--- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.71 2004/02/07 21:06:05 tom Exp $
+-- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.98 2005/10/09 14:09:37 tom Exp $
---------------------------------------------------------------------
How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
---------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
-If you are using a version of XFree86 xterm older than 3.1.2F, see the section
-on RECENT XTERM VERSIONS below.
-
-If you are trying to build GNU Emacs using ncurses for terminal support,
-read the USING NCURSES WITH EMACS section below.
-
If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
REQUIREMENTS:
------------
-You will need the following in order to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
+You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
* ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
* sh (bash will do)
with it.
The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
- ncurses. The default is in subdirectories of /usr/local. Use
- --prefix=/usr to replace your default curses distribution. This is the
- default for Linux and BSD/OS users.
+ ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
+ for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library, e.g.,
+ Linux, the various BSD systems and Cygwin. Use --prefix=/usr to replace
+ your default curses distribution.
The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
In $(prefix)/include: C header files
Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
- Note however that the configure script attempts to locate previous
- installation of ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where
- it finds the ncurses headers.
+ Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
+ ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
+ ncurses headers.
+
+ Do not use commands such as
+
+ make install prefix=XXX
+
+ to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
+ for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
+
+ make install DESTDIR=XXX
+
+ See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
option to disable the feature altogether.
+ --disable-largefile
+ Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
+
--disable-leaks
For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
+ --disable-lp64
+ The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
+ and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
+ compatibility with older releases).
+
+ NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
+ packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
+ ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
+
--disable-macros
For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This makes a header file
For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
+ --enable-ext-colors
+ Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
+ encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
+ configuration.
+
+ NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
+ compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
+ applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
+
+ --enable-ext-mouse
+ Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
+ That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
+ similar X terminal emulators.
+
+ NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
+ compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
+ applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
+
--enable-getcap
Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
--enable-getcap-cache
Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
- NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
+ NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
--enable-widec
- Compile with experimental wide-character code. This makes a different
- version of the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores
- characters as wide-characters,
+ Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
+ the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
+ wide-characters,
NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
--with-ada-include=DIR
- Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
+ Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
--with-ada-objects=DIR
to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
applications.
+ --with-chtype=TYPE
+ Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
+ --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
+ was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
+ Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
+ executables.
+
--with-database=XXX
Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
--with-gpm
use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
- Linux console.
+ Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency
+ on the GPM library. Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to
+ bind to the at runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be
+ present when ncurses is built.
--with-install-prefix=XXX
Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
- install location. This simplifies making binary packages.
+ install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
+ makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
+ to use
+ make install DESTDIR=XXX
+ since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
option probably will not work for those configurations.
particular version of libtool, e.g.,
/usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
+ It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
+ macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
+ aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
+ using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
+ http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
+
--with-manpage-aliases
Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
nroff.
+ --with-mmask-t=TYPE
+ Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
+ ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
+ may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
+ with 64-bit executables.
+
--with-ospeed=TYPE
Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
- but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
+ but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
symbolic links that refer to the release version.
-
+
NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
option.
+ NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
+ ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
+ shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
+ For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
+ copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
+ loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries. In that
+ case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it sets
+ $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
+ ./misc/shlib make install
+
--with-shlib-version=XXX
Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
- --with-termlib
+ --with-termlib[=XXX]
When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
(libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
+ If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
+ library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
+ terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
+ is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
+ libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
+ this option.
+
--with-termpath=XXX
Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
+ --without-xterm-new
+ Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
+ the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
+ X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
+
COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
--------------------------------------------
you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
ncurses:
+ 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
+ Interface changes:
+
+ + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
+ "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
+
+ + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
+ still use ncurses 4.2).
+
+ + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
+ initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
+ still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
+ compilers.
+
+ + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
+ Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
+ FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
+ that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
+ and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
+ data.
+
+ + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
+ libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
+ is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
+ ncurses library has a different size in each model.
+
+ + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
+ wide-character configuration.
+
+ + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
+ be called first.
+
+ + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
+
+ + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
+ multicolumn characters.
+
+ + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
+ start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
+
+ + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
+ corresponds to the default-color.
+
+ + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
+ to an unsigned char.
+
+ Added extensions:
+ Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
+ 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
+ of mouse events.
+
+ Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
+ and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
+ xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
+ it changes the size of cchar_t.
+
+ Added internal functions:
+ _nc_check_termtype2
+ _nc_resolve_uses2
+ _nc_retrace_cptr
+ _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
+ _nc_retrace_void_ptr
+ _nc_setup_term
+
+ Removed internal functions:
+ none
+
+ Modified internal functions:
+ _nc_insert_ch
+ _nc_save_str
+ _nc_trans_string
+
5.4 (February 8, 2004)
Interface changes:
- + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
+ + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
These are only available if the library is configured using the
--enable-widec option.
pecho_wchar()
Added extensions:
key_defined()
+
Added internal functions:
_nc_get_locale()
_nc_insert_ch()
_nc_tparm_analyze()
_nc_trace_bufcat() debug
_nc_unicode_locale()
+
Removed internal functions:
_nc_outstr()
_nc_sigaction()
+
Modified internal functions:
_nc_remove_string()
_nc_retrace_chtype()
Added extensions:
is_term_resized()
resize_term()
+
Added internal functions:
_nc_altcharset_name() debug
_nc_reset_colors()
_nc_varargs() debug
_nc_visbufn() debug
_nc_wgetch()
+
Removed internal functions:
_nc_background()
+
Modified internal functions:
_nc_freeall() debug
---------------------
The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
- are running an XFree86 xterm based on X11R6 (i.e., xterm-r6). The
- earlier X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided as well.
-
- If you are running XFree86 version 3.2 (actually 3.1.2F and up), you
- should consider using the xterm-xf86-v32 (or later, the most recent
- version is always named "xterm-xfree86") entry, which adds ANSI color
- and the VT220 capabilities which have been added in XFree86. If you
- are running a mixed network, however, where this terminal description
- may be used on an older xterm, you may have problems, since
- applications that assume these capabilities will produce incorrect
- output on the older xterm (e.g., highlighting is not cleared).
+ are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
+ earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
+ as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
+ are unable to update your system.
CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
- pre-fetched fallback entries.
+ pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
+ has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed.
These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
entry is accessible.
- By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you
- have built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change
- the list (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
- MKfallback.sh. A configure script option --with-fallbacks does this
- (it accepts a comma-separated list of the names you wish, and does
- not require a rebuild).
+ By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
+ built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
+ (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
+ ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. A configure script option
+ --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
+ names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
would use the commands
cd ncurses;
- MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
+ tinfo/MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
You can restore the default empty fallback list with
- MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
+ tinfo/MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
with this by making tic use symbolic links.
-USING NCURSES WITH EMACS:
- GNU Emacs has its own termcap support. By default, it uses a mixture
- of those functions and code linked from the host system's libraries.
- You need to foil this and shut out the GNU termcap library entirely.
-
- In order to do this, hack the Linux config file (s/linux.h) to contain
- a #define TERMINFO and set the symbol LIBS_TERMCAP to "-lncurses".
-
- We have submitted such a change for the 19.30 release, so it may
- already be applied in your sources -- check for the #define TERMINFO.
-
USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
- Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
- which is used on Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
+ Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose
+ Mouse) which is used on Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
- linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so (the BSD
- curses) into the libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with
- ncurses (specifically the wgetch function). You may be able to work
- around this problem by linking as follows:
+ linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
+ libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
+ the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
+ generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
+
+ You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
- A patched version of gpm is available:
+ See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
- dickey.his.com:/ncurses/gpm-1.10-970125.tar.gz
-
- This patch is incorporated in gpm 1.12; however some integrators
- are slow to update this library. Current distributions of gpm can
- be configured properly using the --without-curses option.
+ http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
(e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
- that are compiled into the ncurses library. You should set the
- BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and run the
- configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
+ that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
+ is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
+ run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
+
+ The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
+ simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
+ is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
+ --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
will be made if you use
support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
Bourne-shell.
+ When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
+ "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
+ install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
+ option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
+ "make install.data" portion.
+
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