The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
@@ -22,8 +22,11 @@ considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging 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 should port easily to
-any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!
+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!
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including a
terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1), tput(1), tset(1),
@@ -34,331 +37,171 @@ The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at
the GNU distribution site
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses.
It is also available at
-ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
+ftp://invisible-island.net/ncurses.
Release Notes
-This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and 5.1;
+This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0 and 5.2;
very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the platform.
-These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.1 release.
+These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses 5.2 release.
Interface changes:
-
change type of ospeed variable back to
- short to match its use in legacy applications. It was
- altered after ncurses 4.2 to speed_t to repair a type
- mismatch which was introduced after 1.9.4 in 1995. The principal
- users of termcap continued to use short, which is
- not the same size.
-
- NOTE: A few applications will have to be recompiled
- (about 1% of the programs in a typical Linux distribution,
- 10% of the programs that use ncurses). These are easy to
- identify with nm or strings.
-
-
remove a private function _nc_can_clear_with(), which
- was built with the configure --enable-expanded option but not used.
-
-
add several private functions (prefixed with "_nc_") for tracing
- chtype values in the debug library, and for better
- access and buffer limit checking.
-
-New features and improvements:
-
-
rewrote tgoto() to make it better support existing
- termcap applications which use hardcoded strings rather than obtain
- all of their information from the termcap file. If the string does
- not appear to be a terminfo string (i.e., does not refer to a "%p"
- parameter, or terminfo-style padding), and termcap support is configured, tgoto()
- will interpret it as termcap. Otherwise, as before, it will use
- tparm().
-
-
to ensure that the tgoto() changes work properly,
- added checks to tic which report capabilities that do
- not reference the expected number of parameters.
-
-
new configure script options:
-
-
option --disable-root-environ adds runtime checks
- which tell ncurses to disregard $TERMINFO and similar environment
- variables if the current user is root, or running setuid/setgid.
-
-
option --disable-assumed-color allows you to use the
- pre-5.1 convention of default colors used for color-pair 0 to be
- configured (see assume_default_colors()).
-
-
implement configure script options that transform installed
- program names, e.g., --program-prefix, including the
- manpage names and cross references.
+
change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL,
+ which usually is the same as the compiler's definition for
+ bool.
-
option --with-database allows you to specify a
- different terminfo source-file to install. On OS/2 EMX, the
- default is misc/emx.src, otherwise misc/terminfo.src
+
add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
+ These are only available if the library is configured using the
+ --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
+
+
pecho_wchar()
+
slk_wset()
+
-
option --with-default-terminfo-dir allows you to
- specify the default terminfo database directory.
-
-
option --with-libtool allows you to build with
- libtool.
NOTE: libtool
- uses a different notation for numbering shared library versions
- from the existing ncurses configuration.
-
-
option --with-manpage-tbl causes the manpages to be
- preprocessed by tbl(1) prior to installation,
-
-
option --without-curses-h causes the installation
- process to install curses.h as ncurses.h and make appropriate
- changes to headers and manpages.
-
-
-
modified configure script options:
-
-
change symbol used by the --install-prefix configure
- option from INSTALL_PREFIX to DESTDIR
- (the latter has become common usage although the name is
- misleading).
-
-
modify ld -rpath options (e.g., Linux, and Solaris)
- to use an absolute pathname for the build tree's lib directory,
- avoiding confusion with directories relative to the current one
- with the installed programs.
-
-
modified misc/run_tic.in to use
- tic -o, to eliminate dependency on
- $TERMINFO variable for installs.
-
+
add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to
+ modify the assume_default_colors() extension.
-
terminfo database:
+
+New features and improvements:
+
+
Improved support for termcap applications:
-
updated xterm terminfo entries to match XFree86 xterm patch #146.
-
-
added amiga-vnc,
- Matrix Orbital, and
- QNX qansi to misc/terminfo.src.
+
add logic to dump_entry.c to remove function-key definitions that do
+ not fit into the 1023-byte limit for generated termcaps. This makes
+ hds200 fit.
-
added os2 entry to misc/emx.src.
+
modify tgetent() to check if exit_attribute_mode resets the alternate
+ character set, and if so, attempt to adjust the copy of the termcap
+ "me" string which it will return to eliminate that part. In
+ particular, 'screen' would lose track of line-drawing characters.
-
add S0 and E0 extensions to screen's terminfo entry
- since otherwise the FreeBSD port makes it pass termcap equivalents
- to tgoto, which would be misinterpreted by older
- versions of ncurses.
-
+
add check/fix to comp_parse.c to suppress warning about missing acsc
+ string. This happens in configurations where raw termcap information
+ is processed; tic already does this and other checks.
-
improvements to program usability:
-
-
modify programs to use curses_version() string to
- report the version of ncurses with which they are compiled rather
- than the NCURSES_VERSION string. The function returns the patch
- level in addition to the major and minor version numbers.
+
add tic -A option to suppress capabilities which are commented out
+ when translating to termcap.
-
modify tput program so it can be renamed or invoked via a link as
- 'reset' or 'init', producing the same effect as tput reset or tput init.
+
modify logic in lib_baudrate.c for ospeed, for FreeBSD to make it
+ work properly for termcap applications (patch by Andrey A Chernov).
-
add error checking to infocmp's -v and -m options to ensure that
- the option value is indeed a number.
-
improved performance:
-
-
replace a lookup table in lib_vidattr.c used to decode
- no_color_video with a logic expression which is faster.
-
+
add a call to _nc_keypad() in keypad() to accommodate applications
+ such as nvi, which use curses for output but not for input (fixes
+ Debian #131263, cf: 20011215).
+
correct logic for COLORFGBG environment variable: if rxvt is compiled
+ with xpm support, the variable has three fields, making it slightly
+ incompatible with itself. In either case, the background color is
+ the last field.
Major bug fixes:
-
correct manlinks.sed script introduced in ncurses 5.1
- to avoid using ERE "\+", which is not understood by standard versions
- of sed. This happens to work with GNU sed,
- but is not portable, and was the initial motivation for this release.
-
-
remove "hpux10.*" case from CF_SHARED_OPTS configure script macro.
- This differed from the "hpux*" case by using reversed symbolic
- links, which made the 5.1 version not match the configuration of
- 5.0 shared libraries.
-
-
guard against corrupt terminfo data:
-
-
modify tparm() to disallow arithmetic on strings,
- analyze the varargs list to read strings as strings and numbers as
- numbers.
-
-
modify tparm()'s internal function
- spop() to treat a null pointer as an empty string.
-
-
modify parse_format() in lib_tparm.c to ignore
- precision if it is longer than 10000.
-
-
rewrote limit checks in lib_mvcur.c using new functions
- _nc_safe_strcat(), etc. Made other related changes to
- check lengths used for strcat() and
- strcpy().
-
-
-
corrections to screen optimization:
-
-
added special case in lib_vidattr.c to reset underline and
- standout for devices that have no sgr0 defined.
-
-
change handling of non_dest_scroll_region in
- tty_update.c to clear text after it is shifted in rather than before
- shifting out. Also correct row computation.
+
rewrote limit-checks in wscrl() and associated _nc_scroll_window(),
+ to ensure that if the parameter of wscrl() is larger than the size of
+ the scrolling region, then the scrolling region will be cleared.
-
modify rs2 capability in xterm-r6 and similar entries
- where cursor save/restore bracketed the sequence for resetting video
- attributes. The cursor restore would undo that.
-
-
-
UTF-8 support:
-
-
when checking LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables
- for UTF-8 locale, ignore those which are set to an empty value, as
- per SUSV2.
-
-
encode 0xFFFD in UTF-8 with 3 bytes, not 2.
-
-
modify _nc_utf8_outch() to avoid sign-extension when
- checking for out-of-range value.
-
-
-
other library fixes:
-
-
added checks for an empty $HOME environment
- variable, to avoid retrieving terminfo descriptions from
- ./.terminfo .
-
-
change functions _nc_parse_entry() and
- postprocess_termcap() to avoid using
- strtok(), because it is non-reentrant.
-
-
initialize fds[] array to 0's in
- _nc_timed_wait(); apparently poll() only
- sets the revents members of that array when there is
- activity corresponding to the related file.
-
-
add a check for null pointer in Make_Enum_Type().
-
-
fix a heap problem with the c++ binding.
+
modify tset to restore original I/O modes if an error is encountered.
+ Also modify to use buffered stderr consistently rather than mixing
+ with write().
-
correct missing includes for <string.h> in several places,
- including the C++ binding. This is not noted by gcc unless we use
- the -fno-builtin option.
-
+
move calls to def_shell_mode() and def_prog_mode() before loop with
+ callbacks in lib_set_term.c, since the c++ demo otherwise initialized
+ the tty modes before saving them.
-
several fixes for tic:
-
-
add a check for empty buffers returned by fgets() in
- comp_scan.c next_char() function, in case
- tic is run on a non-text file (fixes a core dump).
+
modified wresize() to ensure that a failed realloc will not corrupt
+ the window structure, and to make subwindows fit within the resized
+ window.
-
modify tic to verify that its inputs are really files,
- in case someone tries to read a directory (or
- /dev/zero).
+
altered resizeterm() to avoid having it fail when a child window
+ cannot be resized because it would be larger than its parent.
-
correct an uninitialized parameter to open_tempfile()
- in tic.c which made "tic -I" give an ambiguous error message about
- tmpnam.
+
correct/improve logic to produce an exit status for errors in tput,
+ which did not exit with an error when told to put a string not in the
+ current terminfo entry.
-
correct logic in adjust_cancels(), which did not check
- both alternatives when reclassifying an extended name between
- boolean, number and string, causing an infinite loop in
- tic.
-
+
modify behavior of can_clear_with() so that if an application is
+ running in a non-bce terminals with default colors enabled, it
+ returns true, allowing the user to select/paste text without picking
+ up extraneous trailing blanks.
-
using new checks in tic for parameter counts in
- capability strings, found/fixed several errors both in the
- terminfo database and in the include/Caps file.
-
-
modified several terminfo capability strings, including the
- definitions for setaf, setab, in include/Caps to indicate that the
- entries are parameterized. This information is used to tell which
- strings are translated when converting to termcap. This fixes a
- problem where the generated termcap would contain a spurious "%p1"
- for the terminfo "%p1%d".
-
-
correct parameter counts in include/Caps for dclk as well as some
- printer-specific capabilities: csnm, defc, scs, scsd, smgtp, smglp.
-
+
add a check in relative_move() to guard against buffer overflow in
+ the overwrite logic.
-
various fixes for install scripts used to support configure
- --srcdir and --with-install-prefix.
+
add some limit/pointer checks to -S option of tputs.
-
correct several mismatches between manpage filename and ".TH"
- directives, renaming dft_fgbg.3x to default_colors.3x and
- menu_attribs.3x to menu_attributes.3x.
+
modify mvcur() to avoid emitting newline characters when nonl() mode
+ is set. Normally this is not a problem since the actual terminal
+ mode is set to suppress nl/crlf translations, however it is useful to
+ allow the caller to manipulate the terminal mode to avoid staircasing
+ effects after spawning a process which writes messages (for lynx
+ 2.8.4).
Portability:
configure script:
-
newer config.guess, config.sub, including changes to support OS/2
- EMX. The configure script for OS/2 EMX still relies on a patch
- since there is no (working) support for that platform in the main
- autoconf distribution.
+
modify check in --disable-overwrite option so that it is used by
+ default unless the --prefix/$prefix value is not /usr, in attempt to
+ work around packagers who do not read the INSTALL notes.
-
make configure script checks on variables $GCC and
- $GXX consistently compare against 'yes' rather than
- test if they are nonnull, since either may be set to the
- corresponding name of the C or C++ compiler.
+
correct a typo in configure --enable-colorfgbg option, and move it
+ to the experimental section (cf: 20011208).
-
change configure script to use AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM rather than
- AC_CANONICAL_HOST, which means that configure --target
- will set a default program-prefix.
+
modify configure script to allow building with termcap only, or with
+ fallbacks only. In this case, we do not build tic and toe.
-
modify the check for big-core to force a couple of memory
- accesses, which may work as needed for older/less-capable machines
- (if not, there's still the explicit configure option).
+
modify run_tic.sh to check if the build is a cross-compile. In that
+ case, do not use the build's tic to install the terminfo database.
-
modify configure test for tcgetattr() to allow for
- old implementations, e.g., on BeOS, which only defined it as a
- macro.
+
modify c++/Makefile.in to accommodate archive programs that are
+ different for C++ than for C, and add cases for vendor's C++
+ compilers on Solaris and IRIX.
-
add configure check for filesystems (such as OS/2 EMX) which do
- not distinguish between upper/lowercase filenames, use this to fix
- tags rules in makefiles.
+
add several configure script options to aid with cross-compiling:
+ --with-build-cc, --with-build-cflags, --with-build-ldflags, and
+ --with-build-libs.
-
add MKncurses_def.sh to generate fallback definitions for
- ncurses_cfg.h, to quiet gcc -Wundef warnings, modified ifdef's in
- code to consistently use "#if" rather than "#ifdef".
+
add experimental --with-caps=XXX option to customize to similar
+ terminfo database formats such as AIX 4.x
-
change most remaining unquoted parameters of test in
- configure script to use quotes, for instance fixing a problem in the
- --disable-database option.
-
-
modify scripts so that "make install.data" works on OS/2 EMX.
-
-
modify scripts and makefiles so the Ada95 directory builds on
- OS/2 EMX.
-
+
add configure option --with-ospeed to assist packagers in transition
+ to 5.3 change to ospeed type.
+
library:
-
replaced case-statement in _nc_tracebits() for CSIZE
- with a table to simplify working around implementations that define
- random combinations of the related macros to zero.
+
implement a simple vsscanf() fallback function which uses the %n
+ conversion to help parse the input data.
-
improved OS/2 mouse support by retrying as a 2-button mouse if code
- fails to set up a 3-button mouse.
+
various fixes to build/work with different implementations of
+ vsscanf().
-
added private entrypoint _nc_basename(), used to
- consolidate related code in progs, as well as accommodating OS/2 EMX
- pathnames.
+
add/use macro to suppress sign-extension of char type on
+ platforms where this is a problem in ctype macros, e.g., Solaris.
-
alter definition of NCURSES_CONST to make it non-empty.
+
finish changes needed to build dll's on cygwin.
-
redefine 'TEXT' in menu.h for AMIGA, since it is reported to have
- an (unspecified) symbol conflict.
+
add #undef's before possible redefinition of ERR and OK in curses.h
programs:
-
modified progs/tset.c and tack/sysdep.c to build with sgttyb
- interface if neither termio or termios is available. Tested this
- with FreeBSD 2.1.5 (which does have termios - but the sgttyb does
- work).
-
+
modify ifdef's in write_entry.c to allow use of symbolic links on
+ platforms with no hard links, e.g., BeOS.
+
+
modify _nc_write_entry() to allow for the possibility that linking
+ aliases on a filesystem that ignores case would not succeed because
+ the source and destination differ only by case, e.g., NCR260VT300WPP0
+ on cygwin.
+
modify logic in tic, toe, tput and tset which checks for basename of
+ argv[0] to work properly on systems such as OS/2 which have
+ case-independent filenames and/or program suffixes, e.g., ".ext".
+
Features of Ncurses
@@ -474,23 +317,23 @@ including (versions starting with those noted):
@@ -543,7 +386,7 @@ HREF="mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com">Zeyd Ben-Halim and
Ongoing work is being done by
Thomas Dickey
and
-Jürgen Pfeifer.
+Jürgen Pfeifer.
Thomas Dickey
acts as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which holds the
copyright on ncurses.
@@ -561,7 +404,7 @@ This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development and
testing of this package.