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28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.183 2015/01/17 23:20:46 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 a
368 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 and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs
371 use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
373 Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not
374 normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet
375 unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the
376 library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_"
380 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
381 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
382 compatibility with older releases).
384 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
385 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
386 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
389 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
390 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
391 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
394 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
395 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
396 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
397 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
398 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
399 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
400 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
401 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
403 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
404 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
405 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
406 header would be included using
408 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
409 #include <ncurses/term.h>
411 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
413 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
414 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
416 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
417 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
418 curses header files from the same directory.
420 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
421 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
422 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
423 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
426 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
427 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
428 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
429 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
430 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
431 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
432 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
435 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
436 rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
437 copy whatever the linked produced.
439 This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
441 --disable-root-environ
442 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
443 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
444 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
445 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
448 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
449 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
450 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
451 to suppress the feature.
453 --disable-scroll-hints
454 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
455 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
457 --disable-tic-depends
458 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
459 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
460 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
461 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
462 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
463 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
464 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
465 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
466 configure option to do that.
468 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
470 --disable-tparm-varargs
471 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
472 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
473 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
476 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
477 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
479 --enable-broken_linker
480 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
481 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
482 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
483 changes several data references to functions to work around this
486 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
487 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
488 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
489 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
493 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
494 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
497 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
498 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
499 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
500 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
503 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
504 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
505 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
506 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
507 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
508 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
509 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
510 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
511 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
512 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
513 in the interface, but at a lower level.
515 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
516 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
517 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
518 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
522 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
523 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
524 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
525 to see the options that are used).
528 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
529 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
532 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
533 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
536 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
537 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
538 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
541 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
542 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
543 similar X terminal emulators.
545 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
546 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
547 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
550 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
551 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
552 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
555 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
556 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
557 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
560 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
562 --enable-getcap-cache
563 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
565 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
566 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
567 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
568 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
569 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
570 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
573 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
574 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
575 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
579 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
580 for the form-library.
583 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
584 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
585 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
586 checks the current filesystem.
589 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
590 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
591 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
595 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
596 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
599 --enable-pthreads-eintr
600 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
601 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
604 Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
605 library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also
606 set if --with-pthread is used.
608 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
609 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
612 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
613 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
614 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
617 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
618 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
619 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
620 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
621 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
622 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
624 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
625 extra assumptions about rpath.
627 --enable-safe-sprintf
628 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
629 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
630 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
633 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
634 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
635 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
636 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
640 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
641 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
642 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
643 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
644 alteration without patching the source code.
647 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
648 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
651 --enable-string-hacks
652 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
653 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
654 is weakly standardized.
656 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
660 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
661 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
665 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
666 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
667 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
668 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
671 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
672 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
673 library with different terminal drivers.
676 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
677 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
678 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
680 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
681 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
682 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
683 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
687 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
689 --enable-weak-symbols
690 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
691 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
692 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
693 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
694 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
696 --enable-wgetch-events
697 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
700 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
701 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
704 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
705 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
706 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
708 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
709 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
710 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
711 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
712 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
715 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
717 --with-abi-version=NUM
718 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
719 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
720 special requirements for compatibility.
722 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
723 release major/minor numbers.
725 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
726 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
728 --with-ada-include=DIR
729 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
730 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
732 --with-ada-objects=DIR
733 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
736 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
738 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
739 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
740 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
743 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
744 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
745 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
749 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
750 but is not directly used by ncurses.
753 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
754 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
755 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
756 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
758 --with-build-cflags=XXX
759 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
760 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
763 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
766 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
767 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
768 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
771 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
774 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
775 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
776 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
779 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
782 --with-build-libs=XXX
783 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
784 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
786 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
790 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
791 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
792 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
793 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
794 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
795 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
798 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
799 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
800 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
803 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
804 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
805 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
806 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
807 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
808 script supplies "unsigned").
811 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
812 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
813 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
814 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
817 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
818 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
819 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
823 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
824 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
827 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
828 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
830 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
831 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
832 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
835 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
836 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
838 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
839 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
840 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
841 symbols which are part of the ABI.
844 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
845 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
848 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
849 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
852 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
853 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
854 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
855 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
858 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
860 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
862 See also --without-dlsym
864 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
865 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
866 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
869 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
870 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
871 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
872 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
873 "--enable-compat185".
875 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
876 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
877 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
878 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
879 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
880 or hashed database respectively.
882 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
883 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
885 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
887 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
888 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
889 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
892 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
893 /usr/include/db4/db.h
894 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
896 See also the --enable-getcap option.
898 --with-install-prefix=XXX
899 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
900 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
901 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
902 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
904 make install DESTDIR=XXX
905 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
907 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
908 option probably will not work for those configurations.
910 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
911 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
912 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
913 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
914 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
915 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
916 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
917 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
918 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
921 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
922 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
923 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
924 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
925 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
926 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
928 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
929 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
930 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
932 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
933 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
934 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
935 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
936 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
938 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
939 Specify additional libtool options.
941 --with-manpage-aliases
942 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
943 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
944 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
945 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
946 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
947 rather than symbolic links.
949 --with-manpage-format=XXX
950 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
951 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
952 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
953 attempts to determine which is the case.
955 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
956 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
957 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
958 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
959 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
961 --with-manpage-symlinks
962 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
963 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
964 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
965 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
966 copying the man-page for each alias.
969 Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
970 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
974 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
975 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
976 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
977 with 64-bit executables.
980 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
982 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
983 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
984 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
988 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
989 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
990 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
991 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
992 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
993 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
994 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
995 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
996 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
997 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
998 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1000 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
1001 If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the files
1002 and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations.
1003 If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added.
1005 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
1006 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
1008 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
1009 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1013 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1014 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1017 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1018 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1019 for multithreaded applications.
1022 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1024 --with-rel-version=NUM
1025 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1026 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1027 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1028 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1031 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1032 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1033 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1035 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1036 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1039 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1040 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1041 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1042 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1043 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1044 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1046 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1047 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1049 ./misc/shlib make install
1051 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1052 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1053 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1054 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1055 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1056 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1057 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1058 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1059 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1061 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1062 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1063 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1065 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1066 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1067 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1068 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1071 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1073 --with-system-type=XXX
1074 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1075 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1076 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1077 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1080 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1081 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1082 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1084 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1085 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1086 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1087 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1088 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1090 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1091 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1092 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1093 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1094 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1098 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1099 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1102 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1103 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1104 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1106 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1107 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1108 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1110 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1111 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1112 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1113 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1116 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1117 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1118 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1119 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1120 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1121 tparm's interface was defined.
1123 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1126 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1127 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1129 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1130 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1131 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1132 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1134 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1136 The configure script will automatically apply a suitable ".map" file to
1137 provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1139 a) comments are not accepted
1140 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1141 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1143 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1144 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1145 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1146 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1147 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1149 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1150 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1151 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1154 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1155 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1156 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1159 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1160 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1163 For testing, compile with debug option.
1164 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1166 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1167 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1168 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1169 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1170 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1171 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1172 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1173 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1174 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1175 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1178 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1179 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1182 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1183 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1186 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1189 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1190 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1191 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1192 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1193 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1194 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1195 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1197 --without-cxx-binding
1198 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1199 C++ binding and related demo.
1202 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1203 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1206 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1209 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1212 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1213 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1214 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1217 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1221 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1222 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1223 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1226 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1227 --------------------------------------------
1229 Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
1230 is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
1231 Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
1232 between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
1233 Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
1234 addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
1235 the X/Open documentation.
1237 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1238 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1244 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1245 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1246 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1249 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1250 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1251 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1252 functionally identical with the originals.
1254 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1255 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1258 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1259 are no related interface changes.
1261 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1263 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1267 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1268 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1270 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1279 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1285 Removed internal functions:
1286 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1288 Modified internal functions:
1295 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1298 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1301 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1302 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1303 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1304 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1306 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1307 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1309 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1310 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1312 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1313 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1314 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1315 several internal functions.
1317 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1318 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1319 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1320 API, there is no ABI change.
1322 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1323 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1324 of the internal functions.
1328 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1329 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1330 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1331 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1332 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1333 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1335 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1336 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1337 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1338 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1340 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1341 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1344 Added internal functions:
1355 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1356 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1357 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1362 Removed internal functions:
1365 Modified internal functions:
1371 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1373 _nc_update_screensize
1375 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1383 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1386 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1388 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1391 and (for libncursesw)
1399 Added internal functions:
1413 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1428 Removed internal functions:
1431 Modified internal functions:
1438 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1441 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1442 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1444 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1445 still use ncurses 4.2).
1447 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1448 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1449 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1452 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1453 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1454 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1455 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1456 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1459 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1460 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1461 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1462 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1464 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1465 wide-character configuration.
1467 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1470 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1472 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1473 multicolumn characters.
1475 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1476 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1478 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1479 corresponds to the default-color.
1481 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1482 to an unsigned char.
1485 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1486 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1489 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1490 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1491 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1492 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1494 Added internal functions:
1498 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1499 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1502 Removed internal functions:
1505 Modified internal functions:
1510 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1513 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1514 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1515 --enable-widec option.
1519 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1522 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1524 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1525 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1527 + change some interfaces to use const:
1539 Added internal functions:
1542 _nc_is_charable() wide
1543 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1546 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1548 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1549 _nc_unicode_locale()
1551 Removed internal functions:
1555 Modified internal functions:
1557 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1559 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1562 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1563 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1565 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1566 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1567 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1571 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1572 assume_default_colors() extension.
1578 Added internal functions:
1579 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1581 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1582 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1584 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1589 Removed internal functions:
1592 Modified internal functions:
1595 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1598 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1599 --with-ospeed configure option).
1604 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1605 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1606 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1608 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1611 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1614 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1616 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1619 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1621 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1623 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1626 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1627 parameter according to XSI.
1629 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1630 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1631 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1632 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1635 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1637 Terminfo database changes:
1639 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1640 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1642 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1644 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1645 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1646 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1647 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1650 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1651 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1652 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1653 is a bug in the older versions:
1655 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1656 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1657 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1658 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1661 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1662 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1663 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1664 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1665 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1667 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1668 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1669 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1670 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1672 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1673 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1675 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1676 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1677 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1678 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1679 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1680 initialize that terminal type.
1682 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1683 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1684 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1686 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1687 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1688 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1689 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1690 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1692 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1693 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1694 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1695 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1696 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1697 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1698 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1699 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1704 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1706 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1707 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1709 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1712 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1714 Terminfo database changes:
1716 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1721 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1722 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1723 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1725 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1726 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1727 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1728 colors in the latter.
1730 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1732 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
1733 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1734 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1735 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1737 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1739 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1742 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1743 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1744 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1746 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1747 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1748 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1749 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1752 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1753 available only as macros.
1755 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1757 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1758 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1760 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1763 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1764 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1766 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1768 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1770 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1773 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1775 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1776 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1777 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1778 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1779 specification was available only in draft form.
1781 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1782 incorrect color scheme.
1785 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1786 ------------------------------
1788 Configuration and Installation:
1790 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1791 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default:
1793 GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin
1795 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1796 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1798 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1799 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1800 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1801 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1804 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1805 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1806 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1807 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1808 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1809 you recompile and relink them!).
1811 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1812 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1813 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1814 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1815 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1817 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1818 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1819 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1820 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1824 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1825 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1826 mappings that will set this up:
1828 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1829 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1830 shift keycode 15 = F26
1831 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1833 Naming the Console Terminal
1835 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1836 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1837 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1838 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1839 be called `console'.
1841 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1842 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1843 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1844 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1845 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1846 conventions for choosing type names.
1848 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1850 linux -- Linux console driver
1855 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1856 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
1857 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1858 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1861 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1862 ---------------------
1864 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1865 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1866 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1867 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1868 are unable to update your system.
1871 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1872 ----------------------------
1874 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1875 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1876 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1877 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1878 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
1879 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
1881 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1882 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1883 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1884 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1885 entry is accessible.
1887 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1888 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1889 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1890 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
1891 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1892 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1894 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1895 might use the commands
1898 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1900 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1902 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
1904 The first three parameters of the script are normally supplied by
1905 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
1908 1) the location of the terminfo database
1909 2) the source for the terminfo entries
1910 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
1913 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
1914 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
1916 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
1918 ../misc/terminfo.src \
1922 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
1923 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
1924 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
1925 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
1926 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
1927 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
1930 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
1931 --------------------
1933 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
1934 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
1935 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
1936 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
1937 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
1939 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
1940 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
1941 in the package README file.)
1943 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
1946 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1948 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
1949 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
1950 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
1951 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
1952 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
1954 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
1955 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
1956 through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
1957 slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
1960 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
1961 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
1962 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
1963 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
1964 faster) terminfo fetch.
1966 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
1967 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
1968 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
1969 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
1970 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
1972 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
1973 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
1974 compilation is expensive).
1976 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
1977 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
1979 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
1980 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
1981 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
1982 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
1985 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
1986 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
1987 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
1988 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
1990 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
1991 terminfo directory directly.
1993 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1995 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
1996 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
1997 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
1998 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
2000 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
2001 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2002 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
2003 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2004 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2005 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2006 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2007 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2008 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2010 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2012 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2014 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2015 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2017 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
2019 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
2020 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2021 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2022 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2023 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2024 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2025 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2027 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2028 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2029 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2030 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2032 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2033 will be made if you use
2037 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2038 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2041 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2042 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2043 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2044 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
2045 "make install.data" portion.
2047 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2048 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
2049 be from the most current version of ncurses.
2052 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2053 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2054 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2055 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2057 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2058 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.