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28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29 -- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.217 2020/02/15 13:39:30 tom Exp $
30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
31 How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
32 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
34 ************************************************************
35 * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
36 ************************************************************
38 You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
39 d.d is the current version number. There should be several subdirectories,
40 including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
41 and `test'. See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
43 If you are a distribution integrator or packager, please read and act on the
44 section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR below.
46 If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
47 to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
49 If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
50 read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
52 If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
53 USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
55 If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
58 If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
59 follow the instructions there. The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
65 You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
67 * ANSI C compiler (gcc, for instance)
69 * awk (mawk or gawk will do)
71 * BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
73 Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
76 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
77 ----------------------
79 1. First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
80 which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
83 The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
84 ncurses. The default is normally in subdirectories of /usr/local, except
85 for systems where ncurses is normally installed as a system library (see
86 "IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR"). Use --prefix=/usr to replace your
87 default curses distribution.
89 The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
91 In $(prefix)/bin: tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
92 reset, clear, tput, toe, tabs
93 In $(prefix)/lib: libncurses*.* libcurses.a
94 In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
95 In $(prefix)/include: C header files
96 Under $(prefix)/man: the manual pages
98 Note that the configure script attempts to locate previous installation of
99 ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where it finds the
102 Do not use commands such as
104 make install prefix=XXX
106 to change the prefix after configuration, since the prefix value is used
107 for some absolute pathnames such as TERMINFO. Instead do this
109 make install DESTDIR=XXX
111 See also the discussion of --with-install-prefix.
113 2. Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
114 configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
115 Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
116 the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
118 If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
119 the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
120 file for your system.
122 The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
123 models and their associated libraries:
125 libncurses.a (normal)
127 libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
128 This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
130 libncurses.so (shared)
132 libncurses_g.a (debug)
134 libncurses_p.a (profile)
136 libncurses.la (libtool)
138 If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
139 library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
140 wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
141 are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
142 features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
143 library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
144 version. Building and running the wide-character code relies on a fairly
145 recent implementation of libiconv. We have built this configuration on
146 various systems using libiconv, sometimes requiring libutf8.
148 If you configure using the --with-pthread option, a "t" is appended to
149 the library names (e.g., libncursest.a, libncursestw.a).
151 If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
152 configured. Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
154 ./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
158 ./configure --with-shared
160 makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
162 ./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
164 If you want only shared libraries, type
166 ./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
168 Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
169 of host system and compiler. We've been testing shared libraries on
170 several systems, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
171 work on other systems.
173 If you have libtool installed, you can type
175 ./configure --with-libtool
177 to generate the appropriate static and/or shared libraries for your
178 platform using libtool.
180 You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
181 definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap. If you do this, the
182 library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
183 also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable. See the
184 section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
186 3. Type `make'. Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
187 This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
188 captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
189 programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
190 programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
192 4. Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
193 verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
194 may overwrite system files. Read the file test/README for details on
197 NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
198 environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
199 database before running the test programs. Not all vendors' terminfo
200 databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.
202 It is possible to configure ncurses to use other terminfo database formats.
203 A few are provided as examples in the include-directory (see --with-caps).
205 If you run the test programs WITHOUT installing terminfo, ncurses may
206 read the termcap file and cache that in $HOME/.terminfo, which will
207 thereafter be used instead of the terminfo database. See the comments
208 on "--enable-getcap-cache", to see why this is a Bad Thing.
210 The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
211 You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
212 cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
214 5. Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
215 the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages. Alternately, you
216 can type `make install' in each directory you want to install. In the
217 top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
219 'make install.progs' installs tic, infocmp, etc...
220 'make install.includes' installs the headers.
221 'make install.libs' installs the libraries (and the headers).
222 'make install.data' installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
223 be installed before the terminfo data can be
225 'make install.man' installs the manual pages.
227 ############################################################################
228 # CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing #
229 # terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them #
230 # before you install ncurses. #
231 ############################################################################
233 The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
234 being formatted by nroff(1). Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
235 this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
236 to be sure. You may also install the manual pages after preprocessing
237 with tbl(1) by specifying the configure option --with-manpage-tbl.
239 If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
240 you'll need to distinguish between it and ncurses. See the discussion of
241 --disable-overwrite. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
242 directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need to
243 use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
245 If you have another curses installed in your system and you accidentally
246 compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
247 undefined symbols at link time.
249 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
250 and run the `capconvert' script. This script will deduce various things
251 about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
252 so you can use ncurses applications.
254 If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
255 trees is wasted. Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
256 wide terminfo tree instead.
258 See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
260 6. The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
261 panels. You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
262 compile and run the demo.
264 Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
267 If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
268 the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
269 which may be supported by C++. IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
270 YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
273 SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
274 ----------------------------
276 The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
280 The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
281 generated with autoconf. Those are all listed before the line
283 --enable and --with options recognized:
285 The other options are specific to this package. We list them in alphabetic
288 --disable-assumed-color
289 With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
290 which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
291 background color are assumed to be. Most color applications use
292 full-screen color; but a few do not color the background. While the
293 assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
294 you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
295 convention, using this configure option.
298 Assume machine has little memory. The configure script attempts to
299 determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
300 terminfo database without writing portions to disk. Some allocators
301 return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
302 script. Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
304 --disable-big-strings
305 Disable compile-time optimization of predefined tables which puts
306 all of their strings into a very long string, to reduce relocation
310 Use only built-in data. The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
311 and termcap data from disk. You can configure ncurses to have a
312 built-in database, aka "fallback" entries. Embedded applications may
313 have no need for an external database. Some, but not all of the
314 programs are useful in this configuration, e.g., tset and tput versus
318 Do not install the terminal database. This is used to omit features
319 for packages, as done with --without-progs.
322 Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
323 suppressing the display of the compile and link commands. This makes
324 it easier to see the compiler warnings. (You can always use "make -n"
325 to see the options that are used).
328 Disable function-extensions. Configure ncurses without the functions
329 that are not specified by XSI. See ncurses/modules for the exact
330 list of library modules that would be suppressed.
332 --disable-gnat-projects
333 Disable GNAT projects even if usable, for testing old makefile rules.
336 Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code. This algorithm is
339 --disable-home-terminfo
340 The $HOME/.terminfo directory is normally added to ncurses' search
341 list for reading/writing terminfo entries, since that directory is
342 more likely writable than the system terminfo database. Use this
343 option to disable the feature altogether.
346 Disable compiler flags needed to use large-file interfaces.
349 For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
350 be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
352 Any implementation of curses must not free the memory associated with
353 a screen, since (even after calling endwin()), it must be available
354 for use in the next call to refresh(). There are also chunks of
355 memory held for performance reasons. That makes it hard to analyze
356 curses applications for memory leaks. To work around this, build a
357 debugging version of the ncurses library which frees those chunks
358 which it can, and provides the _nc_free_and_exit() function to free
359 the remainder and then exit. The ncurses utility and test programs
360 use this feature, e.g., via the ExitProgram() macro.
362 Because this lies outside of the library's intended usage, it is not
363 normally considered part of the ABI. If there were some (as yet
364 unplanned) extension which frees memory in a manner that would let the
365 library resume and reallocate memory, then that would not use a "_nc_"
368 --disable-lib-suffixes
369 Suppress the "w", "t" or "tw" suffixes which normally would be added
370 to the library names for the --enable-widec and --with-pthread options.
372 --disable-libtool-version
373 when using --with-libtool, control how the major/minor version numbers
374 are used for constructing the library name.
376 The default uses the -version-number feature of libtool, which makes
377 the library names compatible (though not identical) with the standard
378 build using --with-shared.
380 Use --disable-libtool-version to use the libtool -version-info feature.
381 This corresponds to the setting used before patch 20100515.
383 Starting with patch 20141115, using this option causes the configure
384 script to apply the top-level VERSION file to the ABI version used
388 The header files will ignore use of the _LP64 symbol to make chtype
389 and mmask_t types 32 bits (they may be long on 64-bit hosts, for
390 compatibility with older releases).
392 NOTE: this is potentially an ABI change, depending on existing
393 packages. The default for this option is "disabled" for ncurses
394 ABI 5, and "enabled" for ABI 6.
397 For testing, use functions rather than macros. The program will run
398 more slowly, but it is simpler to debug. This defines NCURSES_NOMACROS
399 at build time. See also the --enable-expanded option.
402 If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
403 development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
404 for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
405 -lcurses. The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
406 Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
407 installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
408 rather than the include directory. This makes it simpler to avoid
409 compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
411 Putting the header files into a subdirectory assumes that applications
412 will follow the (standard) practice of including the headers with
413 reference to the subdirectory name. For instance, the normal ncurses
414 header would be included using
416 #include <ncurses/curses.h>
417 #include <ncurses/term.h>
419 while the ncursesw headers would be found this way:
421 #include <ncursesw/curses.h>
422 #include <ncursesw/term.h>
424 In either case (with or without the --disable-overwrite option),
425 almost all applications are designed to include a related set of
426 curses header files from the same directory.
428 Manipulating the --includedir configure option to put header files
429 directly in a subdirectory of the normal include-directory defeats
430 this, and breaks builds of portable applications. Likewise, putting
431 some headers in /usr/include, and others in a subdirectory is a good
434 When configured with --disable-overwrite, the installed header files'
435 embedded #include's are adjusted to use the same style of includes
436 noted above. In particular, the unctrl.h header is included from
437 curses.h, which means that a makefile which tells the compiler to
438 include directly from the subdirectory will fail to compile correctly.
439 Without some special effort, it will either fail to compile at all,
440 or the compiler may find a different unctrl.h file.
443 If --enable-rpath is given, the generated makefiles normally will
444 rebuild shared libraries during install. Use this option to simply
445 copy whatever the linker produced.
447 Static libraries cannot simply be copied because tools use timestamps
448 to determine if the library's symbol table is up to date. If your
449 install program supports the "-p" (preserve timestamp) option, that
450 is used when --disable-relink is given, to avoid rebuilding the symbol
453 Finally, some tools ignore the subsecond timestamps supported by some
454 filesystems. This option adds a 1-second sleep to help those tools
455 avoid unnecessary relinking during the install process.
457 --disable-root-environ
458 Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
459 are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
460 application. These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
461 search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
464 Normally the configure script helps link libraries found in unusual
465 places by adding an rpath option to the link command. If you are
466 building packages, this feature may be redundant. Use this option
467 to suppress the feature.
469 --disable-scroll-hints
470 Compile without scroll-hints code. This option is ignored when
471 hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
474 Do not strip installed executables.
476 --disable-tic-depends
477 When building shared libraries, normally the tic library is linked to
478 depend upon the ncurses library (or equivalently, on the tinfo-library
479 if the --with-termlib option was given). The tic- and tinfo-library
480 ABIs do not depend on the --enable-widec option. Some packagers have
481 used this to reduce the number of library files which are packaged by
482 using only one copy of those libraries. To make this work properly,
483 the tic library must be built without an explicit dependency on the
484 underlying library (ncurses vs ncursesw, tinfo vs tinfow). Use this
485 configure option to do that.
487 configure --with-ticlib --with-shared --disable-tic-depends
489 --disable-tparm-varargs
490 Portable programs should call tparm() using the fixed-length parameter
491 list documented in X/Open. ncurses provides varargs support for this
492 function. Use --disable-tparm-varargs to disable this support.
494 --disable-wattr-macros
495 The 6.0 ABI adds support for extended colors and for extended mouse.
496 The former is a noticeable problem when developers inadvertently
497 compile using the ncurses6 header files and link with an ncurses5
498 library, because the wattr* macros use a new field in the WINDOW
499 structure. These macros are used in several applications.
501 Since ncurses provides an actual function for each of these macros,
502 suppressing them from the curses.h header allows the ncurses5 libraries
503 to be used in most applications.
505 NOTE: The extended colors also are used in the cchar_t structure, but
506 fewer applications use that.
508 NOTE: This workaround does not help with mismatches in the ncurses
509 mouse version. The extended mouse feature uses one less fewer bit for
510 each button, so that only the first button will work as expected with
511 a mismatch between header and library. Again, most applications will
512 work, since most use only the first button.
515 For testing, compile-in assertion code. This is used only for a few
516 places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
518 --enable-broken_linker
519 A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker: it cannot link
520 objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
521 files, but requires a function reference. This configure option
522 changes several data references to functions to work around this
525 NOTE: With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
526 told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
527 different type of reference which behaves as described above. We have
528 explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
532 Recognize BSD-style prefix padding. Some ancient BSD programs (such as
533 nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
536 Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code. That environment variable
537 is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
538 advertising the default foreground and background colors. During
539 initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
542 The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
543 including features that precede ANSI C. The prototypes generally do
544 not make effective use of "const". When using stricter compilers (or
545 gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
546 between const and non-const data. We provide a configure option which
547 changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
548 reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely. The ncurses
549 library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
550 and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
551 warning. There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
552 in the interface, but at a lower level.
554 NOTE: configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
555 portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
556 places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them. Similar
557 issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
561 For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
562 as such to the debugger. See also the --disable-macros option.
565 Extend the cchar_t structure to allow more than 16 colors to be
566 encoded. This applies only to the wide-character (--enable-widec)
569 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
570 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
571 applications which have an array of cchar_t's must be recompiled.
574 Modify the encoding of mouse state to make room for a 5th mouse button.
575 That allows one to use ncurses with a wheel mouse with xterm or
576 similar X terminal emulators.
578 NOTE: using this option will make libraries which are not binary-
579 compatible with libncursesw 5.4. None of the interfaces change, but
580 applications which have mouse mask mmask_t's must be recompiled.
583 Modify the file-format written by putwin() to use printable text rather
584 than binary files, allowing getwin() to read screen dumps written by
585 differently-configured ncurses libraries. The extended getwin() can
586 still read binary screen dumps from the "same" configuration of
587 ncurses. This does not change the ABI (the binary interface seen by
588 calling applications).
591 Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
592 fetch termcap entries. Entries read in this way cannot use (make
593 cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
596 If configured for one of the *BSD systems, this automatically uses
597 the hashed database system produced using cap_mkdb or similar tools.
598 In that case, there is no advantage in using the --enable-getcap-cache
601 See also the --with-hashed-db option.
603 --enable-getcap-cache
604 Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
606 NOTE: this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time.
607 But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
608 entries that are not up to date. If you configure with this option and
609 forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
610 application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
611 generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
614 Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs. We would make
615 this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
616 may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
620 Compile-in experimental interop bindings. These provide generic types
621 for the form-library.
624 Controls whether the filesystem on which the terminfo database resides
625 supports mixed-case filenames (normal for UNIX, but not on other
626 systems). If you do not specify this option, the configure script
627 checks the current filesystem.
630 Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
631 which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
632 terminfo entries. This is the default, unless you have disabled the
635 --enable-opaque-curses
638 --enable-opaque-panel
639 Define symbol in curses.h which controls whether some library
640 structures are treated as "opaque". The --enable-opaque-curses option
641 is overridden by the --enable-reentrant option.
644 If pkg-config is found (see --with-pkg-config), generate ".pc" files
645 for each of the libraries, and install them in pkg-config's library
648 --enable-pthreads-eintr
649 add logic in threaded configuration to ensure that a read(2) system
650 call can be interrupted for SIGWINCH.
653 Compile configuration which improves reentrant use of the library by
654 reducing global and static variables. This option is also set if
655 --with-pthread is used.
657 Enabling this option adds a "t" to the library names, except for the
658 special case when --enable-weak-symbols is also used.
661 Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and (with some
662 restrictions) when linking the corresponding programs. This originally
663 (in 1997) applied mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the
666 More recently it is useful for systems that require special treatment
667 shared libraries in "unusual" locations. The "system" libraries reside
668 in directories which are on the loader's default search-path. While
669 you may be able to use workarounds such as the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
670 environment variable, they do not work with setuid applications since
671 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable would be unset in that situation.
673 This option does not apply to --with-libtool, since libtool makes
674 extra assumptions about rpath.
676 --enable-safe-sprintf
677 Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code. You may consider using
678 this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
679 vsnprintf() or vsprintf(). It is slow, however, and is used only on
680 very old systems which lack vsnprintf().
683 The term.h header declares a Booleans[] array typed "char". But it
684 stores signed values there and "char" is not necessarily signed.
685 Some packagers choose to alter the type of Booleans[] though this
686 is not strictly compatible. This option allows one to implement this
687 alteration without patching the source code.
690 Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler. If your application has
691 its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own. The ncurses
692 handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
693 changes. This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
697 Compile-in support for extended functions which accept a SCREEN pointer,
698 reducing the need for juggling the global SP value with set_term() and
701 --enable-string-hacks
702 Controls whether strlcat and strlcpy may be used. The same issue
703 applies to OpenBSD's warnings about snprintf, noting that this function
704 is weakly standardized.
706 Aside from stifling these warnings, there is no functional improvement
710 If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
711 rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
715 Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities. Use the
716 -x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
717 capabilities as user-defined strings. This option is the default,
718 unless you have disabled the extended functions.
721 Enable experimental terminal-driver. This is currently used for the
722 MinGW port, by providing a way to substitute the low-level terminfo
723 library with different terminal drivers.
726 Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
727 match is found in the terminfo database. See also the --enable-getcap
728 and --enable-getcap-cache options.
730 Termcap support requires run-time parsing rather than loading
731 predigested data. If you have specified --with-ticlib, then you
732 cannot have termcap support since run-time parsing is done in the
733 tic library, which is intentionally not part of normal linkage
737 Turn on GCC compiler warnings. There should be only a few.
739 --enable-weak-symbols
740 If the --with-pthread option is set, check if the compiler supports
741 weak-symbols. If it does, then name the thread-capable library without
742 the "t" (libncurses rather than libncursest), and provide for
743 dynamically loading the pthreads entrypoints at runtime. This allows
744 one to reduce the number of library files for ncurses.
746 --enable-wgetch-events
747 Compile with experimental wgetch-events code. See ncurses/README.IZ
750 Compile with wide-character code. This makes a different version of
751 the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores characters as
754 NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
755 with those built for 8-bit characters. You cannot simply make a
756 symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
758 NOTE: the Ada95 binding may be built against either version of the the
759 ncurses library, but you must decide which: the binding installs the
760 same set of files for either version. Currently (2002/6/22) it does
761 not use the extended features from the wide-character code, so it is
762 probably better to not install the binding for that configuration.
765 Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
767 --with-abi-version=NUM
768 Override the ABI version, which is used in shared library filenames.
769 Normally this is the same as the release version; some ports have
770 special requirements for compatibility.
772 This option does not affect linking with libtool, which uses the
773 release major/minor numbers.
775 --with-ada-compiler=CMD
776 Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
778 --with-ada-include=DIR
779 Tell where to install the Ada includes (default:
780 PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
782 --with-ada-libname=NAME
783 Override the name of the Ada binding (default: "AdaCurses")
785 --with-ada-objects=DIR
786 Tell where to install the Ada objects (default: PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
789 Build a shared library for Ada95 binding, if the compiler permits.
791 NOTE: You must also set the --with-shared option on some platforms
792 for a successful build. You need not use this option when you set
793 --with-shared, unless you want to use the Ada shared library.
796 If --without-cxx is specified, override the type used for the "bool"
797 declared in curses.h (normally the type is automatically chosen to
798 correspond with that in <stdbool.h>, or defaults to platform-specific
802 If cross-compiling, specify a host C compiler, which is needed to
803 compile a few utilities which generate source modules for ncurses.
804 If you do not give this option, the configure script checks if the
805 $BUILD_CC variable is set, and otherwise defaults to gcc or cc.
807 --with-build-cflags=XXX
808 If cross-compiling, specify the host C compiler-flags. You might need
809 to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse the
812 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CFLAGS rather than
816 This option is provided by the same macro used for $BUILD_CC, etc.,
817 but is not directly used by ncurses.
819 --with-build-cppflags=XXX
820 If cross-compiling, specify the host C preprocessor-flags. You might
821 need to do this if the target compiler has unusual flags which confuse
824 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_CPPFLAGS rather than
827 --with-build-ldflags=XXX
828 If cross-compiling, specify the host linker-flags. You might need to
829 do this if the target linker has unusual flags which confuse the host
832 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LDFLAGS rather than
835 --with-build-libs=XXX
836 If cross-compiling, the host libraries. You might need to do this if
837 the target environment requires unusual libraries.
839 You can also set the environment variable $BUILD_LIBS rather than
843 Specify an alternate terminfo capabilities file, which makes the
844 configure script look for "include/Caps.XXX". A few systems, e.g.,
845 AIX 4.x use the same overall file-format as ncurses for terminfo
846 data, but use different alignments within the tables to support
847 legacy applications. For those systems, you can configure ncurses
848 to use a terminfo database which is compatible with the native
851 --with-ccharw-max=XXX
852 Override the size of the wide-character array in cchar_t structures.
853 Changing this will alter the binary interface. This defaults to 5.
856 Override type of chtype, which stores the video attributes and (if
857 --enable-widec is not given) a character. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this
858 was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it may be unsigned.
859 Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility with 64-bit
860 executables, e.g., by setting "--with-chtype=long" (the configure
861 script supplies "unsigned").
863 --with-config-suffix=XXX
864 Specify a suffix for the ncursesw6-config file, etc., used to work
865 around conflicts with packages.
868 When --with-shared is set, build libncurses++ as a shared library.
869 This implicitly relies upon building with gcc/g++, since other
870 compiler suites may have differences in the way shared libraries are
871 built. libtool by the way has similar limitations.
874 Specify the terminfo source file to install. Usually you will wish
875 to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src). Certain systems
876 have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
880 For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
881 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
884 Generate debug-libraries (default). These are named by adding "_g"
885 to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
887 --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
888 Specify the default terminfo database directory. This is normally
889 DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
892 For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
893 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
895 --with-export-syms[=XXX]
896 Limit exported symbols using libtool. The configure script
897 automatically chooses an appropriate ".sym" file, which lists the
898 symbols which are part of the ABI.
900 --with-extra-suffix[=XXX]
901 Add the given suffix to header- and library-names to simplify
902 installing incompatible ncurses libraries, e.g., those using a
903 different ABI. The renaming affects the name of the
904 include-subdirectory if --disable-overwrite is given.
907 Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
908 compiled into the ncurses library. See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
910 See also "--with-tic-path" and "--with-infocmp-path".
913 use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
914 Linux console. Prior to ncurses 5.5, this introduced a dependency on
917 Currently ncurses uses the dlsym() function to bind to the library at
918 runtime, so it is only necessary that the library be present when
919 ncurses is built, to obtain the filename (or soname) used in the
920 corresponding dlopen() call. If you give a value for this option,
923 --with-gpm=$HOME/tmp/test-gpm.so
925 that overrides the configure check for the soname.
927 See also --without-dlsym
929 --with-hashed-db[=XXX]
930 Use a hashed database for storing terminfo data rather than storing
931 each compiled entry in a separate binary file within a directory
934 In particular, this uses the Berkeley database 1.8.5 interface, as
935 provided by that and its successors db 2, 3, and 4. The actual
936 interface is slightly different in the successor versions of the
937 Berkeley database. The database should have been configured using
938 "--enable-compat185".
940 If you use this option for configuring ncurses, tic will only be able
941 to write entries in the hashed database. infocmp can still read
942 entries from a directory tree as well as reading entries from the
943 hashed database. To do this, infocmp determines whether the $TERMINFO
944 variable points to a directory or a file, and reads the directory-tree
945 or hashed database respectively.
947 You cannot have a directory containing both hashed-database and
948 filesystem-based terminfo entries.
950 Use the parameter value to give the install-prefix used for the
952 --with-hashed-db=/usr/local/BigBase
953 to find the corresponding include- and lib-directories under the
954 given directory. Alternatively, you can specify a directory leaf
957 to make the configure script look for files in a subdirectory such as
958 /usr/include/db4/db.h
959 /usr/lib/db4/libdb.so
961 See also the --enable-getcap option.
963 --with-infocmp-path[=XXX]
964 Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your
965 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
967 --with-install-prefix=XXX
968 Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
969 after building it. The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
970 install location. This simplifies making binary packages. The
971 makefile variable DESTDIR is set by this option. It is also possible
973 make install DESTDIR=XXX
974 since the makefiles pass that variable to subordinate makes.
976 NOTE: a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
977 option probably will not work for those configurations.
979 --with-lib-prefix=XXX
980 OS/2 EMX used a different naming convention from most Unix-like
981 platforms. It required that the "lib" part of a library name was
982 omitted. Newer EMX as part of eComStation does not follow that
983 convention. Use this option to override the configure script's
984 assumptions about the library-prefix. If this option is omitted, it
985 uses the original OS/2 EMX convention for that platform. Use
986 "--with-lib-prefix=lib" for the newer EMX in eComStation. Use
987 "--without-lib-prefix" to suppress it for other odd platforms.
990 Generate libraries with libtool. If this option is selected, then it
991 overrides all other library model specifications. Note that libtool
992 must already be installed, uses makefile rules dependent on GNU make,
993 and does not promise to follow the version numbering convention of
994 other shared libraries on your system. However, if the --with-shared
995 option does not succeed, you may get better results with this option.
997 If a parameter value is given, it must be the full pathname of the
998 particular version of libtool, e.g.,
999 /usr/bin/libtool-1.2.3
1001 It is possible to rebuild the configure script to use the automake
1002 macros for libtool, e.g., AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. See the comments in
1003 aclocal.m4 for CF_PROG_LIBTOOL, and ensure that you build configure
1004 using the appropriate patch for autoconf from
1005 https://invisible-island.net/autoconf/
1007 --with-libtool-opts=XXX
1008 Allow user to pass additional libtool options into the library creation
1009 and link steps. The main use for this is to do something like
1010 ./configure --with-libtool-opts=-static
1011 to get the same behavior as automake-flavored
1012 ./configure --enable-static
1014 --with-manpage-aliases
1015 Tell the configure script you wish to create entries in the
1016 man-directory for aliases to manpages which list them, e.g., the
1017 functions in the panel manpage. This is the default. You can disable
1018 it if your man program does this. You can also disable
1019 --with-manpage-symlinks to install files containing a ".so" command
1020 rather than symbolic links.
1022 --with-manpage-format=XXX
1023 Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages. The
1024 option value must be one of these: gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
1025 formatted. If you do not give this option, the configure script
1026 attempts to determine which is the case.
1028 --with-manpage-renames=XXX
1029 Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
1030 installing. Currently the only distribution which does this is Debian.
1031 The option value specifies the name of a file that lists the renamed
1032 files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
1034 --with-manpage-symlinks
1035 Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
1036 man-directory for aliases to the man-pages. This is the default, but
1037 can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically. Doing
1038 this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
1039 copying the man-page for each alias.
1042 Tell the configure script that you wish to preprocess the manpages
1043 by running them through tbl to generate tables understandable by
1047 Override type of mmask_t, which stores the mouse mask. Prior to
1048 ncurses 5.5, this was always unsigned long, but with ncurses 5.5, it
1049 may be unsigned. Use this option if you need to preserve compatibility
1050 with 64-bit executables.
1053 Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
1055 Note: on Linux, the configure script will attempt to use the GPM
1056 library via the dlsym() function call. Use --without-dlsym to disable
1057 this feature, or --without-gpm, depending on whether you wish to use
1061 Override type of ospeed variable, which is part of the termcap
1062 compatibility interface. In termcap, this is a 'short', which works
1063 for a wide range of baudrates because ospeed is not the actual speed
1064 but the encoded value, e.g., B9600 would be a small number such as 13.
1065 However the encoding scheme originally allowed for values "only" up to
1066 38400bd. A newer set of definitions past 38400bd is not encoded as
1067 compactly, and is not guaranteed to fit into a short (see the function
1068 cfgetospeed(), which returns a speed_t for this reason). In practice,
1069 applications that required knowledge of the ospeed variable, i.e.,
1070 those using termcap, do not use the higher speeds. Your application
1071 (or system, in general) may or may not.
1073 --with-pc-suffix=SUFFIX
1074 If ".pc" files are installed, optionally add a suffix to the files
1075 and corresponding package names to separate unusual configurations.
1076 If no option value is given (or if it is "none"), no suffix is added.
1079 Add PCRE2 (Perl-compatible regular expressions v2) to the build if it
1080 is available and the user requests it. Assume the application will
1081 otherwise use the POSIX interface.
1083 This is useful for MinGW builds because the usual POSIX interface is
1084 not supplied by the development environment, while ncurses' form
1085 library uses a regular expression feature for one of the field types.
1087 --with-pkg-config=[DIR]
1088 Check for pkg-config, optionally specifying its path.
1090 --with-pkg-config-libdir=[DIR]
1091 If pkg-config was found, override the automatic check for its library
1095 Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
1096 e.g., libncurses_p.a
1099 Link with POSIX threads, set --enable-reentrant. The use_window() and
1100 use_screen() functions will use mutex's, allowing rudimentary support
1101 for multithreaded applications.
1104 Compile-in RCS identifiers. Most of the C files have an identifier.
1106 --with-rel-version=NUM
1107 Override the release version, which may be used in shared library
1108 filenames. This consists of a major and minor version number separated
1109 by ".". Normally the major version number is the same as the ABI
1110 version; some ports have special requirements for compatibility.
1113 Generate shared-libraries. The names given depend on the system for
1114 which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
1115 symbolic links that refer to the release version.
1117 NOTE: Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
1118 environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
1121 NOTE: For some configurations, e.g., installing a new version of
1122 ncurses shared libraries on a machine which already has ncurses
1123 shared libraries, you may encounter problems with the linker.
1124 For example, it may prevent you from running the build tree's
1125 copy of tic (for installing the terminfo database) because it
1126 loads the system's copy of the ncurses shared libraries.
1128 In that case, using the misc/shlib script may be helpful, since it
1129 sets $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the build tree, e.g.,
1131 ./misc/shlib make install
1133 Alternatively, for most platforms, the linker accepts a list of
1134 directories which will be searched for libraries at run-time. The
1135 configure script allows you to modify this list using the
1136 RPATH_LIST environment variable. It is a colon-separated list of
1137 directories (default: the "libdir" set via the configure script).
1138 If you set that to put "../lib" first in the list, the linker will
1139 look first at the build-directory, and avoid conflict with libraries
1140 already installed. One drawback to this approach is that libraries
1141 can be accidentally searched in any "../lib" directory.
1143 NOTE: If you use the --with-ada-sharedlib option, you should also
1144 set this option, to ensure that C-language modules needed for the
1145 Ada binding use appropriate compiler options.
1147 --with-shlib-version=XXX
1148 Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
1149 This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
1150 which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure script.
1153 use FreeBSD sysmouse interface provide mouse support on the console.
1155 --with-system-type=XXX
1156 For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
1157 decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
1158 libraries. This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
1159 system which you are building on. We use it for testing the configure
1162 --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
1163 Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
1164 into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
1166 This is a colon-separated list, like the TERMINFO_DIRS environment
1169 --with-termlib[=XXX]
1170 When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts: the
1171 curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
1172 (libtinfo). This is done to accommodate applications that use only
1173 the latter. The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
1175 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the terminfo
1176 library. For instance, if the wide-character version is built, the
1177 terminfo library would be named libtinfow. But the libtinfow interface
1178 is upward compatible from libtinfo, so it would be possible to overlay
1179 libtinfo.so with a "wide" version of libtinfow.so by renaming it with
1183 Specify a search-list of termcap files which will be compiled into the
1184 ncurses library (default: /etc/termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap)
1186 --with-tic-path[=XXX]
1187 Use this option to override the automatic detection of tic in your
1188 $PATH when building fallbacks (see "--with-fallbacks").
1191 When building the ncurses library, build a separate library for
1192 the modules that are used only by the utility programs. Normally
1193 those would be bundled with the termlib or ncurses libraries.
1195 If an option value is given, that overrides the name of the tic
1196 library. As in termlib, there is no ABI difference between the
1197 "wide" libticw.so and libtic.so
1199 NOTE: Overriding the name of the tic library may be useful if you are
1200 also using the --with-termlib option to rename libtinfo. If you are
1201 not doing that, renaming the tic library can result in conflicting
1202 library dependencies for tic and other programs built with the tic
1205 --with-tparm-arg[=XXX]
1206 Override the type used for tparm() arguments, which normally is a
1207 "long". However the function must assume that its arguments can hold a
1208 pointer to char's which is not always workable for 64-bit platforms. A
1209 better choice would be intptr_t, which was not available at the time
1210 tparm's interface was defined.
1212 If the option is not given, this defaults to "long".
1215 Configure the trace() function as part of the all models of the ncurses
1216 library. Normally it is part of the debug (libncurses_g) library only.
1219 For testing, compile with debug option.
1220 This also sets the --disable-leaks option.
1222 --with-versioned-syms[=XXX]
1223 The Solaris, GNU and reportedly some other linkers (ld) accept a
1224 "--version-script" option which tells the linker to annotate the
1225 resulting objects with version identifiers.
1227 Use "objdump -T" on a library to see the annotations.
1229 The configure script attempts to automatically apply a suitable ".map"
1230 file to provide this information for Linux. Solaris mapfiles differ:
1232 a) comments are not accepted
1233 b) wildcards are not accepted, except for a special case of "_*".
1234 c) each symbol listed in the map file must exist in the library
1236 The Solaris limitations conflict with the development goal of providing
1237 a small set of ".map" files as examples, which cover the most common
1238 configurations. Because that coverage is done by merging together
1239 several builds, some symbols will be listed in the the ".map" files
1240 that do not happen to be present in one configuration or another.
1242 The sample ".map" (and ".sym") files are generated using a set of
1243 scripts which build several configurations for each release version,
1244 checking to see which of the "_nc_" symbols can be made local. In
1245 addition to the ncurses libraries and programs, the symbols used
1246 by the "tack" program before version 1.08 are made global.
1248 These sample ".map" files will not cover all possible combinations.
1249 In some cases, e.g., when using the --with-weak-symbols option, you
1250 may prefer to use a different ".map" file by setting this option's
1253 --with-wrap-prefix=XXX
1254 When using the --enable-reentrant option, ncurses redefines variables
1255 that would be global in curses, e.g., LINES, as a macro that calls a
1256 "wrapping" function which fetches the data from the current SCREEN
1257 structure. Normally that function is named by prepending "_nc_" to the
1258 variable's name. The function is technically private (since portable
1259 applications would not refer directly to it). But according to one
1260 line of reasoning, it is not the same type of "private" as functions
1261 which applications should not call even via a macro. This configure
1262 option lets you choose the prefix for these wrapped variables.
1265 Provide a pathname for the X11 rgb file, used by the picsmap program.
1266 This overrides a configure check which usually works, but is needed
1267 due to the lack of standardization for X11's files.
1269 --with-xterm-kbs=XXX
1270 Configure xterm's terminfo entries to use either BS (^H, i.e., ASCII
1271 backspace) or DEL (^?, or 127). XXX can be BS (or bs, 8) or DEL
1274 During installation, the makefile and scripts modifies the "xterm+kbs"
1275 terminfo entry to use this setting.
1278 Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
1279 Ada95 binding and related demo.
1282 Don't install the ncurses header with the name "curses.h". Rather,
1283 install as "ncurses.h" and modify the installed headers and manpages
1286 Likewise, do not install an alias "curses" for the ncurses manpage.
1289 XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface. C++ also declares
1290 "bool". Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
1291 insist on the same name. We chose to accommodate this by making the
1292 configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
1293 that your C++ compiler uses for booleans. If you do not wish to use
1294 ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
1295 adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
1297 --without-cxx-binding
1298 Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
1299 C++ binding and related demo.
1302 Disable development options. This does not include those that change
1303 the interface, such as --enable-widec.
1306 Do not use dlsym() to load GPM dynamically.
1309 Tell the configure script to suppress the install of ncurses' manpages.
1312 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
1313 programs (e.g., tic). The test applications will still be built if you
1314 type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
1317 Suppress build/install with tack program, if it happens to be
1318 in the same build-tree (tack was moved out of the ncurses source-tree
1322 Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' test
1326 Tell the configure script to use "xterm-old" for the entry used in
1327 the terminfo database. This will work with variations such as
1328 X11R5 and X11R6 xterm.
1331 COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
1332 --------------------------------------------
1334 Because ncurses implements X/Open Curses, its interface is fairly stable.
1335 That does not mean the interface does not change. Changes are made to the
1336 documented interfaces when we find differences between ncurses and X/Open
1337 or implementations which largely correspond to X/Open (such as Solaris).
1338 We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not addressed by
1339 the original curses design, but those must not conflict with the X/Open
1342 Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
1343 you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
1349 + the terminal database must be compiled with ncurses 6.2 tic;
1350 older versions of tic/infocmp will not work. Aside from that,
1351 the compiled database will work with older applications.
1353 + "*.pc" and "ncurses*-config" files give the same information.
1355 + vwprintw and vwscanw are deprecated.
1359 + These make it simpler to substitute a debug-configuration of the
1360 library for non-debug:
1365 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1367 + These provide fast-lookup of common user-defined capabilities:
1369 _nc_get_userdefs_table
1372 + This is added to work around compiler-warnings:
1375 Removed internal functions:
1377 + _nc_import_termtype
1379 Modified internal functions:
1381 + _nc_reserve_pairs no longer returns a value
1386 + X/Open Curses specifies a "reserved" void* parameter in several
1387 functions, saying that it must be NULL. In this release, if the
1388 parameter is non-NULL, it is interpreted as a point to an integer
1389 containing a color pair. In previous releases, a non-NULL parameter
1390 caused an error return. Portable applications are unaffected. Here
1391 are the functions which have been extended:
1410 + the TERMINAL structure declared in <term.h> has been made opaque,
1411 and its size increased to handle the increased size of color pair
1412 and color value, as well as other numeric capabilities.
1414 A few applications required change, e.g., to use def_prog_mode;
1415 only one application (tack) is known to have a valid reason for
1416 accessing these internal details, and that was addressed by the
1417 release of tack 1.08 in 2017. Internal functions marked as used
1418 by tack will be deprecated in future releases.
1422 + Several new functions were added to manipulate extended color pairs
1423 and color values. These include:
1425 extended_color_content
1426 extended_pair_content
1434 as well as corresponding sp-functions.
1436 + A new terminfo capability "RGB" tells the ncurses library that the
1437 color values are red/green/blue, to eliminate the need for palettes
1438 in that special case for the color_content function.
1440 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1442 _nc_export_termtype2
1450 Removed internal functions:
1454 Modified internal functions:
1456 + symbols are used by tic/infocmp/toe:
1457 _nc_align_termtype - change parameters to TERMTYPE2*
1458 _nc_check_termtype2 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1459 _nc_read_file_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1460 _nc_read_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1461 _nc_trim_sgr0 - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1462 _nc_write_entry - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1464 + symbols used only within the library:
1465 _nc_fallback - change return type to TERMTYPE2*
1466 _nc_init_termtype - change parameter to TERMTYPE2*
1471 + The 6.0 ABI modifies the defaults for these configure options:
1479 --with-chtype=uint32_t
1480 --with-mmask_t=uint32_t
1481 --with-tparm-arg=intptr_t
1483 + ncurses supports symbol versioning. If you use this feature, about
1484 half of the "_nc_" private symbols are changed to local symbols.
1486 + a few applications may need to explicitly flush the standard output
1487 when switching between printf's and (curses) printw.
1491 + use_tioctl is an improvement over use_env
1493 + added wgetdelay to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature.
1495 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1502 Removed internal functions:
1505 Modified internal functions:
1506 _nc_do_color - change parameters from short/bool to int
1507 _nc_keypad - change parameter from bool to int
1508 _nc_setupscreen - change parameter from bool to int
1509 _nc_signal_handler - change parameter from bool to int
1515 + add an alternate library configuration, i.e., "terminal driver" to
1516 support port to Windows, built with MinGW. There are two drivers
1517 (terminfo and Windows console). The terminfo driver works on other
1520 + add a new set of functions which accept a SCREEN* parameter, in
1521 contrast with the original set which use the global value "sp".
1522 By default, these names end with "_sp", and are otherwise
1523 functionally identical with the originals.
1525 In addition to the "_sp" functions, there are a few new functions
1526 associated with this feature: ceiling_panel, ground_panel,
1529 If the library is not built with the sp-funcs extension, there
1530 are no related interface changes.
1532 + add tiparm function based on review of X/Open Curses Issue 7.
1534 + change internal _nc_has_mouse function to public has_mouse function
1538 + add a few more functions to support the NCURSES_OPAQUE feature:
1539 get_escdelay, is_pad, is_subwin
1541 Added internal functions (other than "_sp" variants):
1550 _nc_retrace_int_attr_t
1556 Removed internal functions:
1557 _nc_makenew (some configurations replace by _nc_makenew_sp)
1559 Modified internal functions:
1566 5.7 (November 2, 2008)
1569 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1572 + Add new library configuration for tic-library (the non-curses portion
1573 of the ncurses library used for the tic program as well as some
1574 others such as tack. There is no API change, but makefiles would be
1575 changed to use the tic-library built separately.
1577 tack, distributed separately from ncurses, uses some of the internal
1578 _nc_XXX functions, which are declared in the tic.h header file.
1580 The reason for providing this separate library is that none of the
1581 functions in it are suitable for threaded applications.
1583 + Add new library configuration (ncursest, ncurseswt) which provides
1584 rudimentary support for POSIX threads. This introduces opaque
1585 access functions to the WINDOW structure and adds a parameter to
1586 several internal functions.
1588 + move most internal variables (except tic-library) into data blocks
1589 _nc_globals and _nc_prescreen to simplify analysis. Those were
1590 globally accessible, but since they were not part of the documented
1591 API, there is no ABI change.
1593 + changed static tables of strings to be indices into long strings, to
1594 improve startup performance. This changes parameter lists for some
1595 of the internal functions.
1599 + add NCURSES_OPAQUE definition in curses.h to control whether internal
1600 details of the WINDOW structure are visible to an application. This
1601 is always defined when the threaded library is built, and is optional
1602 otherwise. New functions for this: is_cleared, is_idcok, is_idlok,
1603 is_immedok, is_keypad, is_leaveok, is_nodelay, is_notimeout,
1604 is_scrollok, is_syncok, wgetparent and wgetscrreg.
1606 + the threaded library (ncursest) also disallows direct updating of
1607 global curses-level variables, providing functions (via macros) for
1608 obtaining their value. A few of those variables can be modified by
1609 the application, using new functions: set_escdelay, set_tabsize
1611 + added functions use_window() and use_screen() which wrap a mutex
1612 (if threading is configured) around a call to a user-supplied
1615 Added internal functions:
1626 These are used for leak-testing, and are stubs for
1627 ABI compatibility when ncurses is not configured for that
1628 using the --disable-leaks configure script option:
1633 Removed internal functions:
1636 Modified internal functions:
1642 _nc_locale_breaks_acs
1644 _nc_update_screensize
1646 Use new typedef TRIES to replace "struct tries":
1654 5.6 (December 17, 2006)
1657 + generate linkable stubs for some macros:
1659 getbegx, getbegy, getcurx, getcury, getmaxx, getmaxy, getparx,
1662 and (for libncursesw)
1670 Added internal functions:
1684 Also (if using the hashed database configuration):
1699 Removed internal functions:
1702 Modified internal functions:
1709 5.5 (October 10, 2005)
1712 + terminfo installs "xterm-new" as "xterm" entry rather than
1713 "xterm-old" (aka xterm-r6).
1715 + terminfo data is installed using the tic -x option (few systems
1716 still use ncurses 4.2).
1718 + modify C++ binding to work with newer C++ compilers by providing
1719 initializers and using modern casts. Old-style header names are
1720 still used in this release to allow compiling with not-so-old
1723 + form and menu libraries now work with wide-character data.
1724 Applications which bypassed the form library and manipulated the
1725 FIELD.buf data directly will not work properly with libformw, since
1726 that no longer points to an array of char. The set_field_buffer()
1727 and field_buffer() functions translate to/from the actual field
1730 + change SP->_current_attr to a pointer, adjust ifdef's to ensure that
1731 libtinfo.so and libtinfow.so have the same ABI. The reason for this
1732 is that the corresponding data which belongs to the upper-level
1733 ncurses library has a different size in each model.
1735 + winnstr() now returns multibyte character strings for the
1736 wide-character configuration.
1738 + assume_default_colors() no longer requires that use_default_colors()
1741 + data_ahead() now works with wide-characters.
1743 + slk_set() and slk_wset() now accept and store multibyte or
1744 multicolumn characters.
1746 + start_color() now returns OK if colors have already been started.
1747 start_color() also returns ERR if it cannot allocate memory.
1749 + pair_content() now returns -1 for consistency with init_pair() if it
1750 corresponds to the default-color.
1752 + unctrl() now returns null if its parameter does not correspond
1753 to an unsigned char.
1756 Experimental mouse version 2 supports wheel mice with buttons
1757 4 and 5. This requires ABI 6 because it modifies the encoding
1760 Experimental extended colors allows encoding of 256 foreground
1761 and background colors, e.g., with the xterm-256color or
1762 xterm-88color terminfo entries. This requires ABI 6 because
1763 it changes the size of cchar_t.
1765 Added internal functions:
1769 _nc_retrace_cvoid_ptr
1770 _nc_retrace_void_ptr
1773 Removed internal functions:
1776 Modified internal functions:
1781 5.4 (February 8, 2004)
1784 + add the remaining functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1785 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1786 --enable-widec option.
1790 + write getyx() and related 2-return macros in terms of getcury(),
1793 + simplify ifdef for bool declaration in curses.h
1795 + modify ifdef's in curses.h that disabled use of __attribute__() for
1796 g++, since recent versions implement the cases which ncurses uses.
1798 + change some interfaces to use const:
1810 Added internal functions:
1813 _nc_is_charable() wide
1814 _nc_locale_breaks_acs()
1817 _nc_to_widechar() wide
1819 _nc_trace_bufcat() debug
1820 _nc_unicode_locale()
1822 Removed internal functions:
1826 Modified internal functions:
1828 _nc_retrace_chtype()
1830 5.3 (October 12, 2002)
1833 + change type for bool used in headers to NCURSES_BOOL, which usually
1834 is the same as the compiler's definition for 'bool'.
1836 + add all but two functions for X/Open curses wide-character support.
1837 These are only available if the library is configured using the
1838 --enable-widec option. Missing functions are
1842 + add environment variable $NCURSES_ASSUMED_COLORS to modify the
1843 assume_default_colors() extension.
1849 Added internal functions:
1850 _nc_altcharset_name() debug
1852 _nc_retrace_bool() debug
1853 _nc_retrace_unsigned() debug
1855 _nc_trace_ttymode() debug
1860 Removed internal functions:
1863 Modified internal functions:
1866 5.2 (October 21, 2000)
1869 + revert termcap ospeed variable to 'short' (see discussion of the
1870 --with-ospeed configure option).
1875 + made the extended terminal capabilities
1876 (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature. This should
1877 be transparent to applications that do not require it.
1879 + removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
1882 + modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
1885 Added extensions: assume_default_colors().
1887 5.0 (October 23, 1999)
1890 + implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
1892 + move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
1894 + corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
1897 + the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
1898 parameter according to XSI.
1900 + modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
1901 Curses: [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
1902 parameters. Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
1903 erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr(). Some developers have used
1906 Added extensions: keybound(), curses_version().
1908 Terminfo database changes:
1910 + change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
1911 the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
1913 The problems are subtler in recent releases.
1915 a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
1916 terminal capability extensions, like termcap. To accomplish this,
1917 we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h). Very few
1918 applications use this struct. They must be recompiled to work with
1921 a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
1922 --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
1923 entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses. This
1924 is a bug in the older versions:
1926 + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
1927 arrays. The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
1928 specified by X/Open. ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
1929 extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
1932 + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
1933 call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
1934 string array. This happens when the number of strings in the
1935 terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
1936 specified and obsolete or extended strings.
1938 + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
1939 990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
1940 set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch). This makes the indices for
1941 the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
1943 + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
1944 and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
1946 When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
1947 causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
1948 terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
1949 past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few. The
1950 library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
1951 initialize that terminal type.
1953 FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description. They are
1954 obsolete, not used by ncurses. (It appears that the feature was
1955 added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
1957 This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
1958 create a terminfo database with extended names. Note that the
1959 user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
1960 since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
1961 and are invisible to the older libraries.
1963 c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
1964 configure --without-cxx option. This causes problems if someone
1965 uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
1966 determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
1967 both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool. Calling ncurses
1968 functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
1969 errors. In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
1970 which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
1975 + correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
1977 + add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
1978 term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
1980 + add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
1983 New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
1985 Terminfo database changes:
1987 + corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
1992 We added these extensions: use_default_colors(). Also added
1993 configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
1994 X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
1996 The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
1997 most entries that use ANSI colors. SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
1998 and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
1999 colors in the latter.
2001 4.0 (December 24, 1996)
2003 We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released Linux dynamic
2004 loader (ld.so.1.8.5) did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
2005 versions were inconsistent. At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
2006 REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
2008 1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
2010 This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
2013 + remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
2014 some termcap. tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
2015 application's fallback for missing tparam().
2017 + turn off hardware echo in initscr(). This changes the sense of the
2018 echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
2019 nonechoing (the latter is specified). There were several other
2020 corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
2023 + implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
2024 available only as macros.
2026 + corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
2028 + corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
2029 has_color, immedok() and idcok().
2031 + corrected misspelled getbkgd(). Some applications used the
2034 + added _yoffset to WINDOW. The size of WINDOW does not impact
2035 applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
2037 These changes were made to the terminfo database:
2039 + removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
2041 We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
2044 1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
2046 not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
2047 menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
2048 Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
2049 only on a black background. When this was released, the X/Open
2050 specification was available only in draft form.
2052 Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
2053 incorrect color scheme.
2056 IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
2057 ------------------------------
2059 Configuration and Installation:
2061 On platforms where ncurses is assumed to be installed in /usr/lib,
2062 the configure script uses "/usr" as a default. These include any
2063 that use the Linux kernel, as well as these special cases:
2065 FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, MinGW
2067 For other platforms, the default is "/usr/local". See the discussion
2068 of the "--disable-overwrite" option.
2070 The location of the terminfo is set indirectly by the "--datadir"
2071 configure option, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo, given a datadir of
2072 /usr/share. You may want to override this if you are installing
2073 ncurses libraries in nonstandard locations, but wish to share the
2076 Normally the ncurses library is configured in a pure-terminfo mode;
2077 that is, with the --disable-termcap option. This makes the ncurses
2078 library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
2079 emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications that
2080 use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win (providing
2081 you recompile and relink them!).
2083 If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also wish
2084 to use the --enable-getcap option. This speeds up termcap-based
2085 startups, at the expense of not allowing personal termcap entries to
2086 reference the terminfo tree. See comments in
2087 ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for further details.
2089 Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
2090 to locate termcap data. In particular, running from xterm will
2091 set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
2092 If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
2096 The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
2097 reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I. Here are the loadkeys -d
2098 mappings that will set this up:
2100 keycode 15 = Tab Tab
2101 alt keycode 15 = Meta_Tab
2102 shift keycode 15 = F26
2103 string F26 ="\033[Z"
2105 Naming the Console Terminal
2107 In various systems there has been a practice of designating the system
2108 console driver type as `console'. Please do not do this! It
2109 complicates peoples' lives, because it can mean that several different
2110 terminfo entries from different operating systems all logically want to
2111 be called `console'.
2113 Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
2114 in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent. Send the entry to the
2115 terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
2116 in the terminfo file, if it's not already there. See the
2117 term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
2118 conventions for choosing type names.
2120 Here are some recommended primary console names:
2122 linux -- Linux console driver
2127 If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
2128 distributions, please either use the recommended name or get back
2129 to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
2130 that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
2133 RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
2134 ---------------------
2136 The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
2137 are running a modern xterm based on XFree86 (i.e., xterm-new). The
2138 earlier X11R6 entry (xterm-r6) and X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided
2139 as well. See the --without-xterm-new configure script option if you
2140 are unable to update your system.
2143 CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
2144 ----------------------------
2146 In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
2147 tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
2148 time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
2149 pre-fetched fallback entries. This must be done on a machine which
2150 has ncurses' infocmp and terminfo database installed (as well as
2151 ncurses' tic and infocmp programs).
2153 These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
2154 fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
2155 have been tried and failed. Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
2156 shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
2157 entry is accessible.
2159 By default, there are no entries on the fallback list. After you have
2160 built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change the list
2161 (the process needs infocmp(1)). To do so, use the script
2162 ncurses/tinfo/MKfallback.sh. The configure script option
2163 --with-fallbacks does this (it accepts a comma-separated list of the
2164 names you wish, and does not require a rebuild).
2166 If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
2167 might use the commands
2170 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2172 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2175 linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
2177 The first four parameters of the script are normally supplied by
2178 the configured makefiles via the "--with-fallbacks" option. They
2181 1) the location of the terminfo database
2182 2) the source for the terminfo entries
2183 3) the location of the tic program, used to create a terminfo
2185 4) the location of the infocmp program, used to print a terminfo
2188 Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
2189 You can restore the default empty fallback list with
2191 tinfo/MKfallback.sh \
2193 ../misc/terminfo.src \
2198 The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
2199 Any non-empty fallback list is const'd and therefore lives in shareable
2200 text space. You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
2201 the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
2202 fallbacks. A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
2203 each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
2206 BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
2207 --------------------
2209 If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
2210 want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option. What this does
2211 is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
2212 capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
2213 There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
2215 (If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
2216 an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
2217 in the package README file.)
2219 The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
2222 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2224 If you are installing this application privately (either because you
2225 have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
2226 installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
2227 They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
2228 than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
2230 Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it can interpret your
2231 TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
2232 through it, and the system termcap file. However, to avoid slowing
2233 down your application startup, it does this only once per terminal type!
2235 The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
2236 database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
2237 in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo. After
2238 that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
2239 faster) terminfo fetch.
2241 Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
2242 an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
2243 terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them. If anyone
2244 ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
2245 stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
2247 The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
2248 as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
2249 compilation is expensive).
2251 If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
2252 you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
2254 If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
2255 that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
2256 to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
2257 instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
2260 Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
2261 will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
2262 under $HOME/terminfo. If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
2263 from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
2265 To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
2266 terminfo directory directly.
2268 ------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
2270 USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
2271 AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
2272 can't hard-link across them. The --enable-symlinks option copes
2273 with this by making tic use symbolic links.
2275 USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
2276 Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
2277 which is used with Linux console. Be aware that GPM is commonly
2278 installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
2279 wgetch() function (libcurses.o). Some integrators have simplified
2280 linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so into the
2281 libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with ncurses (specifically
2282 the wgetch function). This was originally the BSD curses, but
2283 generally whatever curses library exists on the system.
2285 You may be able to work around this problem by linking as follows:
2287 cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
2289 but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
2290 See the FAQ, as well as the discussion under the --with-gpm option:
2292 https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
2294 BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
2295 Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler. Some parts must be built
2296 with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
2297 (e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
2298 that are compiled into the ncurses library. The essential thing to do
2299 is set the BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and
2300 run the configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
2302 The configure options --with-build-cc, etc., are provided to make this
2303 simpler. Since make_hash and make_keys use only ANSI C features, it
2304 is normally not necessary to provide the other options such as
2305 --with-build-libs, but they are provided for completeness.
2307 Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
2308 will be made if you use
2312 This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
2313 support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
2316 When ncurses has been successfully cross-compiled, you may want to use
2317 "make install" (with a suitable target directory) to construct an
2318 install tree. Note that in this case (as with the --with-fallbacks
2319 option), ncurses uses the development platform's tic to do the
2320 "make install.data" portion.
2322 The system's tic program is used to install the terminal database,
2323 even for cross-compiles. For best results, the tic program should
2324 be from the most current version of ncurses.
2327 Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
2328 bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
2329 bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
2330 subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
2332 The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
2333 on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.