12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758596061626364656667686970717273747576777879808182838485868788899091929394959697989910010110210310410510610710810911011111211311411511611711811912012112212312412512612712812913013113213313413513613713813914014114214314414514614714814915015115215315415515615715815916016116216316416516616716816917017117217317417517617717817918018118218318418518618718818919019119219319419519619719819920020120220320420520620720820921021121221321421521621721821922022122222322422522622722822923023123223323423523623723823924024124224324424524624724824925025125225325425525625725825926026126226326426526626726826927027127227327427527627727827928028128228328428528628728828929029129229329429529629729829930030130230330430530630730830931031131231331431531631731831932032132232332432532632732832933033133233333433533633733833934034134234334434534634734834935035135235335435535635735835936036136236336436536636736836937037137237337437537637737837938038138238338438538638738838939039139239339439539639739839940040140240340440540640740840941041141241341441541641741841942042142242342442542642742842943043143243343443543643743843944044144244344444544644744844945045145245345445545645745845946046146246346446546646746846947047147247347447547647747847948048148248348448548648748848949049149249349449549649749849950050150250350450550650750850951051151251351451551651751851952052152252352452552652752852953053153253353453553653753853954054154254354454554654754854955055155255355455555655755855956056156256356456556656756856957057157257357457557657757857958058158258358458558658758858959059159259359459559659759859960060160260360460560660760860961061161261361461561661761861962062162262362462562662762862963063163263363463563663763863964064164264364464564664764864965065165265365465565665765865966066166266366466566666766866967067167267367467567667767867968068168268368468568668768868969069169269369469569669769869970070170270370470570670770870971071171271371471571671771871972072172272372472572672772872973073173273373473573673773873974074174274374474574674774874975075175275375475575675775875976076176276376476576676776876977077177277377477577677777877978078178278378478578678778878979079179279379479579679779879980080180280380480580680780880981081181281381481581681781881982082182282382482582682782882983083183283383483583683783883984084184284384484584684784884985085185285385485585685785885986086186286386486586686786886987087187287387487587687787887988088188288388488588688788888989089189289389489589689789889990090190290390490590690790890991091191291391491591691791891992092192292392492592692792892993093193293393493593693793893994094194294394494594694794894995095195295395495595695795895996096196296396496596696796896997097197297397497597697797897998098198298398498598698798898999099199299399499599699799899910001001100210031004100510061007100810091010101110121013101410151016101710181019102010211022102310241025102610271028102910301031103210331034103510361037103810391040104110421043104410451046104710481049105010511052105310541055105610571058105910601061106210631064106510661067106810691070107110721073107410751076107710781079108010811082108310841085108610871088108910901091109210931094109510961097109810991100110111021103110411051106110711081109111011111112111311141115111611171118111911201121112211231124112511261127112811291130113111321133113411351136113711381139114011411142114311441145114611471148114911501151115211531154115511561157115811591160116111621163116411651166116711681169117011711172117311741175117611771178117911801181118211831184118511861187118811891190119111921193119411951196119711981199120012011202120312041205120612071208120912101211121212131214121512161217121812191220122112221223122412251226122712281229123012311232123312341235123612371238123912401241124212431244124512461247124812491250125112521253125412551256125712581259126012611262126312641265126612671268126912701271127212731274127512761277127812791280128112821283128412851286128712881289129012911292129312941295129612971298129913001301130213031304130513061307130813091310131113121313131413151316131713181319132013211322132313241325132613271328132913301331133213331334133513361337133813391340134113421343134413451346134713481349135013511352135313541355135613571358135913601361136213631364136513661367136813691370137113721373137413751376137713781379138013811382138313841385138613871388138913901391139213931394139513961397139813991400140114021403140414051406140714081409141014111412141314141415141614171418141914201421142214231424142514261427142814291430143114321433143414351436143714381439144014411442144314441445144614471448144914501451145214531454145514561457145814591460146114621463146414651466146714681469147014711472147314741475147614771478147914801481148214831484148514861487148814891490149114921493149414951496149714981499150015011502150315041505150615071508150915101511151215131514151515161517151815191520152115221523152415251526152715281529153015311532153315341535153615371538153915401541154215431544154515461547154815491550155115521553155415551556155715581559156015611562156315641565156615671568156915701571157215731574157515761577157815791580158115821583158415851586158715881589159015911592159315941595159615971598159916001601160216031604160516061607160816091610161116121613161416151616161716181619162016211622162316241625162616271628162916301631163216331634163516361637163816391640164116421643164416451646164716481649165016511652165316541655165616571658165916601661166216631664166516661667166816691670167116721673167416751676167716781679168016811682168316841685168616871688168916901691169216931694169516961697169816991700170117021703170417051706170717081709171017111712171317141715171617171718171917201721172217231724172517261727172817291730173117321733173417351736173717381739174017411742174317441745174617471748174917501751 |
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- -- Copyright (c) 1998-2006,2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. --
- -- --
- -- Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a --
- -- copy of this software and associated documentation files (the --
- -- "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including --
- -- without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, --
- -- distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell copies --
- -- of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished --
- -- to do so, subject to the following conditions: --
- -- --
- -- The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included --
- -- in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. --
- -- --
- -- THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS --
- -- OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF --
- -- MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN --
- -- NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, --
- -- DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR --
- -- OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE --
- -- USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. --
- -- --
- -- Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright --
- -- holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the --
- -- sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written --
- -- authorization. --
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.136 2008/11/08 16:05:02 tom Exp $
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- ************************************************************
- * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
- ************************************************************
- You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
- d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
- including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
- and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
- If you are a Linux or FreeBSD or NetBSD distribution integrator or packager,
- please read and act on the section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR
- below.
- If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
- to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
- If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
- read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
- If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
- USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
- If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
- CROSS-COMPILER.
- If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
- follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
- If you are using anything but (a) Linux, or (b) one of the 4.4BSD-based
- i386 Unixes, go read the Portability section in the TO-DO file before you
- do anything else.
- REQUIREMENTS:
- ------------
- You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
- * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
- * sh (bash will do)
- * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
- * sed
- * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
- Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
- INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
- ----------------------
- 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
- which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
- with it.
- The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
- ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
- for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library, e.g.,
- Linux, the various BSD systems and Cygwin. Use --prefix=/usr to replace
- your default curses distribution.
- The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
- In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
- reset, clear, tput, toe
- In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
- In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
- In $(prefix)/include: C header files
- Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
- Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
- ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
- ncurses headers.
- Do not use commands such as
- make install prefix=XXX
- to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
- for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
- make install DESTDIR=XXX
- See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
- 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
- configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
- Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
- the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
- If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
- the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
- file for your system.
- The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
- models and their associated libraries:
- libncurses.a (normal)
- libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
- This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
- libncurses.so (shared)
- libncurses_g.a (debug)
- libncurses_p.a (profile)
- libncurses.la (libtool)
- If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
- library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
- wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
- are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
- features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
- library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
- version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
- recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
- Linux using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
- If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
- the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
- If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
- configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
- ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
- Typing
- ./configure --with-shared
- makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
- ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
- If you want only shared libraries, type
- ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
- Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
- of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on Linux
- and SunOS with gcc, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
- work on other systems.
- If you have libtool installed, you can type
- ./configure --with-libtool
- to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
- platform using libtool.
- You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
- definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
- library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
- also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
- section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
- 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
- This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
- captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
- programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
- programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
- 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
- verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
- may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
- the test programs.
- NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
- environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
- database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
- databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include
- DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
- If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
- read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
- thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
- on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
- It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
- A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
- The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
- You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
- cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
- 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
- the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
- can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
- top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
- 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
- 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
- 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
- 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
- be installed before the terminfo data can be
- compiled).
- 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
- ############################################################################
- # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
- # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
- # before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for #
- # this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. #
- ############################################################################
- The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
- being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
- this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
- to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
- with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
- If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
- you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
- --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
- directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
- use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
- If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
- compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
- undefined symbols at link time.
- IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
- and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
- about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
- so you can use ncurses applications.
- If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
- trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
- wide terminfo tree instead.
- See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
- 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
- panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
- compile and run the demo.
- Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
- and demo.
- If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
- the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
- which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
- YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
- SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
- ----------------------------
- The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
- ./configure --help
- The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
- generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
- --enable and --with options recognized:
- The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
- order.
- --disable-assumed-color
- With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
- which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
- background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
- full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
- assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
- you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
- convention, using this configure option.
- --disable-big-core
- Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
- determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
- terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
- return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
- script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
- --disable-big-strings
- Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
- all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
- overhead.
- --disable-database
- Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
- and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
- built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
- have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
- programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus
- infocmp and tic.
- --disable-ext-funcs
- Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
- that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
- list of library modules that would be suppressed.
- --disable-hashmap
- Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
- the default.
- --disable-home-terminfo
- The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
- list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
- more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
- option to disable the feature altogether.
- --disable-largefile
- Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
- --disable-leaks
- For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
- be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
- Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
- a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
- for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
- memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
- curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build
- a debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
- which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
- the remainder on exit. The ncurses utility and test programs use this
- feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
- --disable-lp64
- The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
- and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
- compatibility with older releases).
- NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
- packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
- ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
- --disable-macros
- For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
- more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
- at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
- --disable-overwrite
- If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
- development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
- for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
- -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
- Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
- installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
- rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
- compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
- --disable-relink
- If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
- rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply
- copy whatever the linked produced.
- This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given.
- --disable-root-environ
- Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
- are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
- application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
- search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
- --disable-scroll-hints
- Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
- hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
- --disable-tic-depends
- When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
- depend upon the ncurses library (and in turn, on the term-library if
- the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and term-libraries
- ABI does not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
- used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged
- by using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
- the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
- ncurses (or ncursesw) library. Use this configure option to do that.
- For example
- configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
- --disable-tparm-varargs
- Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
- list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
- function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
- --enable-assertions
- For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
- places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
- --enable-broken_linker
- A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
- objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
- files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
- changes several data references to functions to work around this
- problem.
- NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
- told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
- different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
- explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
- problem.
- --enable-bsdpad
- Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
- nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
- --enable-colorfgbg
- Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
- is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
- advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
- initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
- --enable-const
- The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
- including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
- not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
- gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
- between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
- changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
- reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
- library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
- and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
- warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
- in the interface, but at a lower level.
- NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
- portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
- places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
- issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
- fewer places.
- --enable-echo
- Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
- suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
- it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
- to see the options that are used).
- --enable-expanded
- For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
- as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
- --enable-ext-colors
- Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
- encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
- configuration.
- NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
- compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
- applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
- --enable-ext-mouse
- Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
- That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
- similar X terminal emulators.
- NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
- compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
- applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
- --enable-getcap
- Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
- fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
- cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
- /etc/termcap.
- If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
- the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
- In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
- option.
- See also the --with-hashed-db option.
- --enable-getcap-cache
- Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
- NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
- But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
- entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
- forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
- application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
- generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
- --enable-hard-tabs
- Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
- this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
- may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
- of tabs.
- --enable-mixed-case
- Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
- supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
- systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
- checks the current filesystem.
- --enable-no-padding
- Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
- which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
- terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
- extended functions.
- --enable-reentrant
- Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the
- library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also
- set if --with-pthread is used.
- --enable-rpath
- Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
- restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
- (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
- manpage).
- More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
- shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
- in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
- you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
- environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
- the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
- This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
- extra assumptions about rpath.
- --enable-safe-sprintf
- Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
- this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
- vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
- --enable-sigwinch
- Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
- its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
- handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
- changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
- extended functions.
- --enable-signed-char
- The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
- stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
- Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
- is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
- alteration without patching the source code.
- --enable-symlinks
- If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
- rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
- terminfo database.
- --enable-tcap-names
- Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
- -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
- capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
- unless you have disabled the extended functions.
- --enable-termcap
- Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
- match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
- and --enable-getcap-cache options.
- --enable-warnings
- Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
- --enable-weak-symbols
- If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
- weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
- the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
- dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
- one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
- --enable-wgetch-events
- Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
- --enable-widec
- Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
- the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
- wide-characters,
- NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
- with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
- symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
- NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
- ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
- same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
- not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
- probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
- --enable-xmc-glitch
- Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
- --with-abi-version=NUM
- Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
- Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
- special requirements for compatibility.
- This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
- release major/minor numbers.
- --with-ada-compiler=CMD
- Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
- --with-ada-include=DIR
- Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
- PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
- --with-ada-objects=DIR
- Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
- --with-bool=TYPE
- If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
- declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
- correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
- sizes).
- --with-build-cc=XXX
- If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
- compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
- If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
- $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
- --with-build-cflags=XXX
- If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
- to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
- host compiler.
- You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
- use this option.
- --with-build-cppflags=XXX
- If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
- need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
- the host compiler.
- You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
- use this option.
- --with-build-ldflags=XXX
- If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
- do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
- compiler.
- You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
- use this option.
- --with-build-libs=XXX
- If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
- the target environment requires unusual libraries.
- You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
- use this option.
- --with-caps=XXX
- Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
- configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
- AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
- data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
- legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
- to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
- applications.
- --with-chtype=TYPE
- Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
- --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
- was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
- Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
- executables.
- --with-database=XXX
- Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
- to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
- have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
- source file.
- --with-dbmalloc
- For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
- This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
- --with-debug
- Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
- to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
- --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
- Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
- DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
- --with-dmalloc
- For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
- This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
- --with-fallbacks=XXX
- Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
- compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
- --with-gpm
- use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
- Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
- the GPM library.
-
- Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
- runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
- ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
- corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
- e.g.,
- --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
- that overrides the configure check for the soname.
- See also --without-dlsym
- --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
- Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
- each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
- tree.
-
- In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
- provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
- interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
- Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
- "--enable-compat185".
- If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
- to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
- entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
- hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
- variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
- or hashed database respectively.
- You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
- filesystem-based terminfo entries.
- Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
- datbase, e.g.,
- --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
- to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
- given directory.
- See also the --enable-getcap option.
- --with-install-prefix=XXX
- Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
- after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
- install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
- makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
- to use
- make install DESTDIR=XXX
- since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
- NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
- option probably will not work for those configurations.
- --with-libtool[=XXX]
- Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
- overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
- must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
- and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
- other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
- option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
- If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
- particular version of libtool, e.g.,
- /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
- It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
- macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
- aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
- using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
- http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
- --with-manpage-aliases
- Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
- man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
- functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
- it if your man program does this. You can also disable
- --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
- rather than symbolic links.
- --with-manpage-format=XXX
- Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
- option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
- formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
- attempts to determine which is the case.
- --with-manpage-renames=XXX
- Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
- installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is
- the Linux Debian. The option value specifies the name of a file
- that lists the renamed files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
- --with-manpage-symlinks
- Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
- man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
- can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
- this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
- copying the man-page for each alias.
- --with-manpage-tbl
- Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
- by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
- nroff.
- --with-mmask-t=TYPE
- Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
- ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
- may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
- with 64-bit executables.
- --with-normal
- Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
- Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
- library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
- this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
- GPM.
- --with-ospeed=TYPE
- Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
- compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
- for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
- but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
- However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
- 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
- compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
- cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
- applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
- those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
- (or system, in general) may or may not.
- --with-profile
- Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
- e.g., libncurses_p.a
- --with-pthread
- Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
- use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
- for multithreaded applications.
- --with-rcs-ids
- Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
- --with-rel-version=NUM
- Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
- filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
- by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
- version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
- --with-shared
- Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
- which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
- symbolic links that refer to the release version.
- NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
- environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
- option.
- NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
- ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
- shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
- For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
- copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
- loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries. In that
- case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it sets
- $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
- ./misc/shlib make install
- --with-shlib-version=XXX
- Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
- This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
- which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
- --with-sysmouse
- use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
- --with-system-type=XXX
- For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
- decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
- libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
- system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
- script.
- --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
- Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
- into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
- --with-termlib[=XXX]
- When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
- curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
- (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
- the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
- If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
- library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
- terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
- is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
- libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
- this option.
- --with-termpath=XXX
- Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
- ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
- --with-ticlib[=XXX]
- When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
- the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
- those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
- If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
- library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
- "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
- NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
- also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
- not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
- library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
- library.
- --with-trace
- Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
- library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
- --with-valgrind
- For testing, compile with debug option.
- This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
- --without-ada
- Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
- Ada95 binding and related demo.
- --without-curses-h
- Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
- install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
- accordingly.
- --without-cxx
- XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
- "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
- insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
- configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
- that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
- ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
- adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
- --without-cxx-binding
- Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
- C++ binding and related demo.
- --without-develop
- Disable development options. This does not include those that change
- the interface, such as --enable-widec.
- --without-dlsym
- Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
- --without-manpages
- Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
- --without-progs
- Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
- programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
- type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
- --without-xterm-new
- Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
- the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
- X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
- COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
- --------------------------------------------
- Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
- is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
- Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
- between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
- Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
- addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
- the X/Open documentation.
- Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
- you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
- ncurses:
- 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
- Interface changes:
- + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
- getattrs
- + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
- of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
- others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
- changed to use the tic-library built separately.
-
- tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
- _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
- The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
- functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
- + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
- rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
- access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
- several internal functions.
- + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
- _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
- globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
- API, there is no ABI change.
- + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
- improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
- of the internal functions.
- Added extensions:
- + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
- details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
- is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
- otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
- is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
- is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
- + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
- global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
- obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
- the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
- + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
- (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
- function.
- Added internal functions:
- _nc_get_alias_table
- _nc_get_screensize
- _nc_keyname
- _nc_screen_of
- _nc_set_no_padding
- _nc_tracechar
- _nc_tracemouse
- _nc_unctrl
- _nc_ungetch
- These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
- ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
- using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
- _nc_free_and_exit
- _nc_leaks_tinfo
- Removed internal functions:
- none
- Modified internal functions:
- _nc_fifo_dump
- _nc_find_entry
- _nc_handle_sigwinch
- _nc_init_keytry
- _nc_keypad
- _nc_locale_breaks_acs
- _nc_timed_wait
- _nc_update_screensize
- Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
- _nc_add_to_try
- _nc_expand_try
- _nc_remove_key
- _nc_remove_string
- _nc_trace_tries
- 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
- Interface changes:
- + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
- getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
- getpary, getpary,
- and (for libncursesw)
- wgetbkgrnd
- Added extensions:
- nofilter()
- use_legacy_coding()
- Added internal functions:
- _nc_first_db
- _nc_get_source
- _nc_handle_sigwinch
- _nc_is_abs_path
- _nc_is_dir_path
- _nc_is_file_path
- _nc_keep_tic_dir
- _nc_keep_tic_dir
- _nc_last_db
- _nc_next_db
- _nc_read_termtype
- _nc_tic_dir
- Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
- _nc_db_close
- _nc_db_first
- _nc_db_get
- _nc_db_have_data
- _nc_db_have_index
- _nc_db_next
- _nc_db_open
- _nc_db_put
- otherwise
- _nc_hashed_db
- Removed internal functions:
- none
- Modified internal functions:
- _nc_add_to_try
- _nc_do_color
- _nc_expand_try
- _nc_remove_key
- _nc_setupscreen
- 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
- Interface changes:
- + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
- "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
- + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
- still use ncurses 4.2).
- + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
- initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
- still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
- compilers.
- + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
- Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
- FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
- that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
- and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
- data.
- + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
- libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
- is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
- ncurses library has a different size in each model.
- + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
- wide-character configuration.
- + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
- be called first.
- + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
- + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
- multicolumn characters.
- + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
- start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
- + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
- corresponds to the default-color.
- + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
- to an unsigned char.
- Added extensions:
- Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
- 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
- of mouse events.
- Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
- and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
- xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
- it changes the size of cchar_t.
- Added internal functions:
- _nc_check_termtype2
- _nc_resolve_uses2
- _nc_retrace_cptr
- _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
- _nc_retrace_void_ptr
- _nc_setup_term
- Removed internal functions:
- none
- Modified internal functions:
- _nc_insert_ch
- _nc_save_str
- _nc_trans_string
- 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
- Interface changes:
- + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
- These are only available if the library is configured using the
- --enable-widec option.
- pecho_wchar()
- slk_wset()
- + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
- getcurx(), etc.
- + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
- + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
- g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
- + change some interfaces to use const:
- define_key()
- mvprintw()
- mvwprintw()
- printw()
- vw_printw()
- winsnstr()
- wprintw()
- Added extensions:
- key_defined()
- Added internal functions:
- _nc_get_locale()
- _nc_insert_ch()
- _nc_is_charable() wide
- _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
- _nc_pathlast()
- _nc_to_char() wide
- _nc_to_widechar() wide
- _nc_tparm_analyze()
- _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
- _nc_unicode_locale()
- Removed internal functions:
- _nc_outstr()
- _nc_sigaction()
- Modified internal functions:
- _nc_remove_string()
- _nc_retrace_chtype()
- 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
- Interface changes:
- + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
- is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
- + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
- These are only available if the library is configured using the
- --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
- pecho_wchar()
- slk_wset()
- + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
- assume_default_colors() extension.
- Added extensions:
- is_term_resized()
- resize_term()
- Added internal functions:
- _nc_altcharset_name() debug
- _nc_reset_colors()
- _nc_retrace_bool() debug
- _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
- _nc_rootname()
- _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
- _nc_varargs() debug
- _nc_visbufn() debug
- _nc_wgetch()
- Removed internal functions:
- _nc_background()
- Modified internal functions:
- _nc_freeall() debug
- 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
- Interface changes:
- + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
- --with-ospeed configure option).
- 5.1 (July 8, 2000)
- Interface changes:
- + made the extended terminal capabilities
- (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
- be transparent to applications that do not require it.
- + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
- production library.
- + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
- with C++ STL.
- Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
- 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
- Interface changes:
- + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
- + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
- + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
- attr_t.
- + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
- parameter according to XSI.
- + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
- Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
- parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
- erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
- attr_get().
- Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
- Terminfo database changes:
- + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
- the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
- The problems are subtler in recent releases.
- a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
- terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
- we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
- applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
- the 5.0 library.
- a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
- --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
- entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
- is a bug in the older versions:
- + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
- arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
- specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
- extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
- entries.
- + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
- call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
- string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
- terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
- specified and obsolete or extended strings.
- + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
- 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
- set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
- the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
- + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
- and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
- When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
- causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
- terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
- past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
- library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
- initialize that terminal type.
- FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
- obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
- added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
- This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
- create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
- user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
- since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
- and are invisible to the older libraries.
- c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
- configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
- uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
- determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
- both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
- functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
- errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
- which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
- 4.2 (March 2, 1998)
- Interface changes:
- + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
- + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
- term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
- + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
- SVr4 headers.
- New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
- Terminfo database changes:
- + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
- rather than 'i'.
- 4.1 (May 15, 1997)
- We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
- configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
- X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
- The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
- most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
- and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
- colors in the latter.
- 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
- We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released dynamic loader
- (ld.so.1.8.5) on Linux did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
- versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
- REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
- 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
- This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
- changes:
- + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
- some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
- application's fallback for missing tparam().
- + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
- echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
- nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
- corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
- behave differently.
- + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
- available only as macros.
- + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
- + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
- has_color, immedok() and idcok().
- + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
- misspelled name.
- + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
- applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
- These changes were made to the terminfo database:
- + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
- We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
- mcprint().
- 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
- not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
- menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
- Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
- only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
- specification was available only in draft form.
- Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
- incorrect color scheme.
- IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
- ------------------------------
- Configuration and Installation:
- On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
- the configure script uses "/usr" as a default:
- Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin
- For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
- of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
- The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
- configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
- /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
- ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
- terminfo database.
- Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
- that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
- library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
- emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
- use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
- you recompile and relink them!).
- If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
- to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
- startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
- reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
- ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
- Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
- to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
- set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
- If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
- Keyboard Mapping:
- The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
- reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
- mappings that will set this up:
- keycode 15 = Tab Tab
- alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
- shift keycode 15 = F26
- string F26 ="\033[Z"
- Naming the Console Terminal
- In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
- console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
- complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
- terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
- be called `console'.
- Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
- in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
- terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
- in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
- term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
- conventions for choosing type names.
- Here are some recommended primary console names:
- linux -- Linux console driver
- freebsd -- FreeBSD
- netbsd -- NetBSD
- bsdos -- BSD/OS
- If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
- distribution, please either use the recommended name or get back
- to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
- that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
- RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
- ---------------------
- The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
- are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
- earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
- as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
- are unable to update your system.
- CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
- ----------------------------
- In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
- tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
- time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
- pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
- has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed.
- These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
- fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
- have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
- shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
- entry is accessible.
- By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
- built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
- (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
- ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. A configure script option
- --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
- names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
- If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
- would use the commands
- cd ncurses;
- tinfo/MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
- Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
- You can restore the default empty fallback list with
- tinfo/MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
- The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
- Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
- text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
- the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
- fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
- each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
- BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
- --------------------
- If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
- want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
- is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
- capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
- There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
- (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
- an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
- in the package README file.)
- The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
- --enable-termcap.
- ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
- If you are installing this application privately (either because you
- have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
- installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
- They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
- than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
- Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
- TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
- through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
- slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
- terminal type!
- The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
- database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
- in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
- that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
- faster) terminfo fetch.
- Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
- an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
- terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
- ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
- stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
- The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
- as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
- compilation is expensive).
- If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
- you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
- If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
- that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
- to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
- instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
- first time around.
- Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
- will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
- under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
- from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
- To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
- terminfo directory directly.
- ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
- USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
- AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
- can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
- with this by making tic use symbolic links.
- USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
- Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose
- Mouse) which is used on Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
- installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
- wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
- linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
- libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
- the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
- generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
- You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
- cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
- but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
- See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
- http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
- BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
- Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
- with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
- (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
- that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
- is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
- run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
- The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
- simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
- is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
- --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
- Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
- will be made if you use
- make sources
- This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
- support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
- Bourne-shell.
- When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
- "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
- install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
- option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
- "make install.data" portion.
- BUGS:
- Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
- bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
- bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
- subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
- The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
- on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.
- -- vile:txtmode
|