| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.135 2008/11/02 21:13:51 tom Exp $ |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| |
| ************************************************************ |
| * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. * |
| ************************************************************ |
| |
| You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where |
| d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories, |
| including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs', |
| and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package. |
| |
| If you are a Linux or FreeBSD or NetBSD distribution integrator or packager, |
| please read and act on the section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR |
| below. |
| |
| If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure |
| to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below. |
| |
| If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses, |
| read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below. |
| |
| If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on |
| USING NCURSES WITH AFS. |
| |
| If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A |
| CROSS-COMPILER. |
| |
| If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and |
| follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below. |
| |
| If you are using anything but (a) Linux, or (b) one of the 4.4BSD-based |
| i386 Unixes, go read the Portability section in the TO-DO file before you |
| do anything else. |
| |
| |
| REQUIREMENTS: |
| ------------ |
| |
| You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX: |
| |
| * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance) |
| * sh (bash will do) |
| * awk (mawk or gawk will do) |
| * sed |
| * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed) |
| |
| Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment. |
| |
| |
| INSTALLATION PROCEDURE: |
| ---------------------- |
| |
| 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in |
| which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel |
| with it. |
| |
| The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing |
| ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except |
| for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library, e.g., |
| Linux, the various BSD systems and Cygwin. Use --prefix=/usr to replace |
| your default curses distribution. |
| |
| The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows: |
| |
| In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset, |
| reset, clear, tput, toe |
| In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a |
| In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions |
| In $(prefix)/include: C header files |
| Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages |
| |
| Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of |
| ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the |
| ncurses headers. |
| |
| Do not use commands such as |
| |
| make install prefix=XXX |
| |
| to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used |
| for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this |
| |
| make install DESTDIR=XXX |
| |
| See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix. |
| |
| 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to |
| configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles. |
| Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize |
| the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options. |
| |
| If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in |
| the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration |
| file for your system. |
| |
| The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object |
| models and their associated libraries: |
| |
| libncurses.a (normal) |
| |
| libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a) |
| This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite. |
| |
| libncurses.so (shared) |
| |
| libncurses_g.a (debug) |
| |
| libncurses_p.a (profile) |
| |
| libncurses.la (libtool) |
| |
| If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the |
| library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support |
| wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files |
| are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character |
| features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character |
| library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character |
| version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly |
| recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on |
| Linux using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8. |
| |
| If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to |
| the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a). |
| |
| If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be |
| configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to: |
| |
| ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite |
| |
| Typing |
| |
| ./configure --with-shared |
| |
| makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in |
| |
| ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite |
| |
| If you want only shared libraries, type |
| |
| ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug |
| |
| Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice |
| of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on Linux |
| and SunOS with gcc, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries |
| work on other systems. |
| |
| If you have libtool installed, you can type |
| |
| ./configure --with-libtool |
| |
| to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your |
| platform using libtool. |
| |
| You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap |
| definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the |
| library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will |
| also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the |
| section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below. |
| |
| 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced. |
| This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1), |
| captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1) |
| programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test |
| programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries. |
| |
| 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to |
| verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that |
| may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on |
| the test programs. |
| |
| NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the |
| environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo |
| database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo |
| databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include |
| DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1). |
| |
| If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may |
| read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will |
| thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments |
| on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing. |
| |
| It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats. |
| A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps). |
| |
| The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library. |
| You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that |
| cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc. |
| |
| 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries, |
| the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you |
| can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the |
| top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands: |
| |
| 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc... |
| 'make install.includes' installs the headers. |
| 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers). |
| 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must |
| be installed before the terminfo data can be |
| compiled). |
| 'make install.man' installs the manual pages. |
| |
| ############################################################################ |
| # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing # |
| # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them # |
| # before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for # |
| # this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. # |
| ############################################################################ |
| |
| The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before |
| being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do |
| this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page |
| to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing |
| with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl. |
| |
| If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using |
| you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of |
| --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard |
| directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to |
| use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them. |
| |
| If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally |
| compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of |
| undefined symbols at link time. |
| |
| IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory |
| and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things |
| about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree, |
| so you can use ncurses applications. |
| |
| If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate |
| trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system- |
| wide terminfo tree instead. |
| |
| See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details. |
| |
| 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and |
| panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can |
| compile and run the demo. |
| |
| Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings |
| and demo. |
| |
| If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell |
| the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool' |
| which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT |
| YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++. |
| |
| |
| SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS: |
| ---------------------------- |
| |
| The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type |
| |
| ./configure --help |
| |
| The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are |
| generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line |
| |
| --enable and --with options recognized: |
| |
| The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic |
| order. |
| |
| --disable-assumed-color |
| With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors() |
| which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and |
| background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use |
| full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the |
| assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(), |
| you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1 |
| convention, using this configure option. |
| |
| --disable-big-core |
| Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to |
| determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the |
| terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators |
| return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure |
| script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine. |
| |
| --disable-big-strings |
| Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts |
| all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation |
| overhead. |
| |
| --disable-database |
| Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo |
| and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a |
| built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may |
| have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the |
| programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus |
| infocmp and tic. |
| |
| --disable-ext-funcs |
| Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions |
| that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact |
| list of library modules that would be suppressed. |
| |
| --disable-hashmap |
| Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is |
| the default. |
| |
| --disable-home-terminfo |
| The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search |
| list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is |
| more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this |
| option to disable the feature altogether. |
| |
| --disable-largefile |
| Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces. |
| |
| --disable-leaks |
| For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not |
| be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks. |
| |
| Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with |
| a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available |
| for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of |
| memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze |
| curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build |
| a debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks |
| which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free |
| the remainder on exit. The ncurses utility and test programs use this |
| feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro. |
| |
| --disable-lp64 |
| The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype |
| and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for |
| compatibility with older releases). |
| |
| NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing |
| packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses |
| ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6. |
| |
| --disable-macros |
| For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run |
| more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS |
| at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option. |
| |
| --disable-overwrite |
| If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another |
| development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader |
| for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to |
| -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses. |
| Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be |
| installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses, |
| rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid |
| compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h |
| |
| --disable-relink |
| If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will |
| rebuild the libraries during install. Use this option to simply |
| copy whatever the linked produced. |
| |
| This option is ignored if --enable-rpath is not given. |
| |
| --disable-root-environ |
| Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables |
| are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid |
| application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the |
| search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized. |
| |
| --disable-scroll-hints |
| Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when |
| hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default. |
| |
| --disable-tic-depends |
| When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to |
| depend upon the ncurses library (and in turn, on the term-library if |
| the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and term-libraries |
| ABI does not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have |
| used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged |
| by using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly, |
| the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the |
| ncurses (or ncursesw) library. Use this configure option to do that. |
| For example |
| configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends |
| |
| --disable-tparm-varargs |
| Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter |
| list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this |
| function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support. |
| |
| --enable-assertions |
| For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few |
| places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code. |
| |
| --enable-broken_linker |
| A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link |
| objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those |
| files, but requires a function reference. This configure option |
| changes several data references to functions to work around this |
| problem. |
| |
| NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are |
| told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a |
| different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have |
| explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the |
| problem. |
| |
| --enable-bsdpad |
| Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as |
| nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays. |
| |
| --enable-colorfgbg |
| Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable |
| is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by |
| advertising the default foreground and background colors. During |
| initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this. |
| |
| --enable-const |
| The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact |
| including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do |
| not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or |
| gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch |
| between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which |
| changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and |
| reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses |
| library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const, |
| and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual |
| warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies |
| in the interface, but at a lower level. |
| |
| NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the |
| portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in |
| places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar |
| issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even |
| fewer places. |
| |
| --enable-echo |
| Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by |
| suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes |
| it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n" |
| to see the options that are used). |
| |
| --enable-expanded |
| For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible |
| as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option. |
| |
| --enable-ext-colors |
| Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be |
| encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec) |
| configuration. |
| |
| NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary- |
| compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but |
| applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled. |
| |
| --enable-ext-mouse |
| Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button. |
| That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or |
| similar X terminal emulators. |
| |
| NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary- |
| compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but |
| applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled. |
| |
| --enable-getcap |
| Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to |
| fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make |
| cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading |
| /etc/termcap. |
| |
| If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses |
| the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools. |
| In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache |
| option. |
| |
| See also the --with-hashed-db option. |
| |
| --enable-getcap-cache |
| Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo |
| |
| NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time. |
| But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of |
| entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and |
| forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses |
| application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that |
| generally does not support color and will miss some function keys. |
| |
| --enable-hard-tabs |
| Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make |
| this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry |
| may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use |
| of tabs. |
| |
| --enable-mixed-case |
| Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides |
| supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other |
| systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script |
| checks the current filesystem. |
| |
| --enable-no-padding |
| Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable, |
| which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in |
| terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the |
| extended functions. |
| |
| --enable-reentrant |
| Compile experimental configuration which improves reentrant use of the |
| library by reducing global and static variables. This option is also |
| set if --with-pthread is used. |
| |
| --enable-rpath |
| Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some |
| restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally |
| (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the |
| manpage). |
| |
| More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment |
| shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside |
| in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While |
| you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH |
| environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since |
| the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation. |
| |
| This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes |
| extra assumptions about rpath. |
| |
| --enable-safe-sprintf |
| Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using |
| this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither |
| vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however. |
| |
| --enable-sigwinch |
| Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has |
| its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses |
| handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size |
| changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the |
| extended functions. |
| |
| --enable-signed-char |
| The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it |
| stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed. |
| Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this |
| is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this |
| alteration without patching the source code. |
| |
| --enable-symlinks |
| If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links |
| rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the |
| terminfo database. |
| |
| --enable-tcap-names |
| Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the |
| -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal |
| capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default, |
| unless you have disabled the extended functions. |
| |
| --enable-termcap |
| Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no |
| match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap |
| and --enable-getcap-cache options. |
| |
| --enable-warnings |
| Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few. |
| |
| --enable-weak-symbols |
| If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports |
| weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without |
| the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for |
| dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows |
| one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses. |
| |
| --enable-wgetch-events |
| Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ |
| |
| --enable-widec |
| Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of |
| the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as |
| wide-characters, |
| |
| NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible |
| with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a |
| symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so |
| |
| NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the |
| ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the |
| same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does |
| not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is |
| probably better to not install the binding for that configuration. |
| |
| --enable-xmc-glitch |
| Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code. |
| |
| --with-abi-version=NUM |
| Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames. |
| Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have |
| special requirements for compatibility. |
| |
| This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the |
| release major/minor numbers. |
| |
| --with-ada-compiler=CMD |
| Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake") |
| |
| --with-ada-include=DIR |
| Tell where to install the Ada includes (default: |
| PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude) |
| |
| --with-ada-objects=DIR |
| Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib) |
| |
| --with-bool=TYPE |
| If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool" |
| declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to |
| correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific |
| sizes). |
| |
| --with-build-cc=XXX |
| If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to |
| compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses. |
| If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the |
| $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc. |
| |
| --with-build-cflags=XXX |
| If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need |
| to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the |
| host compiler. |
| |
| You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than |
| use this option. |
| |
| --with-build-cppflags=XXX |
| If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might |
| need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse |
| the host compiler. |
| |
| You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than |
| use this option. |
| |
| --with-build-ldflags=XXX |
| If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to |
| do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host |
| compiler. |
| |
| You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than |
| use this option. |
| |
| --with-build-libs=XXX |
| If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if |
| the target environment requires unusual libraries. |
| |
| You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than |
| use this option. |
| |
| --with-caps=XXX |
| Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the |
| configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g., |
| AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo |
| data, but use different alignments within the tables to support |
| legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses |
| to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native |
| applications. |
| |
| --with-chtype=TYPE |
| Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if |
| --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this |
| was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned. |
| Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit |
| executables. |
| |
| --with-database=XXX |
| Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish |
| to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems |
| have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo |
| source file. |
| |
| --with-dbmalloc |
| For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library. |
| This also sets the --disable-leaks option. |
| |
| --with-debug |
| Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g" |
| to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a |
| |
| --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX |
| Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally |
| DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo. |
| |
| --with-dmalloc |
| For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library. |
| This also sets the --disable-leaks option. |
| |
| --with-fallbacks=XXX |
| Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be |
| compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES. |
| |
| --with-gpm |
| use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the |
| Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on |
| the GPM library. |
| |
| Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at |
| runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when |
| ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the |
| corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option, |
| e.g., |
| |
| --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so |
| |
| that overrides the configure check for the soname. |
| |
| See also --without-dlsym |
| |
| --with-hashed-db[=XXX] |
| Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing |
| each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory |
| tree. |
| |
| In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as |
| provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual |
| interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the |
| Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using |
| "--enable-compat185". |
| |
| If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able |
| to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read |
| entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the |
| hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO |
| variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree |
| or hashed database respectively. |
| |
| You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and |
| filesystem-based terminfo entries. |
| |
| Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the |
| datbase, e.g., |
| --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase |
| to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the |
| given directory. |
| |
| See also the --enable-getcap option. |
| |
| --with-install-prefix=XXX |
| Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses |
| after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real" |
| install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The |
| makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible |
| to use |
| make install DESTDIR=XXX |
| since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes. |
| |
| NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this |
| option probably will not work for those configurations. |
| |
| --with-libtool[=XXX] |
| Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it |
| overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool |
| must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make, |
| and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of |
| other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared |
| option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option. |
| |
| If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the |
| particular version of libtool, e.g., |
| /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3 |
| |
| It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake |
| macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in |
| aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure |
| using the appropriate patch for autoconf from |
| http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/ |
| |
| --with-manpage-aliases |
| Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the |
| man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the |
| functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable |
| it if your man program does this. You can also disable |
| --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command |
| rather than symbolic links. |
| |
| --with-manpage-format=XXX |
| Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The |
| option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal, |
| formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script |
| attempts to determine which is the case. |
| |
| --with-manpage-renames=XXX |
| Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while |
| installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is |
| the Linux Debian. The option value specifies the name of a file |
| that lists the renamed files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames |
| |
| --with-manpage-symlinks |
| Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the |
| man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but |
| can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing |
| this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in |
| copying the man-page for each alias. |
| |
| --with-manpage-tbl |
| Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages |
| by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by |
| nroff. |
| |
| --with-mmask-t=TYPE |
| Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to |
| ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it |
| may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility |
| with 64-bit executables. |
| |
| --with-normal |
| Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default). |
| |
| Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM |
| library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable |
| this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use |
| GPM. |
| |
| --with-ospeed=TYPE |
| Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap |
| compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works |
| for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed |
| but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13. |
| However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to |
| 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as |
| compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function |
| cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice, |
| applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e., |
| those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application |
| (or system, in general) may or may not. |
| |
| --with-profile |
| Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root, |
| e.g., libncurses_p.a |
| |
| --with-pthread |
| Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and |
| use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support |
| for multithreaded applications. |
| |
| --with-rcs-ids |
| Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier. |
| |
| --with-rel-version=NUM |
| Override the release version, which may be used in shared library |
| filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated |
| by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI |
| version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility. |
| |
| --with-shared |
| Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for |
| which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with |
| symbolic links that refer to the release version. |
| |
| NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS |
| environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging |
| option. |
| |
| NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of |
| ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses |
| shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker. |
| For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's |
| copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it |
| loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries. In that |
| case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it sets |
| $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g., |
| ./misc/shlib make install |
| |
| --with-shlib-version=XXX |
| Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries. |
| This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system |
| which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script. |
| |
| --with-sysmouse |
| use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console. |
| |
| --with-system-type=XXX |
| For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to |
| decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared |
| libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of |
| system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure |
| script. |
| |
| --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX |
| Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled |
| into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo) |
| |
| --with-termlib[=XXX] |
| When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the |
| curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library |
| (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only |
| the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total. |
| |
| If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo |
| library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the |
| terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface |
| is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay |
| libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with |
| this option. |
| |
| --with-termpath=XXX |
| Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the |
| ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap) |
| |
| --with-ticlib[=XXX] |
| When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for |
| the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally |
| those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries. |
| |
| If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic |
| library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the |
| "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so |
| |
| NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are |
| also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are |
| not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting |
| library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic |
| library. |
| |
| --with-trace |
| Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses |
| library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only. |
| |
| --with-valgrind |
| For testing, compile with debug option. |
| This also sets the --disable-leaks option. |
| |
| --without-ada |
| Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the |
| Ada95 binding and related demo. |
| |
| --without-curses-h |
| Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather, |
| install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages |
| accordingly. |
| |
| --without-cxx |
| XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares |
| "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both |
| insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the |
| configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed) |
| that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use |
| ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not |
| adjust ncurses bool to match C++. |
| |
| --without-cxx-binding |
| Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the |
| C++ binding and related demo. |
| |
| --without-develop |
| Disable development options. This does not include those that change |
| the interface, such as --enable-widec. |
| |
| --without-dlsym |
| Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically. |
| |
| --without-progs |
| Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application |
| programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you |
| type "make", though not if you simply do "make install". |
| |
| --without-xterm-new |
| Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in |
| the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as |
| X11R5 and X11R6 xterm. |
| |
| |
| COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES: |
| -------------------------------------------- |
| |
| Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface |
| is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change. |
| Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences |
| between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as |
| Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not |
| addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with |
| the X/Open documentation. |
| |
| Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which |
| you may encounter when building a system with different versions of |
| ncurses: |
| |
| 5.7 (November 2, 2008) |
| Interface changes: |
| |
| + generate linkable stubs for some macros: |
| getattrs |
| |
| + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion |
| of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some |
| others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be |
| changed to use the tic-library built separately. |
| |
| tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal |
| _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file. |
| |
| The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the |
| functions in it are suitable for threaded applications. |
| |
| + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides |
| rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque |
| access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to |
| several internal functions. |
| |
| + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks |
| _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were |
| globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented |
| API, there is no ABI change. |
| |
| + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to |
| improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some |
| of the internal functions. |
| |
| Added extensions: |
| |
| + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal |
| details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This |
| is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional |
| otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok, |
| is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout, |
| is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg. |
| |
| + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of |
| global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for |
| obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by |
| the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize |
| |
| + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex |
| (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied |
| function. |
| |
| Added internal functions: |
| _nc_get_alias_table |
| _nc_get_screensize |
| _nc_keyname |
| _nc_screen_of |
| _nc_set_no_padding |
| _nc_tracechar |
| _nc_tracemouse |
| _nc_unctrl |
| _nc_ungetch |
| |
| These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for |
| ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that |
| using the --disable-leaks configure script option: |
| |
| _nc_free_and_exit |
| _nc_leaks_tinfo |
| |
| Removed internal functions: |
| none |
| |
| Modified internal functions: |
| _nc_fifo_dump |
| _nc_find_entry |
| _nc_handle_sigwinch |
| _nc_init_keytry |
| _nc_keypad |
| _nc_locale_breaks_acs |
| _nc_timed_wait |
| _nc_update_screensize |
| |
| Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries": |
| |
| _nc_add_to_try |
| _nc_expand_try |
| _nc_remove_key |
| _nc_remove_string |
| _nc_trace_tries |
| |
| 5.6 (December 17, 2006) |
| Interface changes: |
| |
| + generate linkable stubs for some macros: |
| |
| getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx, |
| getpary, getpary, |
| |
| and (for libncursesw) |
| |
| wgetbkgrnd |
| |
| Added extensions: |
| nofilter() |
| use_legacy_coding() |
| |
| Added internal functions: |
| _nc_first_db |
| _nc_get_source |
| _nc_handle_sigwinch |
| _nc_is_abs_path |
| _nc_is_dir_path |
| _nc_is_file_path |
| _nc_keep_tic_dir |
| _nc_keep_tic_dir |
| _nc_last_db |
| _nc_next_db |
| _nc_read_termtype |
| _nc_tic_dir |
| |
| Also (if using the hashed database configuration): |
| |
| _nc_db_close |
| _nc_db_first |
| _nc_db_get |
| _nc_db_have_data |
| _nc_db_have_index |
| _nc_db_next |
| _nc_db_open |
| _nc_db_put |
| |
| otherwise |
| |
| _nc_hashed_db |
| |
| Removed internal functions: |
| none |
| |
| Modified internal functions: |
| _nc_add_to_try |
| _nc_do_color |
| _nc_expand_try |
| _nc_remove_key |
| _nc_setupscreen |
| |
| 5.5 (October 10, 2005) |
| Interface changes: |
| |
| + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than |
| "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6). |
| |
| + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems |
| still use ncurses 4.2). |
| |
| + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing |
| initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are |
| still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old |
| compilers. |
| |
| + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data. |
| Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the |
| FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since |
| that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer() |
| and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field |
| data. |
| |
| + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that |
| libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this |
| is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level |
| ncurses library has a different size in each model. |
| |
| + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the |
| wide-character configuration. |
| |
| + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors() |
| be called first. |
| |
| + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters. |
| |
| + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or |
| multicolumn characters. |
| |
| + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started. |
| start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory. |
| |
| + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it |
| corresponds to the default-color. |
| |
| + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond |
| to an unsigned char. |
| |
| Added extensions: |
| Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons |
| 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding |
| of mouse events. |
| |
| Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground |
| and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or |
| xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because |
| it changes the size of cchar_t. |
| |
| Added internal functions: |
| _nc_check_termtype2 |
| _nc_resolve_uses2 |
| _nc_retrace_cptr |
| _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr |
| _nc_retrace_void_ptr |
| _nc_setup_term |
| |
| Removed internal functions: |
| none |
| |
| Modified internal functions: |
| _nc_insert_ch |
| _nc_save_str |
| _nc_trans_string |
| |
| 5.4 (February 8, 2004) |
| Interface changes: |
| |
| + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support. |
| These are only available if the library is configured using the |
| --enable-widec option. |
| pecho_wchar() |
| slk_wset() |
| |
| + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(), |
| getcurx(), etc. |
| |
| + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h |
| |
| + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for |
| g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses. |
| |
| + change some interfaces to use const: |
| define_key() |
| mvprintw() |
| mvwprintw() |
| printw() |
| vw_printw() |
| winsnstr() |
| wprintw() |
| |
| Added extensions: |
| key_defined() |
| |
| Added internal functions: |
| _nc_get_locale() |
| _nc_insert_ch() |
| _nc_is_charable() wide |
| _nc_locale_breaks_acs() |
| _nc_pathlast() |
| _nc_to_char() wide |
| _nc_to_widechar() wide |
| _nc_tparm_analyze() |
| _nc_trace_bufcat() debug |
| _nc_unicode_locale() |
| |
| Removed internal functions: |
| _nc_outstr() |
| _nc_sigaction() |
| |
| Modified internal functions: |
| _nc_remove_string() |
| _nc_retrace_chtype() |
| |
| 5.3 (October 12, 2002) |
| Interface changes: |
| |
| + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually |
| is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'. |
| |
| + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support. |
| These are only available if the library is configured using the |
| --enable-widec option. Missing functions are |
| pecho_wchar() |
| slk_wset() |
| |
| + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the |
| assume_default_colors() extension. |
| |
| Added extensions: |
| is_term_resized() |
| resize_term() |
| |
| Added internal functions: |
| _nc_altcharset_name() debug |
| _nc_reset_colors() |
| _nc_retrace_bool() debug |
| _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug |
| _nc_rootname() |
| _nc_trace_ttymode() debug |
| _nc_varargs() debug |
| _nc_visbufn() debug |
| _nc_wgetch() |
| |
| Removed internal functions: |
| _nc_background() |
| |
| Modified internal functions: |
| _nc_freeall() debug |
| |
| 5.2 (October 21, 2000) |
| Interface changes: |
| |
| + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the |
| --with-ospeed configure option). |
| |
| 5.1 (July 8, 2000) |
| Interface changes: |
| |
| + made the extended terminal capabilities |
| (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should |
| be transparent to applications that do not require it. |
| |
| + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the |
| production library. |
| |
| + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict |
| with C++ STL. |
| |
| Added extensions: assume_default_colors(). |
| |
| 5.0 (October 23, 1999) |
| Interface changes: |
| |
| + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions. |
| |
| + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat |
| |
| + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than |
| attr_t. |
| |
| + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void* |
| parameter according to XSI. |
| |
| + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open |
| Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different |
| parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled: |
| erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used |
| attr_get(). |
| |
| Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version(). |
| |
| Terminfo database changes: |
| |
| + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is |
| the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'. |
| |
| The problems are subtler in recent releases. |
| |
| a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own |
| terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this, |
| we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few |
| applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with |
| the 5.0 library. |
| |
| a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure |
| --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some |
| entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This |
| is a bug in the older versions: |
| |
| + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in |
| arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are |
| specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and |
| extended names which are stored past the end of the specified |
| entries. |
| |
| + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek() |
| call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the |
| string array. This happens when the number of strings in the |
| terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of |
| specified and obsolete or extended strings. |
| |
| + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the |
| 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities: |
| set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for |
| the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2. |
| |
| + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu |
| and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm. |
| |
| When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek() |
| causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the |
| terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters |
| past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The |
| library rejects the data, and applications are unable to |
| initialize that terminal type. |
| |
| FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are |
| obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was |
| added to xterm to make it more like hpterm). |
| |
| This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to |
| create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the |
| user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug, |
| since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends, |
| and are invisible to the older libraries. |
| |
| c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the |
| configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone |
| uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test |
| determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since |
| both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses |
| functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution |
| errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding" |
| which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed. |
| |
| 4.2 (March 2, 1998) |
| Interface changes: |
| |
| + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2. |
| |
| + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(), |
| term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2. |
| |
| + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in |
| SVr4 headers. |
| |
| New extensions: keyok() and define_key(). |
| |
| Terminfo database changes: |
| |
| + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I' |
| rather than 'i'. |
| |
| 4.1 (May 15, 1997) |
| |
| We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added |
| configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where |
| X/Open should have, but did not, specify. |
| |
| The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for |
| most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab |
| and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue |
| colors in the latter. |
| |
| 4.0 (December 24, 1996) |
| |
| We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released dynamic loader |
| (ld.so.1.8.5) on Linux did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL |
| versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the |
| REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent. |
| |
| 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996) |
| |
| This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface |
| changes: |
| |
| + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with |
| some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with |
| application's fallback for missing tparam(). |
| |
| + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the |
| echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than |
| nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other |
| corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to |
| behave differently. |
| |
| + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were |
| available only as macros. |
| |
| + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros). |
| |
| + corrected prototypes for delay_output(), |
| has_color, immedok() and idcok(). |
| |
| + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the |
| misspelled name. |
| |
| + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact |
| applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs. |
| |
| These changes were made to the terminfo database: |
| |
| + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name. |
| |
| We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and |
| mcprint(). |
| |
| 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996) |
| |
| not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and |
| menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen). |
| Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly |
| only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open |
| specification was available only in draft form. |
| |
| Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the |
| incorrect color scheme. |
| |
| |
| IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR: |
| ------------------------------ |
| |
| Configuration and Installation: |
| |
| On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib, |
| the configure script uses "/usr" as a default: |
| |
| Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin |
| |
| For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion |
| of the "--disable-overwrite" option. |
| |
| The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir" |
| configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of |
| /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing |
| ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the |
| terminfo database. |
| |
| Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode; |
| that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses |
| library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap |
| emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that |
| use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing |
| you recompile and relink them!). |
| |
| If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish |
| to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based |
| startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to |
| reference the terminfo tree. See comments in |
| ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details. |
| |
| Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value |
| to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will |
| set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry. |
| If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap. |
| |
| Keyboard Mapping: |
| |
| The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48 |
| reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d |
| mappings that will set this up: |
| |
| keycode 15 = Tab Tab |
| alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab |
| shift keycode 15 = F26 |
| string F26 ="\033[Z" |
| |
| Naming the Console Terminal |
| |
| In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system |
| console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It |
| complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different |
| terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to |
| be called `console'. |
| |
| Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up |
| in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the |
| terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included |
| in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the |
| term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on |
| conventions for choosing type names. |
| |
| Here are some recommended primary console names: |
| |
| linux -- Linux console driver |
| freebsd -- FreeBSD |
| netbsd -- NetBSD |
| bsdos -- BSD/OS |
| |
| If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these |
| distribution, please either use the recommended name or get back |
| to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature |
| that will make users' lives easier rather than harder. |
| |
| |
| RECENT XTERM VERSIONS: |
| --------------------- |
| |
| The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you |
| are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The |
| earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided |
| as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you |
| are unable to update your system. |
| |
| |
| CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES: |
| ---------------------------- |
| |
| In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo |
| tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation |
| time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of |
| pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which |
| has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed. |
| |
| These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional |
| fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured) |
| have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not |
| shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that |
| entry is accessible. |
| |
| By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have |
| built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list |
| (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script |
| ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. A configure script option |
| --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the |
| names you wish, and does not require a rebuild). |
| |
| If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you |
| would use the commands |
| |
| cd ncurses; |
| tinfo/MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c |
| |
| Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally. |
| You can restore the default empty fallback list with |
| |
| tinfo/MKfallback.sh >fallback.c |
| |
| The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function. |
| Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable |
| text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in |
| the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the |
| fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that |
| each one will cost about 2.5K of text space. |
| |
| |
| BSD CONVERSION NOTES: |
| -------------------- |
| |
| If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably |
| want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does |
| is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a |
| capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds. |
| There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50"). |
| |
| (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of |
| an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section |
| in the package README file.) |
| |
| The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with |
| --enable-termcap. |
| |
| ------------------------------- CUT HERE -------------------------------- |
| |
| If you are installing this application privately (either because you |
| have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root |
| installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of. |
| They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather |
| than termcap for describing terminal characteristics. |
| |
| Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your |
| TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference |
| through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid |
| slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per |
| terminal type! |
| |
| The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap |
| database, the library initialization code will automatically write it |
| in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After |
| that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much |
| faster) terminfo fetch. |
| |
| Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow |
| an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with |
| terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone |
| ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly |
| stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant. |
| |
| The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap |
| as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap |
| compilation is expensive). |
| |
| If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file, |
| you can skip the rest of this dissertation. |
| |
| If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file |
| that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible |
| to this application after the first time you run it, because it will |
| instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the |
| first time around. |
| |
| Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file |
| will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry |
| under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled |
| from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked. |
| |
| To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the |
| terminfo directory directly. |
| |
| ------------------------------- CUT HERE -------------------------------- |
| |
| USING NCURSES WITH AFS: |
| AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you |
| can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes |
| with this by making tic use symbolic links. |
| |
| USING NCURSES WITH GPM: |
| Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose |
| Mouse) which is used on Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly |
| installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses |
| wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified |
| linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the |
| libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically |
| the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but |
| generally whatever curses library exists on the system. |
| |
| You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows: |
| |
| cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses |
| |
| but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors. |
| See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option: |
| |
| http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib |
| |
| BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER |
| Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built |
| with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs |
| (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables |
| that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do |
| is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and |
| run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler. |
| |
| The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this |
| simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it |
| is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as |
| --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness. |
| |
| Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses |
| will be made if you use |
| |
| make sources |
| |
| This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little |
| support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and |
| Bourne-shell. |
| |
| When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use |
| "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an |
| install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks |
| option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the |
| "make install.data" portion. |
| |
| BUGS: |
| Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at |
| bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to |
| bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads: |
| subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here> |
| |
| The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines |
| on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly. |
| |
| -- vile:txtmode |