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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.178 2014/11/16 00:03:32 tom Exp $
29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
30 How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
33 ************************************************************
34 * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
35 ************************************************************
37 You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
38 d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
39 including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
40 and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
42 If you are a distribution integrator or packager, please read and act on the
43 section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR below.
45 If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
46 to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
48 If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
49 read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
51 If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
52 USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
54 If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
57 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
58 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
64 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
66 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
68 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
70 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
72 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
75 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
76 ----------------------
78 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
79 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
82 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
83 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
84 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library (see
85 "IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR"). Use --prefix=/usr to replace your
86 default curses distribution.
88 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
90 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
91 reset, clear, tput, toe, tabs
92 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
93 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
94 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
95 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
97 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
98 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
101 Do not use commands such as
103 make install prefix=XXX
105 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
106 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
108 make install DESTDIR=XXX
110 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
112 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
113 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
114 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
115 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
117 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
118 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
119 file for your system.
121 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
122 models and their associated libraries:
124 libncurses.a (normal)
126 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
127 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
129 libncurses.so (shared)
131 libncurses_g.a (debug)
133 libncurses_p.a (profile)
135 libncurses.la (libtool)
137 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
138 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
139 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
140 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
141 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
142 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
143 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
144 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
145 various systems using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
147 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
148 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
150 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
151 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
153 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
157 ./configure --with-shared
159 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
161 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
163 If you want only shared libraries, type
165 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
167 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
168 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on
169 several systems, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
170 work on other systems.
172 If you have libtool installed, you can type
174 ./configure --with-libtool
176 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
177 platform using libtool.
179 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
180 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
181 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
182 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
183 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
185 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
186 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
187 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
188 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
189 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
191 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
192 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
193 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
196 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
197 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
198 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
199 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include
200 DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
202 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
203 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
204 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
205 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
207 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
208 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
210 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
211 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
212 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
214 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
215 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
216 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
217 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
219 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
220 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
221 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
222 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
223 be installed before the terminfo data can be
225 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
227 ############################################################################
228 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
229 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
230 # before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for #
231 # this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. #
232 ############################################################################
234 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
235 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
236 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
237 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
238 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
240 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
241 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
242 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
243 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
244 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
246 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
247 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
248 undefined symbols at link time.
250 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
251 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
252 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
253 so you can use ncurses applications.
255 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
256 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
257 wide terminfo tree instead.
259 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
261 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
262 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
263 compile and run the demo.
265 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
268 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
269 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
270 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
271 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
274 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
275 ----------------------------
277 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
281 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
282 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
284 --enable and --with options recognized:
286 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
289 --disable-assumed-color
290 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
291 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
292 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
293 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
294 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
295 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
296 convention, using this configure option.
299 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
300 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
301 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
302 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
303 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
305 --disable-big-strings
306 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
307 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
311 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
312 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
313 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
314 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
315 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus
319 Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features
320 for packages, as done with --without-progs.
323 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
324 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
325 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
328 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
331 --disable-home-terminfo
332 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
333 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
334 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
335 option to disable the feature altogether.
338 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
340 --disable-lib-suffixes
341 Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added
342 to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options.
344 --disable-libtool-version
345 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
346 are used for constructing the library name.
348 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
349 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
350 build using --with-shared.
352 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
353 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
355 Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure
356 script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used
360 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
361 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
363 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
364 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
365 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
366 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
367 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build
368 a debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
369 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
370 the remainder on exit. The ncurses utility and test programs use this
371 feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
374 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
375 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
376 compatibility with older releases).
378 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
379 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
380 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
383 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
384 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
385 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
388 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
389 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
390 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
391 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
392 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
393 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
394 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
395 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
397 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
398 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
399 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
400 header would be included using
402 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
403 #include <ncurses/term.h>
405 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
407 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
408 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
410 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
411 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
412 curses header files from the same directory.
414 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
415 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
416 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
417 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
420 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
421 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
422 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
423 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
424 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
425 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
426 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
429 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
430 rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
431 copy whatever the linked produced.
433 This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
435 --disable-root-environ
436 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
437 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
438 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
439 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
442 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
443 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
444 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
445 to suppress the feature.
447 --disable-scroll-hints
448 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
449 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
451 --disable-tic-depends
452 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
453 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
454 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
455 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
456 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
457 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
458 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
459 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
460 configure option to do that.
462 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
464 --disable-tparm-varargs
465 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
466 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
467 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
470 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
471 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
473 --enable-broken_linker
474 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
475 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
476 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
477 changes several data references to functions to work around this
480 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
481 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
482 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
483 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
487 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
488 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
491 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
492 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
493 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
494 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
497 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
498 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
499 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
500 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
501 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
502 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
503 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
504 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
505 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
506 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
507 in the interface, but at a lower level.
509 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
510 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
511 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
512 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
516 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
517 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
518 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
519 to see the options that are used).
522 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
523 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
526 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
527 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
530 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
531 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
532 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
535 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
536 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
537 similar X terminal emulators.
539 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
540 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
541 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
544 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
545 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
546 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
549 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
550 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
551 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
554 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
556 --enable-getcap-cache
557 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
559 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
560 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
561 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
562 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
563 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
564 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
567 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
568 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
569 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
573 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
574 for the form-library.
577 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
578 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
579 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
580 checks the current filesystem.
583 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
584 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
585 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
589 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
590 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
593 --enable-pthreads-eintr
594 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
595 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
598 Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
599 library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also
600 set if --with-pthread is used.
602 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
603 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
606 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
607 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
608 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
611 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
612 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
613 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
614 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
615 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
616 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
618 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
619 extra assumptions about rpath.
621 --enable-safe-sprintf
622 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
623 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
624 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
627 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
628 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
629 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
630 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
634 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
635 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
636 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
637 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
638 alteration without patching the source code.
641 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
642 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
645 --enable-string-hacks
646 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
647 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
648 is weakly standardized.
650 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
654 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
655 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
659 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
660 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
661 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
662 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
665 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
666 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
667 library with different terminal drivers.
670 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
671 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
672 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
674 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
675 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
676 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
677 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
681 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
683 --enable-weak-symbols
684 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
685 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
686 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
687 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
688 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
690 --enable-wgetch-events
691 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
694 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
695 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
698 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
699 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
700 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
702 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
703 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
704 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
705 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
706 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
709 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
711 --with-abi-version=NUM
712 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
713 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
714 special requirements for compatibility.
716 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
717 release major/minor numbers.
719 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
720 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
722 --with-ada-include=DIR
723 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
724 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
726 --with-ada-objects=DIR
727 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
730 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
732 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
733 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
734 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
737 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
738 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
739 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
743 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
744 but is not directly used by ncurses.
747 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
748 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
749 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
750 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
752 --with-build-cflags=XXX
753 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
754 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
757 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
760 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
761 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
762 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
765 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
768 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
769 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
770 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
773 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
776 --with-build-libs=XXX
777 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
778 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
780 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
784 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
785 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
786 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
787 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
788 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
789 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
792 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
793 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
794 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
797 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
798 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
799 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
800 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
801 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
802 script supplies "unsigned").
805 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
806 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
807 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
808 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
811 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
812 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
813 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
817 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
818 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
821 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
822 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
824 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
825 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
826 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
829 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
830 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
832 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
833 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
834 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
835 symbols which are part of the ABI.
838 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
839 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
842 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
843 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
846 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
847 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
848 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
849 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
852 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
854 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
856 See also --without-dlsym
858 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
859 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
860 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
863 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
864 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
865 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
866 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
867 "--enable-compat185".
869 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
870 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
871 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
872 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
873 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
874 or hashed database respectively.
876 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
877 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
879 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
881 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
882 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
883 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
886 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
887 /usr/include/db4/db.h
888 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
890 See also the --enable-getcap option.
892 --with-install-prefix=XXX
893 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
894 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
895 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
896 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
898 make install DESTDIR=XXX
899 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
901 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
902 option probably will not work for those configurations.
904 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
905 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
906 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
907 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
908 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
909 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
910 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
911 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
912 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
915 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
916 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
917 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
918 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
919 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
920 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
922 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
923 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
924 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
926 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
927 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
928 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
929 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
930 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
932 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
933 Specify additional libtool options.
935 --with-manpage-aliases
936 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
937 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
938 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
939 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
940 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
941 rather than symbolic links.
943 --with-manpage-format=XXX
944 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
945 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
946 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
947 attempts to determine which is the case.
949 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
950 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
951 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
952 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
953 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
955 --with-manpage-symlinks
956 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
957 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
958 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
959 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
960 copying the man-page for each alias.
963 Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
964 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
968 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
969 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
970 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
971 with 64-bit executables.
974 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
976 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
977 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
978 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
982 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
983 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
984 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
985 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
986 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
987 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
988 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
989 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
990 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
991 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
992 (or system, in general) may or may not.
994 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
995 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
997 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
998 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1002 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1003 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1006 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1007 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1008 for multithreaded applications.
1011 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1013 --with-rel-version=NUM
1014 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1015 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1016 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1017 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1020 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1021 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1022 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1024 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1025 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1028 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1029 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1030 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1031 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1032 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1033 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1035 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1036 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1038 ./misc/shlib make install
1040 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1041 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1042 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1043 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1044 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1045 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1046 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1047 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1048 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1050 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1051 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1052 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1054 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1055 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1056 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1057 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1060 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1062 --with-system-type=XXX
1063 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1064 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1065 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1066 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1069 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1070 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1071 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1073 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1074 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1075 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1076 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1077 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1079 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1080 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1081 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1082 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1083 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1087 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1088 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1091 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1092 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1093 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1095 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1096 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1097 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1099 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1100 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1101 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1102 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1105 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1106 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1107 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1108 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1109 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1110 tparm's interface was defined.
1112 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1115 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1116 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1118 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1119 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1120 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1121 resulting objects with version identifiers. The configure script
1122 will automatically apply a suitable ".map" file to provide this
1123 information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1125 a) comments are not accepted
1126 b) wildcards are not accepted
1127 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1129 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1131 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1132 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1133 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1136 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1137 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1140 For testing, compile with debug option.
1141 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1143 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1144 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1145 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1146 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1147 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1148 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1149 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1150 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1151 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1152 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1155 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1156 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1159 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1160 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1163 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1166 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1167 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1168 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1169 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1170 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1171 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1172 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1174 --without-cxx-binding
1175 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1176 C++ binding and related demo.
1179 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1180 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1183 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1186 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1189 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1190 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1191 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1194 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1198 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1199 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1200 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1203 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1204 --------------------------------------------
1206 Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
1207 is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
1208 Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
1209 between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
1210 Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
1211 addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
1212 the X/Open documentation.
1214 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1215 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1221 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1222 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1223 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1226 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1227 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1228 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1229 functionally identical with the originals.
1231 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1232 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1235 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1236 are no related interface changes.
1238 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1240 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1244 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1245 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1247 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1256 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1262 Removed internal functions:
1263 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1265 Modified internal functions:
1272 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1275 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1278 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1279 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1280 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1281 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1283 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1284 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1286 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1287 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1289 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1290 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1291 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1292 several internal functions.
1294 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1295 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1296 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1297 API, there is no ABI change.
1299 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1300 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1301 of the internal functions.
1305 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1306 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1307 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1308 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1309 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1310 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1312 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1313 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1314 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1315 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1317 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1318 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1321 Added internal functions:
1332 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1333 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1334 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1339 Removed internal functions:
1342 Modified internal functions:
1348 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1350 _nc_update_screensize
1352 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1360 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1363 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1365 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1368 and (for libncursesw)
1376 Added internal functions:
1390 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1405 Removed internal functions:
1408 Modified internal functions:
1415 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1418 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1419 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1421 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1422 still use ncurses 4.2).
1424 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1425 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1426 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1429 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1430 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1431 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1432 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1433 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1436 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1437 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1438 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1439 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1441 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1442 wide-character configuration.
1444 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1447 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1449 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1450 multicolumn characters.
1452 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1453 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1455 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1456 corresponds to the default-color.
1458 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1459 to an unsigned char.
1462 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1463 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1466 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1467 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1468 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1469 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1471 Added internal functions:
1475 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1476 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1479 Removed internal functions:
1482 Modified internal functions:
1487 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1490 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1491 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1492 --enable-widec option.
1496 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1499 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1501 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1502 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1504 + change some interfaces to use const:
1516 Added internal functions:
1519 _nc_is_charable() wide
1520 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1523 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1525 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1526 _nc_unicode_locale()
1528 Removed internal functions:
1532 Modified internal functions:
1534 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1536 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1539 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1540 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1542 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1543 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1544 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1548 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1549 assume_default_colors() extension.
1555 Added internal functions:
1556 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1558 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1559 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1561 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1566 Removed internal functions:
1569 Modified internal functions:
1572 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1575 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1576 --with-ospeed configure option).
1581 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1582 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1583 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1585 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1588 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1591 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1593 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1596 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1598 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1600 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1603 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1604 parameter according to XSI.
1606 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1607 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1608 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1609 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1612 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1614 Terminfo database changes:
1616 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1617 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1619 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1621 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1622 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1623 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1624 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1627 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1628 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1629 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1630 is a bug in the older versions:
1632 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1633 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1634 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1635 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1638 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1639 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1640 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1641 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1642 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1644 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1645 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1646 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1647 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1649 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1650 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1652 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1653 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1654 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1655 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1656 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1657 initialize that terminal type.
1659 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1660 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1661 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1663 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1664 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1665 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1666 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1667 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1669 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1670 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1671 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1672 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1673 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1674 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1675 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1676 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1681 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1683 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1684 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1686 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1689 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1691 Terminfo database changes:
1693 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1698 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1699 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1700 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1702 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1703 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1704 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1705 colors in the latter.
1707 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1709 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
1710 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1711 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1712 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1714 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1716 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1719 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1720 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1721 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1723 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1724 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1725 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1726 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1729 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1730 available only as macros.
1732 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1734 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1735 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1737 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1740 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1741 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1743 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1745 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1747 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1750 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1752 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1753 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1754 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1755 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1756 specification was available only in draft form.
1758 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1759 incorrect color scheme.
1762 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1763 ------------------------------
1765 Configuration and Installation:
1767 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1768 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default:
1770 GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin
1772 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1773 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1775 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1776 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1777 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1778 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1781 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1782 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1783 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1784 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1785 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1786 you recompile and relink them!).
1788 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1789 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1790 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1791 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1792 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1794 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1795 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1796 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1797 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1801 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1802 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1803 mappings that will set this up:
1805 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1806 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1807 shift keycode 15 = F26
1808 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1810 Naming the Console Terminal
1812 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1813 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1814 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1815 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1816 be called `console'.
1818 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1819 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1820 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1821 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1822 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1823 conventions for choosing type names.
1825 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1827 linux -- Linux console driver
1832 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1833 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
1834 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1835 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1838 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1839 ---------------------
1841 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1842 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1843 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1844 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1845 are unable to update your system.
1848 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1849 ----------------------------
1851 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1852 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1853 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1854 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1855 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
1856 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
1858 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1859 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1860 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1861 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1862 entry is accessible.
1864 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1865 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1866 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1867 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
1868 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1869 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1871 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1872 might use the commands
1875 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1877 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1879 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
1881 The first three parameters of the script are normally supplied by
1882 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
1885 1) the location of the terminfo database
1886 2) the source for the terminfo entries
1887 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
1890 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
1891 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
1893 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1895 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1899 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
1900 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
1901 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
1902 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
1903 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
1904 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
1907 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
1908 --------------------
1910 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
1911 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
1912 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
1913 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
1914 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
1916 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
1917 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
1918 in the package README file.)
1920 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
1923 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1925 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
1926 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
1927 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
1928 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
1929 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
1931 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
1932 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
1933 through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
1934 slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
1937 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
1938 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
1939 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
1940 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
1941 faster) terminfo fetch.
1943 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
1944 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
1945 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
1946 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
1947 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
1949 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
1950 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
1951 compilation is expensive).
1953 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
1954 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
1956 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
1957 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
1958 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
1959 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
1962 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
1963 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
1964 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
1965 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
1967 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
1968 terminfo directory directly.
1970 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1972 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
1973 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
1974 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
1975 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
1977 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
1978 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
1979 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
1980 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
1981 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
1982 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
1983 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
1984 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
1985 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
1987 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
1989 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
1991 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
1992 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
1994 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
1996 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
1997 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
1998 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
1999 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2000 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2001 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2002 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2004 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2005 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2006 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2007 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2009 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2010 will be made if you use
2014 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2015 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2018 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2019 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2020 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2021 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
2022 "make install.data" portion.
2024 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2025 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
2026 be from the most current version of ncurses.
2029 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2030 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2031 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2032 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2034 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2035 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.