- Announcing ncurses 5.6
+ Announcing ncurses 5.7
The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
Release Notes
This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0
- through 5.5; very few applications will require recompilation,
+ through 5.6; very few applications will require recompilation,
depending on the platform. These are the highlights from the
- change-log since ncurses 5.5 release.
+ change-log since ncurses 5.6 release.
Interface changes:
* generate linkable stubs for some macros:
- getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
- getpary, getpary,
- and (for libncursesw)
- wgetbkgrnd
+ getattrs
New features and improvements:
* library
- + support hashed databases for the terminal descriptions. This
- uses the Berkeley database, has been tested for several
- versions on different platforms.
- + add use_legacy_coding() function to support lynx's
- font-switching feature.
- + add extension nofilter(), to cancel a prior filter() call.
- + add/install a package config script, e.g., ncurses5-config or
- ncursesw5-config, according to configuration options.
- + provide ifdef for NCURSES_NOMACROS which suppresses most
- macro definitions from curses.h, i.e., where a macro is
- defined to override a function to improve performance.
- + make ifdef's consistent in curses.h for the extended colors
- so the header file can be used for the normal curses library.
- The header file installed for extended colors is a variation
- of the wide-character configuration.
- + improve tgetstr() by making the return value point into the
- user's buffer, if provided.
- + add ifdef's allowing ncurses to be built with tparm() using
- either varargs (the existing status), or using a
- fixed-parameter list (to match X/Open).
- + widen the test for xterm kmous a little to allow for other
- strings than "\E[M", e.g., for xterm-sco functionality in
- xterm.
- + modify wgetnstr() to return KEY_RESIZE if a sigwinch occurs.
- + move prototypes for wide-character trace functions from
- curses.tail to curses.wide to avoid accidental reference to
- those if _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED is defined without ensuring
- that <wchar.h> is included.
- + change the way shared libraries (other than libtool) are
- installed. Rather than copying the build-tree's libraries,
- link the shared objects into the install directory. This
- makes the --with-rpath option work except with $(DESTDIR).
- + several improvements for rendering in hpterm. These are only
- available if the library is configured using
- --enable-xmc-glitch.
- + Add NCURSES_NO_HARD_TABS and NCURSES_NO_MAGIC_COOKIE
- environment variables to allow runtime suppression of the
- related hard-tabs and xmc-glitch features.
+ + 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:
- + add new test programs: chgat.c, demo_altkeys.c, echochar.c,
- foldkeys.c, movewindow.c, redraw.c, (noting that existing
- test programs also were modified to test additional
- features).
- + modify tack to test extended capability function-key strings.
- + modify toe to access termcap data, e.g., via cgetent()
- functions, or as a text file if those are not available.
- + improve infocmp/tic -f option formatting.
- + add toe -a option, to show all databases. This uses new
- private interfaces in the ncurses library for iterating
- through the list of databases.
- + modify MKfallback.sh to use tic -x when constructing fallback
- tables to allow extended capabilities to be retrieved from a
- fallback entry.
+ + 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
- + add terminfo entries for xfce terminal (xfce) and multi gnome
- terminal (mgt)
- + add nsterm-16color entry
- + updated mlterm terminfo entry
- + add kon, kon2 and jfbterm terminfo entry
- + remove invis capability from klone+sgr, mainly used by linux
- entry, since it does not really do this
- + add ka2, kb1, kb3, kc2 to vt220-keypad as an extension
- + add shifted up/down arrow codes to xterm-new as kind/kri
- strings
- + add hpterm-color terminfo entry
- + add 256color variants of terminfo entries for programs which
- are reported to implement this feature
- + correct order of use-clauses in rxvt-basic entry which made
- codes for f1-f4 vt100-style rather than vt220-style.
+ + 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:
- * correct a typo in configure --with-bool option for the case where
- --without-cxx is used.
- * move assignment from environment variable ESCDELAY from initscr()
- down to newterm() so the environment variable affects timeouts for
- terminals opened with newterm() as well.
- * modify werase to clear multicolumn characters that extend into a
- derived window.
- * modify wchgat() to mark updated cells as changed so a refresh will
- repaint those cells.
- * correct logic in wadd_wch() and wecho_wch(), which did not guard
- against passing the multi-column attribute into a call on
- waddch(), e.g., using data returned by win_wch()
- * fix redrawing of windows other than stdscr using wredrawln() by
- touching the corresponding rows in curscr.
- * reduce memory leaks in repeated calls to tgetent() by remembering
- the last TERMINAL* value allocated to hold the corresponding data
- and freeing that if the tgetent() result buffer is the same as the
- previous call.
- * modify read_termtype() so the term_names data is always allocated
- as part of the str_table, a better fix for a memory leak.
- * fix wins_nwstr(), which did not handle single-column non-8bit
- codes.
- * modify wbkgrnd() to avoid clearing the A_CHARTEXT attribute bits
- since those record the state of multicolumn characters.
- * improve SIGWINCH handling by postponing its effect during
- newterm(), etc., when allocating screens.
- * remove 970913 feature for copying subwindows as they are moved in
- mvwin().
- * add checks in waddchnstr() and wadd_wchnstr() to stop copying when
- a null character is found.
- * add some checks to ensure current position is within scrolling
- region before scrolling on a new line.
- * add a workaround to ACS mapping to allow applications such as
- test/blue.c to use the "PC ROM" characters by masking them with
- A_ALTCHARSET. This worked up til 5.5, but was lost in the revision
- of legacy coding.
+ * 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:
- --with-hashed-db
- Use Berkeley hashed database for storing terminfo
- data rather than storing each compiled entry in a
- separate binary file within a directory tree.
-
- --without-dlsym
- Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
+ --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
- --with-valgrind
- Simplify building for testing with valgrind.
+ + improved options:
- --enable-wgetch-events
- Compile with experimental wgetch-events code.
+ --enable-ext-colors
+ requires the wide-character configuration.
- --enable-signed-char
- Store booleans in "signed char" rather than "char".
+ --with-chtype
+ ignore option value "unsigned" is always added to
+ the type in curses.h; do the same for
+ --with-mmask-t.
- + improved options:
+ --with-dmalloc
+ build-fix for redefinition of strndup.
- --disable-largefile
- make the option work both ways.
+ --with-hashed-db
+ accepts a parameter which is the install-prefix of
+ a given Berkeley Database.
- --with-gpm
- The option now accepts a parameter, i.e., the name
- of the dynamic GPM library to load via dlopen()
+ --with-hashed-db
+ the $LIBS environment variable overrides the search
+ for the db library.
- --disable-symlinks
- The option now allows one to disable symlink() in
- tic even when link() does not work.
+ --without-hashed-db
+ assumed when "--disable-database" is used.
* other configure/build issues:
- + remove special case for Darwin in CF_XOPEN_SOURCE configure
- macro.
- + add configure check to ensure that SIGWINCH is defined on
- platforms such as OS X which exclude that when _XOPEN_SOURCE,
- etc., are defined
- + use ld's -search_paths_first option on Darwin to work around
- odd search rules on that platform.
- + improve ifdef's for _POSIX_VDISABLE in tset to work with Mac
- OS X.
- + modify configure script to ensure that if the C compiler is
- used rather than the loader in making shared libraries, the
- $(CFLAGS) variable is also used.
- + use ${CC} rather than ${LD} in shared library rules for
- IRIX64, Solaris to help ensure that initialization sections
- are provided for extra linkage requirements, e.g., of C++
- applications.
- + improve some shared-library configure scripting for Linux,
- FreeBSD and NetBSD to make --with-shlib-version work.
- + split up dependency of names.c and codes.c in
- ncurses/Makefile to work with parallel make.
- + modify MKlib_gen.sh to change preprocessor-expanded _Bool
- back to bool.
- + modify progs/Makefile.in to make tput init work properly with
- cygwin, i.e., do not pass a .exe in the reference string used
- in check_aliases.
+ + 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:
- + ignore wide-acs line-drawing characters that wcwidth() claims
- are not one-column. This is a workaround for Solaris' broken
- locale support.
- + reduce name-pollution in term.h by removing #define's for
- HAVE_xxx symbols.
- + fix #ifdef in c++/internal.h for QNX 6.1
+ + 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:
- + modify test/configure script to allow building test programs
- with PDCurses/X11.
- + modified test programs to allow some to work with NetBSD
- curses. Several do not because NetBSD curses implements a
- subset of X/Open curses, and also lacks much of SVr4
- additions. But it is enough for comparison.
- + improved test/configure to build test/ncurses on HPUX 11
- using the vendor curses.
- + change configure script to produce test/Makefile from data
- file.
+ + update test programs to build/work with various UNIX curses
+ for comparisons.
Features of Ncurses
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.
* 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
cdk
Curses Development Kit
- [3]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- [4]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
+ [4]http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
+ [5]http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
ded
directory-editor
- [5]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
+ [6]http://invisible-island.net/ded/
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
- [6]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
+ [7]http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
the character-screen WWW browser
- [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
+ [8]http://lynx.isc.org/release/
Midnight Commander
file manager
- [8]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
+ [9]http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
mutt
mail utility
- [9]http://www.mutt.org/
+ [10]http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
- [10]http://www.ncftp.com/
+ [11]http://www.ncftp.com/
nvi
New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
later.
- [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/
+ [12]http://www.bostic.com/vi/
pinfo
Lynx-like info browser.
- [12]http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
+ [13]https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pinfo/
tin
- newsreader, supporting color, MIME [13]http://www.tin.org/
-
- vh-1.6
- Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
- [14]http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
+ newsreader, supporting color, MIME [14]http://www.tin.org/
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
Who's Who and What's What
Zeyd Ben-Halim started it from a previous package pcurses, written by
- Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development. Juergen Pfeifer
+ 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.
1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/
2. ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses/
- 3. http://invisible-island.net/cdk/
- 4. http://www.vexus.ca/products/CDK/
- 5. http://invisible-island.net/ded/
- 6. http://invisible-island.net/dialog/
- 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
- 8. http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
- 9. http://www.mutt.org/
- 10. http://www.ncftp.com/
- 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
- 12. http://dione.ids.pl/~pborys/software/pinfo/
- 13. http://www.tin.org/
- 14. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
+ 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
projects / ncurses.git / blobdiff