- Announcing ncurses 5.7
+ Announcing ncurses 6.4
+
+Overview
The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
- curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
- supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters
- and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses
- enhancements over BSD curses.
+ curses in System V Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo
+ format, supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms
+ characters and function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
+ enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of X/Open
+ Curses.
In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
- considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of Unix
+ considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of unix
releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to ncurses.
- The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It has been in use for
- some time with OpenBSD as the system curses library, and on FreeBSD
- and NetBSD as an external package. It should port easily to any
- ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!
+ Since 1995, ncurses has been ported to many systems:
+ * It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel (aside
+ from some embedded applications).
+ * It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD and
+ MacOS.
+ * It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The first of
+ these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.
+ * It is used (though usually not as the system curses) on all of the
+ vendor unix systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO, Solaris,
+ Tru64.
+ * It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming unix.
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
- a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
- tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
- manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
-
- The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
- distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
- It is also available at [2]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
-
- Release Notes
-
- This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0
- through 5.6; very few applications will require recompilation,
- depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
- change-log since ncurses 5.6 release.
-
- Interface changes:
- * generate linkable stubs for some macros:
- getattrs
-
- New features and improvements:
- * library
- + new flavor of the ncurses library provides rudimentary
- support for POSIX threads. Several functions are reentrant,
- but most require either a window-level or screen-level mutex.
- (This is API-compatible, but not ABI-compatible with the
- normal library).
- + add NCURSES_OPAQUE symbol to curses.h, will use to make
- structs opaque in selected configurations.
- + add NCURSES_EXT_FUNCS and NCURSES_EXT_COLORS symbols to
- curses.h to make it simpler to tell if the extended functions
- and/or colors are declared.
- + add wresize() to C++ binding
- + eliminate fixed-buffer vsprintf() calls in C++ binding.
- + add several functions to C++ binding which wrap C functions
- that pass a WINDOW* parameter.
- + adapt mouse-handling code from menu library in form-library
- + improve tracing for form library, showing created forms,
- fields, etc.
- + make $NCURSES_NO_PADDING feature work for termcap interface .
- + add check to trace-file open, if the given name is a
- directory, add ".log" to the name and try again.
- + several new manpages: curs_legacy.3x, curs_memleaks.3x,
- curs_opaque.3x and curs_threads.3x
- * programs:
- + modified three test-programs to demonstrate the threading
- support in this version: ditto, rain, worm.
- + several new test-programs: demo_panels, dots_mvcur,
- inch_wide, inchs, key_name, key_names, savescreen,
- savescreen.sh test_arrays, test_get_wstr, test_getstr,
- test_instr, test_inwstr and test_opaque.
- + add adacurses-config to the Ada95 install.
- + modify tic -f option to format spaces as \s to prevent them
- from being lost when that is read back in unformatted
- strings.
- + The tack program is now distributed separately from ncurses.
- * terminal database
- + added entries:
- o Eterm-256color, Eterm-88color and rxvt-88color
- o aterm
- o konsole-256color
- o mrxvt
- o screen.mlterm
- o screen.rxvt
- o teraterm4.59 is now the primary primary teraterm entry,
- renamed original to teraterm2.3
- o 9term terminal
- o Newbury Data entries
- + updated/improved entries:
- o gnome to version 2.22.3
- o h19, z100
- o konsole to version 1.6.6
- o mlterm, mlterm+pcfkeys
- o xterm, and building-blocks for function-keys to [3]xterm
- patch #230.
-
- Major bug fixes:
- * add logic to tic for cancelling strings in user-defined
- capabilities (this is needed for current konsole terminfo entry).
- * modify mk-1st.awk so the generated makefile rules for linking or
- installing shared libraries do not first remove the library, in
- case it is in use, e.g., libncurses.so by /bin/sh.
- * correct check for notimeout() in wgetch().
- * fix a sign-extension bug in infocmp's repair_acsc() function.
- * change winnstr() to stop at the end of the line.
- * make Ada95 demo_panels() example work.
- * fix for adding a non-spacing character at the beginning of a line.
- * fill in extended-color pair to make colors work for
- wide-characters using extended-colors.
- * improve refresh of window on top of multi-column characters,
- taking into account split characters on left/right window
- boundaries.
- * modify win_wchnstr() to ensure that only a base cell is returned
- for each multi-column character.
- * improve waddch() and winsch() handling of EILSEQ from mbrtowc() by
- using unctrl() to display illegal bytes rather than trying to
- append further bytes to make up a valid sequence.
- * restore curs_set() state after endwin()/refresh()
- * modify keyname() to use "^X" form only if meta() has been called,
- or if keyname() is called without initializing curses, e.g., via
- initscr() or newterm().
- * modify unctrl() to check codes in 128-255 range versus isprint().
- If they are not printable, and locale was set, use a "M-" or "~"
- sequence.
- * improve resizeterm() by moving ripped-off lines, and repainting
- the soft-keys.
- * modify form library to accept control characters such as newline
- in set_field_buffer(), which is compatible with Solaris.
- * use NCURSES_MOUSE_MASK() in definition of BUTTON_RELEASE(), etc.,
- to make those work properly with the --enable-ext-mouse
- configuration
- * correct some functions in Ada95 binding which were using return
- value from C where none was returned.
- * reviewed/fixed issues reported by Coverity and Klocwork tools.
-
- Portability:
- * configure script:
- + new options:
-
- --disable-big-strings
- control whether static string tables are generated
- as single large strings (to improve startup
- performance), or as array of individual strings.
-
- --disable-relink
- control whether shared libraries are relinked
- (during install) when rpath is enabled.
-
- --disable-tic-depends
- make explicit whether tic library depends on
- ncurses/ncursesw library.
-
- --enable-mixed-case
- override the configure script's check if the
- filesystem supports mixed-case filenames. This
- allows one to control how the terminal database
- maps to the filesystem. For filesystems that do not
- support mixed-case, the library uses generate
- 2-character (hexadecimal) codes for the lower-level
- of the filesystem terminfo database
-
- --enable-reentrant
- builds a different flavor of the ncurses library
- (ncursest) which improves reentrant use of the
- library by reducing global and static variables
- (see the "--with-pthread" option for the threaded
- support).
-
- --enable-weak-symbols
- use weak-symbols for linking to the POSIX thread
- library, and use the same soname for the ncurses
- shared library as the normal library (caveat: the
- ABI is for the threaded library, which makes global
- data accessed via functions).
-
- --with-pthread
- build with the POSIX thread library (tested with
- AIX, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, HPUX, IRIX64,
- Solaris, Tru64).
-
- --with-ticlib
- build/install the tic-support functions in a
- separate library
-
- + improved options:
-
- --enable-ext-colors
- requires the wide-character configuration.
-
- --with-chtype
- ignore option value "unsigned" is always added to
- the type in curses.h; do the same for
- --with-mmask-t.
-
- --with-dmalloc
- build-fix for redefinition of strndup.
-
- --with-hashed-db
- accepts a parameter which is the install-prefix of
- a given Berkeley Database.
-
- --with-hashed-db
- the $LIBS environment variable overrides the search
- for the db library.
-
- --without-hashed-db
- assumed when "--disable-database" is used.
-
- * other configure/build issues:
- + build-fixes for LynxOS
- + modify shared-library rules to allow FreeBSD 3.x to use
- rpath.
- + build-fix for FreeBSD "contemporary" TTY interface.
- + build-fixes for AIX with libtool.
- + build-fixes for Darwin and libtool.
- + modify BeOS-specific ifdef's to build on Haiku.
- + corrected gcc options for building shared libraries on
- Solaris and IRIX64.
- + change shared-library configuration for OpenBSD, make rpath
- work.
- + build-fixes for using libutf8, e.g., on OpenBSD 3.7
- + add "-e" option in ncurses/Makefile.in when generating
- source-files to force earlier exit if the build environment
- fails unexpectedly.
- + add support for shared libraries for QNX.
- + change delimiter in MKlib_gen.sh from '%' to '@', to avoid
- substitution by IBM xlc to '#' as part of its extensions to
- digraphs.
- * library:
- + rewrite wrapper for wcrtomb(), making it work on Solaris.
- This is used in the form library to determine the length of
- the buffer needed by field_buffer.
- + add/use configure script macro CF_SIG_ATOMIC_T, use the
- corresponding type for data manipulated by signal handlers.
- + set locale in misc/ncurses-config.in since it uses a range
- + disable GPM mouse support when $TERM does not happen to
- contain "linux", since Gpm_Open() no longer limits its
- assertion to terminals that it might handle, e.g., within
- "screen" in xterm.
- + reset mouse file-descriptor when unloading GPM library.
- * test programs:
- + update test programs to build/work with various UNIX curses
- for comparisons.
-
- Features of Ncurses
-
- The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4)
- curses:
- * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
- documented).
- * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping,
- color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
- recognition of keypad and function keys.
- * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of
- windows with backing store, is included.
- * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but
- flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
- * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection
- through on-screen forms, is included.
- * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
- implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
- SVr4 curses uses.
- * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries
- for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the
- HP/UX and AIX ports.
+ * captoinfo, a termcap conversion tool
+ * clear, utility for clearing the screen
+ * infocmp, the terminfo decompiler
+ * tabs, set tabs on a terminal
+ * tic, the terminfo compiler
+ * toe, list (table of) terminfo entries
+ * tput, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities in shell
+ scripts
+ * tset, to initialize the terminal
+
+ Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
+
+ The ncurses distribution is available at ncurses' homepage:
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/ or
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/ .
+
+ It is also available at the GNU distribution site
+
+ https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
+
+Release Notes
+
+ These notes are for ncurses 6.4, released December 31, 2022.
+
+ This release is designed to be source-compatible with ncurses 5.0
+ through 6.3; providing extensions to the application binary interface
+ (ABI). Although the source can still be configured to support the
+ ncurses 5 ABI, the reason for the release is to reflect improvements
+ to the ncurses 6 ABI and the supporting utility programs.
+
+ There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in this
+ announcement.
+
+ The most important bug-fixes/improvements dealt with robustness
+ issues. The release notes also mention some other bug-fixes, but are
+ focused on new features and improvements to existing features since
+ ncurses 6.3 release.
+
+ Library improvements
+
+ New features
+
+ There are no new features in this release.
+
+ Other improvements
+
+ These are improvements to existing features:
+ * modify delscreen to more effectively delete all windows on the
+ given screen.
+ * modify wnoutrefresh to call pnoutrefresh if its parameter is a
+ pad, rather than treating it as an error, and modify new_panel to
+ permit its window-parameter to be a pad
+ * modify curses_trace() to show the trace-mask as symbols, e.g.,
+ TRACE_ORDINARY, DEBUG_LEVEL(3).
+ * improve checks for valid mouse events when an intermediate mouse
+ state is not part of the mousemask specified by the caller
+ * allow extended-color number in opts parameter of wattr_on.
+ * improve _tracecchar_t2 formatting of base+combining character.
+ * trim out some unwanted linker options from ncurses*config and .pc
+ files seen in Fedora 36+.
+ * improve shell-scripts with shellcheck
+ * improve use of "trap" in shell scripts, using a script.
+ * modify make-tar.sh scripts to make timestamps more predictable.
+
+ These are corrections to existing features:
+ * modify misc/gen-pkgconfig.in to allow for the case where the
+ library directory does not yet exist, since this is processed
+ before doing an install
+ * set trailing null on string passed from winsnstr to wins_nwstr.
+ * modify waddch_literal to allow for double-width base character
+ when merging a combining character
+
+ Program improvements
+
+ Several improvements were made to the utility programs:
+
+ infocmp
+
+ + rewrite canonical_name function of infocmp to ensure buffer
+ size
+ + improve readability of long parameterized expressions with
+ the infocmp "-f" option by allowing split before a "%p"
+ marker.
+ + modify verbose-option of infocmp, tic, toe to enable
+ debug-tracing if that is configured.
+
+ tabs
+ limit tab-stop values to max-columns
+
+ tic
+ add consistency check in tic for u6/u7/u8/u9 and NQ
+ capabilities.
+
+ tput
+ corrected use of original tty-modes in init/reset subcommands
+
+ Examples
+
+ Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made to the
+ ncurses-examples. Most of this activity aimed at improving the
+ test-packages:
+ * add minimal -h (usage) and -V (version) getopt logic to all
+ ncurses-examples programs.
+ * fix an error in "@" command in test/ncurses.c F-menu
+ * add curses_trace to ifdef's for START_TRACE in test/test.priv.h
+ * improve pthread-configuration for test/worm.c
+ * add setlocale call to several test-programs.
+ * workaround in test/picsmap.c for use of floating point for rgb
+ values by ImageMagick 6.9.11, which appears to use the wrong upper
+ limit.
+ * use static libraries for AdaCurses test-package for Mageia, since
+ no gprbuild package is available.
+ * install Ada95 sample programs in libexecdir, adding a wrapper
+ script to invoke those.
+ * install ncurses-examples programs in libexecdir, adding a wrapper
+ script to invoke those.
+
+ There are other new demo/test programs and reusable examples:
+
+ test/combine
+ demonstrate combining characters
+
+ test/test_delwin
+ demonstrate deleting a window
+
+ test/test_mouse
+ observe mouse events in the raw terminal or parsed ncurses
+ modes
+
+ test/test_unget_wch
+ demonstrate the unget_wch and unget functions
+
+ Terminal database
+
+ There are several new terminal descriptions:
+ * mosh
+ * mosh-256color
+ * teken-16color
+ * teken-sc
+ * teken-vt
+ * xgterm
+
+ There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some were
+ updates to several descriptions:
+ * make description-fields distinct
+ * fix errata in description fields
+ * add/use several building-blocks:
+ + aixterm+sl
+ + ansi+cpr
+ + apollo+vt132
+ + decid+cpr
+ + ncr260vp+sl
+ + wyse+sl
+ + x10term+sl
+ + xterm+acs
+ + xterm+alt47
+
+ while others affected specific descriptions. These were retested, to
+ take into account changes by their developers:
+ * kitty
+ * teken
+
+ while these are specific fixes based on reviewing documentation, user
+ reports, or warnings from tic:
+
+ att610+cvis0
+ amended note as per documentation for att610, att620, att730
+
+ kon, kon2, jfbterm
+ revise to undo "linux2.6" change to smacs/rmacs/enacs
+
+ st-0.6
+ add dim, ecma+strikeout
+
+ foot+base
+ add xterm+sl-alt
+
+ dec+sl
+ correct dsl in dec+sl
+
+ mintty and tmux
+ correct setal in mintty/tmux entries, add to vte-2018
+
+ nsterm
+ modify nsterm to use xterm+alt1049
+
+ putty
+ modify putty to use xterm+alt1049
+
+ vte-2018
+ add blink and setal
+
+ A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal capabilities):
+ * use ansi+enq and decid+cpr in cases where the terminal probably
+ supported the u6-u9 extension
+ * remove u6-u9 from teken-2018
+ * use NQ to flag entries where the terminal does not support query
+ and response
+ * add/use bracketed+paste to help identify terminals supporting this
+ xterm feature
+ * modify samples for xterm mouse 1002/1003 modes to use 1006 mode,
+ and also provide for focus in/out responses
+ * xterm patch #371 supports DEC-compatible status-line. add dec+sl
+ to xterm-new, per xterm #371, add xterm-p371, add xterm-p370, for
+ use in older terminals, and set "xterm-new" to "xterm-p370" (to
+ ease adoption).
+
+ Documentation
+
+ As usual, this release
+ * improves documentation by describing new features,
+ * attempts to improve the description of features which users have
+ found confusing
+ * fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were described
+ in the NEWS file but treated sketchily in manual pages.
+
+ In addition to providing background information to explain these
+ features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
+ clarifications, etc.:
+ * Corrections:
+ + remove a stray '/' from description of %g in terminfo(5).
+ + correct/improve font-formatting in curs_getch.3x, as well as
+ other manual pages.
+ * New/improved history and portability sections:
+ + add portability notes for delscreen and delwin in manual.
+ + improve curs_slk.3x discussion of extensions and portability
+ * Other improvements:
+ + improve curs_bkgd.3x, explaining that bkgdset can affect
+ results for bkgd
+ + add note on portable memory-leak checking in curs_memleaks.3x
+ + expanded description in resizeterm.3x
+ + add section on releasing memory to curs_termcap.3x and
+ curs_terminfo.3x manpages.
+ + add clarification of the scope of dynamic variables in
+ terminfo(5).
+ + improve formatting of ncurses-intro.html and hackguide.html
+ + improve curs_clear.3x links to other pages
+ + update ncurses-howto, making documentation fixes along with
+ corrections to example programs.
+ + use newer version 1.36 of gnathtml for generating Ada html
+ files.
+ + update external links in Ada95.html
+
+ There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates are to
+ existing pages).
+
+ Interesting bug-fixes
+
+ While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses 6.4,
+ only a few (the reason for this release) were both important and
+ interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues which did not
+ affect compatibility across releases. Since those are detailed in the
+ NEWS file no elaboration is needed here.
+
+ The interesting bugs were those dealing with memory leaks and buffer
+ overflows. Although the utilities are designed for text files (which
+ they do properly), some choose to test them with non-text files.
+ * Text files contain no embedded nulls. Also, they end with a
+ newline. Feeding tic non-text files exposed a few cases where the
+ program did not check for those issues. As a result, further
+ processing of the input found limit-checks whose assumptions were
+ invalid.
+ * Fixing the limit-checks (first) found a problem with tic managing
+ the list of strings in a terminal description. In merging two
+ terminal descriptions (i.e., the "use=" feature), tic was not
+ allocating a complete copy. A quick repair for that introduced a
+ memory leak.
+ * The checks for non-text files are improved (i.e., embedded nulls
+ in the input file will cause tic to reject it rather than
+ attempting to process it).
+ * The string allocations in tic are likewise improved.
+
+ Configuration changes
+
+ Major changes
+
+ There are no major changes. No new options were added. Several
+ improvements were made to configure checks.
+
+ Configuration options
+
+ There are a few new/modified configure options:
+
+ --with-abi-version
+ add ABI 7 defaults to configure script.
+
+ --with-caps
+ add warning in configure script if file specified for
+ "--with-caps" does not exist.
+
+ --with-manpage-format
+ bzip2 and xz compression are now supported
+
+ --with-xterm-kbs
+ add check/warning in configure script if option
+ "--with-xterm-kbs" is missing or inconsistent
+
+ Portability
+
+ Many of the portability changes are implemented via the configure
+ script:
+ * amend configure option's auto-search to account for systems where
+ none of the directories known to pkg-config exist
+ * corrected regex needed for older pkg-config used in Solaris 10
+ * improve handling of --with-pkg-config-libdir option, allowing for
+ the case where either $PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR or the option value has a
+ colon-separated list of directories
+ * if the --with-pkg-config-libdir option is not given, use
+ ${libdir}/pkgconfig as a default
+ * improve search-path check for pkg-config, e.g., for Debian testing
+ which installs pkg-config with architecture-prefixes.
+ * build-fix for cross-compiling to MingW, conditionally add -lssp
+ * improve configure check for getttynam
+ * fixes to build with dietlibc:
+ + add configure check for fpathconf
+ + add configure check for math sine/cosine, needed in
+ test/tclock, and eliminate pow() from test/hanoi
+ + use wcsnlen as an alternative to wmemchr if it is not found
+ * modify configure macro CF_BUILD_CC to check if the build-compiler
+ works, rather than that it is different from the cross-compiler,
+ e.g., to accommodate a compiler which can be used for either
+ purpose with different flags
+ * modify configure/scripts to work around interference by GNU grep
+ 3.8
+
+ Here are some of the other portability fixes:
+ * change man_db.renames to template, to handle ncurses*-config
+ script with the --extra-suffix configure option.
+ * update CF_XOPEN_SOURCE macro, adding variants "gnueabi" and
+ "gnueabihf" to get _DEFAULT_SOURCE special case, as well as adding
+ GNU libc suffixes for "abi64", "abin32", "x32" to distinguish it
+ from other libc flavors.
+ * work around musl's nonstandard use of feature test macros by
+ adding a definition for NCURSES_WIDECHAR to the generated ".pc"
+ and *-config files.
+ * use "command -v" rather than "type" in Ada95/gen/Makefile.in to
+ fix a portability issue.
+ _________________________________________________________________
+
+Features of ncurses
+
+ The ncurses package is fully upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V
+ Release 4) curses:
+ * All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
+ * ncurses supports all of the for SVr4 curses features including
+ keyboard mapping, color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and
+ automatic recognition of keypad and function keys.
+ * ncurses provides these SVr4 add-on libraries (not part of X/Open
+ Curses):
+ + the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
+ backing store.
+ + the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
+ interface for menu programming.
+ + the form library, supporting data collection through
+ on-screen forms.
+ * ncurses's terminal database is fully compatible with that used by
+ SVr4 curses.
+ + ncurses supports user-defined capabilities which it can see,
+ but which are hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
+ same terminal database.
+ + It can be optionally configured to match the format used in
+ related systems such as AIX and Tru64.
+ + Alternatively, ncurses can be configured to use hashed
+ databases rather than the directory of files used by SVr4
+ curses.
+ * The ncurses utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
+ entries for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as
+ the HP-UX and AIX ports.
The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
* The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
* Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and FreeBSD
and OS/2 console windows.
* Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
- * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
+ * The function wresize allows you to resize windows, preserving
their data.
- * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
+ * The function use_default_colors allows you to use the terminal's
default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
transparent colors.
- * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control
- the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
- or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given
- key code.
- * Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm, when
- configured using the --enable-ext-colors option.
+ * The functions keyok and define_key allow you to better control the
+ use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, or by
+ defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key
+ code.
+ * Support for direct-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
+ * Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
* Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm.
* Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
- powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
+ powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch routine.
* Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
(this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
must run in single-user mode).
- * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability
- to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
+ * The tic/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability to
+ translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
sets.
- * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
+ * A BSD-like tset utility is provided.
* The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
- * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition
- from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP
- environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and
- converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under
- $HOME/.terminfo.
- * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
- when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is
- neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have
- to, but it's there.
* The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
* The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
- have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
+ has a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
#undef.
- * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
- provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
- interface.
+ * Extensive documentation is provided (see the Additional Reading
+ section of the ncurses FAQ for online documentation).
+
+Applications using ncurses
+
+ The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
+ (including a few games). These are available separately as
+ ncurses-examples
- State of the Package
+ The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
+ applications including:
- Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
- is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
- `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
- according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
- and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
+ aptitude
+ FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager
- The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
- including (versions starting with those noted):
+ https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [4]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- [5]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/cdk/
ded
directory-editor
- [6]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/ded/
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
- basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
- [7]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
+ basis for similar install/configure applications on many
+ systems.
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
- the character-screen WWW browser
- [8]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ the text WWW browser
- Midnight Commander
- file manager
- [9]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
+ https://lynx.invisible-island.net/
mutt
mail utility
- [10]http://www.mutt.org/
+
+ http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
- [11]http://www.ncftp.com/
+
+ https://www.ncftp.com/
nvi
- New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
- later.
- [12]http://www.bostic.com/vi/
+ New vi uses ncurses.
+
+ https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi
+
+ ranger
+ A console file manager with VI key bindings in Python.
- pinfo
- Lynx-like info browser.
- [13]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
+ https://ranger.github.io/
tin
- newsreader, supporting color, MIME [14]http://www.tin.org/
+ newsreader, supporting color, MIME
+
+ http://www.tin.org/
+
+ vifm
+ File manager with vi like keybindings
+
+ https://vifm.info/
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
minicom
- terminal emulator
- [15]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+ terminal emulator for serial modem connections
+
+ https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
+
+ mosh
+ a replacement for ssh.
+
+ https://mosh.org/
+
+ tack
+ terminfo action checker
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
+
+ tmux
+ terminal multiplexor
+
+ https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki
vile
- vi-like-emacs
- [16]http://invisible-island.net/vile/
+ vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, termcap or
+ curses interfaces.
- The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
- (including a few games).
+ https://invisible-island.net/vile/
+
+ and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:
+
+ emacs
+ text editor
+
+ https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
+
+ less
+ The most commonly used pager (a program that displays text
+ files).
+
+ http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/
+
+ screen
+ terminal multiplexor
+
+ https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
+
+ vim
+ text editor
+
+ https://www.vim.org/
-Who's Who and What's What
+Development activities
- Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by
- Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Jürgen Pfeifer
- wrote most of the form and menu libraries. Ongoing work is being done
- by [17]Thomas Dickey. Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
- Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
- Contact the current maintainers at [18]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
+ Zeyd Ben-Halim started ncurses from a previous package pcurses,
+ written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development.
+ Juergen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
- To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
- bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
- subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
+ Ongoing development work is done by Thomas E. Dickey. Thomas E. Dickey
+ has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which
+ held a copyright on ncurses for releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following
+ the release of ncurses 6.1, effective as of release 6.2, copyright for
+ ncurses reverted to Thomas E. Dickey (see the ncurses FAQ for
+ additional information).
+
+ Contact the current maintainers at
+
+ bug-ncurses@gnu.org
+
+ To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
+
+ bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org
+
+ containing the line:
+
+ subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
and testing of this package.
- Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
- available at [19]ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ .
+ Beta versions of ncurses are made available at
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/ and
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/ .
+
+ Patches to the current release are made available at
+
+ https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/ and
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/ .
+
+ There is an archive of the mailing list here:
-Future Plans
+ http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses (also https)
- * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
- support.
- * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
+Related resources
- We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
- working on them, please join the ncurses list.
+ The release notes make scattered references to these pages, which may
+ be interesting by themselves:
+ * ncurses licensing
+ * Symbol versioning in ncurses
+ * Comments on ncurses versus slang (S-Lang)
+ * Comments on OpenBSD
+ * tack - terminfo action checker
+ * tctest - termcap library checker
+ * Terminal Database
-Other Related Resources
+Other resources
The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
- terminal description file once maintained by [20]Eric Raymond . Unlike
- the older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the
- same file, and provides several user-definable extensions beyond the
+ terminal description file once maintained by Eric Raymond . Unlike the
+ older version, the termcap and terminfo data are provided in the same
+ file, which also provides several user-definable extensions beyond the
X/Open specification.
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
- covered in the terminfo file at [21]Richard Shuford's archive .
-
-References
-
- 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
- 2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
- 3. http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_230
- 4. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- 5. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
- 6. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
- 7. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
- 8. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
- 9. http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
- 10. http://www.mutt.org/
- 11. http://www.ncftp.com/
- 12. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
- 13. https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
- 14. http://www.tin.org/
- 15. http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
- 16. http://invisible-island.net/vile/
- 17. mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net
- 18. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
- 19. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
- 20. http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/
- 21. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html
+ covered in the terminfo file at Richard Shuford's archive . The
+ collection of computer manuals at bitsavers.org has also been useful.
+
+ * Overview
+ * Release Notes
+ + Library improvements
+ o New features
+ o Other improvements
+ + Program improvements
+ o Utilities
+ o Examples
+ + Terminal database
+ + Documentation
+ + Interesting bug-fixes
+ + Configuration changes
+ o Major changes
+ o Configuration options
+ + Portability
+ * Features of ncurses
+ * Applications using ncurses
+ * Development activities
+ * Related resources
+ * Other resources
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff