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28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.203 2018/01/23 00:59:19 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 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
322 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
323 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
324 to see the options that are used).
327 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
328 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
329 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
331 --disable-gnat-projects
332 Disable GNAT projects even if usable, for testing old makefile rules.
335 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
338 --disable-home-terminfo
339 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
340 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
341 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
342 option to disable the feature altogether.
345 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
348 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
349 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
351 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
352 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
353 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
354 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
355 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build a
356 debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
357 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
358 the remainder and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs
359 use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
361 Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not
362 normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet
363 unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the
364 library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_"
367 --disable-lib-suffixes
368 Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added
369 to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options.
371 --disable-libtool-version
372 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
373 are used for constructing the library name.
375 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
376 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
377 build using --with-shared.
379 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
380 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
382 Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure
383 script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used
387 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
388 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
389 compatibility with older releases).
391 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
392 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
393 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
396 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
397 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
398 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
401 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
402 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
403 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
404 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
405 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
406 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
407 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
408 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
410 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
411 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
412 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
413 header would be included using
415 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
416 #include <ncurses/term.h>
418 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
420 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
421 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
423 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
424 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
425 curses header files from the same directory.
427 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
428 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
429 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
430 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
433 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
434 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
435 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
436 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
437 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
438 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
439 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
442 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
443 rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
444 copy whatever the linked produced.
446 This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
448 --disable-root-environ
449 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
450 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
451 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
452 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
455 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
456 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
457 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
458 to suppress the feature.
460 --disable-scroll-hints
461 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
462 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
465 Do not strip installed executables.
467 --disable-tic-depends
468 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
469 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
470 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
471 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
472 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
473 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
474 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
475 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
476 configure option to do that.
478 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
480 --disable-tparm-varargs
481 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
482 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
483 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
485 --disable-wattr-macros
486 The 6.0 ABI adds support for extended colors and for extended mouse.
487 The former is a noticeable problem when developers inadvertantly
488 compile using the ncurses6 header files and link with an ncurses5
489 library, because the wattr* macros use a new field in the WINDOW
490 structure. These macros are used in several applications.
492 Since ncurses provides an actual function for each of these macros,
493 suppressing them from the curses.h header allows the ncurses5 libraries
494 to be used in most applications.
496 NOTE: The extended colors also are used in the cchar_t structure, but
497 fewer applications use that.
499 NOTE: This workaround does not help with mismatches in the ncurses
500 mouse version. The extended mouse feature uses one less fewer bit for
501 each button, so that only the first button will work as expected with
502 a mismatch between header and library. Again, most applications will
503 work, since most use only the first button.
506 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
507 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
509 --enable-broken_linker
510 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
511 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
512 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
513 changes several data references to functions to work around this
516 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
517 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
518 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
519 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
523 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
524 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
527 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
528 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
529 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
530 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
533 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
534 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
535 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
536 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
537 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
538 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
539 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
540 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
541 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
542 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
543 in the interface, but at a lower level.
545 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
546 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
547 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
548 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
552 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
553 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
556 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
557 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
560 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
561 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
562 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
565 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
566 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
567 similar X terminal emulators.
569 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
570 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
571 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
574 Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather
575 than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by
576 differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can
577 still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of
578 ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by
579 calling applications).
582 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
583 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
584 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
587 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
588 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
589 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
592 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
594 --enable-getcap-cache
595 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
597 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
598 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
599 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
600 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
601 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
602 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
605 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
606 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
607 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
611 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
612 for the form-library.
615 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
616 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
617 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
618 checks the current filesystem.
621 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
622 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
623 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
626 --enable-opaque-curses
629 --enable-opaque-panel
630 Define symbol in curses.h which controls whether some library
631 structures are treated as "opaque". The --enable-opaque-curses option
632 is overridden by the --enable-reentrant option.
635 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
636 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
639 --enable-pthreads-eintr
640 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
641 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
644 Compile configuration which improves reentrant use of the library by
645 reducing global and static variables. This option is also set if
646 --with-pthread is used.
648 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
649 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
652 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
653 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
654 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
657 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
658 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
659 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
660 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
661 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
662 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
664 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
665 extra assumptions about rpath.
667 --enable-safe-sprintf
668 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
669 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
670 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
673 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
674 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
675 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
676 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
680 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
681 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
682 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
683 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
684 alteration without patching the source code.
687 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
688 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
691 --enable-string-hacks
692 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
693 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
694 is weakly standardized.
696 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
700 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
701 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
705 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
706 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
707 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
708 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
711 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
712 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
713 library with different terminal drivers.
716 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
717 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
718 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
720 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
721 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
722 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
723 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
727 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
729 --enable-weak-symbols
730 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
731 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
732 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
733 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
734 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
736 --enable-wgetch-events
737 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
740 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
741 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
744 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
745 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
746 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
748 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
749 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
750 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
751 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
752 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
755 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
757 --with-abi-version=NUM
758 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
759 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
760 special requirements for compatibility.
762 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
763 release major/minor numbers.
765 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
766 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
768 --with-ada-include=DIR
769 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
770 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
772 --with-ada-objects=DIR
773 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
776 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
778 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
779 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
780 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
783 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
784 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
785 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
789 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
790 but is not directly used by ncurses.
793 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
794 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
795 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
796 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
798 --with-build-cflags=XXX
799 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
800 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
803 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
806 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
807 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
808 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
811 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
814 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
815 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
816 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
819 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
822 --with-build-libs=XXX
823 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
824 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
826 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
830 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
831 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
832 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
833 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
834 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
835 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
838 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
839 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
840 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
843 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
844 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
845 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
846 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
847 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
848 script supplies "unsigned").
850 --with-config-suffix=XXX
851 Specify a suffix for the ncursesw6-config file, etc., used to work
852 around conflicts with packages.
855 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
856 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
857 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
858 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
861 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
862 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
863 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
867 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
868 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
871 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
872 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
874 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
875 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
876 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
879 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
880 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
882 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
883 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
884 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
885 symbols which are part of the ABI.
887 --with-extra-suffix[=XXX]
888 Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify
889 installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a
890 different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the
891 include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given.
894 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
895 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
898 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
899 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
902 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
903 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
904 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
905 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
908 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
910 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
912 See also --without-dlsym
914 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
915 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
916 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
919 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
920 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
921 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
922 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
923 "--enable-compat185".
925 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
926 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
927 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
928 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
929 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
930 or hashed database respectively.
932 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
933 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
935 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
937 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
938 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
939 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
942 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
943 /usr/include/db4/db.h
944 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
946 See also the --enable-getcap option.
948 --with-install-prefix=XXX
949 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
950 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
951 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
952 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
954 make install DESTDIR=XXX
955 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
957 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
958 option probably will not work for those configurations.
960 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
961 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
962 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
963 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
964 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
965 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
966 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
967 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
968 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
971 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
972 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
973 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
974 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
975 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
976 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
978 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
979 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
980 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
982 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
983 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
984 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
985 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
986 https://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
988 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
989 Specify additional libtool options.
992 Allow user to pass additional libtool options into the library creation
993 and link steps. The main use for this is to do something like
994 ./configure --with-libtool-opts=-static
995 to get the same behavior as automake-flavored
996 ./configure --enable-static
998 --with-manpage-aliases
999 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
1000 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
1001 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
1002 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
1003 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
1004 rather than symbolic links.
1006 --with-manpage-format=XXX
1007 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
1008 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
1009 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
1010 attempts to determine which is the case.
1012 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
1013 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
1014 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
1015 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
1016 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
1018 --with-manpage-symlinks
1019 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
1020 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
1021 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
1022 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
1023 copying the man-page for each alias.
1026 Tell the configure script that you wish to preprocess the manpages
1027 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
1031 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
1032 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
1033 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
1034 with 64-bit executables.
1037 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
1039 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
1040 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
1041 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
1045 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
1046 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
1047 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
1048 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
1049 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
1050 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
1051 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
1052 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
1053 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
1054 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
1055 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1057 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
1058 If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the files
1059 and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations.
1060 If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added.
1062 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
1063 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
1065 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
1066 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1070 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1071 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1074 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1075 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1076 for multithreaded applications.
1079 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1081 --with-rel-version=NUM
1082 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1083 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1084 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1085 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1088 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1089 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1090 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1092 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1093 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1096 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1097 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1098 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1099 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1100 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1101 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1103 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1104 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1106 ./misc/shlib make install
1108 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1109 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1110 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1111 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1112 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1113 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1114 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1115 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1116 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1118 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1119 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1120 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1122 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1123 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1124 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1125 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1128 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1130 --with-system-type=XXX
1131 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1132 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1133 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1134 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1137 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1138 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1139 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1141 This is a colon-separated list, like the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
1144 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1145 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1146 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1147 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1148 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1150 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1151 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1152 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1153 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1154 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1158 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1159 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1162 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1163 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1164 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1166 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1167 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1168 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1170 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1171 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1172 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1173 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1176 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1177 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1178 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1179 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1180 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1181 tparm's interface was defined.
1183 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1186 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1187 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1189 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1190 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1191 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1192 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1194 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1196 The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map"
1197 file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1199 a) comments are not accepted
1200 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1201 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1203 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1204 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1205 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1206 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1207 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1209 The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files are generated using a set of
1210 scripts which build several configurations for each release version,
1211 checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. In
1212 addition to the ncurses libraries and programs, the symbols used
1213 by the "tack" program before version 1.08 are made global.
1215 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1216 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1217 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1220 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1221 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1222 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1225 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1226 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1229 For testing, compile with debug option.
1230 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1232 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1233 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1234 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1235 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1236 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1237 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1238 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1239 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1240 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1241 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1244 Provide a pathname for the X11 rgb file, used by the picsmap program.
1245 This overrides a configure check which usually works, but is needed
1246 due to the lack of standardization for X11's files.
1249 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1250 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1253 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1254 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1257 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1260 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1261 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1262 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1263 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1264 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1265 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1266 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1268 --without-cxx-binding
1269 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1270 C++ binding and related demo.
1273 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1274 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1277 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1280 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1283 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1284 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1285 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1288 Suppress build/install with tack program, if it happens to be
1289 in the same build-tree (tack was moved out of the ncurses source-tree
1293 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1297 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1298 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1299 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1302 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1303 --------------------------------------------
1305 Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
1306 That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
1307 documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
1308 or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
1309 We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
1310 the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
1313 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1314 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1320 + X/Open Curses specifies a "reserved" void* parameter in several
1321 functions, saying that it must be NULL. In this release, if the
1322 parameter is non-NULL, it is interpreted as a point to an integer
1323 containing a color pair. In previous releases, a non-NULL parameter
1324 caused an error return. Portable applications are unaffected. Here
1325 are the functions which have been extended:
1344 + the TERMINAL structure declared in <term.h> has been made opaque,
1345 and its size increased to handle the increased size of color pair
1346 and color value, as well as other numeric capabilities.
1348 A few applications required change, e.g., to use def_prog_mode;
1349 only one application (tack) is known to have a valid reason for
1350 accessing these internal details, and that was addressed by the
1351 release of tack 1.08 in 2017. Internal functions marked as used
1352 by tack will be deprecated in future releases.
1356 + Several new functions were added to manipulate extended color pairs
1357 and color values. These include:
1359 extended_color_content
1360 extended_pair_content
1368 as well as corresponding sp-functions.
1370 + A new terminfo capability "RGB" tells the ncurses library that the
1371 color values are red/green/blue, to eliminate the need for palettes
1372 in that special case for the color_content function.
1374 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1376 _nc_export_termtype2
1384 Removed internal functions:
1388 Modified internal functions:
1390 + symbols are used by tic/infocmp/toe:
1391 _nc_align_termtype - change parameters to TERMTYPE2*
1392 _nc_check_termtype2 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1393 _nc_read_file_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1394 _nc_read_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1395 _nc_trim_sgr0 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1396 _nc_write_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1398 + symbols used only within the library:
1399 _nc_fallback - change return type to TERMTYPE2*
1400 _nc_init_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1405 + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
1413 --with-chtype=uint32_t
1414 --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
1415 --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
1417 + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
1418 half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
1420 + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
1421 when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
1425 + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
1427 + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
1429 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1436 Removed internal functions:
1439 Modified internal functions:
1440 _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
1441 _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
1442 _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
1443 _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
1449 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1450 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1451 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1454 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1455 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1456 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1457 functionally identical with the originals.
1459 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1460 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1463 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1464 are no related interface changes.
1466 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1468 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1472 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1473 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1475 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1484 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1490 Removed internal functions:
1491 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1493 Modified internal functions:
1500 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1503 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1506 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1507 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1508 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1509 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1511 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1512 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1514 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1515 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1517 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1518 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1519 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1520 several internal functions.
1522 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1523 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1524 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1525 API, there is no ABI change.
1527 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1528 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1529 of the internal functions.
1533 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1534 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1535 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1536 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1537 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1538 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1540 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1541 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1542 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1543 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1545 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1546 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1549 Added internal functions:
1560 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1561 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1562 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1567 Removed internal functions:
1570 Modified internal functions:
1576 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1578 _nc_update_screensize
1580 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1588 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1591 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1593 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1596 and (for libncursesw)
1604 Added internal functions:
1618 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1633 Removed internal functions:
1636 Modified internal functions:
1643 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1646 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1647 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1649 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1650 still use ncurses 4.2).
1652 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1653 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1654 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1657 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1658 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1659 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1660 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1661 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1664 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1665 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1666 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1667 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1669 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1670 wide-character configuration.
1672 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1675 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1677 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1678 multicolumn characters.
1680 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1681 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1683 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1684 corresponds to the default-color.
1686 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1687 to an unsigned char.
1690 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1691 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1694 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1695 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1696 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1697 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1699 Added internal functions:
1703 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1704 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1707 Removed internal functions:
1710 Modified internal functions:
1715 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1718 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1719 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1720 --enable-widec option.
1724 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1727 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1729 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1730 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1732 + change some interfaces to use const:
1744 Added internal functions:
1747 _nc_is_charable() wide
1748 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1751 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1753 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1754 _nc_unicode_locale()
1756 Removed internal functions:
1760 Modified internal functions:
1762 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1764 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1767 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1768 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1770 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1771 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1772 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1776 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1777 assume_default_colors() extension.
1783 Added internal functions:
1784 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1786 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1787 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1789 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1794 Removed internal functions:
1797 Modified internal functions:
1800 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1803 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1804 --with-ospeed configure option).
1809 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1810 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1811 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1813 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1816 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1819 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1821 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1824 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1826 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1828 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1831 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1832 parameter according to XSI.
1834 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1835 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1836 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1837 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1840 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1842 Terminfo database changes:
1844 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1845 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1847 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1849 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1850 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1851 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1852 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1855 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1856 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1857 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1858 is a bug in the older versions:
1860 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1861 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1862 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1863 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1866 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1867 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1868 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1869 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1870 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1872 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1873 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1874 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1875 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1877 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1878 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1880 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1881 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1882 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1883 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1884 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1885 initialize that terminal type.
1887 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1888 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1889 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1891 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1892 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1893 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1894 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1895 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1897 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1898 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1899 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1900 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1901 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1902 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1903 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1904 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1909 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1911 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1912 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1914 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1917 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1919 Terminfo database changes:
1921 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1926 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1927 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1928 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1930 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1931 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1932 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1933 colors in the latter.
1935 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1937 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
1938 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1939 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1940 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1942 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1944 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1947 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1948 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1949 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1951 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1952 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1953 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1954 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1957 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1958 available only as macros.
1960 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1962 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1963 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1965 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1968 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1969 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1971 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1973 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1975 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1978 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1980 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1981 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1982 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1983 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1984 specification was available only in draft form.
1986 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1987 incorrect color scheme.
1990 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1991 ------------------------------
1993 Configuration and Installation:
1995 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1996 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
1997 that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
1999 FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
2001 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
2002 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
2004 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
2005 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
2006 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
2007 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
2010 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
2011 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
2012 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
2013 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
2014 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
2015 you recompile and relink them!).
2017 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
2018 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
2019 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
2020 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
2021 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
2023 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
2024 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
2025 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
2026 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
2030 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
2031 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
2032 mappings that will set this up:
2034 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
2035 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
2036 shift keycode 15 = F26
2037 string F26 ="\033[Z"
2039 Naming the Console Terminal
2041 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
2042 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
2043 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
2044 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
2045 be called `console'.
2047 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
2048 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
2049 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
2050 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
2051 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
2052 conventions for choosing type names.
2054 Here are some recommended primary console names:
2056 linux -- Linux console driver
2061 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
2062 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
2063 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
2064 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
2067 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
2068 ---------------------
2070 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
2071 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
2072 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
2073 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
2074 are unable to update your system.
2077 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
2078 ----------------------------
2080 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
2081 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
2082 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
2083 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
2084 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
2085 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
2087 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
2088 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
2089 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
2090 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
2091 entry is accessible.
2093 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
2094 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
2095 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
2096 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
2097 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
2098 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
2100 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
2101 might use the commands
2104 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2106 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2108 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
2110 The first three parameters of the script are normally supplied by
2111 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
2114 1) the location of the terminfo database
2115 2) the source for the terminfo entries
2116 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
2119 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
2120 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
2122 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2124 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2128 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
2129 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
2130 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
2131 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
2132 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
2133 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
2136 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
2137 --------------------
2139 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
2140 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
2141 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
2142 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
2143 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
2145 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
2146 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
2147 in the package README file.)
2149 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
2152 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2154 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
2155 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
2156 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
2157 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
2158 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
2160 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
2161 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
2162 through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
2163 down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
2165 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
2166 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
2167 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
2168 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
2169 faster) terminfo fetch.
2171 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
2172 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
2173 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
2174 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
2175 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
2177 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
2178 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
2179 compilation is expensive).
2181 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
2182 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
2184 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
2185 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
2186 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
2187 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
2190 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
2191 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
2192 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
2193 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
2195 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
2196 terminfo directory directly.
2198 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2200 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
2201 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
2202 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
2203 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
2205 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
2206 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2207 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
2208 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2209 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2210 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2211 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2212 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2213 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2215 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2217 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2219 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2220 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2222 https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
2224 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
2225 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2226 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2227 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2228 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2229 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2230 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2232 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2233 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2234 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2235 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2237 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2238 will be made if you use
2242 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2243 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2246 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2247 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2248 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2249 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
2250 "make install.data" portion.
2252 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2253 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
2254 be from the most current version of ncurses.
2257 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2258 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2259 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2260 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2262 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2263 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.