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freebsd/contrib/ncurses/INSTALL
Peter Wemm 7a69bbfb27 Import ncurses-5.2-20010512 onto the vendor branch 
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-- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.47 2000/11/05 01:57:24 tom Exp $
---------------------------------------------------------------------
How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
---------------------------------------------------------------------
************************************************************
* READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
************************************************************
You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
If you are a Linux or FreeBSD or NetBSD distribution integrator or packager,
please read and act on the section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR
below.
If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
If you are using a version of XFree86 xterm older than 3.1.2F, see the section
on RECENT XTERM VERSIONS below.
If you are trying to build GNU Emacs using ncurses for terminal support,
read the USING NCURSES WITH EMACS section below.
If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
CROSS-COMPILER.
If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
If you are using anything but (a) Linux, or (b) one of the 4.4BSD-based
i386 Unixes, go read the Portability section in the TO-DO file before you
do anything else.
REQUIREMENTS:
------------
You will need the following in order to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
* ANSI C compiler (gcc is recommended)
* 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 in subdirectories of /usr/local. Use
--prefix=/usr to replace your default curses distribution. This is the
default for Linux and BSD/OS users.
The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
reset, clear, tput, toe
In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
In $(prefix)/include: C header files
Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
Note however 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.
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 do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
Typing
./configure --with-shared
makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
If you want only shared libraries, type
./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on Linux
and SunOS with gcc, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
work on other systems.
If you have libtool installed, you can type
./configure --with-libtool
to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
platform using libtool.
You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
the test programs.
NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include
DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
'make install.includes' installs the headers.
'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
be installed before the terminfo data can be
compiled).
'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
############################################################################
# CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
# terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
# before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for #
# this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. #
############################################################################
The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
for some bizarre binary-compatibility reason, you'll need to distinguish
between it and ncurses. 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 BSD 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. _waddbytes is one of them.
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++.
7. If you're running an older Linux, you must either (a) tell Linux that the
console terminal type is `linux' or (b) make a link to or copy of the
linux entry in the appropriate place under your terminfo directory, named
`console'. All 1.3 and many 1.2 distributions (including Yggdrasil and
Red Hat) already have the console type set to `linux'.
The way to change the wired-in console type depends on the configuration
of your system. This may involve editing /etc/inittab, /etc/ttytype,
/etc/profile and other such files.
Warning: this is not for the fainthearted, if you mess up your console
getty entries you can make your system unusable! However, if you are
a distribution maker, this is the right thing to do (see the note for
integrators near the end of this file).
The easier way is to link or copy l/linux to c/console under your terminfo
directory. Note: this will go away next time you do `make install.data'
and you'll have to redo it. There is no need to have entries for all
possible screen sizes, ncurses will figure out the size automatically.
SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
----------------------------
The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
./configure --help
The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
--enable and --with options recognized:
The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
order.
--disable-assumed-color
With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
convention, using this configure option.
--disable-big-core
Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
--disable-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.
--disable-ext-funcs
Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
list of library modules that would be suppressed.
--disable-hashmap
Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
the default.
--disable-leaks
For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
--disable-macros
For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This makes a header file
"nomacros.h". See also the --enable-expanded option.
--disable-overwrite
If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
-lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
--disable-root-environ
Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
--disable-scroll-hints
Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
--enable-add-ons=DIR...
This is used to check if this package is a glibc add-on. This is used
only by the glibc makefiles.
--enable-assertions
For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
--enable-broken_linker
A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
changes several data references to functions to work around this
problem.
NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
problem.
--enable-bsdpad
Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
--enable-colorfgbg
Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
--enable-const
The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
in the interface, but at a lower level.
NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
fewer places.
--enable-echo
Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
to see the options that are used).
--enable-expanded
For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
--enable-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.
--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-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-rpath
Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and with some
restrictions when linking the corresponding programs. This applies
mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the manpage).
--enable-safe-sprintf
Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however.
--enable-sigwinch
Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
extended functions.
--enable-symlinks
If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
terminfo database.
--enable-tcap-names
Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
-x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
unless you have disabled the extended functions.
--enable-termcap
Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
and --enable-getcap-cache options.
--enable-warnings
Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
--enable-widec
Compile with experimental wide-character code. This makes a different
version of the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores
characters in 16-bits. We provide a simple UTF-8 driver and test
program to use this feature with terminals that can display UTF-8.
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
--enable-xmc-glitch
Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
--with-ada-compiler=CMD
Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
--with-ada-include=DIR
Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
--with-ada-objects=DIR
Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
--with-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.
--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-develop
Enable experimental/development options. This does not count those
that change the interface, such as --enable-widec.
--with-dmalloc
For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
--with-fallbacks=XXX
Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
--with-gpm
use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
Linux console.
--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.
NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
option probably will not work for those configurations.
--with-libtool
Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then
it overrides all other library model specifications.
--with-manpage-format=XXX
Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
attempts to determine which is the case.
--with-manpage-renames=XXX
Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is
the Linux Debian. The option value specifies the name of a file
that lists the renamed files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
--with-manpage-symlinks
Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
copying the man-page for each alias.
--with-manpage-tbl
Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
nroff.
--with-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-normal
Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
--with-profile
Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
e.g., libncurses_p.a
--with-rcs-ids
Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
--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.
--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-system-type=XXX
For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
script.
--with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
--with-termlib
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.
--without-ada
Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
Ada95 binding and related demo.
--without-curses-h
Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
accordingly.
--without-cxx
XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
"bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
--without-cxx-binding
Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
C++ binding and related demo.
--without-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".
COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
--------------------------------------------
Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change.
Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
the X/Open documentation.
Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
ncurses:
5.2 (October 21, 2000)
Interface changes:
+ revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
--with-ospeed configure option).
5.1 (July 8, 2000)
Interface changes:
+ made the extended terminal capabilities
(configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
be transparent to applications that do not require it.
+ removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
production library.
+ modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
with C++ STL.
Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
5.0 (October 23, 1999)
Interface changes:
+ implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
+ move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
+ corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
attr_t.
+ the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
parameter according to XSI.
+ modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
attr_get().
Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
Terminfo database changes:
+ change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
The problems are subtler in recent releases.
a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
the 5.0 library.
a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
--enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
is a bug in the older versions:
+ the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
entries.
+ a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
specified and obsolete or extended strings.
+ as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
+ the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
initialize that terminal type.
FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
and are invisible to the older libraries.
c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
4.2 (March 2, 1998)
Interface changes:
+ correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
+ add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
+ add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
SVr4 headers.
New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
Terminfo database changes:
+ corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
rather than 'i'.
4.1 (May 15, 1997)
We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
colors in the latter.
4.0 (December 24, 1996)
We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released dynamic loader
(ld.so.1.8.5) on Linux did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
changes:
+ remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
application's fallback for missing tparam().
+ turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
behave differently.
+ implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
available only as macros.
+ corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
+ corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
has_color, immedok() and idcok().
+ corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
misspelled name.
+ added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
These changes were made to the terminfo database:
+ removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
mcprint().
1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
specification was available only in draft form.
Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
incorrect color scheme.
IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
------------------------------
Beginning with 1.9.9, the ncurses distribution includes both a tset
utility and /usr/share/tabset directory. If you are installing ncurses,
it is no longer either necessary or desirable to install tset-jv.
Configuration and Installation:
Configure with --prefix=/usr to make the install productions put
libraries and headers in the correct locations (overwriting any
previous curses libraries and headers). This will put the terminfo
hierarchy under /usr/share/terminfo; you may want to override this with
--datadir=/usr/share/misc; terminfo and tabset are installed under the
data directory.
Please configure the ncurses library in a pure-terminfo mode; that
is, with the --disable-termcap option. This will make 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 option speeds up
termcap-based startups, at the expense of not allowing personal
termcap entries to reference the terminfo tree. See the code in
ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for 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 Linuxes (and possibly elsewhere) there has been a practice
of designating the system console driver type as `console'. Please
do not do this any more! It complicates peoples' lives, because it
can mean that several different terminfo entries from different
operating systems all logically want to be called `console'.
Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
conventions for choosing type names.
Here are some recommended primary console names:
linux -- Linux console driver
freebsd -- FreeBSD
netbsd -- NetBSD
bsdos -- BSD/OS
If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
distribution, please either use the recommended name or get back
to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
---------------------
The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
are running an XFree86 xterm based on X11R6 (i.e., xterm-r6). The
earlier X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided as well.
If you are running XFree86 version 3.2 (actually 3.1.2F and up), you
should consider using the xterm-xf86-v32 (or later, the most recent
version is always named "xterm-xfree86") entry, which adds ANSI color
and the VT220 capabilities which have been added in XFree86. If you
are running a mixed network, however, where this terminal description
may be used on an older xterm, you may have problems, since
applications that assume these capabilities will produce incorrect
output on the older xterm (e.g., highlighting is not cleared).
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.
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
MKfallback.sh. A configure script option --with-fallbacks does this
(it accepts a comma-separated list of the names you wish, and does
not require a rebuild).
If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
would use the commands
cd ncurses;
MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
You can restore the default empty fallback list with
MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
--------------------
If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
(If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
in the package README file.)
The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
--enable-termcap.
------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
If you are installing this application privately (either because you
have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid
slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
terminal type!
The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
faster) terminfo fetch.
Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
compilation is expensive).
If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
first time around.
Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
terminfo directory directly.
------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
with this by making tic use symbolic links.
USING NCURSES WITH EMACS:
GNU Emacs has its own termcap support. By default, it uses a mixture
of those functions and code linked from the host system's libraries.
You need to foil this and shut out the GNU termcap library entirely.
In order to do this, hack the Linux config file (s/linux.h) to contain
a #define TERMINFO and set the symbol LIBS_TERMCAP to "-lncurses".
We have submitted such a change for the 19.30 release, so it may
already be applied in your sources -- check for the #define TERMINFO.
USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
which is used on Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so (the BSD
curses) into the libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with
ncurses (specifically the wgetch function). 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.
A patched version of gpm is available:
dickey.his.com:/ncurses/gpm-1.10-970125.tar.gz
This patch is incorporated in gpm 1.12; however some integrators
are slow to update this library. Current distributions of gpm can
be configured properly using the --without-curses option.
BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
(e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
that are compiled into the ncurses library. You should set the
BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and run the
configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
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.
BUGS:
Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.
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