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Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002-- Copyright 2018-2023,2024 Thomas E. Dickey --
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28-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -040029-- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.254 2024/04/27 14:21:05 tom Exp $
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +053030---------------------------------------------------------------------
31 How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
32---------------------------------------------------------------------
33
34 ************************************************************
35 * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
36 ************************************************************
37
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -040038You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d,
39where d.d is the current version number. There should be several
40subdirectories, including 'c++', 'form', 'man', 'menu', 'misc', 'ncurses',
41'panel', 'progs', and 'test'. See 'README' for a roadmap to the package.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +053042
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +010043If you are a distribution integrator or packager, please read and act on the
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -040044section titled FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS below.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +053045
46If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
47to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
48
49If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -040050read the USING GPM section below.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +053051
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -040052If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on
53BUILDING WITH A CROSS-COMPILER.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +053054
55If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
56follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
57
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +053058
59REQUIREMENTS:
60------------
61
62You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
63
64 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
65 * sh (bash will do)
66 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
67 * sed
68 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
69
70Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
71
72
73INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
74----------------------
75
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400761. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library
77 (in which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in
78 parallel with it.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +053079
80 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
81 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +010082 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library (see
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -040083 "FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS"). Use --prefix=/usr to replace your
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +010084 default curses distribution.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +053085
86 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
87
88 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +010089 reset, clear, tput, toe, tabs
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +053090 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
91 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
92 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
93 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
94
95 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
96 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
97 ncurses headers.
98
99 Do not use commands such as
100
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100101 make install prefix=XXX
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530102
103 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
104 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
105
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100106 make install DESTDIR=XXX
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530107
108 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
109
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001102. Type './configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530111 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
112 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400113 the installation; use './configure --help' to list the available options.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530114
115 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
116 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
117 file for your system.
118
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400119 The 'configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530120 models and their associated libraries:
121
122 libncurses.a (normal)
123
124 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
125 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
126
127 libncurses.so (shared)
128
129 libncurses_g.a (debug)
130
131 libncurses_p.a (profile)
132
133 libncurses.la (libtool)
134
135 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
136 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
137 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
138 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
139 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
140 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
141 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
142 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100143 various systems using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530144
145 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
146 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
147
148 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400149 configured. Typing 'configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530150
151 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
152
153 Typing
154
155 ./configure --with-shared
156
157 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
158
159 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
160
161 If you want only shared libraries, type
162
163 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
164
165 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100166 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on
167 several systems, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530168 work on other systems.
169
170 If you have libtool installed, you can type
171
172 ./configure --with-libtool
173
174 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
175 platform using libtool.
176
177 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
178 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
179 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400180 also interpret the contents of the $TERM environment variable. See the
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530181 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
182
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001833. Type 'make'. Ignore any warnings; no error messages should be produced.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530184 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
185 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
186 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
187 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
188
1894. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
190 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
191 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
192 the test programs.
193
194 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
195 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
196 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400197 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.
198
199 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database
200 formats. A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see
201 --with-caps).
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530202
203 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
204 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
205 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
206 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
207
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530208 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
209 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
210 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
211
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002125. Once you've tested, you can type 'make install' to install libraries,
213 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately,
214 you can type 'make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530215 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
216
217 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
218 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
219 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400220 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: 'tic' must
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530221 be installed before the terminfo data can be
222 compiled).
223 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
224
225 ############################################################################
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400226 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: 'install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530227 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400228 # before you install ncurses. #
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530229 ############################################################################
230
231 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
232 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
233 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
234 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
235 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
236
237 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
238 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
239 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
240 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
241 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
242
243 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
244 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
245 undefined symbols at link time.
246
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400247 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the 'progs' subdirectory
248 and run the 'capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530249 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
250 so you can use ncurses applications.
251
252 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
253 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
254 wide terminfo tree instead.
255
256 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
257
2586. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
259 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
260 compile and run the demo.
261
262 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
263 and demo.
264
265 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
266 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
267 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
268 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
269
270
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400271CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
272-----------------
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530273
274 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
275
276 ./configure --help
277
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400278 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that
279 are generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530280
281 --enable and --with options recognized:
282
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400283 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in
284 alphabetic order.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530285
286 --disable-assumed-color
287 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
288 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
289 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
290 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
291 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
292 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
293 convention, using this configure option.
294
295 --disable-big-core
296 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
297 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
298 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
299 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
300 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
301
302 --disable-big-strings
303 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
304 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
305 overhead.
306
307 --disable-database
308 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
309 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
310 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
311 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400312 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., tset and tput versus
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530313 infocmp and tic.
314
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100315 --disable-db-install
316 Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features
317 for packages, as done with --without-progs.
318
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400319 --disable-echo
320 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
321 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
322 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
323 to see the options that are used).
324
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530325 --disable-ext-funcs
326 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
327 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
328 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
329
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400330 --disable-gnat-projects
331 Disable GNAT projects even if usable, for testing old makefile rules.
332
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530333 --disable-hashmap
334 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
335 the default.
336
337 --disable-home-terminfo
338 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
339 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
340 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
341 option to disable the feature altogether.
342
343 --disable-largefile
344 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
345
346 --disable-leaks
347 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
348 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
349
350 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
351 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
352 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
353 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100354 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build a
355 debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530356 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100357 the remainder and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs
358 use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
359
360 Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not
361 normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet
362 unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the
363 library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_"
364 prefix.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530365
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400366 --disable-lib-suffixes
367 Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added
368 to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options.
369
370 --disable-libtool-version
371 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
372 are used for constructing the library name.
373
374 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
375 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
376 build using --with-shared.
377
378 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
379 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
380
381 Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure
382 script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used
383 for libtool.
384
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530385 --disable-lp64
386 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
387 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
388 compatibility with older releases).
389
390 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
391 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
392 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
393
394 --disable-macros
395 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
396 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
397 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
398
399 --disable-overwrite
400 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
401 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
402 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
403 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
404 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
405 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
406 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
407 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
408
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100409 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
410 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
411 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
412 header would be included using
413
414 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
415 #include <ncurses/term.h>
416
417 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
418
419 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
420 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
421
422 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
423 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
424 curses header files from the same directory.
425
426 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
427 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
428 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
429 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
430 way to break builds.
431
432 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
433 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
434 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
435 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
436 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
437 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
438 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
439
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400440 In addition to the curses library, a system may provide its own
441 versions of the add-on libraries (form, menu, panel), which would
442 not be compatible with ncurses. These options allow you to rename
443 ncurses' add-on libraries to avoid conflicts when linking:
444
445 --with-form-libname=XXX
446 --with-menu-libname=XXX
447 --with-panel-libname=XXX
448
449 Rather than renaming them arbitrarily, a prefix or suffix is
450 recommended. An "n" prefix provides consistency with ncurses versus
451 curses, i.e.,
452
453 --with-form-libname=nform
454 --with-menu-libname=nmenu
455 --with-panel-libname=npanel
456
457 --disable-pkg-ldflags
458 Omit options in $LDFLAGS and $EXTRA_LDFLAGS from the pkg-config ".pc"
459 and corresponding ncurses*-config script which normally are listed via
460 the "--libs" option. These options are normally used to facilitate
461 linking to ncurses when it was configured to use the rpath feature.
462
463 See also --enable-rpath and --disable-rpath-hack.
464
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530465 --disable-relink
466 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400467 rebuild shared libraries during install. Use this option to simply
468 copy whatever the linker produced.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530469
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400470 Static libraries cannot simply be copied because tools use timestamps
471 to determine if the library's symbol table is up to date. If your
472 install program supports the "-p" (preserve timestamp) option, that
473 is used when --disable-relink is given, to avoid rebuilding the symbol
474 table.
475
476 Finally, some tools ignore the subsecond timestamps supported by some
477 filesystems. This option adds a 1-second sleep to help those tools
478 avoid unnecessary relinking during the install process.
479
480 --disable-root-access
481 Compile with environment restriction, so most file-access is limited
482 when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid application.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530483
484 --disable-root-environ
485 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400486 are not available when running as root. These are (for example
487 $TERMINFO) those that allow the search path for the terminfo or termcap
488 entry to be customized.
489
490 Disabling the root environment variables also disables the setuid
491 environment variables by default. Use the --disable-setuid-environ
492 option to modify this behavior.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530493
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100494 --disable-rpath-hack
495 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
496 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
497 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
498 to suppress the feature.
499
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530500 --disable-scroll-hints
501 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
502 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
503
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400504 --disable-stripping
505 Do not strip installed executables.
506
507 --disable-setuid-environ
508 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
509 are not available when running via a setuid/setgid application. These
510 are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the search path for the
511 terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
512
513 A setuid/setgid application inherits its environment variables from
514 the current user, in contrast to sudo which may limit the environment
515 variables that ncurses uses.
516
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530517 --disable-tic-depends
518 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100519 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
520 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
521 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
522 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
523 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530524 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100525 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
526 configure option to do that.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530527 For example
528 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
529
530 --disable-tparm-varargs
531 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
532 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
533 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
534
535 --enable-assertions
536 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
537 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
538
539 --enable-broken_linker
540 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
541 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
542 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
543 changes several data references to functions to work around this
544 problem.
545
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100546 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530547 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
548 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
549 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
550 problem.
551
552 --enable-bsdpad
553 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
554 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
555
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400556 --enable-check-size
557 Compile-in feature to detect screensize for terminals which do not
558 advertise their screensize, e.g., serial terminals.
559
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530560 --enable-colorfgbg
561 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
562 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
563 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
564 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
565
566 --enable-const
567 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
568 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
569 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
570 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
571 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
572 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
573 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
574 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
575 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
576 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
577 in the interface, but at a lower level.
578
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100579 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530580 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
581 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
582 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
583 fewer places.
584
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530585 --enable-expanded
586 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
587 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
588
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400589 --enable-exp-win32
590 When configuring for MinGW, use the experimental Windows 10 driver.
591
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530592 --enable-ext-colors
593 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
594 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
595 configuration.
596
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100597 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530598 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
599 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
600
601 --enable-ext-mouse
602 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
603 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
604 similar X terminal emulators.
605
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100606 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530607 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
608 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
609
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100610 --enable-ext-putwin
611 Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather
612 than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by
613 differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can
614 still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of
615 ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by
616 calling applications).
617
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400618 --enable-fvisibility
619 Use the gcc "-fvisibility=hidden" option to make symbols which are not
620 explicitly exported, "hidden". Doing this may reduce the number of
621 symbols exported in the C++ binding; it should have less effect on the
622 C libraries when symbol-versioning is used.
623
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530624 --enable-getcap
625 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
626 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
627 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
628 /etc/termcap.
629
630 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
631 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
632 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
633 option.
634
635 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
636
637 --enable-getcap-cache
638 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
639
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100640 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530641 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
642 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
643 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
644 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
645 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
646
647 --enable-hard-tabs
648 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
649 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
650 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
651 of tabs.
652
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100653 --enable-interop
654 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
655 for the form-library.
656
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530657 --enable-mixed-case
658 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
659 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
660 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
661 checks the current filesystem.
662
663 --enable-no-padding
664 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
665 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
666 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
667 extended functions.
668
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400669 --enable-opaque-curses
670 --enable-opaque-form
671 --enable-opaque-menu
672 --enable-opaque-panel
673 Define symbol in curses.h controlling whether some library structures
674 are opaque, meaning that their members are accessible only via the
675 documented API. The --enable-opaque-curses option may be overridden
676 by the --enable-reentrant option.
677
678 Enabling opaque-curses enables opaque for the form, menu, and panel
679 libraries. Use their corresponding options to disable the feature
680 individually.
681
682 NOTE: beginning with ncurses 6.5 this option is enabled by default;
683 older versions disable it by default.
684
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100685 --enable-pc-files
686 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
687 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
688 directory.
689
690 --enable-pthreads-eintr
691 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
692 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
693
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530694 --enable-reentrant
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400695 Compile configuration which improves reentrant use of the library by
696 reducing global and static variables. This option is also set if
697 --with-pthread is used.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530698
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100699 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
700 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
701
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530702 --enable-rpath
703 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
704 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
705 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
706 manpage).
707
708 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
709 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
710 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
711 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
712 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
713 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
714
715 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
716 extra assumptions about rpath.
717
718 --enable-safe-sprintf
719 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
720 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400721 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however, and is used only on
722 very old systems which lack vsnprintf().
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530723
724 --enable-signed-char
725 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
726 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
727 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
728 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
729 alteration without patching the source code.
730
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400731 --enable-sigwinch
732 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
733 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
734 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
735 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
736 extended functions.
737
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100738 --enable-sp-funcs
739 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
740 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
741 delscreen().
742
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400743 --enable-stdnoreturn
744 When enabled, check if the <stdnoreturn.h> header exists, and if found
745 define GCC_NORETURN to _Noreturn rather than either the gcc-specific
746 __attribute__((noreturn)) or an empty token. Doing this may require
747 calling programs which use GCC_NORETURN in their own function
748 definitions to be modified, because _Noreturn is only accepted as
749 the first token in a declaration.
750
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100751 --enable-string-hacks
752 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
753 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
754 is weakly standardized.
755
756 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
757 in ncurses.
758
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530759 --enable-symlinks
760 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
761 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
762 terminfo database.
763
764 --enable-tcap-names
765 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
766 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
767 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
768 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
769
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100770 --enable-term-driver
771 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
772 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
773 library with different terminal drivers.
774
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530775 --enable-termcap
776 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
777 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
778 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
779
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100780 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
781 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
782 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
783 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
784 dependencies.
785
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530786 --enable-warnings
787 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
788
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400789 --enable-wattr-macros
790 The 6.0 ABI adds support for extended colors and for extended mouse.
791 The former is a noticeable problem when developers inadvertently
792 compile using the ncurses6 header files and link with an ncurses5
793 library, because the wattr* macros use a new field in the WINDOW
794 structure. These macros are used in several applications.
795
796 Since ncurses provides an actual function for each of these macros,
797 suppressing them from the curses.h header allows the ncurses5 libraries
798 to be used in most applications.
799
800 NOTE: The extended colors also are used in the cchar_t structure, but
801 fewer applications use that.
802
803 NOTE: This workaround does not help with mismatches in the ncurses
804 mouse version. The extended mouse feature uses one less fewer bit for
805 each button, so that only the first button will work as expected with
806 a mismatch between header and library. Again, most applications will
807 work, since most use only the first button.
808
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530809 --enable-weak-symbols
810 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
811 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
812 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
813 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
814 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
815
816 --enable-wgetch-events
817 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
818
819 --enable-widec
820 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
821 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
822 wide-characters,
823
824 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
825 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
826 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
827
828 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400829 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
830 same set of files for either version. Currently (2023/10/21) it does
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530831 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
832 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
833
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400834 NOTE: beginning with ncurses 6.5 this option is enabled by default;
835 older versions disable it by default.
836
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530837 --enable-xmc-glitch
838 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
839
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400840 --with-abi-altered=NUM
841 Override the displayed (rather than compiled-in) ABI. Only packagers
842 who have created configurations where the ABI differs from ncurses
843 should be interested in this option.
844
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530845 --with-abi-version=NUM
846 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
847 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
848 special requirements for compatibility.
849
850 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
851 release major/minor numbers.
852
853 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
854 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
855
856 --with-ada-include=DIR
857 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
858 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
859
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400860 --with-ada-libname=NAME
861 Override the name of the Ada binding (default: "AdaCurses")
862
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530863 --with-ada-objects=DIR
864 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
865
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100866 --with-ada-sharedlib
867 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
868
869 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
870 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
871 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
872
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530873 --with-bool=TYPE
874 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
875 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
876 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
877 sizes).
878
879 --with-build-cc=XXX
880 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
881 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
882 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
883 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
884
885 --with-build-cflags=XXX
886 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
887 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
888 host compiler.
889
890 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
891 use this option.
892
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400893 --with-build-cpp=XXX
894 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
895 but is not directly used by ncurses.
896
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530897 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
898 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
899 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
900 the host compiler.
901
902 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
903 use this option.
904
905 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
906 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
907 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
908 compiler.
909
910 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
911 use this option.
912
913 --with-build-libs=XXX
914 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
915 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
916
917 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
918 use this option.
919
920 --with-caps=XXX
921 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
922 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
923 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
924 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
925 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
926 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
927 applications.
928
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100929 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
930 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
931 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
932
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530933 --with-chtype=TYPE
934 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
935 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
936 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
937 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100938 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
939 script supplies "unsigned").
940
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400941 --with-config-suffix=XXX
942 Specify an suffix for "ncurses*" in the ncurses*-config filename to
943 work around conflicts with packages. The suffix is placed before the
944 dash.
945
946 --with-cxx-libname=NAME
947 Override the basename of the ncurses++ library (default: "ncurses++")
948
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100949 --with-cxx-shared
950 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
951 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
952 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
953 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530954
955 --with-database=XXX
956 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
957 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
958 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
959 source file.
960
961 --with-dbmalloc
962 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
963 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
964
965 --with-debug
966 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
967 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
968
969 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
970 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
971 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
972
973 --with-dmalloc
974 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
975 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
976
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +0100977 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
978 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
979 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
980 symbols which are part of the ABI.
981
982 --with-extra-suffix[=XXX]
983 Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify
984 installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a
985 different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the
986 include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given.
987
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530988 --with-fallbacks=XXX
989 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
990 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
991
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -0400992 See also "--with-tic-path" and "--with-infocmp-path".
993
994 --with-form-libname=NAME
995 Override the basename of the form library (default: "form")
996
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +0530997 --with-gpm
998 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
999 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
1000 the GPM library.
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001001
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301002 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
1003 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
1004 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
1005 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
1006 e.g.,
1007
1008 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
1009
1010 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
1011
1012 See also --without-dlsym
1013
1014 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
1015 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
1016 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
1017 tree.
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001018
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301019 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
1020 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
1021 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
1022 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
1023 "--enable-compat185".
1024
1025 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
1026 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
1027 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
1028 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
1029 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
1030 or hashed database respectively.
1031
1032 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
1033 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
1034
1035 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001036 database, e.g.,
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301037 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
1038 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001039 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
1040 name, e.g.,
1041 --with-hashed-db=db4
1042 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
1043 /usr/include/db4/db.h
1044 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301045
1046 See also the --enable-getcap option.
1047
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001048 --with-infocmp-path[=XXX]
1049 Use this option to override the automatic detection of infocmp in your
1050 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
1051
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301052 --with-install-prefix=XXX
1053 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
1054 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
1055 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
1056 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
1057 to use
1058 make install DESTDIR=XXX
1059 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
1060
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001061 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301062 option probably will not work for those configurations.
1063
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001064 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
1065 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
1066 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
1067 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
1068 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
1069 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
1070 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
1071 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
1072 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
1073
1074 --with-libtool[=XXX]
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301075 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
1076 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
1077 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
1078 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
1079 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
1080 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
1081
1082 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
1083 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
1084 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
1085
1086 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
1087 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
1088 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
1089 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001090 https://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301091
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001092 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001093 Allow user to pass additional libtool options into the library creation
1094 and link steps. The main use for this is to do something like
1095 ./configure --with-libtool-opts=-static
1096 to get the same behavior as automake-flavored
1097 ./configure --enable-static
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001098
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301099 --with-manpage-aliases
1100 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
1101 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
1102 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
1103 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
1104 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
1105 rather than symbolic links.
1106
1107 --with-manpage-format=XXX
1108 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
1109 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
1110 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
1111 attempts to determine which is the case.
1112
1113 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
1114 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001115 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
1116 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
1117 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301118
1119 --with-manpage-symlinks
1120 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
1121 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
1122 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
1123 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
1124 copying the man-page for each alias.
1125
1126 --with-manpage-tbl
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001127 Tell the configure script that you wish to preprocess the manpages
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301128 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
1129 nroff.
1130
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001131 --with-menu-libname=NAME
1132 Override the basename of the menu library (default: "menu")
1133
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301134 --with-mmask-t=TYPE
1135 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
1136 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
1137 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
1138 with 64-bit executables.
1139
1140 --with-normal
1141 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
1142
1143 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
1144 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
1145 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
1146 GPM.
1147
1148 --with-ospeed=TYPE
1149 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
1150 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
1151 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
1152 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
1153 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
1154 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
1155 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
1156 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
1157 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
1158 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
1159 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1160
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001161 --with-panel-libname=NAME
1162 Override the basename of the panel library (default: "panel")
1163
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001164 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001165 If ".pc" files are installed (see --enable-pc-files), optionally add a
1166 suffix to the files and corresponding package names to separate
1167 unusual configurations. If no option value is given (or if it is
1168 "none"), no suffix is added.
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001169
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001170 --with-pcre2
1171 Add PCRE2 (Perl-compatible regular expressions v2) to the build if it
1172 is available and the user requests it. Assume the application will
1173 otherwise use the POSIX interface.
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001174
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001175 This is useful for MinGW builds because the usual POSIX interface is
1176 not supplied by the development environment, while ncurses' form
1177 library uses a regular expression feature for one of the field types.
1178
1179 --with-pkg-config[=CMD]
1180 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its pathname.
1181
1182 --with-pkg-config-libdir[=DIR]
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001183 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001184 path. The optional DIR value can be
1185
1186 "auto", automatically use pkg-config's library directory, or
1187
1188 "libdir", use a ${libdir}/pkgconfig (based on the configuration), or
1189
1190 a directory path, i.e., beginning with "/".
1191
1192 The configure script allows only a single directory, because
1193 that is used as the directory in which to install ".pc" files.
1194
1195 The automatic check for the library path prefers the first directory
1196 which currently exists. If none of the directories listed by
1197 pkg-config exist, the check prefers a pkgconfig directory under the
1198 "libdir" set by the configure script (which may not be the system
1199 default), or if pkg-config lists nothing suitable, the first one which
1200 is listed by pkg-config is used.
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001201
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301202 --with-profile
1203 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1204 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1205
1206 --with-pthread
1207 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1208 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1209 for multithreaded applications.
1210
1211 --with-rcs-ids
1212 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1213
1214 --with-rel-version=NUM
1215 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1216 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1217 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1218 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1219
1220 --with-shared
1221 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1222 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1223 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1224
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001225 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301226 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1227 option.
1228
1229 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1230 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1231 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1232 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1233 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001234 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1235
1236 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1237 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1238
1239 ./misc/shlib make install
1240
1241 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1242 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1243 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1244 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1245 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1246 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1247 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1248 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1249 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1250
1251 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1252 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1253 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301254
1255 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1256 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1257 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1258 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1259
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001260 --with-strip-program=XXX
1261 When stripping executables during install, use the specified program
1262 rather than "strip".
1263
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301264 --with-sysmouse
1265 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1266
1267 --with-system-type=XXX
1268 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1269 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1270 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1271 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1272 script.
1273
1274 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1275 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1276 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1277
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001278 This is a colon-separated list, like the $TERMINFO_DIRS environment
1279 variable.
1280
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301281 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1282 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1283 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1284 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1285 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1286
1287 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1288 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1289 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1290 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1291 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1292 this option.
1293
1294 --with-termpath=XXX
1295 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1296 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1297
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001298 --with-tic-path[=XXX]
1299 Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your
1300 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
1301
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301302 --with-ticlib[=XXX]
1303 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1304 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1305 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1306
1307 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1308 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1309 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1310
1311 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1312 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1313 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1314 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1315 library.
1316
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001317 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1318 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1319 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1320 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1321 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1322 tparm's interface was defined.
1323
1324 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1325
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301326 --with-trace
1327 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1328 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1329
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001330 --with-valgrind
1331 For testing, compile with debug option.
1332 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1333
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001334 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1335 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1336 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1337 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1338
1339 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1340
1341 The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map"
1342 file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1343
1344 a) comments are not accepted
1345 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1346 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1347
1348 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1349 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1350 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1351 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1352 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1353
1354 The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files are generated using a set of
1355 scripts which build several configurations for each release version,
1356 checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. In
1357 addition to the ncurses libraries and programs, the symbols used
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001358 by the "tack" program before version 1.08 are made global.
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001359
1360 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1361 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1362 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1363 value.
1364
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001365 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1366 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1367 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1368 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1369 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1370 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1371 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1372 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1373 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1374 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1375
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001376 --with-x11-rgb=FILE
1377 Provide a pathname for the X11 rgb file, used by the picsmap program.
1378 This overrides a configure check which usually works, but is needed
1379 due to the lack of standardization for X11's files.
1380
1381 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1382 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1383 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1384 (or del, 127). If XXX is "auto", the configure script chooses BS or
1385 DEL according to platform defaults.
1386
1387 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1388 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1389
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301390 --without-ada
1391 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1392 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1393
1394 --without-curses-h
1395 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1396 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1397 accordingly.
1398
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001399 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1400
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301401 --without-cxx
1402 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1403 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1404 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1405 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1406 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1407 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1408 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1409
1410 --without-cxx-binding
1411 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1412 C++ binding and related demo.
1413
1414 --without-develop
1415 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1416 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1417
1418 --without-dlsym
1419 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1420
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001421 --without-manpages
1422 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1423
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301424 --without-progs
1425 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1426 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1427 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1428
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001429 --without-tests
1430 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1431 programs.
1432
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301433 --without-xterm-new
1434 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1435 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1436 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1437
1438
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001439COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER RELEASES:
1440---------------------------------
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301441
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001442 Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
1443 That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
1444 documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
1445 or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
1446 We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
1447 the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
1448 documentation.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301449
1450 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1451 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1452 ncurses:
1453
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04001454 6.5 (Apt 27, 2024)
1455 Interface changes:
1456
1457 + the WINDOW structure and some related internal data types declared
1458 in <curses.h> have been made opaque by default;
1459 + the FORM, MENU, and PANEL structures and related internal data types
1460 from their corresponding header files have been made opqaue by
1461 default; and
1462 + support for wide characters is now enabled by default.
1463
1464 Added extensions:
1465
1466 + is_cbreak, is_echo, is_nl, and is_raw, as well as "_sp" variants
1467
1468 + tiparm_s and tiscan_s
1469
1470 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1471
1472 + _nc_env_access
1473
1474 Removed internal functions:
1475
1476 + none
1477
1478 Modified internal functions:
1479
1480 + These now pass a const parameter: _nc_delink_entry, _nc_str_copy,
1481 and _nc_trans_string
1482
1483 6.4 (Dec 31, 2022)
1484 Interface changes:
1485
1486 + none
1487
1488 Added extensions:
1489
1490 + none
1491
1492 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1493
1494 + add _nc_free_termtype1 and _nc_free_tparm, for memory-leaks
1495
1496 Removed internal functions:
1497
1498 + none
1499
1500 Modified internal functions:
1501
1502 + none
1503
1504 6.3 (Oct 21, 2021)
1505 Interface changes:
1506
1507 + the definition of TERMTYPE2 is now internal, not visible in the ABI,
1508 like the enclosing TERMINAL which was previously made opaque. This
1509 was done to provide SCREEN-specific "static" variables in terminfo.
1510
1511 Added extensions:
1512
1513 + add sp-funcs for erasewchar, killwchar.
1514
1515 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1516
1517 + _nc_safe_fopen and _nc_safe_open3 limit privileges if possible when
1518 opening a file; otherwise disallow access for updating files.
1519
1520 + _nc_tiparm is a variant of tiparm which is used when all of the
1521 parameters are known to be numbers rather than possibly strings.
1522
1523 + _nc_reset_tparm improves tic's checks by resetting the terminfo
1524 "static variables" before calling functions which may update them.
1525
1526 Removed internal functions:
1527
1528 + none
1529
1530 Modified internal functions:
1531
1532 + _nc_trace_ttymode passes pointer to const data
1533
1534 + _nc_tparm_analyze passes pointer to int*, not int[]
1535
1536 6.2 (Feb 12, 2020)
1537 Interface changes:
1538
1539 + the terminal database must be compiled with ncurses 6.2 tic;
1540 older versions of tic/infocmp will not work. Aside from that,
1541 the compiled database will work with older applications.
1542
1543 + "*.pc" and "ncurses*-config" files give the same information.
1544
1545 + vwprintw and vwscanw are deprecated.
1546
1547 Added extensions:
1548
1549 + These make it simpler to substitute a debug-configuration of the
1550 library for non-debug:
1551 curses_trace
1552 exit_curses
1553 exit_terminfo
1554
1555 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1556
1557 + These provide fast-lookup of common user-defined capabilities:
1558 _nc_find_user_entry
1559 _nc_get_userdefs_table
1560 _nc_get_hash_user
1561
1562 + This is added to work around compiler-warnings:
1563 _nc_fmt_funcptr
1564
1565 Removed internal functions:
1566
1567 + _nc_import_termtype
1568
1569 Modified internal functions:
1570
1571 + _nc_reserve_pairs no longer returns a value
1572
1573 6.1 (Jan 27, 2018)
1574 Interface changes:
1575
1576 + X/Open Curses specifies a "reserved" void* parameter in several
1577 functions, saying that it must be NULL. In this release, if the
1578 parameter is non-NULL, it is interpreted as a point to an integer
1579 containing a color pair. In previous releases, a non-NULL parameter
1580 caused an error return. Portable applications are unaffected. Here
1581 are the functions which have been extended:
1582 attr_get
1583 attr_off
1584 attr_on
1585 attr_set
1586 chgat
1587 color_set
1588 mvchgat
1589 mvwchgat
1590 slk_attr_off
1591 slk_attr_on
1592 slk_attr_set
1593 wattr_get
1594 wattr_on
1595 wattr_off
1596 wattr_set
1597 wchgat
1598 wcolor_set
1599
1600 + the TERMINAL structure declared in <term.h> has been made opaque,
1601 and its size increased to handle the increased size of color pair
1602 and color value, as well as other numeric capabilities.
1603
1604 A few applications required change, e.g., to use def_prog_mode;
1605 only one application (tack) is known to have a valid reason for
1606 accessing these internal details, and that was addressed by the
1607 release of tack 1.08 in 2017. Internal functions marked as used
1608 by tack will be deprecated in future releases.
1609
1610 Added extensions:
1611
1612 + Several new functions were added to manipulate extended color pairs
1613 and color values. These include:
1614 alloc_pair
1615 extended_color_content
1616 extended_pair_content
1617 extended_slk_color
1618 find_pair
1619 free_pair
1620 init_extended_color
1621 init_extended_pair
1622 reset_color_pairs
1623
1624 as well as corresponding sp-functions.
1625
1626 + A new terminfo capability "RGB" tells the ncurses library that the
1627 color values are red/green/blue, to eliminate the need for palettes
1628 in that special case for the color_content function.
1629
1630 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1631 _nc_copy_termtype2
1632 _nc_export_termtype2
1633 _nc_fallback2
1634 _nc_find_prescr
1635 _nc_forget_prescr
1636 _nc_free_termtype2
1637 _nc_read_entry2
1638 _nc_write_object
1639
1640 Removed internal functions:
1641 _nc_check_termtype
1642 _nc_resolve_uses
1643
1644 Modified internal functions:
1645
1646 + symbols are used by tic/infocmp/toe:
1647 _nc_align_termtype - change parameters to TERMTYPE2*
1648 _nc_check_termtype2 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1649 _nc_read_file_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1650 _nc_read_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1651 _nc_trim_sgr0 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1652 _nc_write_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1653
1654 + symbols used only within the library:
1655 _nc_fallback - change return type to TERMTYPE2*
1656 _nc_init_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1657
1658 6.0 (Aug 08, 2015)
1659 Interface changes:
1660
1661 + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
1662 --enable-const
1663 --enable-ext-colors
1664 --enable-ext-mouse
1665 --enable-ext-putwin
1666 --enable-interop
1667 --enable-lp64
1668 --enable-sp-funcs
1669 --with-chtype=uint32_t
1670 --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
1671 --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
1672
1673 + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
1674 half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
1675
1676 + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
1677 when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
1678
1679 Added extensions:
1680
1681 + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
1682
1683 + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
1684
1685 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1686 _nc_init_termtype
1687 _nc_mvcur
1688 _nc_putchar
1689 _nc_setenv_num
1690 _nc_trace_mmask_t
1691
1692 Removed internal functions:
1693 none
1694
1695 Modified internal functions:
1696 _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
1697 _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
1698 _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
1699 _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001700
1701 5.9 (Apr 04, 2011)
1702 5.8 (Feb 26, 2011)
1703 Interface changes:
1704
1705 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1706 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1707 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1708 platforms.
1709
1710 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1711 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1712 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1713 functionally identical with the originals.
1714
1715 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1716 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1717 new_prescr.
1718
1719 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1720 are no related interface changes.
1721
1722 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1723
1724 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1725
1726 Added extensions:
1727
1728 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1729 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1730
1731 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1732 _nc_curscr_of
1733 _nc_format_slks
1734 _nc_get_alias_table
1735 _nc_get_hash_info
1736 _nc_insert_wch
1737 _nc_newscr_of
1738 _nc_outc_wrapper
1739 _nc_retrace_char
1740 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1741 _nc_retrace_mmask_t
1742 _nc_setup_tinfo
1743 _nc_stdscr_of
1744 _nc_tinfo_cmdch
1745
1746 Removed internal functions:
1747 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1748
1749 Modified internal functions:
1750 _nc_UpdateAttrs
1751 _nc_get_hash_table
1752 _nc_has_mouse
1753 _nc_insert_ch
1754 _nc_wgetch
1755
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301756 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1757 Interface changes:
1758
1759 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1760 getattrs
1761
1762 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1763 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1764 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1765 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001766
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301767 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1768 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1769
1770 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1771 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1772
1773 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1774 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1775 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1776 several internal functions.
1777
1778 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1779 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1780 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1781 API, there is no ABI change.
1782
1783 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1784 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1785 of the internal functions.
1786
1787 Added extensions:
1788
1789 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1790 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1791 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1792 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1793 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1794 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1795
1796 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1797 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1798 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1799 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1800
1801 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1802 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1803 function.
1804
1805 Added internal functions:
1806 _nc_get_alias_table
1807 _nc_get_screensize
1808 _nc_keyname
1809 _nc_screen_of
1810 _nc_set_no_padding
1811 _nc_tracechar
1812 _nc_tracemouse
1813 _nc_unctrl
1814 _nc_ungetch
1815
1816 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1817 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1818 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1819
1820 _nc_free_and_exit
1821 _nc_leaks_tinfo
1822
1823 Removed internal functions:
1824 none
1825
1826 Modified internal functions:
1827 _nc_fifo_dump
1828 _nc_find_entry
1829 _nc_handle_sigwinch
1830 _nc_init_keytry
1831 _nc_keypad
1832 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1833 _nc_timed_wait
1834 _nc_update_screensize
1835
1836 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1837
1838 _nc_add_to_try
1839 _nc_expand_try
1840 _nc_remove_key
1841 _nc_remove_string
1842 _nc_trace_tries
1843
1844 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1845 Interface changes:
1846
1847 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1848
1849 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1850 getpary, getpary,
1851
1852 and (for libncursesw)
1853
1854 wgetbkgrnd
1855
1856 Added extensions:
1857 nofilter()
1858 use_legacy_coding()
1859
1860 Added internal functions:
1861 _nc_first_db
1862 _nc_get_source
1863 _nc_handle_sigwinch
1864 _nc_is_abs_path
1865 _nc_is_dir_path
1866 _nc_is_file_path
1867 _nc_keep_tic_dir
1868 _nc_keep_tic_dir
1869 _nc_last_db
1870 _nc_next_db
1871 _nc_read_termtype
1872 _nc_tic_dir
1873
1874 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1875
1876 _nc_db_close
1877 _nc_db_first
1878 _nc_db_get
1879 _nc_db_have_data
1880 _nc_db_have_index
1881 _nc_db_next
1882 _nc_db_open
1883 _nc_db_put
1884
1885 otherwise
1886
1887 _nc_hashed_db
1888
1889 Removed internal functions:
1890 none
1891
1892 Modified internal functions:
1893 _nc_add_to_try
1894 _nc_do_color
1895 _nc_expand_try
1896 _nc_remove_key
1897 _nc_setupscreen
1898
1899 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1900 Interface changes:
1901
1902 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1903 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1904
1905 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1906 still use ncurses 4.2).
1907
1908 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1909 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1910 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1911 compilers.
1912
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01001913 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05301914 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1915 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1916 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1917 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1918 data.
1919
1920 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1921 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1922 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1923 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1924
1925 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1926 wide-character configuration.
1927
1928 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1929 be called first.
1930
1931 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1932
1933 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1934 multicolumn characters.
1935
1936 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1937 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1938
1939 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1940 corresponds to the default-color.
1941
1942 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1943 to an unsigned char.
1944
1945 Added extensions:
1946 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1947 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1948 of mouse events.
1949
1950 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1951 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1952 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1953 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1954
1955 Added internal functions:
1956 _nc_check_termtype2
1957 _nc_resolve_uses2
1958 _nc_retrace_cptr
1959 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1960 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1961 _nc_setup_term
1962
1963 Removed internal functions:
1964 none
1965
1966 Modified internal functions:
1967 _nc_insert_ch
1968 _nc_save_str
1969 _nc_trans_string
1970
1971 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1972 Interface changes:
1973
1974 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1975 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1976 --enable-widec option.
1977 pecho_wchar()
1978 slk_wset()
1979
1980 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1981 getcurx(), etc.
1982
1983 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1984
1985 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1986 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1987
1988 + change some interfaces to use const:
1989 define_key()
1990 mvprintw()
1991 mvwprintw()
1992 printw()
1993 vw_printw()
1994 winsnstr()
1995 wprintw()
1996
1997 Added extensions:
1998 key_defined()
1999
2000 Added internal functions:
2001 _nc_get_locale()
2002 _nc_insert_ch()
2003 _nc_is_charable() wide
2004 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
2005 _nc_pathlast()
2006 _nc_to_char() wide
2007 _nc_to_widechar() wide
2008 _nc_tparm_analyze()
2009 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
2010 _nc_unicode_locale()
2011
2012 Removed internal functions:
2013 _nc_outstr()
2014 _nc_sigaction()
2015
2016 Modified internal functions:
2017 _nc_remove_string()
2018 _nc_retrace_chtype()
2019
2020 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
2021 Interface changes:
2022
2023 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
2024 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
2025
2026 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
2027 These are only available if the library is configured using the
2028 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
2029 pecho_wchar()
2030 slk_wset()
2031
2032 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
2033 assume_default_colors() extension.
2034
2035 Added extensions:
2036 is_term_resized()
2037 resize_term()
2038
2039 Added internal functions:
2040 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
2041 _nc_reset_colors()
2042 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
2043 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
2044 _nc_rootname()
2045 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
2046 _nc_varargs() debug
2047 _nc_visbufn() debug
2048 _nc_wgetch()
2049
2050 Removed internal functions:
2051 _nc_background()
2052
2053 Modified internal functions:
2054 _nc_freeall() debug
2055
2056 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
2057 Interface changes:
2058
2059 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
2060 --with-ospeed configure option).
2061
2062 5.1 (July 8, 2000)
2063 Interface changes:
2064
2065 + made the extended terminal capabilities
2066 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
2067 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
2068
2069 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
2070 production library.
2071
2072 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
2073 with C++ STL.
2074
2075 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
2076
2077 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
2078 Interface changes:
2079
2080 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
2081
2082 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
2083
2084 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
2085 attr_t.
2086
2087 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
2088 parameter according to XSI.
2089
2090 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
2091 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
2092 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
2093 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
2094 attr_get().
2095
2096 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
2097
2098 Terminfo database changes:
2099
2100 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
2101 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
2102
2103 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
2104
2105 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
2106 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
2107 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
2108 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
2109 the 5.0 library.
2110
2111 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
2112 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
2113 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
2114 is a bug in the older versions:
2115
2116 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
2117 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
2118 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
2119 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
2120 entries.
2121
2122 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
2123 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
2124 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
2125 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
2126 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
2127
2128 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
2129 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
2130 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
2131 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
2132
2133 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
2134 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
2135
2136 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
2137 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
2138 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
2139 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
2140 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
2141 initialize that terminal type.
2142
2143 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
2144 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
2145 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
2146
2147 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
2148 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
2149 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
2150 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
2151 and are invisible to the older libraries.
2152
2153 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
2154 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
2155 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
2156 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
2157 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
2158 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
2159 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
2160 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
2161
2162 4.2 (March 2, 1998)
2163 Interface changes:
2164
2165 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
2166
2167 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
2168 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
2169
2170 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
2171 SVr4 headers.
2172
2173 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
2174
2175 Terminfo database changes:
2176
2177 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
2178 rather than 'i'.
2179
2180 4.1 (May 15, 1997)
2181
2182 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
2183 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
2184 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
2185
2186 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
2187 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
2188 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
2189 colors in the latter.
2190
2191 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
2192
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002193 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
2194 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302195 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
2196 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
2197
2198 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
2199
2200 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
2201 changes:
2202
2203 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
2204 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
2205 application's fallback for missing tparam().
2206
2207 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
2208 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
2209 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
2210 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
2211 behave differently.
2212
2213 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
2214 available only as macros.
2215
2216 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
2217
2218 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
2219 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
2220
2221 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
2222 misspelled name.
2223
2224 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
2225 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
2226
2227 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
2228
2229 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
2230
2231 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
2232 mcprint().
2233
2234 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
2235
2236 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
2237 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
2238 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
2239 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
2240 specification was available only in draft form.
2241
2242 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
2243 incorrect color scheme.
2244
2245
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002246FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS:
2247----------------------
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302248
2249 Configuration and Installation:
2250
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002251 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002252 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
2253 that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302254
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002255 FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302256
2257 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
2258 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
2259
2260 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
2261 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
2262 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
2263 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
2264 terminfo database.
2265
2266 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
2267 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
2268 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
2269 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
2270 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
2271 you recompile and relink them!).
2272
2273 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
2274 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
2275 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
2276 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
2277 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
2278
2279 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
2280 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
2281 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
2282 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
2283
2284 Keyboard Mapping:
2285
2286 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
2287 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
2288 mappings that will set this up:
2289
2290 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
2291 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
2292 shift keycode 15 = F26
2293 string F26 ="\033[Z"
2294
2295 Naming the Console Terminal
2296
2297 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002298 console driver type as 'console'. Please do not do this! It
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302299 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
2300 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002301 be called 'console'.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302302
2303 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
2304 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
2305 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002306 in the terminfo file, if it is not already there. See the
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302307 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
2308 conventions for choosing type names.
2309
2310 Here are some recommended primary console names:
2311
2312 linux -- Linux console driver
2313 freebsd -- FreeBSD
2314 netbsd -- NetBSD
2315 bsdos -- BSD/OS
2316
2317 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002318 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302319 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
2320 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
2321
2322
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002323MODERN XTERM VERSIONS:
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302324---------------------
2325
2326 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
2327 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
2328 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
2329 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
2330 are unable to update your system.
2331
2332
2333CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
2334----------------------------
2335
2336 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
2337 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
2338 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002339 pre-fetched fallback entries.
2340
2341 NOTE: This must be done on a machine which has ncurses' infocmp and
2342 terminfo database installed (as well as ncurses' tic and infocmp
2343 programs). That is because the fallback sources are generated and
2344 compiled into the library before the build-tree's copy of infocmp is
2345 available.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302346
2347 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
2348 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
2349 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
2350 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
2351 entry is accessible.
2352
2353 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
2354 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
2355 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002356 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302357 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
2358 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
2359
2360 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002361 might use the commands
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302362
2363 cd ncurses;
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002364 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2365 $TERMINFO \
2366 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2367 `which tic` \
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002368 `which infocmp` \
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002369 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
2370
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002371 The first four parameters of the script are normally supplied by
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002372 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
2373 are
2374
2375 1) the location of the terminfo database
2376 2) the source for the terminfo entries
2377 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
2378 database.
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002379 4) the location of the infocmp program, used to print a terminfo
2380 description.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302381
2382 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
2383 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
2384
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002385 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2386 $TERMINFO \
2387 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2388 `which tic` \
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002389 `which infocmp` \
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002390 >fallback.c
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302391
2392 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002393 Any non-empty fallback list is const'd and therefore lives in shareable
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302394 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
2395 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
2396 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
2397 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
2398
2399
2400BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
2401--------------------
2402
2403 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
2404 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
2405 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
2406 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
2407 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
2408
2409 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
2410 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
2411 in the package README file.)
2412
2413 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
2414 --enable-termcap.
2415
2416------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2417
2418If you are installing this application privately (either because you
2419have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
2420installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
2421They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
2422than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
2423
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002424Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302425TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002426through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
2427down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302428
2429The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
2430database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
2431in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
2432that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
2433faster) terminfo fetch.
2434
2435Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
2436an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
2437terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
2438ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
2439stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
2440
2441The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
2442as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
2443compilation is expensive).
2444
2445If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
2446you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
2447
2448If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
2449that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
2450to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
2451instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
2452first time around.
2453
2454Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
2455will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
2456under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
2457from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
2458
2459To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
2460terminfo directory directly.
2461
2462------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2463
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002464USING GPM:
2465---------
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002466 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2467 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302468 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2469 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2470 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2471 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2472 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2473 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2474
2475 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2476
2477 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2478
2479 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2480 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2481
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002482 https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302483
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002484
2485BUILDING WITH A CROSS-COMPILER:
2486------------------------------
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302487 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2488 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2489 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2490 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2491 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2492 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2493
2494 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2495 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2496 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2497 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2498
2499 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2500 will be made if you use
2501
2502 make sources
2503
2504 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2505 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2506 Bourne-shell.
2507
2508 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2509 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2510 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002511 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the "make
2512 install.data" portion.
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302513
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002514 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002515 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should be
2516 from the most current version of ncurses.
Steve Kondikae271bc2015-11-15 02:50:53 +01002517
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002518 NOTE: the system's tic program may use a different terminfo database
2519 format than the target system. For instance, as described in term(5),
2520 the conventional terminfo layout uses a directory hierarchy with one
2521 letter names, while some platforms use two-letter names to work with
2522 case-insensitive filesystems. The configure script searches for a tic
2523 program using the AC_CHECK_TOOL macro, which will prefer programs
2524 using the canonical host prefix in their name. You can use this fact
2525 to provide a cross-compiler support utility tic, otherwise you can
2526 override the configure script's choice using --with-tic-path
2527
2528
2529BUG REPORTS:
2530-----------
Amit Daniel Kachhape6a01f52011-07-20 11:45:59 +05302531 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2532 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2533 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2534 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2535
2536 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2537 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.
2538
micky3879b9f5e72025-07-08 18:04:53 -04002539-- vile:txtmode fc=78