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27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.135 2008/11/02 21:13:51 tom Exp $
29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
30 How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
33 ************************************************************
34 * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
35 ************************************************************
37 You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
38 d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
39 including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
40 and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
42 If you are a Linux or FreeBSD or NetBSD distribution integrator or packager,
43 please read and act on the section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR
44 below.
46 If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
47 to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
49 If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
50 read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
52 If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
53 USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
55 If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
56 CROSS-COMPILER.
58 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
59 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
61 If you are using anything but (a) Linux, or (b) one of the 4.4BSD-based
62 i386 Unixes, go read the Portability section in the TO-DO file before you
63 do anything else.
66 REQUIREMENTS:
67 ------------
69 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
71 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
72 * sh (bash will do)
73 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
74 * sed
75 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
77 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
80 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
81 ----------------------
83 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
84 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
85 with it.
87 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
88 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
89 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library, e.g.,
90 Linux, the various BSD systems and Cygwin. Use --prefix=/usr to replace
91 your default curses distribution.
93 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
95 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
96 reset, clear, tput, toe
97 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
98 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
99 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
100 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
102 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
103 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
104 ncurses headers.
106 Do not use commands such as
108 make install prefix=XXX
110 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
111 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
113 make install DESTDIR=XXX
115 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
117 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
118 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
119 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
120 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
122 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
123 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
124 file for your system.
126 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
127 models and their associated libraries:
129 libncurses.a (normal)
131 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
132 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
134 libncurses.so (shared)
136 libncurses_g.a (debug)
138 libncurses_p.a (profile)
140 libncurses.la (libtool)
142 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
143 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
144 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
145 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
146 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
147 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
148 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
149 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
150 Linux using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
152 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
153 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
155 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
156 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
158 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
160 Typing
162 ./configure --with-shared
164 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
166 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
168 If you want only shared libraries, type
170 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
172 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
173 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on Linux
174 and SunOS with gcc, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
175 work on other systems.
177 If you have libtool installed, you can type
179 ./configure --with-libtool
181 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
182 platform using libtool.
184 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
185 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
186 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
187 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
188 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
190 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
191 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
192 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
193 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
194 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
196 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
197 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
198 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
199 the test programs.
201 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
202 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
203 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
204 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include
205 DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
207 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
208 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
209 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
210 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
212 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
213 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
215 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
216 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
217 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
219 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
220 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
221 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
222 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
224 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
225 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
226 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
227 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
228 be installed before the terminfo data can be
229 compiled).
230 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
232 ############################################################################
233 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
234 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
235 # before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for #
236 # this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. #
237 ############################################################################
239 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
240 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
241 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
242 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
243 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
245 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
246 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
247 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
248 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
249 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
251 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
252 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
253 undefined symbols at link time.
255 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
256 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
257 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
258 so you can use ncurses applications.
260 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
261 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
262 wide terminfo tree instead.
264 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
266 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
267 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
268 compile and run the demo.
270 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
271 and demo.
273 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
274 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
275 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
276 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
279 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
280 ----------------------------
282 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
284 ./configure --help
286 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
287 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
289 --enable and --with options recognized:
291 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
292 order.
294 --disable-assumed-color
295 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
296 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
297 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
298 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
299 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
300 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
301 convention, using this configure option.
303 --disable-big-core
304 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
305 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
306 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
307 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
308 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
310 --disable-big-strings
311 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
312 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
313 overhead.
315 --disable-database
316 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
317 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
318 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
319 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
320 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus
321 infocmp and tic.
323 --disable-ext-funcs
324 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
325 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
326 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
328 --disable-hashmap
329 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
330 the default.
332 --disable-home-terminfo
333 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
334 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
335 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
336 option to disable the feature altogether.
338 --disable-largefile
339 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
341 --disable-leaks
342 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
343 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
345 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
346 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
347 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
348 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
349 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build
350 a debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
351 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
352 the remainder on exit. The ncurses utility and test programs use this
353 feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
355 --disable-lp64
356 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
357 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
358 compatibility with older releases).
360 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
361 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
362 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
364 --disable-macros
365 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
366 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
367 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
369 --disable-overwrite
370 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
371 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
372 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
373 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
374 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
375 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
376 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
377 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
379 --disable-relink
380 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
381 rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
382 copy whatever the linked produced.
384 This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
386 --disable-root-environ
387 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
388 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
389 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
390 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
392 --disable-scroll-hints
393 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
394 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
396 --disable-tic-depends
397 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
398 depend upon the ncurses library (and in turn, on the term-library if
399 the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and term-libraries
400 ABI does not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
401 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged
402 by using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
403 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
404 ncurses (or ncursesw) library. Use this configure option to do that.
405 For example
406 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
408 --disable-tparm-varargs
409 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
410 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
411 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
413 --enable-assertions
414 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
415 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
417 --enable-broken_linker
418 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
419 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
420 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
421 changes several data references to functions to work around this
422 problem.
424 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
425 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
426 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
427 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
428 problem.
430 --enable-bsdpad
431 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
432 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
434 --enable-colorfgbg
435 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
436 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
437 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
438 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
440 --enable-const
441 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
442 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
443 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
444 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
445 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
446 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
447 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
448 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
449 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
450 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
451 in the interface, but at a lower level.
453 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
454 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
455 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
456 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
457 fewer places.
459 --enable-echo
460 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
461 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
462 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
463 to see the options that are used).
465 --enable-expanded
466 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
467 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
469 --enable-ext-colors
470 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
471 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
472 configuration.
474 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
475 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
476 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
478 --enable-ext-mouse
479 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
480 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
481 similar X terminal emulators.
483 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
484 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
485 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
487 --enable-getcap
488 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
489 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
490 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
491 /etc/termcap.
493 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
494 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
495 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
496 option.
498 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
500 --enable-getcap-cache
501 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
503 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
504 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
505 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
506 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
507 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
508 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
510 --enable-hard-tabs
511 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
512 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
513 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
514 of tabs.
516 --enable-mixed-case
517 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
518 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
519 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
520 checks the current filesystem.
522 --enable-no-padding
523 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
524 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
525 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
526 extended functions.
528 --enable-reentrant
529 Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
530 library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also
531 set if --with-pthread is used.
533 --enable-rpath
534 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
535 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
536 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
537 manpage).
539 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
540 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
541 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
542 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
543 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
544 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
546 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
547 extra assumptions about rpath.
549 --enable-safe-sprintf
550 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
551 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
552 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
554 --enable-sigwinch
555 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
556 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
557 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
558 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
559 extended functions.
561 --enable-signed-char
562 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
563 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
564 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
565 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
566 alteration without patching the source code.
568 --enable-symlinks
569 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
570 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
571 terminfo database.
573 --enable-tcap-names
574 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
575 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
576 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
577 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
579 --enable-termcap
580 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
581 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
582 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
584 --enable-warnings
585 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
587 --enable-weak-symbols
588 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
589 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
590 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
591 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
592 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
594 --enable-wgetch-events
595 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
597 --enable-widec
598 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
599 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
600 wide-characters,
602 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
603 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
604 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
606 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
607 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
608 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
609 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
610 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
612 --enable-xmc-glitch
613 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
615 --with-abi-version=NUM
616 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
617 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
618 special requirements for compatibility.
620 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
621 release major/minor numbers.
623 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
624 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
626 --with-ada-include=DIR
627 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
628 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
630 --with-ada-objects=DIR
631 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
633 --with-bool=TYPE
634 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
635 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
636 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
637 sizes).
639 --with-build-cc=XXX
640 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
641 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
642 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
643 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
645 --with-build-cflags=XXX
646 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
647 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
648 host compiler.
650 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
651 use this option.
653 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
654 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
655 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
656 the host compiler.
658 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
659 use this option.
661 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
662 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
663 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
664 compiler.
666 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
667 use this option.
669 --with-build-libs=XXX
670 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
671 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
673 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
674 use this option.
676 --with-caps=XXX
677 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
678 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
679 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
680 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
681 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
682 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
683 applications.
685 --with-chtype=TYPE
686 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
687 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
688 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
689 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
690 executables.
692 --with-database=XXX
693 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
694 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
695 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
696 source file.
698 --with-dbmalloc
699 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
700 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
702 --with-debug
703 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
704 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
706 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
707 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
708 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
710 --with-dmalloc
711 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
712 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
714 --with-fallbacks=XXX
715 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
716 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
718 --with-gpm
719 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
720 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
721 the GPM library.
723 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
724 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
725 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
726 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
727 e.g.,
729 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
731 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
733 See also --without-dlsym
735 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
736 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
737 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
738 tree.
740 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
741 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
742 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
743 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
744 "--enable-compat185".
746 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
747 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
748 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
749 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
750 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
751 or hashed database respectively.
753 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
754 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
756 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
757 datbase, e.g.,
758 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
759 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
760 given directory.
762 See also the --enable-getcap option.
764 --with-install-prefix=XXX
765 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
766 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
767 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
768 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
769 to use
770 make install DESTDIR=XXX
771 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
773 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
774 option probably will not work for those configurations.
776 --with-libtool[=XXX]
777 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
778 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
779 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
780 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
781 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
782 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
784 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
785 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
786 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
788 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
789 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
790 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
791 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
792 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
794 --with-manpage-aliases
795 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
796 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
797 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
798 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
799 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
800 rather than symbolic links.
802 --with-manpage-format=XXX
803 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
804 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
805 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
806 attempts to determine which is the case.
808 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
809 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
810 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is
811 the Linux Debian. The option value specifies the name of a file
812 that lists the renamed files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
814 --with-manpage-symlinks
815 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
816 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
817 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
818 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
819 copying the man-page for each alias.
821 --with-manpage-tbl
822 Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
823 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
824 nroff.
826 --with-mmask-t=TYPE
827 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
828 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
829 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
830 with 64-bit executables.
832 --with-normal
833 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
835 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
836 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
837 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
838 GPM.
840 --with-ospeed=TYPE
841 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
842 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
843 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
844 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
845 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
846 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
847 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
848 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
849 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
850 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
851 (or system, in general) may or may not.
853 --with-profile
854 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
855 e.g., libncurses_p.a
857 --with-pthread
858 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
859 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
860 for multithreaded applications.
862 --with-rcs-ids
863 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
865 --with-rel-version=NUM
866 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
867 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
868 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
869 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
871 --with-shared
872 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
873 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
874 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
876 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
877 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
878 option.
880 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
881 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
882 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
883 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
884 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
885 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries. In that
886 case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it sets
887 $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
888 ./misc/shlib make install
890 --with-shlib-version=XXX
891 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
892 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
893 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
895 --with-sysmouse
896 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
898 --with-system-type=XXX
899 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
900 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
901 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
902 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
903 script.
905 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
906 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
907 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
909 --with-termlib[=XXX]
910 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
911 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
912 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
913 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
915 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
916 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
917 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
918 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
919 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
920 this option.
922 --with-termpath=XXX
923 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
924 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
926 --with-ticlib[=XXX]
927 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
928 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
929 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
931 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
932 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
933 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
935 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
936 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
937 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
938 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
939 library.
941 --with-trace
942 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
943 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
945 --with-valgrind
946 For testing, compile with debug option.
947 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
949 --without-ada
950 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
951 Ada95 binding and related demo.
953 --without-curses-h
954 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
955 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
956 accordingly.
958 --without-cxx
959 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
960 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
961 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
962 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
963 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
964 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
965 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
967 --without-cxx-binding
968 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
969 C++ binding and related demo.
971 --without-develop
972 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
973 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
975 --without-dlsym
976 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
978 --without-progs
979 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
980 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
981 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
983 --without-xterm-new
984 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
985 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
986 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
989 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
990 --------------------------------------------
992 Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
993 is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
994 Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
995 between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
996 Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
997 addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
998 the X/Open documentation.
1000 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1001 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1002 ncurses:
1004 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1005 Interface changes:
1007 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1008 getattrs
1010 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1011 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1012 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1013 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1015 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1016 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1018 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1019 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1021 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1022 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1023 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1024 several internal functions.
1026 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1027 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1028 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1029 API, there is no ABI change.
1031 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1032 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1033 of the internal functions.
1035 Added extensions:
1037 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1038 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1039 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1040 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1041 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1042 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1044 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1045 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1046 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1047 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1049 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1050 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1051 function.
1053 Added internal functions:
1054 _nc_get_alias_table
1055 _nc_get_screensize
1056 _nc_keyname
1057 _nc_screen_of
1058 _nc_set_no_padding
1059 _nc_tracechar
1060 _nc_tracemouse
1061 _nc_unctrl
1062 _nc_ungetch
1064 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1065 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1066 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1068 _nc_free_and_exit
1069 _nc_leaks_tinfo
1071 Removed internal functions:
1072 none
1074 Modified internal functions:
1075 _nc_fifo_dump
1076 _nc_find_entry
1077 _nc_handle_sigwinch
1078 _nc_init_keytry
1079 _nc_keypad
1080 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1081 _nc_timed_wait
1082 _nc_update_screensize
1084 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1086 _nc_add_to_try
1087 _nc_expand_try
1088 _nc_remove_key
1089 _nc_remove_string
1090 _nc_trace_tries
1092 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1093 Interface changes:
1095 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1097 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1098 getpary, getpary,
1100 and (for libncursesw)
1102 wgetbkgrnd
1104 Added extensions:
1105 nofilter()
1106 use_legacy_coding()
1108 Added internal functions:
1109 _nc_first_db
1110 _nc_get_source
1111 _nc_handle_sigwinch
1112 _nc_is_abs_path
1113 _nc_is_dir_path
1114 _nc_is_file_path
1115 _nc_keep_tic_dir
1116 _nc_keep_tic_dir
1117 _nc_last_db
1118 _nc_next_db
1119 _nc_read_termtype
1120 _nc_tic_dir
1122 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1124 _nc_db_close
1125 _nc_db_first
1126 _nc_db_get
1127 _nc_db_have_data
1128 _nc_db_have_index
1129 _nc_db_next
1130 _nc_db_open
1131 _nc_db_put
1133 otherwise
1135 _nc_hashed_db
1137 Removed internal functions:
1138 none
1140 Modified internal functions:
1141 _nc_add_to_try
1142 _nc_do_color
1143 _nc_expand_try
1144 _nc_remove_key
1145 _nc_setupscreen
1147 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1148 Interface changes:
1150 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1151 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1153 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1154 still use ncurses 4.2).
1156 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1157 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1158 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1159 compilers.
1161 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1162 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1163 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1164 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1165 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1166 data.
1168 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1169 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1170 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1171 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1173 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1174 wide-character configuration.
1176 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1177 be called first.
1179 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1181 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1182 multicolumn characters.
1184 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1185 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1187 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1188 corresponds to the default-color.
1190 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1191 to an unsigned char.
1193 Added extensions:
1194 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1195 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1196 of mouse events.
1198 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1199 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1200 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1201 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1203 Added internal functions:
1204 _nc_check_termtype2
1205 _nc_resolve_uses2
1206 _nc_retrace_cptr
1207 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1208 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1209 _nc_setup_term
1211 Removed internal functions:
1212 none
1214 Modified internal functions:
1215 _nc_insert_ch
1216 _nc_save_str
1217 _nc_trans_string
1219 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1220 Interface changes:
1222 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1223 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1224 --enable-widec option.
1225 pecho_wchar()
1226 slk_wset()
1228 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1229 getcurx(), etc.
1231 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1233 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1234 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1236 + change some interfaces to use const:
1237 define_key()
1238 mvprintw()
1239 mvwprintw()
1240 printw()
1241 vw_printw()
1242 winsnstr()
1243 wprintw()
1245 Added extensions:
1246 key_defined()
1248 Added internal functions:
1249 _nc_get_locale()
1250 _nc_insert_ch()
1251 _nc_is_charable() wide
1252 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1253 _nc_pathlast()
1254 _nc_to_char() wide
1255 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1256 _nc_tparm_analyze()
1257 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1258 _nc_unicode_locale()
1260 Removed internal functions:
1261 _nc_outstr()
1262 _nc_sigaction()
1264 Modified internal functions:
1265 _nc_remove_string()
1266 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1268 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1269 Interface changes:
1271 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1272 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1274 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1275 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1276 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1277 pecho_wchar()
1278 slk_wset()
1280 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1281 assume_default_colors() extension.
1283 Added extensions:
1284 is_term_resized()
1285 resize_term()
1287 Added internal functions:
1288 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1289 _nc_reset_colors()
1290 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1291 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1292 _nc_rootname()
1293 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1294 _nc_varargs() debug
1295 _nc_visbufn() debug
1296 _nc_wgetch()
1298 Removed internal functions:
1299 _nc_background()
1301 Modified internal functions:
1302 _nc_freeall() debug
1304 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1305 Interface changes:
1307 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1308 --with-ospeed configure option).
1310 5.1 (July 8, 2000)
1311 Interface changes:
1313 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1314 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1315 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1317 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1318 production library.
1320 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1321 with C++ STL.
1323 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1325 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1326 Interface changes:
1328 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1330 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1332 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1333 attr_t.
1335 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1336 parameter according to XSI.
1338 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1339 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1340 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1341 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1342 attr_get().
1344 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1346 Terminfo database changes:
1348 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1349 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1351 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1353 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1354 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1355 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1356 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1357 the 5.0 library.
1359 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1360 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1361 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1362 is a bug in the older versions:
1364 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1365 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1366 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1367 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1368 entries.
1370 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1371 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1372 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1373 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1374 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1376 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1377 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1378 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1379 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1381 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1382 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1384 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1385 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1386 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1387 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1388 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1389 initialize that terminal type.
1391 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1392 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1393 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1395 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1396 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1397 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1398 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1399 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1401 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1402 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1403 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1404 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1405 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1406 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1407 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1408 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1410 4.2 (March 2, 1998)
1411 Interface changes:
1413 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1415 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1416 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1418 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1419 SVr4 headers.
1421 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1423 Terminfo database changes:
1425 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1426 rather than 'i'.
1428 4.1 (May 15, 1997)
1430 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1431 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1432 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1434 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1435 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1436 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1437 colors in the latter.
1439 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
1441 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released dynamic loader
1442 (ld.so.1.8.5) on Linux did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
1443 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
1444 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1446 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
1448 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
1449 changes:
1451 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
1452 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
1453 application's fallback for missing tparam().
1455 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
1456 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
1457 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
1458 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
1459 behave differently.
1461 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
1462 available only as macros.
1464 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
1466 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
1467 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
1469 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
1470 misspelled name.
1472 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
1473 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
1475 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
1477 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
1479 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
1480 mcprint().
1482 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
1484 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
1485 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
1486 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
1487 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
1488 specification was available only in draft form.
1490 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
1491 incorrect color scheme.
1494 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
1495 ------------------------------
1497 Configuration and Installation:
1499 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
1500 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default:
1502 Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin
1504 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
1505 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
1507 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
1508 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
1509 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
1510 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
1511 terminfo database.
1513 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
1514 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
1515 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
1516 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
1517 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
1518 you recompile and relink them!).
1520 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
1521 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
1522 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
1523 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
1524 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
1526 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
1527 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
1528 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
1529 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
1531 Keyboard Mapping:
1533 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
1534 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
1535 mappings that will set this up:
1537 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
1538 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
1539 shift keycode 15 = F26
1540 string F26 ="\033[Z"
1542 Naming the Console Terminal
1544 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
1545 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
1546 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
1547 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
1548 be called `console'.
1550 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
1551 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
1552 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
1553 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
1554 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
1555 conventions for choosing type names.
1557 Here are some recommended primary console names:
1559 linux -- Linux console driver
1560 freebsd -- FreeBSD
1561 netbsd -- NetBSD
1562 bsdos -- BSD/OS
1564 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
1565 distribution, please either use the recommended name or get back
1566 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
1567 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
1570 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
1571 ---------------------
1573 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
1574 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
1575 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
1576 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
1577 are unable to update your system.
1580 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
1581 ----------------------------
1583 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
1584 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
1585 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
1586 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
1587 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed.
1589 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
1590 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
1591 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
1592 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
1593 entry is accessible.
1595 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
1596 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
1597 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
1598 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. A configure script option
1599 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
1600 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
1602 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
1603 would use the commands
1605 cd ncurses;
1606 tinfo/MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
1608 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
1609 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
1611 tinfo/MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
1613 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
1614 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
1615 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
1616 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
1617 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
1618 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
1621 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
1622 --------------------
1624 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
1625 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
1626 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
1627 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
1628 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
1630 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
1631 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
1632 in the package README file.)
1634 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
1635 --enable-termcap.
1637 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1639 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
1640 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
1641 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
1642 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
1643 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
1645 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
1646 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
1647 through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
1648 slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
1649 terminal type!
1651 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
1652 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
1653 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
1654 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
1655 faster) terminfo fetch.
1657 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
1658 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
1659 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
1660 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
1661 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
1663 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
1664 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
1665 compilation is expensive).
1667 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
1668 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
1670 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
1671 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
1672 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
1673 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
1674 first time around.
1676 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
1677 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
1678 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
1679 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
1681 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
1682 terminfo directory directly.
1684 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1686 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
1687 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
1688 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
1689 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
1691 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
1692 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose
1693 Mouse) which is used on Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
1694 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
1695 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
1696 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
1697 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
1698 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
1699 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
1701 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
1703 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
1705 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
1706 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
1708 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
1710 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
1711 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
1712 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
1713 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
1714 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
1715 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
1716 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
1718 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
1719 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
1720 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
1721 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
1723 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
1724 will be made if you use
1726 make sources
1728 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
1729 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
1730 Bourne-shell.
1732 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
1733 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
1734 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
1735 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
1736 "make install.data" portion.
1738 BUGS:
1739 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
1740 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
1741 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
1742 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
1744 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
1745 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.
1747 -- vile:txtmode