096 incorrect color scheme.
2099 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
2100 ------------------------------
2102 Configuration and Installation:
2104 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
2105 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
2106 that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
2108 FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
2110 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
2111 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
2113 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
2114 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
2115 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
2116 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
2119 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
2120 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
2121 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
2122 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
2123 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
2124 you recompile and relink them!).
2126 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
2127 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
2128 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
2129 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
2130 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
2132 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
2133 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
2134 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
2135 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
2139 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
2140 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
2141 mappings that will set this up:
2143 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
2144 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
2145 shift keycode 15 = F26
2146 string F26 ="\033[Z"
2148 Naming the Console Terminal
2150 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
2151 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
2152 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
2153 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
2154 be called `console'.
2156 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
2157 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
2158 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
2159 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
2160 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
2161 conventions for choosing type names.
2163 Here are some recommended primary console names:
2165 linux -- Linux console driver
2170 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
2171 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
2172 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
2173 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
2176 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
2177 ---------------------
2179 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
2180 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
2181 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
2182 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
2183 are unable to update your system.
2186 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
2187 ----------------------------
2189 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
2190 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
2191 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
2192 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
2193 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
2194 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
2196 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
2197 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
2198 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
2199 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
2200 entry is accessible.
2202 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
2203 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
2204 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
2205 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
2206 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
2207 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
2209 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
2210 might use the commands
2213 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2215 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2218 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
2220 The first four parameters of the script are normally supplied by
2221 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
2224 1) the location of the terminfo database
2225 2) the source for the terminfo entries
2226 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
2228 4) the location of the infocmp program, used to print a terminfo
2231 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
2232 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
2234 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2236 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2241 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
2242 Any non-empty fallback list is const'd and therefore lives in shareable
2243 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
2244 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
2245 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
2246 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
2249 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
2250 --------------------
2252 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
2253 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
2254 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
2255 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
2256 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
2258 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
2259 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
2260 in the package README file.)
2262 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
2265 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2267 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
2268 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
2269 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
2270 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
2271 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
2273 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
2274 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
2275 through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
2276 down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
2278 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
2279 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
2280 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
2281 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
2282 faster) terminfo fetch.
2284 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
2285 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
2286 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
2287 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
2288 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
2290 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
2291 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
2292 compilation is expensive).
2294 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
2295 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
2297 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
2298 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
2299 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
2300 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
2303 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
2304 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
2305 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
2306 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
2308 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
2309 terminfo directory directly.
2311 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2313 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
2314 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
2315 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
2316 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
2318 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
2319 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2320 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
2321 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2322 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2323 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2324 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2325 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2326 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2328 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2330 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2332 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2333 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2335 https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
2337 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
2338 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2339 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2340 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2341 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2342 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2343 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2345 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2346 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2347 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2348 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2350 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2351 will be made if you use
2355 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2356 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2359 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2360 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2361 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2362 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
2363 "make install.data" portion.
2365 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2366 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
2367 be from the most current version of ncurses.
2370 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2371 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2372 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2373 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2375 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2376 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.