Install-Notes for NCURSES

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ncurses/

INSTALL

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Copyright 2018-2023,2024 Thomas E. Dickey -- -- Copyright 1998-2017,2018 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 1.257 2024/08/10 17:43:39 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 'README' for a roadmap to the package. If you are a distribution integrator or packager, please read and act on the section titled FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS 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 GPM section below. If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING 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. 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 (see "FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS"). 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, tabs 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 various systems 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 several systems, 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. 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). 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. 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. # ############################################################################ 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++. 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., tset and tput versus infocmp and tic. --disable-db-install Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features for packages, as done with --without-progs. --disable-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). --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-gnat-projects Disable GNAT projects even if usable, for testing old makefile rules. --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 and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro. Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_" prefix. --disable-lib-suffixes Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options. --disable-libtool-version when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers are used for constructing the library name. The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard build using --with-shared. Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature. This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515. Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used for libtool. --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 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses header would be included using #include <ncurses/curses.h> #include <ncurses/term.h> while the ncursesw headers would be found this way: #include <ncursesw/curses.h> #include <ncursesw/term.h> In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option), almost all applications are designed to include a related set of curses header files from the same directory. Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good way to break builds. When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files' embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly. Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all, or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file. In addition to the curses library, a system may provide its own versions of the add-on libraries (form, menu, panel), which would not be compatible with ncurses. These options allow you to rename ncurses' add-on libraries to avoid conflicts when linking: --with-form-libname=XXX --with-menu-libname=XXX --with-panel-libname=XXX Rather than renaming them arbitrarily, a prefix or suffix is recommended. An "n" prefix provides consistency with ncurses versus curses, i.e., --with-form-libname=nform --with-menu-libname=nmenu --with-panel-libname=npanel --disable-pkg-ldflags Omit options in $LDFLAGS and $EXTRA_LDFLAGS from the pkg-config ".pc" and corresponding ncurses*-config script which normally are listed via the "--libs" option. These options are normally used to facilitate linking to ncurses when it was configured to use the rpath feature. See also --enable-rpath and --disable-rpath-hack. --disable-relink If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will rebuild shared libraries during install. Use this option to simply copy whatever the linker produced. Static libraries cannot simply be copied because tools use timestamps to determine if the library's symbol table is up to date. If your install program supports the "-p" (preserve timestamp) option, that is used when --disable-relink is given, to avoid rebuilding the symbol table. Finally, some tools ignore the subsecond timestamps supported by some filesystems. This option adds a 1-second sleep to help those tools avoid unnecessary relinking during the install process. --disable-root-access Compile with environment restriction, so most file-access is limited when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid application. --disable-root-environ Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables are not available when running as root. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized. Disabling the root environment variables also disables the setuid environment variables by default. Use the --disable-setuid-environ option to modify this behavior. --disable-rpath-hack Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option to suppress the feature. --disable-scroll-hints Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default. --disable-stripping Do not strip installed executables. --disable-setuid-environ Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables are not available when running 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. A setuid/setgid application inherits its environment variables from the current user, in contrast to sudo which may limit the environment variables that ncurses uses. --disable-tic-depends When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library ABIs do 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 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). 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 programs written using the BSD curses API use tputs("50") to implement delays. --enable-check-size Compile-in feature to detect screensize for terminals which do not advertise their screensize, e.g., serial terminals. --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-expanded For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option. --enable-exp-win32 When configuring for MinGW, use the experimental Windows 10 driver. --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-ext-putwin Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by calling applications). --enable-fvisibility Use the gcc "-fvisibility=hidden" option to make symbols which are not explicitly exported, "hidden". Doing this may reduce the number of symbols exported in the C++ binding; it should have less effect on the C libraries when symbol-versioning is used. --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-install-prefix Extend the --with-install-prefix feature to replace the prefix value with $DESTDIR rather than simply prepending $DESTDIR to install pathnames. This works with any "make" which supports AT&T style variable substitution. --enable-interop Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types for the form-library. --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-opaque-curses --enable-opaque-form --enable-opaque-menu --enable-opaque-panel Define symbol in curses.h controlling whether some library structures are opaque, meaning that their members are accessible only via the documented API. The --enable-opaque-curses option may be overridden by the --enable-reentrant option. Enabling opaque-curses enables opaque for the form, menu, and panel libraries. Use their corresponding options to disable the feature individually. NOTE: beginning with ncurses 6.5 this option is enabled by default; older versions disable it by default. --enable-pc-files If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library directory. --enable-pthreads-eintr add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH. --enable-reentrant Compile configuration which improves reentrant use of the library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also set if --with-pthread is used. Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also 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, and is used only on very old systems which lack vsnprintf(). --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-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-sp-funcs Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer, reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and delscreen(). --enable-stdnoreturn When enabled, check if the <stdnoreturn.h> header exists, and if found define GCC_NORETURN to _Noreturn rather than either the gcc-specific __attribute__((noreturn)) or an empty token. Doing this may require calling programs which use GCC_NORETURN in their own function definitions to be modified, because _Noreturn is only accepted as the first token in a declaration. --enable-string-hacks Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function is weakly standardized. Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement in ncurses. --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-term-driver Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo library with different terminal drivers. --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. Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage dependencies. --enable-warnings Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few. --enable-wattr-macros The 6.0 ABI adds support for extended colors and for extended mouse. The former is a noticeable problem when developers inadvertently compile using the ncurses6 header files and link with an ncurses5 library, because the wattr* macros use a new field in the WINDOW structure. These macros are used in several applications. Since ncurses provides an actual function for each of these macros, suppressing them from the curses.h header allows the ncurses5 libraries to be used in most applications. NOTE: The extended colors also are used in the cchar_t structure, but fewer applications use that. NOTE: This workaround does not help with mismatches in the ncurses mouse version. The extended mouse feature uses one less fewer bit for each button, so that only the first button will work as expected with a mismatch between header and library. Again, most applications will work, since most use only the first button. --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 (2023/10/21) 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. NOTE: beginning with ncurses 6.5 this option is enabled by default; older versions disable it by default. --enable-xmc-glitch Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code. --with-abi-altered=NUM Override the displayed (rather than compiled-in) ABI. Only packagers who have created configurations where the ABI differs from ncurses should be interested in this option. --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-libname=NAME Override the name of the Ada binding (default: "AdaCurses") --with-ada-objects=DIR Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib) --with-ada-sharedlib Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits. NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library. --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-cpp=XXX This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc., but is not directly used by ncurses. --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-ccharw-max=XXX Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures. Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5. --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, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure script supplies "unsigned"). --with-config-suffix=XXX Specify an suffix for "ncurses*" in the ncurses*-config filename to work around conflicts with packages. The suffix is placed before the dash. --with-cxx-libname=NAME Override the basename of the ncurses++ library (default: "ncurses++") --with-cxx-shared When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library. This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are built. libtool by the way has similar limitations. --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-export-syms[=XXX] Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the symbols which are part of the ABI. --with-extra-suffix[=XXX] Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given. --with-fallbacks=XXX Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES. See also "--with-tic-path" and "--with-infocmp-path". --with-form-libname=NAME Override the basename of the form library (default: "form") --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 database, e.g., --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf name, e.g., --with-hashed-db=db4 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as /usr/include/db4/db.h /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so See also the --enable-getcap option. --with-infocmp-path[=XXX] Use this option to override the automatic detection of infocmp in your $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks"). --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-lib-prefix=XXX OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that convention. Use this option to override the configure script's assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms. --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 https://invisible-island.net/autoconf/ --with-libtool-opts=XXX Allow user to pass additional libtool options into the library creation and link steps. The main use for this is to do something like ./configure --with-libtool-opts=-static to get the same behavior as automake-flavored ./configure --enable-static --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 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 wish to preprocess the manpages by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by nroff. --with-menu-libname=NAME Override the basename of the menu library (default: "menu") --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-panel-libname=NAME Override the basename of the panel library (default: "panel") --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX If ".pc" files are installed (see --enable-pc-files), optionally add a suffix to the files and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations. If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added. --with-pcre2 Add PCRE2 (Perl-compatible regular expressions v2) to the build if it is available and the user requests it. Assume the application will otherwise use the POSIX interface. This is useful for MinGW builds because the usual POSIX interface is not supplied by the development environment, while ncurses' form library uses a regular expression feature for one of the field types. --with-pkg-config[=CMD] Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its pathname. --with-pkg-config-libdir[=DIR] If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library path. The optional DIR value can be "auto", automatically use pkg-config's library directory, or "libdir", use a ${libdir}/pkgconfig (based on the configuration), or a directory path, i.e., beginning with "/". The configure script allows only a single directory, because that is used as the directory in which to install ".pc" files. The automatic check for the library path prefers the first directory which currently exists. If none of the directories listed by pkg-config exist, the check prefers a pkgconfig directory under the "libdir" set by the configure script (which may not be the system default), or if pkg-config lists nothing suitable, the first one which is listed by pkg-config is used. --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 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The configure script allows you to modify this list using the RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script). If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory. NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the Ada binding use appropriate compiler options. --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-strip-program=XXX When stripping executables during install, use the specified program rather than "strip". --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) This is a colon-separated list, like the $TERMINFO_DIRS environment variable. --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-tic-path[=XXX] Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks"). --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-tparm-arg[=XXX] Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time tparm's interface was defined. If the option is not given, this defaults to "long". --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. --with-versioned-syms[=XXX] The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the resulting objects with version identifiers. Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations. The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map" file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ: a) comments are not accepted b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*". c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another. The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files were generated using a set of scripts which built several configurations for each release version, checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations. In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's value. --with-wrap-prefix=XXX When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables. --with-x11-rgb=FILE Provide a pathname for the X11 rgb file, used by the picsmap program. This overrides a configure check which usually works, but is needed due to the lack of standardization for X11's files. --with-xterm-kbs=XXX Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL (or del, 127). If XXX is "auto", the configure script chooses BS or DEL according to platform defaults. During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs" terminfo entry to use this setting. --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. Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage. --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-tests Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test programs. --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 RELEASES: --------------------------------- Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, 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 largely correspond to X/Open (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: 6.5 (Apt 27, 2024) Interface changes: + the WINDOW structure and some related internal data types declared in <curses.h> have been made opaque by default; + the FORM, MENU, and PANEL structures and related internal data types from their corresponding header files have been made opqaue by default; and + support for wide characters is now enabled by default. Added extensions: + is_cbreak, is_echo, is_nl, and is_raw, as well as "_sp" variants + tiparm_s and tiscan_s Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants): + _nc_env_access Removed internal functions: + none Modified internal functions: + These now pass a const parameter: _nc_delink_entry, _nc_str_copy, and _nc_trans_string 6.4 (Dec 31, 2022) Interface changes: + none Added extensions: + none Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants): + add _nc_free_termtype1 and _nc_free_tparm, for memory-leaks Removed internal functions: + none Modified internal functions: + none 6.3 (Oct 21, 2021) Interface changes: + the definition of TERMTYPE2 is now internal, not visible in the ABI, like the enclosing TERMINAL which was previously made opaque. This was done to provide SCREEN-specific "static" variables in terminfo. Added extensions: + add sp-funcs for erasewchar, killwchar. Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants): + _nc_safe_fopen and _nc_safe_open3 limit privileges if possible when opening a file; otherwise disallow access for updating files. + _nc_tiparm is a variant of tiparm which is used when all of the parameters are known to be numbers rather than possibly strings. + _nc_reset_tparm improves tic's checks by resetting the terminfo "static variables" before calling functions which may update them. Removed internal functions: + none Modified internal functions: + _nc_trace_ttymode passes pointer to const data + _nc_tparm_analyze passes pointer to int*, not int[] 6.2 (Feb 12, 2020) Interface changes: + the terminal database must be compiled with ncurses 6.2 tic; older versions of tic/infocmp will not work. Aside from that, the compiled database will work with older applications. + "*.pc" and "ncurses*-config" files give the same information. + vwprintw and vwscanw are deprecated. Added extensions: + These make it simpler to substitute a debug-configuration of the library for non-debug: curses_trace exit_curses exit_terminfo Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants): + These provide fast-lookup of common user-defined capabilities: _nc_find_user_entry _nc_get_userdefs_table _nc_get_hash_user + This is added to work around compiler-warnings: _nc_fmt_funcptr Removed internal functions: + _nc_import_termtype Modified internal functions: + _nc_reserve_pairs no longer returns a value 6.1 (Jan 27, 2018) Interface changes: + X/Open Curses specifies a "reserved" void* parameter in several functions, saying that it must be NULL. In this release, if the parameter is non-NULL, it is interpreted as a point to an integer containing a color pair. In previous releases, a non-NULL parameter caused an error return. Portable applications are unaffected. Here are the functions which have been extended: attr_get attr_off attr_on attr_set chgat color_set mvchgat mvwchgat slk_attr_off slk_attr_on slk_attr_set wattr_get wattr_on wattr_off wattr_set wchgat wcolor_set + the TERMINAL structure declared in <term.h> has been made opaque, and its size increased to handle the increased size of color pair and color value, as well as other numeric capabilities. A few applications required change, e.g., to use def_prog_mode; only one application (tack) is known to have a valid reason for accessing these internal details, and that was addressed by the release of tack 1.08 in 2017. Internal functions marked as used by tack will be deprecated in future releases. Added extensions: + Several new functions were added to manipulate extended color pairs and color values. These include: alloc_pair extended_color_content extended_pair_content extended_slk_color find_pair free_pair init_extended_color init_extended_pair reset_color_pairs as well as corresponding sp-functions. + A new terminfo capability "RGB" tells the ncurses library that the color values are red/green/blue, to eliminate the need for palettes in that special case for the color_content function. Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants): _nc_copy_termtype2 _nc_export_termtype2 _nc_fallback2 _nc_find_prescr _nc_forget_prescr _nc_free_termtype2 _nc_read_entry2 _nc_write_object Removed internal functions: _nc_check_termtype _nc_resolve_uses Modified internal functions: + symbols are used by tic/infocmp/toe: _nc_align_termtype - change parameters to TERMTYPE2* _nc_check_termtype2 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2* _nc_read_file_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2* _nc_read_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2* _nc_trim_sgr0 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2* _nc_write_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2* + symbols used only within the library: _nc_fallback - change return type to TERMTYPE2* _nc_init_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2* 6.0 (Aug 08, 2015) Interface changes: + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options: --enable-const --enable-ext-colors --enable-ext-mouse --enable-ext-putwin --enable-interop --enable-lp64 --enable-sp-funcs --with-chtype=uint32_t --with-mmask_t=uint32_t --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols. + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output when switching between printf's and (curses) printw. Added extensions: + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature. Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants): _nc_init_termtype _nc_mvcur _nc_putchar _nc_setenv_num _nc_trace_mmask_t Removed internal functions: none Modified internal functions: _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int 5.9 (Apr 04, 2011) 5.8 (Feb 26, 2011) Interface changes: + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other platforms. + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp". By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise functionally identical with the originals. In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel, new_prescr. If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there are no related interface changes. + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7. + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function Added extensions: + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature: get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants): _nc_curscr_of _nc_format_slks _nc_get_alias_table _nc_get_hash_info _nc_insert_wch _nc_newscr_of _nc_outc_wrapper _nc_retrace_char _nc_retrace_int_attr_t _nc_retrace_mmask_t _nc_setup_tinfo _nc_stdscr_of _nc_tinfo_cmdch Removed internal functions: _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp) Modified internal functions: _nc_UpdateAttrs _nc_get_hash_table _nc_has_mouse _nc_insert_ch _nc_wgetch 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 Linux dynamic loader (ld.so.1.8.5) 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. FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS: ---------------------- Configuration and Installation: On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib, the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases: FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW 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 is 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 distributions, 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. MODERN 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. NOTE: This must be done on a machine which has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as ncurses' tic and infocmp programs). That is because the fallback sources are generated and compiled into the library before the build-tree's copy of infocmp is available. 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. The 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 might use the commands cd ncurses; tinfo/MKfallback.sh \ $TERMINFO \ ../misc/terminfo.src \ `which tic` \ `which infocmp` \ linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c The first four parameters of the script are normally supplied by the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They are 1) the location of the terminfo database 2) the source for the terminfo entries 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo database. 4) the location of the infocmp program, used to print a terminfo description. Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally. You can restore the default empty fallback list with tinfo/MKfallback.sh \ $TERMINFO \ ../misc/terminfo.src \ `which tic` \ `which infocmp` \ >fallback.c The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function. Any non-empty fallback list is const'd and therefore lives in shareable 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 can interpret your TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing down your application startup, it does this only 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 GPM: --------- Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse) which is used with 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: https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib BUILDING 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. The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database, even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should be from the most current version of ncurses. NOTE: the system's tic program may use a different terminfo database format than the target system. For instance, as described in term(5), the conventional terminfo layout uses a directory hierarchy with one letter names, while some platforms use two-letter names to work with case-insensitive filesystems. The configure script searches for a tic program using the AC_CHECK_TOOL macro, which will prefer programs using the canonical host prefix in their name. You can use this fact to provide a cross-compiler support utility tic, otherwise you can override the configure script's choice using --with-tic-path BUG REPORTS: ----------- 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 fc=78

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REQUIREMENTS
INSTALLATION PROCEDURE
CONFIGURE OPTIONS
COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER RELEASES
FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATORS
MODERN XTERM VERSIONS
CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES
BSD CONVERSION NOTES
USING GPM
BUILDING WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
BUG REPORTS