4 The ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of
5 curses in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses terminfo format,
6 supports pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters
7 and function-key mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses
8 enhancements over BSD curses.
10 In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
11 considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and is encouraging the keepers of
12 Unix releases such as BSD/OS, freeBSD and netBSD to switch over to
15 The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It should port easily
16 to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2
19 The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
20 a terminfo compiler tic(1), a decompiler infocmp(1), clear(1),
21 tput(1), tset(1), and a termcap conversion tool captoinfo(1). Full
22 manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
24 The ncurses distribution is available via anonymous FTP at the GNU
25 distribution site [1]ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses.
26 It is also available at [2]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
30 This release is designed to be upward compatible from ncurses 5.0;
31 very few applications will require recompilation, depending on the
32 platform. These are the highlights from the change-log since ncurses
36 * made the extended terminal capabilities
37 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature (though the
38 configure script can disable it, it is built by default).
39 * removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
40 production library. This is the only interface change that may
41 cause problems with existing applications linked to shared
42 libraries, since not all platforms use the minor version number.
43 * explicitly initialized to zero several data items which were
44 implicitly initialized, e.g., cur_term. If not explicitly
45 initialized, their storage type is C (common), and causes problems
46 linking on some platforms.
47 * modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
51 * added a new extension, assume_default_colors() to provide better
52 control over the use of default colors. This is the principal
53 visible difference between ncurses 5.1 and preceding versions. The
54 new extension allows an application to specify what colors pair 0
56 NOTE: Pair 0 defaults to white on black unless you have invoked
57 use_default_colors() or set it via assume_default_colors(). An
58 application that calls start_colors() without setting the
59 background color will consistently have a black background no
60 matter what color your terminal's background actually is.
61 * made several fixes to the terminfo-to-termcap conversion, and have
62 been using the generated termcaps without further hand-tuning.
63 This builds on the extension use_extended_names() by adding
64 "obsolete" termcap strings to terminfo.src
65 + modified tic so that if extended names (i.e.,
66 configure --enable-tcap-names) are active, then tic -x will
67 also write "obsolete" capabilities that are present in the
69 + added screen's AX capability (for ECMA SGR 39 and 49) to
70 applicable terminfo entries, use presence of this as a check
71 for a small improvement in setting default colors.
72 + add -a option to tic and infocmp, which retains commented-out
73 capabilities during source translation/comparison, e.g.,
74 captoinfo and infotocap.
75 * implemented limited support for UTF-8, useful with XFree86 xterm:
76 + if the configure --enable-widec option is given, append 'w'
77 to names of the generated libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so) to
78 avoid conflict with existing ncurses libraries.
79 + add a simple UTF-8 output driver to the experimental
80 wide-character support. If any of the environment variables
81 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE or LANG contain the string "UTF-8", this
82 driver will be used to translate the output to UTF-8.
83 + modified view.c to make a rudimentary viewer of UTF-8 text.
84 * modify raw() and noraw() to clear/restore IEXTEN flag which
85 affects stty lnext on systems such as FreeBSD
86 * reordered tests during mouse initialization to allow for gpm to
87 run in xterm, or for xterm to be used under OS/2 EMX. Also dropped
88 test for $DISPLAY in favor of the terminfo capability kmous=\E[M
89 or if $TERM environment variable contains "xterm".
90 * added configure option --with-manpage-symlinks, which provides for
91 fully indexing manpage entries by making symbolic links for the
93 * changed unctrl() to render C1 characters (128-159) as ~@, ~A, etc.
94 * add experimental configure option --enable-colorfgbg to check for
95 $COLORTERM variable as set by rxvt/aterm/Eterm.
96 * made the infocmp -F option less verbose.
97 * dropped support for gnat 3.10 (gnat 3.12 is current).
100 * modified infocmp -e, -E options to ensure that generated
101 fallback.c type for Booleans agrees with term.h
102 * documented a special case of incompatiblity between ncurses 4.2
103 and 5.0, added a section for this in INSTALL.
104 * corrected tests for file-descriptors in OS/2 EMX mouse support. A
105 negative value could be used by FD_SET, causing the select() call
106 to wait indefinitely.
107 * made 'tput flash' work properly for xterm by flushing output in
108 delay_output() when using napms(), and modifying xterm's terminfo
109 to specify no padding character. Otherwise, xterm's reported baud
110 rate could mislead ncurses into producing too few padding
112 * modified lib_addch.c to allow repeated update to the lower-right
113 corner, rather than displaying only the first character written
114 until the cursor is moved. Recent versions of SVr4 curses can
115 update the lower-right corner, and behave this way.
116 * modified echo() behavior of getch() to match Solaris curses for
117 carriage return and backspace (reported by Neil Zanella).
118 * corrected offsets used for subwindows in wresize()
119 * modified configure script so AC_MSG_ERROR is temporarily defined
120 to a warning in AC_PROG_CXX to make it recover from a missing C++
121 compiler without requiring user to add --without-cxx option
122 * corrected logic in lib_twait.c as used by lib_mouse.c for GPM
123 mouse support when poll() is used rather than select().
124 * made several fixes for buffer overflows, unchecked recursion,
125 improvements in performance, etc. See the NEWS file for details.
129 The ncurses package is fully compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4)
131 * All 257 of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
133 * Full support for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping,
134 color, forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic
135 recognition of keypad and function keys.
136 * An emulation of the SVr4 panels library, supporting a stack of
137 windows with backing store, is included.
138 * An emulation of the SVr4 menus library, supporting a uniform but
139 flexible interface for menu programming, is included.
140 * An emulation of the SVr4 form library, supporting data collection
141 through on-screen forms, is included.
142 * Binary terminfo entries generated by the ncurses tic(1)
143 implementation are bit-for-bit-compatible with the entry format
145 * The utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo entries
146 for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as the
149 The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
150 * The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the X/OPEN
151 curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it implements all BASE
152 level features, but not all EXTENDED features). Most
153 EXTENDED-level features not directly concerned with wide-character
154 support are implemented, including many function calls not
155 supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is
156 documented so you can use the SVr4 subset only).
157 * Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
158 corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
160 * Ada95 and C++ bindings.
161 * Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and OS/2
163 * Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
164 * The function wresize() allows you to resize windows, preserving
166 * The function use_default_colors() allows you to use the terminal's
167 default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
169 * The functions keyok() and define_key() allow you to better control
170 the use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE,
171 or by defining more than one control sequence to map to a given
173 * Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and XFree86 xterm.
174 * Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
175 cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
177 * Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
178 incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that enables it
179 to make optimal use of hardware scrolling, line-insertion, and
180 line-deletion for screen-line movements. This algorithm is more
181 powerful than the 4.4BSD curses quickch() routine.
182 * Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch. The
183 screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight if the
184 magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before the
185 beginning and after the end would step on a non-space character.
186 It will automatically shift highlight boundaries when doing so
187 would make it possible to draw the highlight without changing the
188 visual appearance of the screen.
189 * It is possible to generate the library with a list of pre-loaded
190 fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve those terminal
191 types even when no terminfo tree or termcap file is accessible
192 (this may be useful for support of screen-oriented programs that
193 must run in single-user mode).
194 * The tic(1)/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability
195 to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
197 * A BSD-like tset(1) utility is provided.
198 * The ncurses library and utilities will automatically read terminfo
199 entries from $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that
200 directory if it exists and the user has no write access to the
201 system directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
202 personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the system
204 * You may specify a path of directories to search for compiled
205 descriptions with the environment variable TERMINFO_DIRS (this
206 generalizes the feature provided by TERMINFO under stock System
208 * In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not just to
209 other entries in the same source file (as in System V) but also to
210 compiled entries in either the system terminfo directory or the
211 user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.
212 * A script (capconvert) is provided to help BSD users transition
213 from termcap to terminfo. It gathers the information in a TERMCAP
214 environment variable and/or a ~/.termcap local entries file and
215 converts it to an equivalent local terminfo tree under
217 * Automatic fallback to the /etc/termcap file can be compiled in
218 when it is not possible to build a terminfo tree. This feature is
219 neither fast nor cheap, you don't want to use it unless you have
221 * The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
222 exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
223 * The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
224 have a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
225 prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
227 * An HTML "Introduction to Programming with NCURSES" document
228 provides a narrative introduction to the curses programming
233 Numerous bugs present in earlier versions have been fixed; the library
234 is far more reliable than it used to be. Bounds checking in many
235 `dangerous' entry points has been improved. The code is now type-safe
236 according to gcc -Wall. The library has been checked for malloc leaks
237 and arena corruption by the Purify memory-allocation tester.
239 The ncurses code has been tested with a wide variety of applications
240 including (versions starting with those noted):
243 Curses Development Kit
244 [3]http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
245 [4]http://dickey.his.com/cdk.
249 [5]http://dickey.his.com/ded.
252 the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
253 basis for similar applications on GNU/Linux.
254 [6]http://dickey.his.com/dialog.
257 the character-screen WWW browser
258 [7]http://lynx.isc.org/release.
260 Midnight Commander 4.1
262 [8]www.gnome.org/mc/.
266 [9]http://www.mutt.org.
269 file-transfer utility
270 [10]http://www.ncftp.com.
273 New vi versions 1.50 are able to use ncurses versions 1.9.7 and
275 [11]http://www.bostic.com/vi/.
278 newsreader, supporting color, MIME
279 [12]http://www.tin.org.
283 [13]http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/.
286 Volks-Hypertext browser for the Jargon File
287 [14]http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html.
289 as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
293 [15]http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html.
297 [16]http://dickey.his.com/vile.
299 The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
300 (including a few games).
302 Who's Who and What's What
304 The original developers of ncurses are [17]Zeyd Ben-Halim and [18]Eric
305 S. Raymond. Ongoing work is being done by [19]Thomas Dickey and
306 [20]Jürgen Pfeifer. [21]Thomas Dickey acts as the maintainer for the
307 Free Software Foundation, which holds the copyright on ncurses.
308 Contact the current maintainers at [22]bug-ncurses@gnu.org.
310 To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
311 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org containing the line:
312 subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
314 This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
315 and testing of this package.
317 Beta versions of ncurses and patches to the current release are made
318 available at [23]ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses.
322 * Extended-level XPG4 conformance, with internationalization
324 * Ports to more systems, including DOS and Windows.
326 We need people to help with these projects. If you are interested in
327 working on them, please join the ncurses list.
329 Other Related Resources
331 The distribution includes and uses a version of the terminfo-format
332 terminal description file maintained by Eric Raymond.
333 [24]http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo.
335 You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
336 covered in the terminfo file at [25]Richard Shuford's archive.
340 1. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses
341 2. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses
342 3. http://www.vexus.ca/CDK.html
343 4. http://dickey.his.com/cdk/cdk.html
344 5. http://dickey.his.com/ded/ded.html
345 6. http://dickey.his.com/dialog/dialog.html
346 7. http://lynx.isc.org/release/
347 8. file://localhost/usr/build/ncurses/ncurses-5.1-20000704/doc/html/www.gnome.org/mc/
348 9. http://www.mutt.org/
349 10. http://www.ncftp.com/
350 11. http://www.bostic.com/vi/
351 12. http://www.tin.org/
352 13. http://members.iinet.net.au/~yusuf/taper/
353 14. http://www.bg.debian.org/Packages/unstable/text/vh.html
354 15. http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~walker/minicom.html
355 16. http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html
356 17. mailto:zmbenhal@netcom.com
357 18. http://www.ccil.org/~esr/home.html
358 19. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
359 20. mailto:juergen.pfeifer@gmx.net
360 21. mailto:dickey@herndon4.his.com
361 22. mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org
362 23. ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses
363 24. http://earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo
364 25. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal_index.html