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<title>Announcing ncurses 6.4</title>
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<h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses 6.4</h1>
<h2><a name="h2-overview" id="h2-overview">Overview</a></h2>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> (new curses)
library is a free software emulation of curses in System V
Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo format, supports
pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters and
function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of
X/Open Curses.</p>
<p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
that he considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the
keepers of <span class="main-name">unix</span> releases such as
BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span>.</p>
<p>Since 1995, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has been
ported to many systems:</p>
<ul>
<li>It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel
(aside from some embedded applications).</li>
<li>It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD
and MacOS.</li>
<li>It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The
first of these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.</li>
<li>It is used (though usually not as the <em>system</em>
curses) on all of the vendor <span class=
"main-name">unix</span> systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO,
Solaris, Tru64.</li>
<li>It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming
<span class="main-name">unix</span>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The distribution includes the library and support utilities,
including</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion
tool</li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the
screen</li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tabs.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo
entries</li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal
capabilities in shell scripts</li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">tset</span></a>, to initialize the terminal</li>
</ul>
<p>Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.</p>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution is
available at <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>' <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">homepage</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/</a>
or<br>
<a href=
"https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is also available at the GNU distribution site</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2><a name="h2-release-notes" id="h2-release-notes">Release
Notes</a></h2>
<p>These notes are for <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
6.4, released <strong>December 31, 2022</strong>.</p>
<p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.3; providing
extensions to the application binary interface (ABI). Although
the source can still be configured to support the <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> 5 ABI, the reason for the release is
to reflect improvements to the <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> 6 ABI and the supporting utility
programs.</p>
<p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in
this announcement.</p>
<p>The most <a href="#h3-bug-fixes">important
bug-fixes/improvements</a> dealt with robustness issues. The
release notes also mention some other bug-fixes, but are focused
on new features and improvements to existing features since
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 6.3 release.</p>
<h3><a name="h3-library" id="h3-library">Library improvements</a></h3>
<h4><a name="h4-new-library" id="h4-new-library">New features</a></h4>
<p>There are no new features in this release.</p>
<h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
improvements</a></h4>
<p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>delscreen</tt> to more effectively delete all
windows on the given screen.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>wnoutrefresh</tt> to call <tt>pnoutrefresh</tt>
if its parameter is a pad, rather than treating it as an
error, and modify new_panel to permit its window-parameter to
be a pad</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify curses_trace() to show the trace-mask as symbols,
e.g., <tt>TRACE_ORDINARY</tt>, <tt>DEBUG_LEVEL(3)</tt>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve checks for valid mouse events when an intermediate
mouse state is not part of the mousemask specified by the
caller</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>allow extended-color number in <em>opts</em> parameter of
<tt>wattr_on</tt>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <tt>_tracecchar_t2</tt> formatting of
base+combining character.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>trim out some unwanted linker options from ncurses*config
and .pc files seen in Fedora 36+.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve shell-scripts with <em>shellcheck</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve use of "trap" in shell scripts, using a
script.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>make-tar.sh</tt> scripts to make timestamps
more predictable.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>misc/gen-pkgconfig.in</tt> to allow for the
case where the library directory does not yet exist, since
this is processed before doing an install</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>set trailing null on string passed from <tt>winsnstr</tt>
to <tt>wins_nwstr</tt>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>waddch_literal</tt> to allow for double-width
base character when merging a combining character</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
improvements</a></h3>
<p id="h4-utilities">Several improvements were made to the
utility programs:</p>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html">infocmp</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>rewrite <tt>canonical_name</tt> function of
<tt>infocmp</tt> to ensure buffer size</li>
<li>improve readability of long parameterized expressions
with the infocmp &ldquo;<tt>-f</tt>&rdquo; option by
allowing split before a &ldquo;<tt>%p</tt>&rdquo;
marker.</li>
<li>modify verbose-option of <tt>infocmp</tt>,
<tt>tic</tt>, <tt>toe</tt> to enable debug-tracing if that
is configured.</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tabs.1.html">tabs</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>limit tab-stop values to max-columns</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html">tic</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>add consistency check in tic for u6/u7/u8/u9 and NQ
capabilities.</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html">tput</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>corrected use of original tty-modes in <em>init/reset</em>
subcommands</dd>
</dl>
<h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4>
<p>Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made
to the <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>. Most of
this activity aimed at improving the test-packages:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>add minimal <tt>-h</tt> (usage) and <tt>-V</tt> (version)
getopt logic to all ncurses-examples programs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>fix an error in "@" command in <tt>test/ncurses.c</tt>
F-menu</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add curses_trace to ifdef's for <tt>START_TRACE</tt> in
<tt>test/test.priv.h</tt></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve pthread-configuration for test/worm.c</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add <tt>setlocale</tt> call to several test-programs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>workaround in <tt>test/picsmap.c</tt> for use of floating
point for rgb values by ImageMagick 6.9.11, which appears to
use the wrong upper limit.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use static libraries for AdaCurses test-package for
Mageia, since no gprbuild package is available.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>install Ada95 sample programs in libexecdir, adding a
wrapper script to invoke those.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>install ncurses-examples programs in libexecdir, adding a
wrapper script to invoke those.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are other new demo/test programs and reusable
examples:</p>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>test/combine</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>demonstrate combining characters</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>test/test_delwin</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>demonstrate deleting a window</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>test/test_mouse</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>observe mouse events in the raw terminal or parsed ncurses
modes</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>test/test_unget_wch</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>demonstrate the unget_wch and unget functions</dd>
</dl>
<h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal database</a></h3>
<p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>
<ul>
<li><tt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-mosh">mosh</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-mosh-256color">mosh-256color</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken-16color">teken-16color</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken-sc">teken-sc</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken-vt">teken-vt</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xgterm">xgterm</a></tt>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
were updates to several descriptions:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>make description-fields distinct</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>fix errata in description fields</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add/use several building-blocks:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-aixterm_sl"><tt>aixterm+sl</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-ansi_cpr"><tt>ansi+cpr</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-apollo_vt132"><tt>apollo+vt132</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-decid_cpr"><tt>decid+cpr</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-ncr260vp_sl"><tt>ncr260vp+sl</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wyse_sl"><tt>wyse+sl</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-x10term_sl"><tt>x10term+sl</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_acs"><tt>xterm+acs</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_alt47"><tt>xterm+alt47</tt></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>while others affected specific descriptions. These were
retested, to take into account changes by their developers:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><tt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-kitty">kitty</a></tt>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><tt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken">teken</a></tt>
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>while these are specific fixes based on reviewing
documentation, user reports, or warnings from <span class=
"part-name">tic</span>:</p>
<dl>
<dt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-att610_cvis0">att610+cvis0</a>
</dt>
<dd>amended note as per documentation for att610, att620,
att730</dd>
<dt><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-kon">kon</a>,
kon2, jfbterm</dt>
<dd>revise to undo "linux2.6" change to smacs/rmacs/enacs</dd>
<dt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-st-0_6">st-0.6</a>
</dt>
<dd>add dim, ecma+strikeout</dd>
<dt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-foot_base">foot+base</a>
</dt>
<dd>add xterm+sl-alt</dd>
<dt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-dec_sl">dec+sl</a>
</dt>
<dd>correct dsl in dec+sl</dd>
<dt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-mintty">mintty</a> and
tmux</dt>
<dd>correct setal in mintty/tmux entries, add to vte-2018</dd>
<dt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm">nsterm</a>
</dt>
<dd>modify nsterm to use xterm+alt1049</dd>
<dt><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty">putty</a>
</dt>
<dd>modify putty to use xterm+alt1049</dd>
<dt><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vte-2018">vte-2018</a>
</dt>
<dd>add blink and setal</dd>
</dl>
<p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal
capabilities):</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>use <tt>ansi+enq</tt> and <tt>decid+cpr</tt> in cases
where the terminal probably supported the u6-u9 extension</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>remove u6-u9 from teken-2018</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use <tt>NQ</tt> to flag entries where the terminal does
not support query and response</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add/use <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-bracketed_paste"><tt>bracketed+paste</tt></a>
to help identify terminals supporting this xterm feature</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify samples for xterm mouse 1002/1003 modes to use 1006
mode, and also provide for focus in/out responses</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>xterm patch #371 supports DEC-compatible status-line. add
<tt>dec+sl</tt> to xterm-new, per xterm #371, add <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-p371"><tt>xterm-p371</tt></a>,
add <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-p370"><tt>xterm-p370</tt></a>,
for use in older terminals, and set &ldquo;xterm-new&rdquo;
to &ldquo;xterm-p370&rdquo; (to ease adoption).</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="h3-documentation" id=
"h3-documentation">Documentation</a></h3>
<p>As usual, this release</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>improves documentation by describing new features,</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>attempts to improve the description of features which
users have found confusing</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were
described in the <a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html">NEWS</a> file
but treated sketchily in manual pages.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to providing background information to explain
these features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
clarifications, etc.:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Corrections:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>remove a stray '/' from description of <tt>%g</tt> in
<a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Parameterized-Strings">
terminfo(5)</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>correct/improve font-formatting in <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_getch.3x.html">curs_getch.3x</a>, as
well as other manual pages.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>New/improved history and portability sections:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>add portability notes for <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">delscreen</a>
and <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_window.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">delwin</a>
in manual.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_slk.3x.html#h2-EXTENSIONS">curs_slk.3x</a>
discussion of extensions and portability</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Other improvements:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>improve <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_bkgd.3x.html">curs_bkgd.3x</a>,
explaining that <tt>bkgdset</tt> can affect results for
<tt>bkgd</tt></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add note on portable memory-leak checking in <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_memleaks.3x</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>expanded description in <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/resizeterm.3x.html">resizeterm.3x</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add section on releasing memory to <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_termcap.3x.html#h3-Releasing-Memory">
curs_termcap.3x</a> and <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Releasing-Memory">
curs_terminfo.3x</a> manpages.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add clarification of the scope of dynamic variables in
<a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve formatting of <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-intro.html">ncurses-intro.html</a>
and <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/hackguide.html">hackguide.html</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_clear.3x.html">curs_clear.3x</a>
links to other pages</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>update <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/howto/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html">ncurses-howto</a>,
making documentation fixes along with corrections to
example programs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use newer version 1.36 of gnathtml for generating Ada
html files.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>update external links in <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/Ada95.html">Ada95.html</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates
are to existing pages).</p>
<h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
bug-fixes</a></h3>
<p>While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses
6.4, only a few (the reason for this release) were both important
and interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues
which did not affect compatibility across releases. Since those
are detailed in the <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20221231">NEWS</a> file no elaboration is
needed here.</p>
<p>The interesting bugs were those dealing with memory leaks and
buffer overflows. Although the utilities are designed for
<em>text</em> files (which they do properly), some choose to test
them with <strong>non-</strong><em>text</em> files.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Text files contain no embedded nulls. Also, they end with
a newline. Feeding <strong>tic</strong> non-text files
exposed a few cases where the program did not check for those
issues. As a result, further processing of the input found
limit-checks whose assumptions were invalid.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fixing the limit-checks (first) found a problem with
<strong>tic</strong> managing the list of strings in a
terminal description. In merging two terminal descriptions
(i.e., the &ldquo;use=&rdquo; feature), <strong>tic</strong>
was not allocating a complete copy. A quick repair for that
introduced a memory leak.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The checks for non-text files are improved (i.e., embedded
nulls in the input file will cause <strong>tic</strong> to
reject it rather than attempting to process it).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The string allocations in <strong>tic</strong> are
likewise improved.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="h3-config-config" id=
"h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a></h3>
<h4><a name="h4-config-major" id="h4-config-major">Major
changes</a></h4>
<p>There are no major changes. No new options were added. Several
improvements were made to configure checks.</p>
<h4><a name="h4-config-options" id=
"h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4>
<p>There are a few new/modified configure options:</p>
<dl>
<dt><tt>--with-abi-version</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>add ABI 7 defaults to configure script.</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-caps</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>add warning in configure script if file specified for
&ldquo;<tt>--with-caps</tt>&rdquo; does not exist.</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-manpage-format</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>bzip2 and xz compression are now supported</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-xterm-kbs</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>add check/warning in configure script if option
&ldquo;<tt>--with-xterm-kbs</tt>&rdquo; is missing or
inconsistent</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<h3><a name="h3-portability" id="h3-portability">Portability</a></h3>
<p>Many of the portability changes are implemented via the
configure script:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>amend configure option's auto-search to account for
systems where none of the directories known to
<em>pkg-config</em> exist</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>corrected regex needed for older <em>pkg-config</em> used
in Solaris 10</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve handling of <tt>--with-pkg-config-libdir</tt>
option, allowing for the case where either
<tt>$PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR</tt> or the option value has a
colon-separated list of directories</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>if the <tt>--with-pkg-config-libdir</tt> option is not
given, use <tt>${libdir}/pkgconfig</tt> as a default</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve search-path check for <em>pkg-config</em>, e.g.,
for Debian testing which installs <em>pkg-config</em> with
architecture-prefixes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>build-fix for cross-compiling to MingW, conditionally add
<tt>-lssp</tt></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve configure check for <tt>getttynam</tt></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>fixes to build with <em>dietlibc</em>:</p>
<ul>
<li>add configure check for <tt>fpathconf</tt></li>
<li>add configure check for math sine/cosine, needed in
test/tclock, and eliminate <tt>pow()</tt> from
test/hanoi</li>
<li>use <tt>wcsnlen</tt> as an alternative to
<tt>wmemchr</tt> if it is not found</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify configure macro <tt>CF_BUILD_CC</tt> to check if
the build-compiler works, rather than that it is different
from the cross-compiler, e.g., to accommodate a compiler
which can be used for either purpose with different flags</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify configure/scripts to work around interference by
GNU grep 3.8</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Here are some of the other portability fixes:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>change <tt>man_db.renames</tt> to template, to handle
<em>ncurses*-config</em> script with the
<tt>--extra-suffix</tt> configure option.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>update <tt>CF_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt> macro, adding variants
&ldquo;gnueabi" and &ldquo;gnueabihf" to get
<tt>_DEFAULT_SOURCE</tt> special case, as well as adding GNU
libc suffixes for &ldquo;abi64&rdquo;, &ldquo;abin32&rdquo;,
&ldquo;x32&rdquo; to distinguish it from other libc
flavors.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>work around <em>musl</em>'s nonstandard use of feature
test macros by adding a definition for
<tt>NCURSES_WIDECHAR</tt> to the generated &ldquo;.pc&rdquo;
and <em><tt>*-config</tt></em> files.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use &ldquo;<tt>command -v</tt>&rdquo; rather than
&ldquo;<tt>type</tt>&rdquo; in <tt>Ada95/gen/Makefile.in</tt>
to fix a portability issue.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h2><a name="h2-features" id="h2-features">Features of
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package is fully
upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
documented).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports all of the
for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition
of keypad and function keys.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> provides these SVr4
add-on libraries (not part of X/Open Curses):</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
backing store.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
interface for menu programming.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>the form library, supporting data collection through
on-screen forms.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span>'s terminal database
is fully compatible with that used by SVr4 curses.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports
user-defined capabilities which it can see, but which are
hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
<em>same</em> terminal database.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It can be optionally configured to match the format
used in related systems such as AIX and Tru64.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Alternatively, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
can be configured to use hashed databases rather than the
directory of files used by SVr4 curses.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> utilities have
options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with
less capable <em>curses</em>/<em>terminfo</em> versions such
as the HP-UX and AIX ports.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package also has
many useful extensions over SVr4:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the
X/OPEN curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it
implements all <em>BASE</em> level features, and most
<em>EXTENDED</em> features). It includes many function calls
not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls
is documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Unlike SVr3 curses, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if
your terminal has an insert-character capability.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
package.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
windows, preserving their data.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
achieving the effect of transparent colors.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
<code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use
of function keys, e.g., disabling the <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more
than one control sequence to map to a given key code.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Support for direct-color terminals, such as modern
xterm.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
and <em>modern xterm</em>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
than either BSD's or System V's.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that
enables it to make optimal use of hardware scrolling,
line-insertion, and line-deletion for screen-line movements.
This algorithm is more powerful than the 4.4BSD curses
<code>quickch</code> routine.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch.
The screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight
if the magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before
the beginning and after the end would step on a non-space
character. It will automatically shift highlight boundaries
when doing so would make it possible to draw the highlight
without changing the visual appearance of the screen.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It is possible to generate the library with a list of
pre-loaded fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve
those terminal types even when no terminfo tree or termcap
file is accessible (this may be useful for support of
screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user
mode).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">tic</span></a>/<a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a> utility
provided with <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has the
ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
AT&amp;T extension sets.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A BSD-like <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">tset</span></a> utility is provided.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> library and
utilities will automatically read terminfo entries from
$HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
if it exists and the user has no write access to the system
directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the
system terminfo directory.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You may specify a path of directories to search for
compiled descriptions with the environment variable
TERMINFO_DIRS (this generalizes the feature provided by
TERMINFO under stock System V.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not
just to other entries in the same source file (as in System
V) but also to compiled entries in either the system terminfo
directory or the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The table-of-entries utility <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">toe</span></a> makes it easy for users to see
exactly what terminal types are available on the system.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro
entry point has a corresponding function which may be linked
(and will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is
disabled with <code>#undef</code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Extensive documentation is provided (see the <em><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">Additional
Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html"><span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> FAQ</a></em> for online
documentation).</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="h2-who-uses" id="h2-who-uses">Applications using
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution
includes a selection of test programs (including a few games).
These are available separately as <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a></p>
<p>The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
applications including:</p>
<blockquote>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name">aptitude</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager</p>
<p><a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude">https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">cdk</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>Curses Development Kit</p>
<p><a href="https://invisible-island.net/cdk/">https://invisible-island.net/cdk/</a><br>
</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">ded</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>directory-editor</p>
<p><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ded/">https://invisible-island.net/ded/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">dialog</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup,
and the basis for similar install/configure applications on
many systems.</p>
<p><a href="https://invisible-island.net/dialog/">https://invisible-island.net/dialog/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">lynx</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>the text WWW browser</p>
<p><a href=
"https://lynx.invisible-island.net/">https://lynx.invisible-island.net/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">mutt</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>mail utility</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">ncftp</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>file-transfer utility</p>
<p><a href=
"https://www.ncftp.com/">https://www.ncftp.com/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">nvi</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>New vi uses ncurses.</p>
<p><a href=
"https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi</a><br>
</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">ranger</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>A console file manager with VI key bindings in
<em>Python</em>.</p>
<p><a href=
"https://ranger.github.io/">https://ranger.github.io/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">tin</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>newsreader, supporting color, MIME</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">vifm</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>File manager with vi like keybindings</p>
<p><a href="https://vifm.info/">https://vifm.info/</a></p>
</dd>
</dl>
</blockquote>
<p>as well as some that use <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> for the terminfo support alone:</p>
<blockquote>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name">minicom</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>terminal emulator for serial modem connections</p>
<p><a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">mosh</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>a replacement for <code>ssh</code>.</p>
<p><a href="https://mosh.org/">https://mosh.org/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">tack</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>terminfo action checker</p>
<p><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">tmux</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>terminal multiplexor</p>
<p><a href=
"https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki">https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">vile</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p><em>vi-like-emacs</em> may be built to use the terminfo,
termcap or curses interfaces.</p>
<p><a href="https://invisible-island.net/vile/">https://invisible-island.net/vile/</a></p>
</dd>
</dl>
</blockquote>
<p>and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:</p>
<blockquote>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name">emacs</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>text editor</p>
<p><a href=
"https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">less</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>The most commonly used <em>pager</em> (a program that
displays text files).</p>
<p><a href=
"http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/">http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">screen</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>terminal multiplexor</p>
<p><a href=
"https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">vim</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>text editor</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vim.org/">https://www.vim.org/</a></p>
</dd>
</dl>
</blockquote>
<h2><a name="h2-development" id="h2-development">Development
activities</a></h2>
<p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S.
Raymond continued development. J&uuml;rgen Pfeifer wrote most of
the form and menu libraries.</p>
<p>Ongoing development work is done by <a href=
"mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas E. Dickey</a>. Thomas
E. Dickey has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software
Foundation, which held a <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html">copyright on ncurses</a> for
releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following the release of ncurses 6.1,
effective as of release 6.2, copyright for ncurses reverted to
Thomas E. Dickey (see the <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#relicensed">ncurses FAQ</a> for
additional information).</p>
<p>Contact the current maintainers at</p>
<blockquote>
<a href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>
</blockquote>
<p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to</p>
<blockquote>
<a href=
"mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org">bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</a>
</blockquote>
containing the line:
<blockquote>
<p><code>subscribe</code>
<em>&lt;name&gt;@&lt;host.domain&gt;</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
development and testing of this package.</p>
<p>Beta versions of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> are
made available at</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/</a>
and<br>
<a href=
"https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Patches to the current release are made available at</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/">https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/</a>
and<br>
<a href=
"https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a>
(also <a href=
"https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p>
</blockquote>
<h2><a name="h2-this-stuff" id="h2-this-stuff">Related
resources</a></h2>
<p>The release notes make scattered references to these pages,
which may be interesting by themselves:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html"><span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> licensing</a></li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol versioning
in <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-slang.html">Comments on
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span> versus <span class=
"main-name">slang</span> (S-Lang)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-openbsd.html">Comments on
<span class="main-name">OpenBSD</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">tack &ndash; terminfo action
checker</a></li>
<li><a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html">tctest &ndash; termcap
library checker</a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html#download_database">Terminal
Database</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="h2-other-stuff" id="h2-other-stuff">Other
resources</a></h2>
<p>The distribution provides a newer version of the
terminfo-format terminal description file once maintained by
<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric
Raymond</a>&nbsp;. Unlike the older version, the termcap and
terminfo data are provided in the same file, which also provides
several user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open
specification.</p>
<p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
not covered in the terminfo file at <a href=
"http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
Richard Shuford's archive</a>&nbsp;. The collection of computer
manuals at <a href=
"http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/">bitsavers.org</a> has also been
useful.</p>
<div class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-overview">Overview</a></li>
<li>
<a href="#h2-release-notes">Release Notes</a>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="#h3-library">Library improvements</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h4-new-library">New features</a></li>
<li><a href="#h4-fixes-library">Other
improvements</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#h3-programs">Program improvements</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h4-utilities">Utilities</a></li>
<li><a href="#h4-examples">Examples</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h3-database">Terminal database</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-documentation">Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-bug-fixes">Interesting bug-fixes</a></li>
<li>
<a href="#h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h4-config-major">Major changes</a></li>
<li><a href="#h4-config-options">Configuration
options</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h3-portability">Portability</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h2-features">Features of <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-who-uses">Applications using <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-development">Development activities</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-this-stuff">Related resources</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-other-stuff">Other resources</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</body>
</html>