- Announcing ncurses 5.8
+ Announcing ncurses 6.5
+
+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 5.7; very few applications will require recompilation,
- depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
- change-log since ncurses 5.7 release.
-
-Interface changes
-
- * turn on _XOPEN_CURSES definition in curses.h.
- * change _nc_has_mouse to has_mouse, reflect its use in C++ and
- Ada95.
- * add is_pad and is_subwin functions for opaque access to the WINDOW
- structure.
- * add tiparm, based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
-
-New features and improvements
-
- Library Improvements
-
- * add a terminal driver for Windows console, which supports a MinGW
- port to Windows.
- * add extended functions which specify the SCREEN pointer for
- several curses functions which use the global SP.
- * improve the NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS feature by adding a check for an
- extended terminfo capability U8.
- * improve performance of tigetstr, etc., by using hashing code from
- tic.
- * add WACS_xxx definitions to wide-character configuration for
- thick- and double-lines.
- * modify init_pair to allow caller to create extra color pairs
- beyond the color_pairs limit, which use default colors.
-
- Improvements to Programs
-
- * add tabs program.
- * modify tic's -I/-C dump to reformat acsc strings into canonical
- form (sorted, unique mapping).
- * add checks in tic for inconsistent cursor-movement controls, and
- for inconsistent printer-controls.
- * add special case to _nc_infotocap (used by tic and infocmp) to
- recognize the setaf/setab strings from xterm+256color and
- xterm+88color, and provide a reduced version which works with
- termcap.
-
- Terminal Database
-
- * added entries:
- + bterm terminfo entry, based on bogl 0.1.18
- + cons25-debian entry
- + eterm-color entry
- + linux-16color
- + mlterm+256color entry, for mlterm 3.0.0
- + several screen-bce.xxx entries
- + screen.Eterm terminfo entry
- + vwmterm entry
- + xterm-utf8 entry as a demo of the U8 feature
- * updated/improved entries:
- + use extended capabilities:
- o add U8 feature to denote entries for terminal emulators
- which do not support VT100 SI/SO when processing UTF-8
- encoding
- o add XT capability to entries for terminals that support
- both xterm-style mouse- and title-controls, for screen
- which special-cases TERM beginning with xterm or rxvt
- + improvements based on new checks in tic:
- +
- o fill in no-parameter forms of cursor-movement where a
- parameterized form is available
- o fill in missing cursor controls where the form of the
- controls is ANSI
- o add parameterized cursor-controls to linux-basic
- o modify nsterm, xnuppc and tek4115 to make sgr/sgr0
- consistent
- o change several terminfo entries to make consistent use
- of ANSI clear-all-tabs
- + extend ansi.sys pfkey capability from kf1-kf10 to kf1-kf48,
- moving function key definitions from emx-base for
- consistency.
- + correct missing final 'p' in pfkey capability of
- ansi.sys-old.
- + rename atari and st52 terminfo entries to atari-old,
- st52-old, use newer entries from FreeMiNT.
- + repurpose gnome terminfo entries as vte, retaining gnome
- variants for compatibility, but generally deprecating those
- since the VTE library is what actually defines the behavior
- of "gnome", etc., since 2003.
- + improve interix smso terminfo capability by using reverse
- rather than bold.
- + correct initc capability of linux-c-nc end-of-range, make
- similar change for dg+ccc and dgunix+ccc.
- + update minix terminfo entry.
- + updated nsterm* entries.
- + remove unnecessary kcan assignment to ^C from putty.
- + suppress ncv in screen and konsole-base entries, allowing
- underline.
- + change ncv and op capabilities in sun-color terminfo entry to
- match Sun's entry for this.
- + fix typo in rmso for tek4106 entry.
- + improve acsc string for vt52, show arrow keys.
- + add hard-reset for rs2 to wsvt25 to help ensure that reset
- ends the alternate character set.
- + add ccc and initc capabilities to xterm-16color.
-
-Major bug fixes
-
- * ncurses library
- + wide character support
- o modify length returned by getcchar to count the trailing
- null which is documented in X/Open.
- o fix an infinite recursion when adding a legacy-coding
- 8-bit value using insch.
- o improve a workaround in adding wide-characters, when a
- control character is found. The library uses unctrl to
- obtain a printable version of the control character, but
- was not passing color or video attributes.
- o modify waddch_literal, updating line-pointer after a
- multicolumn character is found to not fit on the current
- row, and wrapping is done. Since the line-pointer was
- not updated, the wrapped multicolumn character was
- written to the beginning of the current row.
- o fixes in wins_nwstr and related functions to ensure that
- special characters, i.e., control characters are handled
- properly with the wide-character configuration.
- o correct internal _nc_insert_ch to use _nc_insert_wch
- when inserting wide characters, since the wins_wch
- function that it used did not update the cursor
- position.
- + mouse
- o add check if Gpm_Open returns a -2, e.g., for "xterm".
- This is normally suppressed but can be overridden using
- $NCURSES_GPM_TERMS. Ensure that Gpm_Close is called in
- this case.
- o add check in mouse-driver to disable connection if GPM
- returns a zero, indicating that the connection is
- closed.
- o modify getmouse to act as its documentation implied,
- returning on each call the preceding event until none
- are left. When no more events remain, it will return
- ERR.
- + miscellaneous
- o improve handling of color-pairs embedded in attributes
- for the extended-colors configuration.
- o add check for failure to open hashed-database needed for
- db4.6.
- o modify use of $CC environment variable which is defined
- by X/Open as a curses feature, to ignore it if it is not
- a single character.
- o modify declaration of cur_term when broken-linker is
- used, but enable-reentrant is not, to match pre-5.7.
- o correct limit-checks in derwin.
- o remove old check in mvderwin which prevented moving a
- derived window whose origin happened to coincide with
- its parent's origin.
- o correct limit-checks in newwin, to ensure that windows
- have nonzero size.
- o modify set_curterm to make broken-linker configuration
- work with changes from 20090228.
- o modify wgetch to ensure it checks SIGWINCH when it gets
- an error in non-blocking mode.
- o correct limit-check in wredrawln, accounting for
- begy/begx values.
- o fix a null-pointer check in _nc_format_slks in
- lib_slk.c, from 20070704 changes.
- o correct translation of "^" in _nc_infotocap, used to
- transform terminfo to termcap strings.
- o modify _nc_wgetch to check for a -1 in the fifo, e.g.,
- after a SIGWINCH, and discard that value, to avoid
- confusing application.
- * other libraries
- + correct transfer of multicolumn characters in multirow
- field_buffer, which stopped at the end of the first row due
- to filling of unused entries in a cchar_t array with nulls.
- + correct buffer-size after internal resizing of wide-character
- set_field_buffer, broken in 20081018 changes.
- + correct layout of working window used to extract data in
- wide-character configured by set_field_buffer
-
-Portability
-
- * configure script:
- + new options:
-
- --disable-libtool-version
- use the "-version-number" feature which was added
- in libtool 1.5. The default value for the option
- uses the newer feature, which makes libraries
- generated using libtool compatible with the
- standard builds of ncurses.
-
- --disable-rpath-hack
- disable a feature which adds rpath options for
- libraries in unusual places.
-
- --enable-interop
- integrate changes for generic/interop support to
- form-library.
-
- --enable-pc-files
- generate ".pc" files for each of the libraries, and
- install them in pkg-config's library directory.
-
- --enable-pthreads-eintr
- control whether to allow EINTR to interrupt a read
- operation in wgetch. This applies only to the
- pthread configuration
-
- --enable-sp-funcs
- compile-in support for extended functions which
- accept a SCREEN pointer, reducing the need for
- juggling the global SP value with set_term and
- delscreen.
-
- --enable-term-driver
- compile with terminal-driver. That is used in the
- MinGW port, and (being somewhat more complicated)
- is an experimental alternative to the conventional
- termlib internals. Currently, it requires the
- sp-funcs feature to be enabled.
-
- --with-ncurses-wrap-prefix
- allows setting the prefix for functions used to
- wrap global variables to something other than
- "_nc_".
-
- --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
- check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its
- path.
-
- --without-manpages
- tells the configure script to suppress the install
- of ncurses' manpages.
-
- --without-tests
- suppress building test programs.
-
- + improved options:
- o correct logic for --with-database, which was coded as an
- enable-type switch.
- o omit the opaque-functions from lib_gen.o when
- --disable-ext-funcs is used.
- * packaging:
- + *-config scripts:
- o modify adacurses-config to look for ".ali" files in the
- adalib directory.
- o correct install for the Ada95 tree, which omitted
- libAdaCurses.a used in adacurses-config.
- o change install for adacurses-config to provide
- additional flavors such as adacursesw-config, for
- ncursesw.
- o modify scripts to generate ncurses*-config and pc-files
- to add dependency for tinfo library.
- o use ncurses*-config scripts if available for
- test/configure.
- o correct name for termlib in ncurses*-config, e.g., if it
- is renamed to provide a single file for ncurses/ncursesw
- libraries.
- o generate manpages for the *-config scripts, adapted from
- help2man.
- o modify install-rule for manpages so that *-config
- manpages will install when building with --srcdir.
- o build-fixes for OpenSolaris aka Solaris 11, for
- wide-character configuration as well as for rpath
- feature in *-config scripts.
- o use $includedir symbol in misc/ncurses-config.in, add
- --includedir option.
- o improve install-rules for pc-files.
- o create the pkg-config library directory if needed.
- o fix typo "==" where "=" is needed in ncurses-config.in
- and gen-pkgconfig.in files.
- o modify gen-pkgconfig.in to eliminate a dependency on
- rpath when deciding whether to add $LIBS to --libs
- output; that should be shown for the ncurses and tinfo
- libraries without taking rpath into account.
- o modify handling of $PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR to use only the
- first item in a possibly colon-separated list.
- + other packaging issues
- o add make-tar.sh scripts to Ada95 and test subdirectories
- to help with making those separately distributable.
- o add Ada95/configure script, to use in tar-file created
- by Ada95/make-tar.sh.
- o remove tar-copy.sh and related configure/Makefile
- chunks, since the Ada95 binding is now installed using
- rules in Ada95/src.
- * cross-compiling:
- + improve configure checks for location of tic and infocmp
- programs used for installing database and for generating
- fallback data, e.g., for cross-compiling.
- + modify #define's for build-compiler to suppress cchar_t
- symbol from compile of make_hash and make_keys, improving
- cross-compilation of ncursesw.
- + simplify include-dependencies of make_hash and make_keys, to
- reduce the need for setting BUILD_CPPFLAGS in cross-compiling
- when the build- and target-machines differ.
- + correct cross-compiling configure check for CF_MKSTEMP macro,
- by adding a check cache variable set by AC_CHECK_FUNC.
- * library dependencies:
- + revise wadd_wch and wecho_wchar to eliminate dependency on
- unctrl.
- + adjust configure script so that "t" is not added to library
- suffix when weak-symbols are used, allowing the pthread
- configuration to more closely match the non-thread naming.
- * building the Ada95 tree:
- + changes to use gnatmake project files in the Ada95 tree.
- + add/use configure check to turn on project rules for
- Ada95/src.
- + old gnatmake (3.15) does not produce libraries using
- project-file; work around by adding script to generate
- alternate makefile.
- + add configure --with-ada-sharedlib option, for the test_make
- rule.
- + move Ada95-related logic into aclocal.m4, since additional
- checks will be needed to distinguish old/new implementations
- of gnat.
- + add test_make / test_clean / test_install rules in Ada95/src
- + change install-path for adainclude directory to
- /usr/share/ada (was /usr/lib/ada).
- * other configure/build issues:
- + make CCHARW_MAX value configurable, noting that changing this
- would change the size of cchar_t, and would be
- ABI-incompatible.
- + improve comparison of program-names when checking for linked
- flavors such as "reset" by ignoring the executable suffix.
- + drop mkdirs.sh, use "mkdir -p".
- + drop misc/ncu-indent and misc/jpf-indent; they are provided
- by an external package [3]cindent.
- + change makefiles to use $ARFLAGS rather than $AR_OPTS,
- provide a configure check to detect whether a "-" is needed
- before "ar" options.
- + modify CF_DISABLE_LEAKS configure macro so that the
- --enable-leaks option is not the same as --disable-leaks.
- + improve configure script macros CF_HEADER_PATH and
- CF_LIBRARY_PATH by adding CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS, LIBS
- values to the search-lists.
- + improve configure macros CF_GCC_VERSION and CF_GCC_WARNINGS
- to work with gcc 4.x's c89 alias, which gives warning
- messages for cases where older versions would produce an
- error.
- + modify CF_WITH_LIBTOOL configure check to allow unreleased
- libtool version numbers (e.g. which include alphabetic chars,
- as well as digits, after the final '.').
- + improve use of symbolic links in makefiles by using "-f"
- option if it is supported, to eliminate temporary removal of
- the target
- + add a configure-time check to pick a suitable value for
- CC_SHARED_OPTS for Solaris.
- + add -shared option to MK_SHARED_LIB when -Bsharable is used,
- for *BSD's, without which "main" might be one of the shared
- library's dependencies.
- + modify configure script to allow building shared libraries
- with gcc on AIX 5 or 6.
- + suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker flags for
- gcc on Solaris 10, since gcc is confused by absence of static
- libc, and does not switch back to dynamic mode before
- finishing the libraries.
- + suppress configure check for static/dynamic linker flags for
- gcc on Darwin.
- + modify misc/run_tic.in to create parent directory, in case
- this is a new install of hashed database.
- + modify configure check for tic program, used for fallbacks,
- to a warning if not found. This makes it simpler to use
- additonal scripts to bootstrap the fallbacks code using tic
- from the build tree.
- * test programs:
- + add test/demo_terminfo, for comparison with demo_termcap.
- + improve test/ncurses.c 'F' test, show combining characters in
- color.
- + fix logic for 'V' in test/ncurses.c tests f/F.
- + improve test/ncurses.c 'a test to put mouse droppings in the
- proper window.
- + modify ncurses 'F' test to demo wborder_set with colored
- lines.
- + modify ncurses 'f' test to demo wborder with colored lines.
- + improve test/ncurses.c 'a' test, using unctrl more
- consistently to display meta-characters.
- + correct use of key_name in test/ncurses.c 'A' test, which
- only displays wide-characters, not key-codes since 20070612.
- + add test/clip_printw.c to illustrate how to use printw
- without wrapping.
- + modify test-programs, e.g,. test/view.c, to address subtle
- differences between Tru64/Solaris and HPUX/AIX getcchar
- return values.
- + add some test programs (and make these use the same special
- keys by sharing linedata.h functions): test/test_addstr.c
- test/test_addwstr.c test/test_addchstr.c
- test/test_add_wchstr.c
- + add test/xterm-256color.dat
- + modify test programs to allow them to be built with NetBSD
- curses.
- + fixes for test programs to build/work on HPUX and AIX, etc.
-
- 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
+ * 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 6.5, released April 27, 2024.
+
+ This release is designed to be source-compatible with ncurses 5.0
+ through 6.4; 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 6.4 release.
+
+ Library improvements
+
+ New features
+
+ These are new features:
+ * The low-level terminfo and termcap interfaces are used both by the
+ higher-level curses library, as well as by many applications.
+ The functions which convert parameterized terminal capability
+ strings for output to the terminal (tiparm and tparm) analyze the
+ capability string to determine which parameters are strings (i.e.,
+ addresses), versus numbers (not addresses).
+ The library's analysis of a capability string may differ from the
+ calling application's design if environment variables are used to
+ point to an invalid terminal database. This is a longstanding
+ problem with all implementations of terminfo, dating from the
+ early 1980s.
+ Two new functions address this problem: by providing a function
+ which allows the calling application to tell ncurses how many
+ string-parameters to expect:
+ + tiscan_s helps applications check formatting capabilities
+ that would be passed to tiparm_s.
+ + tiparm_s provides applications a way to tell ncurses what the
+ expected parameters are for a capability.
+ * The ncurses library supports a compile-time feature (enabled with
+ the configure --enable-check-size option) which simplifies
+ initialization with terminals which do not negotiate window
+ (screen) size. This is done in setupterm, by providing for using
+ ANSI cursor-position report (in user6/user7 terminfo capabilities)
+ to obtain the screen size if neither environment variables or
+ ioctl is used.
+ The ncurses test-program with options "-E -T" demonstrates this
+ feature.
+ * add functions to query tty-flags in SCREEN
+
+ This release drops compatibility with obsolete versions of tack, e.g.,
+ pre-1.08
+
+ Other improvements
+
+ These are improvements to existing features:
+ * In addition to the new, safer function tiparm_s, ncurses adds
+ checks to make the older tiparm, tparm and tgoto functions safer:
+ + the terminfo functions tiparm and tparm ensure that the
+ capability string comes from the terminal description which
+ ncurses loads, rather than from random data which the
+ application happens to have.
+ + the tgoto function disallows capabilities which its analysis
+ shows will attempt to use string parameters.
+ + ncurses uses internal functions which correspond to tiparm,
+ and tgoto which ensure that the capability strings which are
+ passed to these functions come from the loaded terminal
+ description.
+ * improve check in lib_tparm.c, ensuring that a char* fits into a
+ TPARM_ARG
+ * modify _nc_syserr_abort to use _nc_env_access, rather than only
+ checking root uid
+ * improve thread lock in lib_trace.c
+ * modify flushinp to use file descriptors in SCREEN, rather than
+ from TERMINAL, and check if they are for a terminal, like SVr4
+ * modify mcprint to use file descriptor in SCREEN, for consistency
+ * modify internal function _nc_read_file_entry to show relevant
+ filename in warnings
+ * improve checks in internal function convert_string for corrupt
+ terminfo entry
+ * review/improve handling of out-of-memory conditions
+ * limit delays to 30 seconds, i.e., padding delays in terminfo, as
+ well as napms and delay_output functions
+ * fix reallocation loop for vsnprintf in _nc_sprintf_string by
+ copying the va_list variable
+ * modify delscreen to limit the windows which it creates to just
+ those associated with the screen
+ * modify endwin to return an error if it is called again without an
+ intervening screen update
+ * modify wenclose to handle pads
+ * eliminate use of PATH_MAX in lib_trace.c
+ * provide for any CCHARW_MAX greater than 1
+
+ These are corrections to existing features:
+ * correct loop termination condition in waddnstr and waddnwstr
+ * improve parsing in internal function _nc_msec_cost, allowing a
+ single decimal point
+ * amend parameter check for entire string versus specific length in
+ winsnstr and wins_nwstr to match Solaris; make similar correction
+ to wins_nwstr
+ * correct internal function wadd_wch_literal when adding a
+ non-spacing character to a double-width character
+ * correct definition of Charable macro for non-wide ncurses library
+ .
+
+ Program improvements
+
+ Several improvements were made to the utility programs. Some were done
+ to make the infocmp option "-u" option help refactor the terminal
+ database.
+
+ infocmp
+
+ + add limit checks for processing extended capabilities with
+ the "-u" option
+ + correct initial alignment of extended capabilities, so that
+ the "-u" option can be used for more than two terminal types
+ + modify "-u" option to not report cancels for strings which
+ were already cancelled in a use'd chunk.
+ + correct an assignment "-u" for detecting if a boolean is
+ unset in a base entry and set in a use'd chunk, i.e., if it
+ was cancelled.
+
+ tic
+
+ + correct limit-check when dumping tc/use clause via "-I"
+ + check return value of _nc_save_str, in special case where
+ extended capabilities are processed but the terminal
+ description was not initialized
+ + modify check for multiply defined aliases to report problems
+ within the current runtime rather than for conflicts with
+ pre-existing terminal descriptions.
+ + disallow using $TERMINFO or $HOME/.terminfo when "-o" option
+ is used
+
+ tput and tset
+
+ + add "-v" option to tput, to show warnings
+ + modify reset command to avoid altering clocal if the terminal
+ uses a modem
+ + modify reset feature to avoid 1-second sleep if running in a
+ pseudo-terminal
+
+ Examples
+
+ Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made to the
+ ncurses-examples:
+ * modify test_tparm to account for extended capabilities
+ * corrected mouse mask in test/testcurs.c
+ * modify test/clip_printw.c to optionally test non-wrapped updates
+ * modify test/test_mouse.c to use curses api for raw/noraw
+ * modify test/clip_printw.c to optionally test non-wrapped updates
+
+ There is one new demo/test programs:
+
+ test/test_endwin.c
+ This program shows the return-status from endwin with different
+ combinations of endwin (repeated), initscr, newterm.
+
+ Terminal database
+
+ There are several new terminal descriptions:
+ * ansi+apparrows
+ * contour
+ * linux+kbs for terminals which imitate xterm's behavior with Linux
+ * rio, rio-direct
+ * mostlike
+ * ms-vt100-16color, winconsole
+ * vt100+noapp, vt100+noapp+pc, xterm+app+pc, xterm+decedit from
+ xterm #389
+ * putty+cursor to reflect amending of modified cursor-keys in 2021
+ * wezterm
+
+ There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some were
+ updates to several descriptions, using the infocmp "-u" option in a
+ script to determine which building-block entries could be used to
+ replace multiple capability settings (and trim redundant information).
+
+ Other changes include:
+ * document XF, kxIN and kxOUT
+ * add note on sun regarding wscons/cmdtool/shelltool
+ * remove DECCOLM+DECSCLM from foot
+ * add xterm+focus to foot+base
+ * add ecma+strikeout to putty
+ * use CSI 3J in vte-2017
+ * use oldxterm+sm+1006 in vte-2014
+ * modify xgterm to work around line-drawing bug
+ * add xterm focus mode 1004 to xterm+focus as fe/fd capabilities,
+ like vim.
+ * add xterm+focus to alacritty+common
+ * add XR/xr, to work with vim, and use RV/rv to denote DA2 and its
+ response
+ * add XF flag to xterm+focus so that termcap applications can be
+ aware of terminals which may support focus in/out
+ * use xterm+focus in xterm-p370 and tmux
+ * remove xterm+sm+1006 from tmux
+ * NetBSD-related fixes for x68k and wsvt25
+
+ 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:
+ + add assignment in CF_MAN_PAGES to fill in value for
+ TERMINFO_DIRS in ncurses, terminfo and tic manpages.
+ + clarify interaction of -R option versus -C, -I and -r in
+ infocmp manpage.
+ + correct manpage description of panel_hidden.
+ + improve manpage description for addch versus unctrl format
+ used for non-printable characters.
+ + improve manpages discussing file descriptors in low-level
+ functions.
+ + improve description of search rules for terminal descriptions
+ in terminfo manpage.
+ + modify dist.mk to avoid passing developer's comments in
+ manpages into the generated html documentation.
+ + modify test-package "ncurses6-doc" to use manpage-aliases,
+ which in turn required a change to the configure script to
+ factor in the extra-suffix option when deriving alias names.
+ * New/improved history and portability sections:
+ + add information about "ttycap", termcap's forerunner, to
+ tset.1
+ + document limitations of tparm, and error-returns in
+ curs_terminfo.3x
+ + document limitations of tgoto, and error-returns in
+ curs_termcap.3x
+ * Other improvements:
+ + This release has many changes to improve the formatting and
+ style of the manpages.
+ + Manpages now use consistent section-naming, page headers and
+ footers (including the modification date for each page).
+ + Table layout has been revised.
+
+ There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates are to
+ existing pages).
+
+ Interesting bug-fixes
+
+ The changes to tparm, tgoto which improve the design of the low-level
+ interfaces are interesting, but are not bug-fixes per se.
+
+ Configuration changes
+
+ Major changes
+
+ These are the major changes (aside from introducing tiparm_s):
+ * use wide-character (ncursesw) by default
+ * use opaque typedefs by default
+
+ However, most of the work on configure scripts was done to reduce
+ warnings within the configure script:
+ * intrusive warnings from GNU grep regarding fgrep and egrep
+ * fatal errors in compile-checks, arising from recent "Modern C"
+ efforts by some developers which caused longstanding configure
+ checks to fail.
+ After repairing the configure script, none of that activity
+ affected ncurses because stricter warnings are used routinely in
+ development.
+
+ Other improvements made to configure checks include
+ * use string-hacks in alloc_entry.c, alloc_type.c and hardscroll.c,
+ overlooked due to compiler changes in recent OpenBSD releases
+ * revise progs.priv.h to provide for NC_ISATTY reuse
+ * configure check for MB_LEN_MAX provides warning as needed
+ * trim a space after some "-R" options, fixing builds for
+ applications built using clang and ncurses on Solaris
+ * work around misconfiguration of MacPorts gcc13, which exposes
+ invalid definition of MB_LEN_MAX in gcc's fallback copy of
+ limits.h
+ * modified experimental Windows driver works with xterm mouse
+ protocol
+
+ Configuration options
+
+ There are a few new configure options:
+
+ --disable-setuid-environ
+ Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment
+ variables are not available when running via a setuid/setgid
+ application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow
+ the search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be
+ customized.
+
+ A setuid/setgid application inherits its environment variables
+ from the current user, in contrast to sudo which may limit the
+ environment variables that ncurses uses.
+
+ --enable-check-size
+ Compile-in feature to detect screensize for terminals which do
+ not advertise their screensize, e.g., serial terminals.
+
+ --with-abi-altered=NUM
+ Override the displayed (rather than compiled-in) ABI. Only
+ packagers who have created configurations where the ABI differs
+ from ncurses should be interested in this option.
+
+ --with-strip-program=XXX
+ When stripping executables during install, use the specified
+ program rather than "strip" overriding program chosen by the
+ install program for stripping executables.
+
+ These configure options are modified:
+
+ --with-pkg-config-libdir[=DIR]
+ The optional DIR parameter can now be "auto" to automatically
+ use pkg-config's library directory.
+
+ The default is $(libdir).
+
+ --with-xterm-kbs[=XXX]
+ The default is "auto" which tells the configure script to
+ choose BS or DEL according to platform defaults.
+
+ Portability
+
+ Many of the portability changes are implemented via the configure
+ script:
+ * add/use configure check for clock_gettime, to supersede
+ gettimeofday.
+ * modify configure script check for pkg-config library directory to
+ take into account an older version 0.15.0 which used
+ PKG_CONFIG_PATH but not PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR
+ * allow for MinGW32-/64-bit configurations to use _DEFAULT_SOURCE
+ * modify CF_XOPEN_SOURCE macro's amend default case to avoid
+ undefining _XOPEN_SOURCE if _POSIX_C_SOURCE is defined
+ * updated configure script macro CF_XOPEN_SOURCE, for uClibc-ng
+ * modify version-check for gcc/g++, now works for msys2
+ * build-fixes related to configure-options and/or platform:
+ + fix for --enable-fvisibility
+ + fix for unusual values of --with-rel-version
+ + fix for unusual values of --with-abi-version
+ + fix for --disable-tcap-names
+ + fix for termcap in nc_access.h
+ * other configure-script improvements:
+ + recent msys2 headers work with _DEFAULT_SOURCE; amend check
+ + use $ac_includes_default in most cases where stdlib.h should
+ work
+ + use #error consistently vs "make an error"
+ + add configure macro for gettimeofday vs inline check
+
+ Here are some of the other portability fixes:
+ * modify configure scripts/makefiles to omit KEY_RESIZE if the
+ corresponding SIGWINCH feature is disabled
+ * increase MB_CUR_MAX to 16, matching glibc's MB_LEN_MAX
+ * add BSD erase2 to characters handled by tset/reset
+ * use getauxval when available, to improve setuid/setgid checks
+ * set dwShareMode in calls to CreateConsoleScreenBuffer
+ * use CreateFile with "CONIN$", "CONOUT$" rather than GetStdHandle
+ to obtain a handle on the actual console, avoiding redirection in
+ the MinGW/Win32 configurations
+ * modify MinGW driver to return KEY_BACKSPACE when an unmodified
+ VK_BACK virtual key is entered
+ * modify MinGW configuration to provide for running in MSYS/MSYS2
+ shells, assuming ConPTY support
+ _________________________________________________________________
+
+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 the features of SVr4 curses including keyboard
+ mapping, color, form 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.
+ * ncurses provides work-alike replacements of SVr4 supplemental
+ libraries based on curses, but which were not specified by X/Open
+ Curses:
+ + the panel library, supporting a stack of windows with backing
+ store
+ + the menu 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 that 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
- curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
- level features, and most EXTENDED features). It includes many
- function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of
- all calls is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
+ * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/Open
+ Curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
+ level features, and almost all EXTENDED features). It includes
+ many function calls not supported under SVr4 curses (but
+ portability of all calls is documented so you can use the SVr4
+ subset only).
* Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
capability.
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.
+ * 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
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
- 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.
+ * X/Open Curses permits most functions it specifies to be made
+ available as macros as well. ncurses does this
+ + to improve performance, e.g., for operations composed of
+ simpler functions such as cursor movement following by adding
+ text to the screen,
+ + to simplify the implementation by reusing functions which use
+ common parameters, e.g., the standard screen stdscr, and
+ + to provide functions that return values via their parameters
+ Except for the last case, ncurses provides a non-macro
+ implementation of the function. If the macro definition is
+ disabled with #undef, or by defining NCURSES_NOMACROS the function
+ may be linked (and its calls will be checked against the
+ prototype).
+ * Extensive documentation is provided (see the Additional Reading
+ section of the ncurses FAQ for online documentation).
+
+Applications using ncurses
- State of the Package
+ The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
+ (including a few games). These are available separately as
+ ncurses-examples
- 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.
+ The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
+ applications including:
- The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
- including (versions starting with those noted):
+ aptitude
+ FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager
+
+ 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.midnight-commander.org/
+ 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]https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
+ New vi uses ncurses.
+
+ https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/the-berkeley-
+ vi-editor-home-page
+
+ 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://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/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
-Who's Who and What's What
+ https://www.vim.org/
- Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by
- Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Juergen 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.
+Development activities
- To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
- bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
- subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
+ 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.
+
+ 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/6.4/ and
+ https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.4/ .
+
+ There is an archive of the mailing list here:
-Future Plans
+ https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses .
- * 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
- X/Open specification.
+ 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 Curses 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/cindent/cindent.html
- 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.midnight-commander.org/
- 10. http://www.mutt.org/
- 11. http://www.ncftp.com/
- 12. https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/nvi
- 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://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal
+ covered in the terminfo file in Richard Shuford's archive (original).
+ 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