xref: /freebsd/contrib/ncurses/INSTALL (revision adeb92a24c57f97d5cd3c3c45be239cbb23aed68)
1-- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.47 2000/11/05 01:57:24 tom Exp $
2---------------------------------------------------------------------
3             How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
4---------------------------------------------------------------------
5
6    ************************************************************
7    * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
8    ************************************************************
9
10You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
11d.d is the current version number.  There should be several subdirectories,
12including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
13and `test'.  See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
14
15If you are a Linux or FreeBSD or NetBSD distribution integrator or packager,
16please read and act on the section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR
17below.
18
19If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
20to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
21
22If you are using a version of XFree86 xterm older than 3.1.2F, see the section
23on RECENT XTERM VERSIONS below.
24
25If you are trying to build GNU Emacs using ncurses for terminal support,
26read the USING NCURSES WITH EMACS section below.
27
28If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
29read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
30
31If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
32USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
33
34If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
35CROSS-COMPILER.
36
37If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
38follow the instructions there.  The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
39
40If you are using anything but (a) Linux, or (b) one of the 4.4BSD-based
41i386 Unixes, go read the Portability section in the TO-DO file before you
42do anything else.
43
44
45REQUIREMENTS:
46------------
47
48You will need the following in order to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
49
50	* ANSI C compiler  (gcc is recommended)
51	* sh               (bash will do)
52	* awk              (mawk or gawk will do)
53	* sed
54	* BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
55
56Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
57
58
59INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
60----------------------
61
621.  First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
63    which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
64    with it.
65
66    The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
67    ncurses.  The default is in subdirectories of /usr/local.  Use
68    --prefix=/usr to replace your default curses distribution.  This is the
69    default for Linux and BSD/OS users.
70
71    The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
72
73    In $(prefix)/bin:          tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
74				reset, clear, tput, toe
75    In $(prefix)/lib:          libncurses*.* libcurses.a
76    In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
77    In $(prefix)/include:      C header files
78    Under $(prefix)/man:       the manual pages
79
80    Note however that the configure script attempts to locate previous
81    installation of ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where
82    it finds the ncurses headers.
83
842.  Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
85    configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
86    Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
87    the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
88
89    If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
90    the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
91    file for your system.
92
93    The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
94    models and their associated libraries:
95
96	libncurses.a (normal)
97
98	libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
99		This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
100
101	libncurses.so (shared)
102
103	libncurses_g.a (debug)
104
105	libncurses_p.a (profile)
106
107	libncurses.la (libtool)
108
109    If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
110    configured.  Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
111
112	./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
113
114    Typing
115
116	./configure --with-shared
117
118    makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
119
120	./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
121
122    If you want only shared libraries, type
123
124	./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
125
126    Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
127    of host system and compiler.  We've been testing shared libraries on Linux
128    and SunOS with gcc, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
129    work on other systems.
130
131    If you have libtool installed, you can type
132
133	./configure --with-libtool
134
135    to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
136    platform using libtool.
137
138    You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
139    definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap.  If you do this, the
140    library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
141    also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable.  See the
142    section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
143
1443.  Type `make'.  Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
145    This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
146    captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
147    programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
148    programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
149
1504.  Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
151    verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
152    may overwrite system files.  Read the file test/README for details on
153    the test programs.
154
155    NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
156    environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
157    database before running the test programs.  Not all vendors' terminfo
158    databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.  Exceptions include
159    DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
160
161    The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
162    You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
163    cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
164
1655.  Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
166    the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages.  Alternately, you
167    can type `make install' in each directory you want to install.  In the
168    top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
169
170	'make install.progs'    installs tic, infocmp, etc...
171	'make install.includes' installs the headers.
172	'make install.libs'     installs the libraries (and the headers).
173	'make install.data'     installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
174				be installed before the terminfo data can be
175				compiled).
176	'make install.man'      installs the manual pages.
177
178  ############################################################################
179  #     CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing     #
180  #  terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them  #
181  #  before you install ncurses.  I have a file called terminfo.custom for   #
182  #  this purpose.  Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done.    #
183  ############################################################################
184
185    The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
186    being formatted by nroff(1).  Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
187    this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
188    to be sure.  You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
189    with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
190
191    If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
192    for some bizarre binary-compatibility reason, you'll need to distinguish
193    between it and ncurses. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
194    directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need
195    to use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
196
197    If you have BSD curses installed in your system and you accidentally
198    compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
199    undefined symbols at link time. _waddbytes is one of them.
200
201    IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
202    and run the `capconvert' script.  This script will deduce various things
203    about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
204    so you can use ncurses applications.
205
206    If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
207    trees is wasted.  Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
208    wide terminfo tree instead.
209
210    See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
211
2126.  The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
213    panels.  You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
214    compile and run the demo.
215
216    Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
217    and demo.
218
219    If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
220    the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
221    which may be supported by C++.  IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
222    YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
223
2247.  If you're running an older Linux, you must either (a) tell Linux that the
225    console terminal type is `linux' or (b) make a link to or copy of the
226    linux entry in the appropriate place under your terminfo directory, named
227    `console'.  All 1.3 and many 1.2 distributions (including Yggdrasil and
228    Red Hat) already have the console type set to `linux'.
229
230    The way to change the wired-in console type depends on the configuration
231    of your system. This may involve editing /etc/inittab, /etc/ttytype,
232    /etc/profile and other such files.
233
234    Warning: this is not for the fainthearted, if you mess up your console
235    getty entries you can make your system unusable!  However, if you are
236    a distribution maker, this is the right thing to do (see the note for
237    integrators near the end of this file).
238
239    The easier way is to link or copy l/linux to c/console under your terminfo
240    directory.  Note: this will go away next time you do `make install.data'
241    and you'll have to redo it. There is no need to have entries for all
242    possible screen sizes, ncurses will figure out the size automatically.
243
244
245SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
246----------------------------
247
248    The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
249
250	./configure --help
251
252    The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
253    generated with autoconf.  Those are all listed before the line
254
255	--enable and --with options recognized:
256
257    The other options are specific to this package.  We list them in alphabetic
258    order.
259
260    --disable-assumed-color
261	With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
262	which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
263	background color are assumed to be.  Most color applications use
264	full-screen color; but a few do not color the background.  While the
265	assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
266	you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
267	convention, using this configure option.
268
269    --disable-big-core
270	Assume machine has little memory.  The configure script attempts to
271	determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
272	terminfo database without writing portions to disk.  Some allocators
273	return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
274	script.  Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
275
276    --disable-database
277	Use only built-in data.  The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
278	and termcap data from disk.  You can configure ncurses to have a
279	built-in database, aka "fallback" entries.  Embedded applications may
280	have no need for an external database.
281
282    --disable-ext-funcs
283	Disable function-extensions.  Configure ncurses without the functions
284	that are not specified by XSI.  See ncurses/modules for the exact
285	list of library modules that would be suppressed.
286
287    --disable-hashmap
288	Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code.  This algorithm is
289	the default.
290
291    --disable-leaks
292	For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
293	be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
294
295    --disable-macros
296	For testing, use functions rather than macros.  The program will run
297	more slowly, but it is simpler to debug.  This makes a header file
298	"nomacros.h".  See also the --enable-expanded option.
299
300    --disable-overwrite
301	If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
302	development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
303	for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
304	-lcurses.  The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
305	Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
306	installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
307	rather than the include directory.  This makes it simpler to avoid
308	compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
309
310    --disable-root-environ
311	Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
312	are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
313	application.  These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
314	search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
315
316    --disable-scroll-hints
317	Compile without scroll-hints code.  This option is ignored when
318	hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
319
320    --enable-add-ons=DIR...
321	This is used to check if this package is a glibc add-on.  This is used
322	only by the glibc makefiles.
323
324    --enable-assertions
325	For testing, compile-in assertion code.  This is used only for a few
326	places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
327
328    --enable-broken_linker
329	A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker:  it cannot link
330	objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
331	files, but requires a function reference.  This configure option
332	changes several data references to functions to work around this
333	problem.
334
335	NOTE:  With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
336	told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
337	different type of reference which behaves as described above.  We have
338	explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
339	problem.
340
341    --enable-bsdpad
342	Recognize BSD-style prefix padding.  Some ancient BSD programs (such as
343	nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
344
345    --enable-colorfgbg
346	Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code.  That environment variable
347	is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
348	advertising the default foreground and background colors.  During
349	initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
350
351    --enable-const
352	The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
353	including features that precede ANSI C.  The prototypes generally do
354	not make effective use of "const".  When using stricter compilers (or
355	gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
356	between const and non-const data.  We provide a configure option which
357	changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
358	reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely.  The ncurses
359	library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
360	and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
361	warning.  There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
362	in the interface, but at a lower level.
363
364	NOTE:  configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
365	portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
366	places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them.  Similar
367	issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
368	fewer places.
369
370    --enable-echo
371	Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
372	suppressing the display of the compile and link commands.  This makes
373	it easier to see the compiler warnings.  (You can always use "make -n"
374	to see the options that are used).
375
376    --enable-expanded
377	For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
378	as such to the debugger.  See also the --disable-macros option.
379
380    --enable-getcap
381	Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
382	fetch termcap entries.  Entries read in this way cannot use (make
383	cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
384	/etc/termcap.
385
386    --enable-getcap-cache
387	Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
388
389	NOTE:  this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
390	But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
391	entries that are not up to date.  If you configure with this option and
392	forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
393	application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
394	generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
395
396    --enable-hard-tabs
397	Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs.  We would make
398	this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
399	may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
400	of tabs.
401
402    --enable-no-padding
403	Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
404	which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
405	terminfo entries.  This is the default, unless you have disabled the
406	extended functions.
407
408    --enable-rpath
409	Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and with some
410	restrictions when linking the corresponding programs.  This applies
411	mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the manpage).
412
413    --enable-safe-sprintf
414	Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code.  You may consider using
415	this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
416	vsnprintf() or vsprintf().  It is slow, however.
417
418    --enable-sigwinch
419	Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler.  If your application has
420	its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own.  The ncurses
421	handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
422	changes.  This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
423	extended functions.
424
425    --enable-symlinks
426	If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
427	rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
428	terminfo database.
429
430    --enable-tcap-names
431	Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities.  Use the
432	-x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
433	capabilities as user-defined strings.  This option is the default,
434	unless you have disabled the extended functions.
435
436    --enable-termcap
437	Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
438	match is found in the terminfo database.  See also the --enable-getcap
439	and --enable-getcap-cache options.
440
441    --enable-warnings
442	Turn on GCC compiler warnings.  There should be only a few.
443
444    --enable-widec
445	Compile with experimental wide-character code.  This makes a different
446	version of the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores
447	characters in 16-bits.  We provide a simple UTF-8 driver and test
448	program to use this feature with terminals that can display UTF-8.
449
450	NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
451	with those built for 8-bit characters.  You cannot simply make a
452	symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
453
454    --enable-xmc-glitch
455	Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
456
457    --with-ada-compiler=CMD
458	Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
459
460    --with-ada-include=DIR
461	Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
462	PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
463
464    --with-ada-objects=DIR
465	Tell where to install the Ada objects (default:  PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
466
467    --with-database=XXX
468	Specify the terminfo source file to install.  Usually you will wish
469	to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src).  Certain systems
470	have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
471	source file.
472
473    --with-dbmalloc
474	For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
475
476    --with-debug
477	Generate debug-libraries (default).  These are named by adding "_g"
478	to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
479
480    --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
481	Specify the default terminfo database directory.  This is normally
482	DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
483
484    --with-develop
485	Enable experimental/development options.  This does not count those
486	that change the interface, such as --enable-widec.
487
488    --with-dmalloc
489	For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
490
491    --with-fallbacks=XXX
492	Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
493	compiled into the ncurses library.  See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
494
495    --with-gpm
496	use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
497	Linux console.
498
499    --with-install-prefix=XXX
500	Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
501	after building it.  The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
502	install location.  This simplifies making binary packages.
503
504	NOTE:  a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
505	option probably will not work for those configurations.
506
507     --with-libtool
508	Generate libraries with libtool.  If this option is selected, then
509	it overrides all other library model specifications.
510
511    --with-manpage-format=XXX
512	Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages.  The
513	option value must be one of these:  gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
514	formatted.  If you do not give this option, the configure script
515	attempts to determine which is the case.
516
517    --with-manpage-renames=XXX
518	Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
519	installing.  Currently the only distribution which does this is
520	the Linux Debian.  The option value specifies the name of a file
521	that lists the renamed files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
522
523    --with-manpage-symlinks
524	Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
525	man-directory for aliases to the man-pages.  This is the default, but
526	can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically.  Doing
527	this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
528	copying the man-page for each alias.
529
530    --with-manpage-tbl
531	Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages
532	by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
533	nroff.
534
535    --with-ospeed=TYPE
536	Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
537	compatibility interface.  In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
538	for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
539	but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
540	However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
541	38400bd.  A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
542	compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
543	cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason).  In practice,
544	applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
545	those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds.  Your application
546	(or system, in general) may or may not.
547
548    --with-normal
549	Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
550
551    --with-profile
552	Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
553	e.g., libncurses_p.a
554
555    --with-rcs-ids
556	Compile-in RCS identifiers.  Most of the C files have an identifier.
557
558    --with-shared
559	Generate shared-libraries.  The names given depend on the system for
560	which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
561	symbolic links that refer to the release version.
562
563	NOTE:  Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
564	environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
565	option.
566
567    --with-shlib-version=XXX
568	Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
569	This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
570	which you are building on.  We use it for testing the configure script.
571
572    --with-system-type=XXX
573	For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
574	decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
575	libraries.  This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
576	system which you are building on.  We use it for testing the configure
577	script.
578
579    --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
580	Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
581	into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
582
583    --with-termlib
584	When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts:  the
585	curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
586	(libtinfo).  This is done to accommodate applications that use only
587	the latter.  The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
588
589    --without-ada
590	Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
591	Ada95 binding and related demo.
592
593    --without-curses-h
594	Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h".  Rather,
595	install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
596	accordingly.
597
598    --without-cxx
599	XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface.  C++ also declares
600	"bool".  Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
601	insist on the same name.  We chose to accommodate this by making the
602	configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
603	that your C++ compiler uses for booleans.  If you do not wish to use
604	ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
605	adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
606
607    --without-cxx-binding
608	Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
609	C++ binding and related demo.
610
611    --without-progs
612	Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
613	programs (e.g., tic).  The test applications will still be built if you
614	type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
615
616
617COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
618--------------------------------------------
619
620    Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
621    is fairly stable.  That does not mean the interface does not change.
622    Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
623    between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
624    Solaris).  We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
625    addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
626    the X/Open documentation.
627
628    Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
629    you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
630    ncurses:
631
632    5.2 (October 21, 2000)
633	Interface changes:
634
635	+ revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
636	  --with-ospeed configure option).
637
638    5.1 (July 8, 2000)
639	Interface changes:
640
641	+ made the extended terminal capabilities
642	  (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature.  This should
643	  be transparent to applications that do not require it.
644
645	+ removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
646	  production library.
647
648	+ modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
649	  with C++ STL.
650
651	Added extensions:  assume_default_colors().
652
653    5.0 (October 23, 1999)
654	Interface changes:
655
656	+ implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
657
658	+ move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
659
660	+ corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
661	  attr_t.
662
663	+ the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
664	  parameter according to XSI.
665
666	+ modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
667	  Curses:  [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
668	  parameters.  Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
669	  erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr().  Some developers have used
670	  attr_get().
671
672	Added extensions:  keybound(), curses_version().
673
674	Terminfo database changes:
675
676	+ change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
677	  the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
678
679	The problems are subtler in recent releases.
680
681	a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
682	   terminal capability extensions, like termcap.  To accomplish this,
683	   we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h).  Very few
684	   applications use this struct.  They must be recompiled to work with
685	   the 5.0 library.
686
687	a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
688	   --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
689	   entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses.  This
690	   is a bug in the older versions:
691
692	   + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
693	     arrays.  The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
694	     specified by X/Open.  ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
695	     extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
696	     entries.
697
698	   + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
699	     call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
700	     string array.  This happens when the number of strings in the
701	     terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
702	     specified and obsolete or extended strings.
703
704	   + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
705	     990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
706	     set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch).  This makes the indices for
707	     the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
708
709	   + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
710	     and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
711
712	     When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
713	     causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
714	     terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
715	     past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few.  The
716	     library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
717	     initialize that terminal type.
718
719	   FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description.  They are
720	   obsolete, not used by ncurses.  (It appears that the feature was
721	   added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
722
723	   This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
724	   create a terminfo database with extended names.  Note that the
725	   user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
726	   since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
727	   and are invisible to the older libraries.
728
729	c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
730	   configure --without-cxx option.  This causes problems if someone
731	   uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
732	   determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
733	   both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool.  Calling ncurses
734	   functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
735	   errors.  In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
736	   which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
737
738    4.2 (March 2, 1998)
739	Interface changes:
740
741	+ correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
742
743	+ add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
744	  term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
745
746	+ add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
747	  SVr4 headers.
748
749	New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
750
751	Terminfo database changes:
752
753	+ corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
754	  rather than 'i'.
755
756    4.1 (May 15, 1997)
757
758	We added these extensions:  use_default_colors().  Also added
759	configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
760	X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
761
762	The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
763	most entries that use ANSI colors.  SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
764	and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
765	colors in the latter.
766
767    4.0 (December 24, 1996)
768
769	We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released dynamic loader
770	(ld.so.1.8.5) on Linux did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
771	versions were inconsistent.  At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
772	REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
773
774    1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
775
776	This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
777	changes:
778
779	+ remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
780	  some termcap.  tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
781	  application's fallback for missing tparam().
782
783	+ turn off hardware echo in initscr().  This changes the sense of the
784	  echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
785	  nonechoing (the latter is specified).  There were several other
786	  corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
787	  behave differently.
788
789	+ implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
790	  available only as macros.
791
792	+ corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
793
794	+ corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
795	  has_color, immedok() and idcok().
796
797	+ corrected misspelled getbkgd().  Some applications used the
798	  misspelled name.
799
800	+ added _yoffset to WINDOW.  The size of WINDOW does not impact
801	  applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
802
803	These changes were made to the terminfo database:
804
805	+ removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
806
807	We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
808	mcprint().
809
810    1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
811
812	not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
813	menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
814	Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
815	only on a black background.  When this was released, the X/Open
816	specification was available only in draft form.
817
818	Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
819	incorrect color scheme.
820
821
822IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
823------------------------------
824
825    Beginning with 1.9.9, the ncurses distribution includes both a tset
826    utility and /usr/share/tabset directory.  If you are installing ncurses,
827    it is no longer either necessary or desirable to install tset-jv.
828
829    Configuration and Installation:
830
831	Configure with --prefix=/usr to make the install productions put
832	libraries and headers in the correct locations (overwriting any
833	previous curses libraries and headers).  This will put the terminfo
834	hierarchy under /usr/share/terminfo; you may want to override this with
835	--datadir=/usr/share/misc; terminfo and tabset are installed under the
836	data directory.
837
838	Please configure the ncurses library in a pure-terminfo mode; that
839	is, with the --disable-termcap option.   This will make the ncurses
840	library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
841	emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications
842	that use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win
843	(providing you recompile and relink them!).
844
845	If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also
846	wish to use the --enable-getcap option.  This option speeds up
847	termcap-based startups, at the expense of not allowing personal
848	termcap entries to reference the terminfo tree.  See the code in
849	ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for details.
850
851	Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
852	to locate termcap data.  In particular, running from xterm will
853	set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
854	If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
855
856    Keyboard Mapping:
857
858	The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
859	reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I.  Here are the loadkeys -d
860	mappings that will set this up:
861
862		keycode	 15 = Tab	      Tab
863			alt     keycode  15 = Meta_Tab
864			shift	keycode  15 = F26
865		string F26 ="\033[Z"
866
867    Naming the Console Terminal
868
869	In various Linuxes (and possibly elsewhere) there has been a practice
870	of designating the system console driver type as `console'.  Please
871	do not do this any more!  It complicates peoples' lives, because it
872	can mean that several different terminfo entries from different
873	operating systems all logically want to be called `console'.
874
875	Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
876	in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent.  Send the entry to the
877	terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
878	in the terminfo file, if it's not already there.  See the
879	term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
880	conventions for choosing type names.
881
882	Here are some recommended primary console names:
883
884		linux	-- Linux console driver
885		freebsd	-- FreeBSD
886		netbsd	-- NetBSD
887		bsdos	-- BSD/OS
888
889	If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
890	distribution, please either use the recommended name or get back
891	to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
892	that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
893
894
895RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
896---------------------
897
898	The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
899	are running an XFree86 xterm based on X11R6 (i.e., xterm-r6).  The
900	earlier X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided as well.
901
902	If you are running XFree86 version 3.2 (actually 3.1.2F and up), you
903	should consider using the xterm-xf86-v32 (or later, the most recent
904	version is always named "xterm-xfree86") entry, which adds ANSI color
905	and the VT220 capabilities which have been added in XFree86.  If you
906	are running a mixed network, however, where this terminal description
907	may be used on an older xterm, you may have problems, since
908	applications that assume these capabilities will produce incorrect
909	output on the older xterm (e.g., highlighting is not cleared).
910
911
912CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
913----------------------------
914
915	In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
916	tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
917	time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
918	pre-fetched fallback entries.
919
920	These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
921	fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
922	have been tried and failed.  Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
923	shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
924	entry is accessible.
925
926	By default, there are no entries on the fallback list.  After you
927	have built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change
928	the list (the process needs infocmp(1)).  To do so, use the script
929	MKfallback.sh.  A configure script option --with-fallbacks does this
930	(it accepts a comma-separated list of the names you wish, and does
931	not require a rebuild).
932
933	If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
934	would use the commands
935
936		cd ncurses;
937		MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
938
939	Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
940	You can restore the default empty fallback list with
941
942		MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
943
944	The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
945	Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
946	text space.  You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
947	the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
948	fallbacks.  A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
949	each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
950
951
952BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
953--------------------
954
955	If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
956	want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option.  What this does
957	is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
958	capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
959	There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
960
961	(If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
962	an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
963	in the package README file.)
964
965	The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
966	--enable-termcap.
967
968------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
969
970If you are installing this application privately (either because you
971have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
972installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
973They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
974than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
975
976Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
977TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
978through it, and the system termcap file.  However, in order to avoid
979slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
980terminal type!
981
982The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
983database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
984in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo.  After
985that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
986faster) terminfo fetch.
987
988Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
989an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
990terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them.  If anyone
991ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
992stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
993
994The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
995as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
996compilation is expensive).
997
998If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
999you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
1000
1001If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
1002that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
1003to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
1004instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
1005first time around.
1006
1007Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
1008will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
1009under $HOME/terminfo.  If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
1010from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
1011
1012To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
1013terminfo directory directly.
1014
1015------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
1016
1017USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
1018	AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
1019	can't hard-link across them.  The --enable-symlinks option copes
1020	with this by making tic use symbolic links.
1021
1022USING NCURSES WITH EMACS:
1023	GNU Emacs has its own termcap support.  By default, it uses a mixture
1024	of those functions and code linked from the host system's libraries.
1025	You need to foil this and shut out the GNU termcap library entirely.
1026
1027	In order to do this, hack the Linux config file (s/linux.h) to contain
1028	a #define TERMINFO and set the symbol LIBS_TERMCAP to "-lncurses".
1029
1030	We have submitted such a change for the 19.30 release, so it may
1031	already be applied in your sources -- check for the #define TERMINFO.
1032
1033USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
1034	Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
1035	which is used on Linux console.  Be aware that GPM is commonly
1036	installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
1037	wgetch() function (libcurses.o).  Some integrators have simplified
1038	linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so (the BSD
1039	curses) into the libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with
1040	ncurses (specifically the wgetch function).  You may be able to work
1041	around this problem by linking as follows:
1042
1043		cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
1044
1045	but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
1046	A patched version of gpm is available:
1047
1048		dickey.his.com:/ncurses/gpm-1.10-970125.tar.gz
1049
1050	This patch is incorporated in gpm 1.12; however some integrators
1051	are slow to update this library.  Current distributions of gpm can
1052	be configured properly using the --without-curses option.
1053
1054BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
1055	Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler.  Some parts must be built
1056	with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
1057	(e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
1058	that are compiled into the ncurses library.  You should set the
1059	BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and run the
1060	configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
1061
1062	Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
1063	will be made if you use
1064
1065		make sources
1066
1067	This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
1068	support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
1069	Bourne-shell.
1070
1071BUGS:
1072	Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
1073	bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
1074	bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
1075	subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
1076
1077	The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
1078	on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.
1079