1-- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.98 2005/10/09 14:09:37 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 trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses, 23read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below. 24 25If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on 26USING NCURSES WITH AFS. 27 28If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A 29CROSS-COMPILER. 30 31If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and 32follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below. 33 34If you are using anything but (a) Linux, or (b) one of the 4.4BSD-based 35i386 Unixes, go read the Portability section in the TO-DO file before you 36do anything else. 37 38 39REQUIREMENTS: 40------------ 41 42You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX: 43 44 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance) 45 * sh (bash will do) 46 * awk (mawk or gawk will do) 47 * sed 48 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed) 49 50Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment. 51 52 53INSTALLATION PROCEDURE: 54---------------------- 55 561. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in 57 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel 58 with it. 59 60 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing 61 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except 62 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library, e.g., 63 Linux, the various BSD systems and Cygwin. Use --prefix=/usr to replace 64 your default curses distribution. 65 66 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows: 67 68 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset, 69 reset, clear, tput, toe 70 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a 71 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions 72 In $(prefix)/include: C header files 73 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages 74 75 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of 76 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the 77 ncurses headers. 78 79 Do not use commands such as 80 81 make install prefix=XXX 82 83 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used 84 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this 85 86 make install DESTDIR=XXX 87 88 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix. 89 902. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to 91 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles. 92 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize 93 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options. 94 95 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in 96 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration 97 file for your system. 98 99 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object 100 models and their associated libraries: 101 102 libncurses.a (normal) 103 104 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a) 105 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite. 106 107 libncurses.so (shared) 108 109 libncurses_g.a (debug) 110 111 libncurses_p.a (profile) 112 113 libncurses.la (libtool) 114 115 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the 116 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support 117 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files 118 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character 119 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character 120 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character 121 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly 122 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on 123 Linux using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8. 124 125 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be 126 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to: 127 128 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite 129 130 Typing 131 132 ./configure --with-shared 133 134 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in 135 136 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite 137 138 If you want only shared libraries, type 139 140 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug 141 142 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice 143 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on Linux 144 and SunOS with gcc, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries 145 work on other systems. 146 147 If you have libtool installed, you can type 148 149 ./configure --with-libtool 150 151 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your 152 platform using libtool. 153 154 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap 155 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the 156 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will 157 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the 158 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below. 159 1603. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced. 161 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1), 162 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1) 163 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test 164 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries. 165 1664. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to 167 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that 168 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on 169 the test programs. 170 171 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the 172 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo 173 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo 174 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be. Exceptions include 175 DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1). 176 177 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may 178 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will 179 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments 180 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing. 181 182 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats. 183 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps). 184 185 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library. 186 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that 187 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc. 188 1895. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries, 190 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you 191 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the 192 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands: 193 194 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc... 195 'make install.includes' installs the headers. 196 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers). 197 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must 198 be installed before the terminfo data can be 199 compiled). 200 'make install.man' installs the manual pages. 201 202 ############################################################################ 203 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing # 204 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them # 205 # before you install ncurses. I have a file called terminfo.custom for # 206 # this purpose. Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done. # 207 ############################################################################ 208 209 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before 210 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do 211 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page 212 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing 213 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl. 214 215 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using 216 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of 217 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard 218 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to 219 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them. 220 221 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally 222 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of 223 undefined symbols at link time. 224 225 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory 226 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things 227 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree, 228 so you can use ncurses applications. 229 230 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate 231 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system- 232 wide terminfo tree instead. 233 234 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details. 235 2366. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and 237 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can 238 compile and run the demo. 239 240 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings 241 and demo. 242 243 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell 244 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool' 245 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT 246 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++. 247 248 249SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS: 250---------------------------- 251 252 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type 253 254 ./configure --help 255 256 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are 257 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line 258 259 --enable and --with options recognized: 260 261 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic 262 order. 263 264 --disable-assumed-color 265 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors() 266 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and 267 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use 268 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the 269 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(), 270 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1 271 convention, using this configure option. 272 273 --disable-big-core 274 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to 275 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the 276 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators 277 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure 278 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine. 279 280 --disable-database 281 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo 282 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a 283 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may 284 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the 285 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., reset and tput versus 286 infocmp and tic. 287 288 --disable-ext-funcs 289 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions 290 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact 291 list of library modules that would be suppressed. 292 293 --disable-hashmap 294 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is 295 the default. 296 297 --disable-home-terminfo 298 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search 299 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is 300 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this 301 option to disable the feature altogether. 302 303 --disable-largefile 304 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces. 305 306 --disable-leaks 307 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not 308 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks. 309 310 --disable-lp64 311 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype 312 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for 313 compatibility with older releases). 314 315 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing 316 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses 317 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6. 318 319 --disable-macros 320 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run 321 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This makes a header file 322 "nomacros.h". See also the --enable-expanded option. 323 324 --disable-overwrite 325 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another 326 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader 327 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to 328 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses. 329 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be 330 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses, 331 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid 332 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h 333 334 --disable-root-environ 335 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables 336 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid 337 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the 338 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized. 339 340 --disable-scroll-hints 341 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when 342 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default. 343 344 --enable-assertions 345 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few 346 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code. 347 348 --enable-broken_linker 349 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link 350 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those 351 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option 352 changes several data references to functions to work around this 353 problem. 354 355 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are 356 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a 357 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have 358 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the 359 problem. 360 361 --enable-bsdpad 362 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as 363 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays. 364 365 --enable-colorfgbg 366 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable 367 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by 368 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During 369 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this. 370 371 --enable-const 372 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact 373 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do 374 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or 375 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch 376 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which 377 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and 378 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses 379 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const, 380 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual 381 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies 382 in the interface, but at a lower level. 383 384 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the 385 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in 386 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar 387 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even 388 fewer places. 389 390 --enable-echo 391 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by 392 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes 393 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n" 394 to see the options that are used). 395 396 --enable-expanded 397 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible 398 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option. 399 400 --enable-ext-colors 401 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be 402 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec) 403 configuration. 404 405 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary- 406 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but 407 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled. 408 409 --enable-ext-mouse 410 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button. 411 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or 412 similar X terminal emulators. 413 414 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary- 415 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but 416 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled. 417 418 --enable-getcap 419 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to 420 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make 421 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading 422 /etc/termcap. 423 424 --enable-getcap-cache 425 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo 426 427 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time. 428 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of 429 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and 430 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses 431 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that 432 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys. 433 434 --enable-hard-tabs 435 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make 436 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry 437 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use 438 of tabs. 439 440 --enable-no-padding 441 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable, 442 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in 443 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the 444 extended functions. 445 446 --enable-rpath 447 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and with some 448 restrictions when linking the corresponding programs. This applies 449 mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the manpage). 450 451 --enable-safe-sprintf 452 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using 453 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither 454 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however. 455 456 --enable-sigwinch 457 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has 458 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses 459 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size 460 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the 461 extended functions. 462 463 --enable-symlinks 464 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links 465 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the 466 terminfo database. 467 468 --enable-tcap-names 469 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the 470 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal 471 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default, 472 unless you have disabled the extended functions. 473 474 --enable-termcap 475 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no 476 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap 477 and --enable-getcap-cache options. 478 479 --enable-warnings 480 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few. 481 482 --enable-widec 483 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of 484 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as 485 wide-characters, 486 487 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible 488 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a 489 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so 490 491 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the 492 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the 493 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does 494 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is 495 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration. 496 497 --enable-xmc-glitch 498 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code. 499 500 --with-abi-version=NUM 501 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames. 502 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have 503 special requirements for compatibility. 504 505 --with-ada-compiler=CMD 506 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake") 507 508 --with-ada-include=DIR 509 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default: 510 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude) 511 512 --with-ada-objects=DIR 513 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib) 514 515 --with-bool=TYPE 516 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool" 517 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to 518 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific 519 sizes). 520 521 --with-build-cc=XXX 522 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to 523 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses. 524 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the 525 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc. 526 527 --with-build-cflags=XXX 528 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need 529 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the 530 host compiler. 531 532 --with-build-cppflags=XXX 533 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might 534 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse 535 the host compiler. 536 537 --with-build-ldflags=XXX 538 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to 539 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host 540 compiler. 541 542 --with-build-libs=XXX 543 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if 544 the target environment requires unusual libraries. 545 546 --with-caps=XXX 547 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the 548 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g., 549 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo 550 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support 551 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses 552 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native 553 applications. 554 555 --with-chtype=TYPE 556 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if 557 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this 558 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned. 559 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit 560 executables. 561 562 --with-database=XXX 563 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish 564 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems 565 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo 566 source file. 567 568 --with-dbmalloc 569 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library. 570 571 --with-debug 572 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g" 573 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a 574 575 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX 576 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally 577 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo. 578 579 --with-develop 580 Enable experimental/development options. This does not count those 581 that change the interface, such as --enable-widec. 582 583 --with-dmalloc 584 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library. 585 586 --with-fallbacks=XXX 587 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be 588 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES. 589 590 --with-gpm 591 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the 592 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency 593 on the GPM library. Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to 594 bind to the at runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be 595 present when ncurses is built. 596 597 --with-install-prefix=XXX 598 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses 599 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real" 600 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The 601 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible 602 to use 603 make install DESTDIR=XXX 604 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes. 605 606 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this 607 option probably will not work for those configurations. 608 609 --with-libtool[=XXX] 610 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it 611 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool 612 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make, 613 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of 614 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared 615 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option. 616 617 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the 618 particular version of libtool, e.g., 619 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3 620 621 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake 622 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in 623 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure 624 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from 625 http://invisible-island.net/autoconf/ 626 627 --with-manpage-aliases 628 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the 629 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the 630 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable 631 it if your man program does this. You can also disable 632 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command 633 rather than symbolic links. 634 635 --with-manpage-format=XXX 636 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The 637 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal, 638 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script 639 attempts to determine which is the case. 640 641 --with-manpage-renames=XXX 642 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while 643 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is 644 the Linux Debian. The option value specifies the name of a file 645 that lists the renamed files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames 646 647 --with-manpage-symlinks 648 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the 649 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but 650 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing 651 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in 652 copying the man-page for each alias. 653 654 --with-manpage-tbl 655 Tell the configure script that you with to preprocess the manpages 656 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by 657 nroff. 658 659 --with-mmask-t=TYPE 660 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to 661 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it 662 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility 663 with 64-bit executables. 664 665 --with-ospeed=TYPE 666 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap 667 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works 668 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed 669 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13. 670 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to 671 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as 672 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function 673 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice, 674 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e., 675 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application 676 (or system, in general) may or may not. 677 678 --with-normal 679 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default). 680 681 --with-profile 682 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root, 683 e.g., libncurses_p.a 684 685 --with-rcs-ids 686 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier. 687 688 --with-rel-version=NUM 689 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library 690 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated 691 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI 692 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility. 693 694 --with-shared 695 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for 696 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with 697 symbolic links that refer to the release version. 698 699 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS 700 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging 701 option. 702 703 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of 704 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses 705 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker. 706 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's 707 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it 708 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries. In that 709 case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it sets 710 $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g., 711 ./misc/shlib make install 712 713 --with-shlib-version=XXX 714 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries. 715 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system 716 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script. 717 718 --with-sysmouse 719 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console. 720 721 --with-system-type=XXX 722 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to 723 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared 724 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of 725 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure 726 script. 727 728 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX 729 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled 730 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo) 731 732 --with-termlib[=XXX] 733 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the 734 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library 735 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only 736 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total. 737 738 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo 739 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the 740 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface 741 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay 742 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with 743 this option. 744 745 --with-termpath=XXX 746 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the 747 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap) 748 749 --with-trace 750 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses 751 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only. 752 753 --without-ada 754 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the 755 Ada95 binding and related demo. 756 757 --without-curses-h 758 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather, 759 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages 760 accordingly. 761 762 --without-cxx 763 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares 764 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both 765 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the 766 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed) 767 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use 768 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not 769 adjust ncurses bool to match C++. 770 771 --without-cxx-binding 772 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the 773 C++ binding and related demo. 774 775 --without-progs 776 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application 777 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you 778 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install". 779 780 --without-xterm-new 781 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in 782 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as 783 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm. 784 785 786COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES: 787-------------------------------------------- 788 789 Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface 790 is fairly stable. That does not mean the interface does not change. 791 Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences 792 between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as 793 Solaris). We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not 794 addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with 795 the X/Open documentation. 796 797 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which 798 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of 799 ncurses: 800 801 5.5 (October 10, 2005) 802 Interface changes: 803 804 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than 805 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6). 806 807 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems 808 still use ncurses 4.2). 809 810 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing 811 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are 812 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old 813 compilers. 814 815 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data. 816 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the 817 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since 818 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer() 819 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field 820 data. 821 822 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that 823 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this 824 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level 825 ncurses library has a different size in each model. 826 827 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the 828 wide-character configuration. 829 830 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors() 831 be called first. 832 833 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters. 834 835 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or 836 multicolumn characters. 837 838 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started. 839 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory. 840 841 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it 842 corresponds to the default-color. 843 844 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond 845 to an unsigned char. 846 847 Added extensions: 848 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons 849 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding 850 of mouse events. 851 852 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground 853 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or 854 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because 855 it changes the size of cchar_t. 856 857 Added internal functions: 858 _nc_check_termtype2 859 _nc_resolve_uses2 860 _nc_retrace_cptr 861 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr 862 _nc_retrace_void_ptr 863 _nc_setup_term 864 865 Removed internal functions: 866 none 867 868 Modified internal functions: 869 _nc_insert_ch 870 _nc_save_str 871 _nc_trans_string 872 873 5.4 (February 8, 2004) 874 Interface changes: 875 876 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support. 877 These are only available if the library is configured using the 878 --enable-widec option. 879 pecho_wchar() 880 slk_wset() 881 882 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(), 883 getcurx(), etc. 884 885 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h 886 887 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for 888 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses. 889 890 + change some interfaces to use const: 891 define_key() 892 mvprintw() 893 mvwprintw() 894 printw() 895 vw_printw() 896 winsnstr() 897 wprintw() 898 899 Added extensions: 900 key_defined() 901 902 Added internal functions: 903 _nc_get_locale() 904 _nc_insert_ch() 905 _nc_is_charable() wide 906 _nc_locale_breaks_acs() 907 _nc_pathlast() 908 _nc_to_char() wide 909 _nc_to_widechar() wide 910 _nc_tparm_analyze() 911 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug 912 _nc_unicode_locale() 913 914 Removed internal functions: 915 _nc_outstr() 916 _nc_sigaction() 917 918 Modified internal functions: 919 _nc_remove_string() 920 _nc_retrace_chtype() 921 922 5.3 (October 12, 2002) 923 Interface changes: 924 925 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually 926 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'. 927 928 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support. 929 These are only available if the library is configured using the 930 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are 931 pecho_wchar() 932 slk_wset() 933 934 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the 935 assume_default_colors() extension. 936 937 Added extensions: 938 is_term_resized() 939 resize_term() 940 941 Added internal functions: 942 _nc_altcharset_name() debug 943 _nc_reset_colors() 944 _nc_retrace_bool() debug 945 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug 946 _nc_rootname() 947 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug 948 _nc_varargs() debug 949 _nc_visbufn() debug 950 _nc_wgetch() 951 952 Removed internal functions: 953 _nc_background() 954 955 Modified internal functions: 956 _nc_freeall() debug 957 958 5.2 (October 21, 2000) 959 Interface changes: 960 961 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the 962 --with-ospeed configure option). 963 964 5.1 (July 8, 2000) 965 Interface changes: 966 967 + made the extended terminal capabilities 968 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should 969 be transparent to applications that do not require it. 970 971 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the 972 production library. 973 974 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict 975 with C++ STL. 976 977 Added extensions: assume_default_colors(). 978 979 5.0 (October 23, 1999) 980 Interface changes: 981 982 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions. 983 984 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat 985 986 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than 987 attr_t. 988 989 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void* 990 parameter according to XSI. 991 992 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open 993 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different 994 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled: 995 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used 996 attr_get(). 997 998 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version(). 999 1000 Terminfo database changes: 1001 1002 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is 1003 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'. 1004 1005 The problems are subtler in recent releases. 1006 1007 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own 1008 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this, 1009 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few 1010 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with 1011 the 5.0 library. 1012 1013 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure 1014 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some 1015 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This 1016 is a bug in the older versions: 1017 1018 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in 1019 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are 1020 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and 1021 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified 1022 entries. 1023 1024 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek() 1025 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the 1026 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the 1027 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of 1028 specified and obsolete or extended strings. 1029 1030 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the 1031 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities: 1032 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for 1033 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2. 1034 1035 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu 1036 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm. 1037 1038 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek() 1039 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the 1040 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters 1041 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The 1042 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to 1043 initialize that terminal type. 1044 1045 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are 1046 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was 1047 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm). 1048 1049 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to 1050 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the 1051 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug, 1052 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends, 1053 and are invisible to the older libraries. 1054 1055 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the 1056 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone 1057 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test 1058 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since 1059 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses 1060 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution 1061 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding" 1062 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed. 1063 1064 4.2 (March 2, 1998) 1065 Interface changes: 1066 1067 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2. 1068 1069 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(), 1070 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2. 1071 1072 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in 1073 SVr4 headers. 1074 1075 New extensions: keyok() and define_key(). 1076 1077 Terminfo database changes: 1078 1079 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I' 1080 rather than 'i'. 1081 1082 4.1 (May 15, 1997) 1083 1084 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added 1085 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where 1086 X/Open should have, but did not, specify. 1087 1088 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for 1089 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab 1090 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue 1091 colors in the latter. 1092 1093 4.0 (December 24, 1996) 1094 1095 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released dynamic loader 1096 (ld.so.1.8.5) on Linux did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL 1097 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the 1098 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent. 1099 1100 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996) 1101 1102 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface 1103 changes: 1104 1105 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with 1106 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with 1107 application's fallback for missing tparam(). 1108 1109 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the 1110 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than 1111 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other 1112 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to 1113 behave differently. 1114 1115 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were 1116 available only as macros. 1117 1118 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros). 1119 1120 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(), 1121 has_color, immedok() and idcok(). 1122 1123 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the 1124 misspelled name. 1125 1126 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact 1127 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs. 1128 1129 These changes were made to the terminfo database: 1130 1131 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name. 1132 1133 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and 1134 mcprint(). 1135 1136 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996) 1137 1138 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and 1139 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen). 1140 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly 1141 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open 1142 specification was available only in draft form. 1143 1144 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the 1145 incorrect color scheme. 1146 1147 1148IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR: 1149------------------------------ 1150 1151 Configuration and Installation: 1152 1153 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib, 1154 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default: 1155 1156 Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin 1157 1158 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion 1159 of the "--disable-overwrite" option. 1160 1161 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir" 1162 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of 1163 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing 1164 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the 1165 terminfo database. 1166 1167 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode; 1168 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses 1169 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap 1170 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that 1171 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing 1172 you recompile and relink them!). 1173 1174 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish 1175 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based 1176 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to 1177 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in 1178 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details. 1179 1180 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value 1181 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will 1182 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry. 1183 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap. 1184 1185 Keyboard Mapping: 1186 1187 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48 1188 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d 1189 mappings that will set this up: 1190 1191 keycode 15 = Tab Tab 1192 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab 1193 shift keycode 15 = F26 1194 string F26 ="\033[Z" 1195 1196 Naming the Console Terminal 1197 1198 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system 1199 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It 1200 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different 1201 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to 1202 be called `console'. 1203 1204 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up 1205 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the 1206 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included 1207 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the 1208 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on 1209 conventions for choosing type names. 1210 1211 Here are some recommended primary console names: 1212 1213 linux -- Linux console driver 1214 freebsd -- FreeBSD 1215 netbsd -- NetBSD 1216 bsdos -- BSD/OS 1217 1218 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these 1219 distribution, please either use the recommended name or get back 1220 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature 1221 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder. 1222 1223 1224RECENT XTERM VERSIONS: 1225--------------------- 1226 1227 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you 1228 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The 1229 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided 1230 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you 1231 are unable to update your system. 1232 1233 1234CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES: 1235---------------------------- 1236 1237 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo 1238 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation 1239 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of 1240 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which 1241 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed. 1242 1243 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional 1244 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured) 1245 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not 1246 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that 1247 entry is accessible. 1248 1249 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have 1250 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list 1251 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script 1252 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. A configure script option 1253 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the 1254 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild). 1255 1256 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you 1257 would use the commands 1258 1259 cd ncurses; 1260 tinfo/MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c 1261 1262 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally. 1263 You can restore the default empty fallback list with 1264 1265 tinfo/MKfallback.sh >fallback.c 1266 1267 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function. 1268 Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable 1269 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in 1270 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the 1271 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that 1272 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space. 1273 1274 1275BSD CONVERSION NOTES: 1276-------------------- 1277 1278 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably 1279 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does 1280 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a 1281 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds. 1282 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50"). 1283 1284 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of 1285 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section 1286 in the package README file.) 1287 1288 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with 1289 --enable-termcap. 1290 1291------------------------------- CUT HERE -------------------------------- 1292 1293If you are installing this application privately (either because you 1294have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root 1295installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of. 1296They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather 1297than termcap for describing terminal characteristics. 1298 1299Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your 1300TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference 1301through it, and the system termcap file. However, in order to avoid 1302slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per 1303terminal type! 1304 1305The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap 1306database, the library initialization code will automatically write it 1307in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After 1308that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much 1309faster) terminfo fetch. 1310 1311Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow 1312an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with 1313terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone 1314ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly 1315stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant. 1316 1317The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap 1318as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap 1319compilation is expensive). 1320 1321If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file, 1322you can skip the rest of this dissertation. 1323 1324If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file 1325that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible 1326to this application after the first time you run it, because it will 1327instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the 1328first time around. 1329 1330Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file 1331will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry 1332under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled 1333from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked. 1334 1335To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the 1336terminfo directory directly. 1337 1338------------------------------- CUT HERE -------------------------------- 1339 1340USING NCURSES WITH AFS: 1341 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you 1342 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes 1343 with this by making tic use symbolic links. 1344 1345USING NCURSES WITH GPM: 1346 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose 1347 Mouse) which is used on Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly 1348 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses 1349 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified 1350 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the 1351 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically 1352 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but 1353 generally whatever curses library exists on the system. 1354 1355 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows: 1356 1357 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses 1358 1359 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors. 1360 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option: 1361 1362 http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib 1363 1364BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER 1365 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built 1366 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs 1367 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables 1368 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do 1369 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and 1370 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler. 1371 1372 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this 1373 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it 1374 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as 1375 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness. 1376 1377 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses 1378 will be made if you use 1379 1380 make sources 1381 1382 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little 1383 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and 1384 Bourne-shell. 1385 1386 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use 1387 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an 1388 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks 1389 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the 1390 "make install.data" portion. 1391 1392BUGS: 1393 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at 1394 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to 1395 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads: 1396 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here> 1397 1398 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines 1399 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly. 1400