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38 <title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
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62 <h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</h1>
64 <h2><a name="h2-overview" id="h2-overview">Overview</a></h2>
66 <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> (new curses)
67 library is a free software emulation of curses in System V
68 Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo format, supports
69 pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters and
70 function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
71 enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of
74 <p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
75 that he considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the
76 keepers of <span class="main-name">unix</span> releases such as
77 BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to <span class=
78 "main-name">ncurses</span>.</p>
80 <p>Since 1995, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has been
81 ported to many systems:</p>
84 <li>It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel
85 (aside from some embedded applications).</li>
87 <li>It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD
90 <li>It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The
91 first of these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.</li>
93 <li>It is used (though usually not as the <em>system</em>
94 curses) on all of the vendor <span class=
95 "main-name">unix</span> systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO,
98 <li>It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming
99 <span class="main-name">unix</span>.</li>
102 <p>The distribution includes the library and support utilities,
106 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class=
107 "part-name">captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion
110 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/clear.1.html"><span class=
111 "part-name">clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the
114 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class=
115 "part-name">infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>
117 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html"><span class=
118 "part-name">tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>
120 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
121 "part-name">tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>
123 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
124 "part-name">toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo
127 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html"><span class=
128 "part-name">tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal
129 capabilities in shell scripts</li>
131 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
132 "part-name">tset</span></a>, to initialize the terminal</li>
135 <p>Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.</p>
137 <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution is
138 available at <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>' <a href=
139 "@HOMEPAGE@/">homepage</a>:</p>
143 "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a>
146 "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/</a> .</p>
149 <p>It is also available via anonymous FTP at the GNU distribution
154 "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a> .</p>
157 <h2><a name="h2-release-notes" id="h2-release-notes">Release
160 <p>These notes are for <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
161 @VERSION@, released <strong>February 12, 2020</strong>.</p>
163 <p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
164 <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.1; providing
165 extensions to the application binary interface (ABI). Although
166 the source can still be configured to support the <span class=
167 "main-name">ncurses</span> 5 ABI, the reason for the release is
168 to reflect improvements to the <span class=
169 "main-name">ncurses</span> 6 ABI and the supporting utility
172 <p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in
173 this announcement.</p>
175 <p>The most <a href="#h3-bug-fixes">important
176 bug-fixes/improvements</a> dealt with user-defined capabilities
177 in terminal descriptions. The release notes also mention some
178 other bug-fixes, but are focused on new features and improvements
179 to existing features since <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
182 <h3><a name="h3-library" id="h3-library">Library improvements</a></h3>
184 <h4><a name="h4-new-library" id="h4-new-library">New features</a></h4>
186 <p>There are several new features:</p>
191 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">O_EDGE_INSERT_STAY</a>
192 tells the form library to optionally delay cursor movement on
193 a field edge/boundary</p>
198 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">O_INPUT_FIELD</a>
199 extension to form library allows a dynamic field to shrink if
200 the new limit is smaller than the current field size.</p>
205 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_curses</a> and
207 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_terminfo</a> to
208 replace internal symbols for leak-checking.</p>
213 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_trace.3x.html#h3-Functions">curses_trace</a>,
214 to replace trace().</p>
218 <p>Additionally, to improve performance other changes (and
219 extensions) are provided in this release:</p>
223 <p>mouse decoding now handles shift/control/alt logic when
224 decoding xterm's 1006 mode</p>
228 <p>ncurses now defines a limit for <a href=
229 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getstr.3x.html">wgetnstr</a>, <a href=
230 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_get_wstr.3x.html">wgetn_wstr</a> when
231 length is negative or “too large”.</p>
234 <li>reordered loop-limit checks in <a href=
235 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_insstr.3x.html">winsnstr</a> in case the
236 string has no terminating null and only the number of
237 characters is used.</li>
240 <p>there is now no buffer-size limit when reading the
241 <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
247 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
248 variable may be interpreted as a fallback to a terminfo
254 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions"><tt>
255 mvcur</tt></a> now decides whether to use hard-tabs, using
256 <strong><tt>xt</tt></strong>, <strong><tt>tbc</tt></strong>
257 and <strong><tt>hts</tt></strong> as clues.</p>
261 <p>extended colors are improved by modifying an internal call
263 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions"><tt>
264 vid_puts</tt></a> to pass extended color pairs e.g., from
265 <tt>tty_update.c</tt> and <tt>lib_mvcur.c</tt></p>
269 <p id="getenv-fixes">the initialization functions now avoid
270 relying upon persistent data for the result from <a href=
271 "#getenv-check"><tt>getenv</tt></a></p>
275 <p>scrolling is improved:</p>
278 <li>a limit check in <tt>newline_forces_scroll</tt> handles
279 the case where the row is inside scroll-margins, but not at
283 <p>improved loop limits in <tt>_nc_scroll_window</tt>
284 handle a case where the scrolled data is a pad which is
285 taller than the window.</p>
291 <h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
292 improvements</a></h4>
294 <p>These are revised features:</p>
298 <p>used “<tt>const</tt>” in some prototypes
299 rather than <tt>NCURSES_CONST</tt> where X/Open Curses was
300 updated to do this, e.g., <tt>wscanw</tt>, <tt>newterm</tt>,
301 the terminfo interface. Also use “<tt>const</tt>”
302 for consistency in the termcap interface, which was withdrawn
303 by X/Open Curses in Issue 5 (2007). As of Issue 7, X/Open
304 Curses still lacks “<tt>const</tt>” for certain
305 return values, e.g., <a href=
306 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-keyname_key_name">keyname</a>.</p>
311 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgd.3x.html#h3-bkgd"><tt>wbkgd</tt></a>
313 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgrnd.3x.html#h3-bkgrnd"><tt>wbkgrnd</tt></a>
314 to improve compatibility with SVr4 curses, changing the way
315 the window rendition is updated when the background character
320 <p>improved terminfo write/read by modifying the fourth item
321 of the extended header to denote the number of valid strings
322 in the extended string table (see <a href=
323 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">term(5)</a>).</p>
327 <p>modified the initialization checks for mouse so that the
329 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
330 block will work with terminal descriptions not mentioning
335 <p>These were done to limit or ultimately deprecate features:</p>
339 <p>deprecated <a href=
340 "@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t970831">safe-sprintf</a>, since the
341 <tt>vsnprintf</tt> function, which does what was needed, was
342 standardized long ago.</p>
347 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h3-PORTABILITY"><tt>vwprintw</tt></a>
348 and <tt>vwscanw</tt> as deprecated; recommend using <a href=
349 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html"><tt>vw_printw</tt></a>
350 and <tt>vw_scanw</tt>, respectively.</p>
354 <p>added deprecation warnings for internal functions called
355 by older versions of <a href=
356 "@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack</a>.</p>
360 <p>removed unused <tt>_nc_import_termtype2</tt> function.</p>
364 <p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>
368 <p>check parameter of <a href=
369 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_threads.3x.html">set_escdelay</a>,
370 return ERR if negative.</p>
374 <p>check parameter of <a href=
375 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_threads.3x.html">set_tabsize</a>, return
376 ERR if not greater than zero</p>
380 <p>correct a status-check in _nc_read_tic_entry() so that if
381 reading a hex/b64 <a href=
382 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>,
384 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERM"><tt>$TERM</tt></a>
385 does not match, fall-through to the compiled-in search
390 <p>amend check for <a href=
391 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Predefined-Capabilities"><tt>
392 repeat_char</tt></a> to handle a case where setlocale() was
393 called after <a href=
394 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_initscr.3x.html"><tt>initscr</tt></a></p>
398 <p>move macro for <a href=
399 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_touch.3x.html"><tt>is_linetouched</tt></a>
400 inside <strong><tt>NCURSES_NOMACROS</tt></strong>
401 <em><tt>ifndef</tt></em>.</p>
405 <p>use <tt>_nc_copy_termtype2</tt> rather than direct
406 assignment in <a href=
407 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Initialization">setupterm</a>,
408 in case it is called repeatedly using fallback terminfo
413 <p>improve workaround for Solaris wcwidth versus line-drawing
418 <p>add checks in <a href=
419 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html"><tt>repair_subwindows</tt></a>
420 to keep the current position and scroll-margins inside the
421 resized subwindow.</p>
425 <p>correct a buffer-limit in <tt>write_entry.c</tt> for
426 systems that use caseless filenames.</p>
430 <p>improved build-time utility <em>report_offsets</em>:</p>
434 <p>add categories, e.g., "w" for wide-character, "t" for
435 threads to make the report more readable. Reorganized the
436 structures reported to make the categories more
441 <p>add <tt>NCURSES_GLOBALS</tt> and
442 <tt>NCURSES_PRESCREEN</tt> to report to show how similar
443 the different <em>libtinfo</em> configurations are.</p>
449 <p>modified some header files to ensure that those include
450 necessary files except for the previously-documented
455 <p>added some traces in initialization to show whether a
456 fallback entry is used.</p>
460 <p>made minor optimization to reduce calls to
461 _nc_reserve_pairs</p>
465 <p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>
469 <p>fix a special case in <tt>PutAttrChar</tt> where a cell is
470 marked as alternate-character set, but the terminal does not
471 actually support the given graphic character. This would
472 happen in an older terminal such as <em>vt52</em>, which
473 lacks most line-drawing capability.</p>
477 <p>corrected flag for "seq" method of db 1.8.5 interface,
478 needed by toe on some of the BSDs.</p>
482 <p>modify comparison in make_hash.c to correct a special case
483 in collision handling for Caps-hpux11</p>
487 <p>add extended_slk_color{,_sp} symbols to the appropriate
488 package/*.{map,sym} files</p>
492 <p>modify lib_setup to avoid calling pthread_self() without
493 first verifying that the address is valid, i.e., for weak
498 <p>add a couple of broken-linker symbols to the list of
499 versioned symbols to help with link-time optimization versus
504 <h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
505 improvements</a></h3>
507 <p>Several improvements were made to the utility programs:</p>
510 <dt><span class="part-name">clear</span>
515 <li>improved logic for clearing with the <em>E3</em>
516 extension, in case the terminal scrolls content onto its
517 saved-lines before actually clearing the display, by
518 clearing the saved-lines after clearing the display</li>
522 <dt><span class="part-name">infocmp</span>
527 <li>omit filtering of “<tt>OTxx</tt>” names
528 which are used for obsolete capabilities, when the output
529 is sorted by long-names. This change helps when making a
530 table of the short/long capability names.</li>
534 <dt><span class="part-name">tic</span>
539 <li>added check for consistent alternate character set
542 <li>added check for paired <tt>indn</tt>/<tt>rin</tt>.</li>
544 <li>added check for terminals with <tt>parm_dch</tt> vs
545 <tt>parm_ich</tt>.</li>
547 <li>added check for the case where
548 <tt>setf</tt>/<tt>setb</tt> are given using different
549 strings, but provide identical results to
550 <tt>setaf</tt>/<tt>setab</tt>.</li>
552 <li>corrected check for <tt>ich1</tt>.</li>
554 <li>changed a too-large terminal entry from a fatal error
559 <dt><span class="part-name">toe</span>
564 <li>ignores any hex/b64 <tt>$TERMINFO</tt> value in the
565 list of terminfo databases.</li>
569 <dt><span class="part-name">tset</span>
574 <li>replace check in <span class="part-name">reset</span>
575 command for obsolete “<tt>pt</tt>” capability
576 using <tt>tbc</tt> and <tt>hts</tt> capabilities as
579 <li>modify <span class="part-name">reset</span> to allow
580 for tabstops at intervals other than 8.</li>
582 <li>change <span class="part-name">reset</span>'s behavior
583 for margins to simply clear soft-margins if possible,
584 rather than clearing and then setting them according to the
585 terminal's width.</li>
589 <dt><span class="part-name">tput</span>
594 <li>add “<tt>x</tt>” to <tt>getopt</tt> string
595 so that “<tt>tput -x clear</tt>”
601 <p>Several changes were made to the generated ncurses*config
602 scripts and the analogous “<tt>.pc</tt>” files to
603 reduce differences between the configurations they report:</p>
607 <p>modified the ncurse*-config and pc-files to more closely
608 match for the <tt>-I</tt> and <tt>-l</tt> options.</p>
612 <p>filtered out linker-specs from the <tt>--libs</tt>
617 <p>amended the ncurses*-config and pc-files to take into
618 account the rpath hack which differed between those
623 <p>modified generated ncurses*config and ncurses.pc,
624 ncursesw.pc, etc., to list helper libraries such as gpm for
629 <h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4>
631 <p>Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made
633 "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>. Most of
634 this activity aimed at improving the test-packages. A few changes
635 are more generally useful, e.g., for the main ncurses
636 test-program, and for analyzing traces using the
637 <em>tracemunch</em> script:</p>
641 <p>improve recovery from error when reading command-character
642 in <tt>test/ncurses.c</tt>, showing the relevant error
643 message and not exiting on EINTR.</p>
647 <p>improve <em>tracemunch</em>, by keeping track of
648 <tt>TERMINAL*</tt> values, and if tracing was first turned on
649 after initialization, attempt to show distinct screen, window
650 and terminal names anyway.</p>
654 <p>modify <em>tracemunch</em> to accept filename parameters
655 in addition to use as a pipe/filter.</p>
659 <p>update <em>tracemunch</em> to work with <em>perl
660 5.26.2</em>, which changed the rules for escaping regular
665 <p>add some checks in <em>tracemunch</em> for undefined
670 <p>modify <tt>TurnOn</tt>/<tt>TurnOff</tt> macros (in
671 lib_vidattr.c and lib_vid_attr.c) to avoid expansion of
672 “<tt>CUR</tt>” in trace.</p>
676 <p>There are other new demo/test programs and reusable
680 <dt><span class="part-name">color_content</span>
683 <dd>Demonstrate the <tt>color_content</tt> and
684 <tt>extended_color_content</tt> functions.</dd>
686 <dt><span class="part-name">demo_tabs</span>
689 <dd>A simple demo of tabs in curses.</dd>
691 <dt><span class="part-name">dump_window</span>
694 <dd>A portable curses screen-dump, used to compare ncurses
695 screen contents with Solaris.</dd>
697 <dt><span class="part-name">pair_content</span>
700 <dd>Demonstrate the <tt>pair_content</tt> and
701 <tt>extended_pair_content</tt> functions.</dd>
703 <dt><span class="part-name">report_hashing</span>
706 <dd>Check hash-tables used for terminfo and termcap names.</dd>
708 <dt><span class="part-name">parse_rgb</span>
711 <dd>Sample implementation of the ncurses RGB extension from
712 <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>, used
713 in <em>picsmap</em> and <em>savescreen</em> programs.</dd>
716 <p>A variety of improvements were made to existing programs, both
717 new features as well as options added to make the set of programs
722 <p>add “<tt>-l</tt>” option to test/background,
723 to dump screen contents in a form that lets different curses
724 implementations be compared.</p>
728 <p>add “<tt>@</tt>” command to test/ncurses
729 F-test, to allow rapid jump to different character pages.</p>
733 <p>added enum, regex examples to test/demo_forms</p>
737 <p>amend Scaled256() macro in test/picsmap.c to cover the
738 full range 0..1000</p>
742 <p>corrected pathname used in Ada95 sample programs for
743 <tt>explain.txt</tt>, to work with test-packages, and used an
744 awk script to split the resulting pathname when it would be
745 too long for a single line.</p>
749 <p>ignore interrupted system-call in test/ncurses's
750 command-line, e.g., if the terminal were resized.</p>
754 <p>improved ifdef's for <tt>TABSIZE</tt> variable, to help
755 with AIX/HPUX ports.</p>
759 <h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal database</a></h3>
761 <p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>
763 <blockquote style="word-break:keep-all">
764 <p><tt>alacritty</tt>, <tt>domterm</tt>, <tt>kitty</tt>,
765 <tt>mintty</tt>, <tt>mintty-direct</tt>, <tt>ms-terminal</tt>,
766 <tt>n7900</tt>, <tt>nsterm-build309</tt>,
767 <tt>nsterm-direct</tt>, <tt>screen5</tt>, <tt>ti703</tt>,
768 <tt>ti707</tt>, <tt>ti703-w</tt>, <tt>ti707-w</tt>
769 <tt>vscode</tt>, <tt>vscode-direct</tt>, <tt>xterm-mono</tt>,
770 <tt>xterm.js</tt></p>
773 <p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
774 were updates to several descriptions:</p>
778 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-ansi_rep"><tt>ansi+rep</tt></a>
779 in a dozen places</li>
781 <li>add rs1 to konsole, mlterm</li>
783 <li>improve several flash capabilities with trailing mandatory
786 <li>drop <tt>ich1</tt> from <tt>rxvt-basic</tt>, <tt>Eterm</tt>
787 and <tt>mlterm</tt> to improve compatibility with old
788 non-curses programs</li>
791 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_keypad"><tt>xterm+keypad</tt></a>
792 in <tt>xterm-new</tt></li>
795 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sl-twm"><tt>xterm+sl-twm</tt></a>
796 for consistency, nine places</li>
798 <li>improve <em>xm</em> example in <a href=
799 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11mouse">xterm+x11mouse</a>
801 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006">xterm+sm_1006</a>.</li>
804 <p>while others affected specific descriptions. These were
805 retested, to take into account changes by their developers:</p>
808 <p><tt>terminator</tt>, <tt>st</tt></p>
811 <p>while these are specific fixes based on reviewing
812 documentation, user reports, or warnings from <span class=
813 "part-name">tic</span>:</p>
817 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-adds200">adds200</a>:</dt>
826 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-gnome-256color">gnome-256color</a>
831 <li>base entry on "gnome", not "vte", for consistency</li>
836 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-interix">interix</a>
841 <li>trim unnecessary setf/setb</li>
846 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux-16color">linux-16color</a>
851 <li>accommodate <a href=
852 "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2019-10/msg00061.html">
853 Linux console driver</a> incompatibility introduced in
859 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm-256color">nsterm-256color</a>:</dt>
863 <li>add nsterm-build309 to replace nsterm-256color,
864 assigning the latter as an alias of nsterm, to make mouse
865 work with nsterm-256color</li>
870 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent40">regent40</a>:</dt>
874 <li>renumber function-keys to match manual</li>
879 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent60">regent60</a>:</dt>
883 <li>add cd (clr_eos)</li>
885 <li>corrected acsc</li>
887 <li>add shifted function-keys</li>
892 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi950">tvi950</a>:</dt>
896 <li>added function-key definitions to agree with Televideo
899 <li>corrected acsc</li>
901 <li>remove bogus kf0</li>
908 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi955">tvi955</a>:</dt>
917 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vi200">vi200</a>:</dt>
921 <li>add acsc string, including right/down-arrow</li>
926 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a>:</dt>
930 <li>corrected acsc</li>
934 <dt><a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a> and
935 <a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy60">wy60</a>:</dt>
939 <li>add shifted function-keys as kF1 to kF16</li>
944 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11hilite">xterm+x11hilite</a>:</dt>
948 <li>eliminate unused <em>p5</em> parameter.</li>
953 <p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal
958 "/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
959 (aka “SGR 1006 mouse”) for konsole-base and
962 <li>add <em><tt>Smol/Rmol</tt></em> user-defined capability to
963 <tt>tmux</tt> and <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
965 <li>add <em><tt>Smulx</tt></em> user-defined capability to
966 <tt>tmux</tt>, <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
969 <h3><a name="h3-documentation" id=
970 "h3-documentation">Documentation</a></h3>
972 <p>As usual, this release</p>
976 <p>improves documentation by describing new features,</p>
980 <p>attempts to improve the description of features which
981 users have found confusing</p>
985 <p>fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were
986 described in the <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html">NEWS</a> file
987 but treated sketchily in manual pages.</p>
991 <p>In addition to providing background information to explain
992 these features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
993 clarifications, etc.:</p>
1000 <li>correct error-returns listed in manual pages for a few
1003 <li>corrected prototypes in several manpages using script
1004 to extract those in compilable form.</li>
1006 <li>fix typo in <a href=
1007 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">term.5</a>,
1008 improve explanation of format</li>
1013 <p>Clarify in manual pages that <a href=
1014 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">vwprintw</a>
1016 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_scanw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">vwscanw</a>
1018 They have not been part of X/Open Curses since 2007.</p>
1022 <p>New/improved history and portability sections:</p>
1026 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_addch.3x.html#h3-ACS-Symbols">curs_addch.3x</a>
1027 gives some background for ACS symbols.</li>
1030 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getcchar.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_getcchar.3x</a>
1031 explains a difference between ncurses and X/Open
1035 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getstr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_getstr.3x</a>
1036 gives historical/portability background for the length
1037 parameter of <tt>wgetnstr</tt>.</li>
1040 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_slk.3x.html">curs_slk.3x</a> lists a
1041 few differences between SVr4 curses and X/Open Curses for
1045 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html">curs_terminfo.3x</a>
1046 explains that the initial implementation of terminfo in
1047 SVr2 was mostly replaced by other developers in SVr3.</li>
1049 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html">infocmp.1</a>
1050 explains that the initial version of terminfo had no tool
1051 for decompiling descriptions. That came later, with SVr3,
1052 with a different developer.</li>
1054 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1">tabs.1</a> tells more
1055 than you wanted to know about the tool.</li>
1057 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html">tic.1</a> explains
1058 that the initial version of terminfo had a rudimentary tool
1059 (based on termcap) for compiling entries. The tool used
1060 with Unix was developed by others for SVr3.</li>
1062 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html">toe.1</a> explains
1063 the origin of this tool.</li>
1068 <p>Improvements for <a href=
1069 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>:</p>
1072 <li>mention <tt>meml</tt>, <tt>memu</tt> and
1075 <li>expanded description of <tt>XM</tt></li>
1077 <li>add a clarification regarding the <tt>RGB</tt>
1080 <li>mention user_caps.5 in the tic and infocmp manual
1086 <p>Other improvements:</p>
1090 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_add_wch.3x.html#h3-Line-Graphics">curs_add_wch.3x</a>
1091 adds note about Unicode terminology for the line-drawing
1095 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-RETURN-VALUE">curs_color.3x</a>
1096 improves discussion of error returns and extensions.</li>
1099 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_mouse.3x.html">curs_mouse.3x</a>
1100 explains how the <tt>kmous</tt> and <tt>XM</tt>
1101 capabilities are used for xterm-mouse input.</li>
1104 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_refresh.3x.html#h3-wnoutrefresh_doupdate">
1105 curs_refresh.3x</a> improves documentation regarding the
1106 virtual and physical screens.</li>
1109 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_util.3x.html">curs_util.3x</a>
1110 mentions a difference between SVr4 and X/Open Curses for
1111 <tt>unctrl.h</tt></li>
1114 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_variables.3x</a>
1115 improves description of the <em>init_tabs</em> capability
1116 and <tt>TABSIZE</tt> variable.</li>
1119 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h2-ALTERNATE-CONFIGURATIONS">
1120 ncurses.3x</a> improves documentation regarding
1121 feature-test macros in curses.h</li>
1124 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html#h3-resize_term">resizeterm.3x</a>
1125 about top-level windows which touch the screen's
1129 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html#h3-Terminal-Size">tput.1</a>
1130 clarifies how <em>tput</em> determines the terminal
1136 <p>There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates
1137 are to existing pages).</p>
1139 <p>Some of the improvements are more subtle, relating to the way
1140 the information is presented. For instance, the generated
1141 terminfo.5 file uses a different table layout, allowing it to use
1142 space on wide terminals more effectively.</p>
1144 <h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
1147 <p>While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses
1148 6.2, only a few (the reason for this release) were both important
1149 and interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues
1150 which did not affect compatibility across releases. Since those
1151 are detailed in the NEWS file no elaboration is needed here.</p>
1153 <p>The interesting bugs were in tic/infocmp's handling of
1154 user-defined capabilities. These were not recent bugs. Initially
1155 it was a simple problem:</p>
1158 <li>The user-defined capabilities can be any type (boolean,
1159 number or string), but once given a type all uses of the name
1160 must conform to that type—unless some special support for
1161 a particular multi-typed name is built into ncurses.</li>
1164 <p>One of simpleterm's contributors copied some definitions
1165 for using <em>tmux</em>'s user-defined capabilities in
1167 "https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/06f8cf8ca87a81db15816658c40b2afcd1ad5332.html">
1168 late in 2016</a>.</p>
1171 <pre class="demo-name">
1172 diff --git a/st.info b/st.info
1173 @@ -185,7 +185,10 @@ st| simpleterm,
1178 +# Tmux unofficial extensions, see TERMINFO EXTENSIONS in tmux(1)
1183 st-256color| simpleterm with 256 colors,
1190 <p>Later, in (referring to a version from <a href=
1191 "https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/c0882f2ed1d7a2dd0fa2efa52157e6fc6fde3652.html">
1192 mid-2017</a>), a user asked to have it updated in
1197 <p>However, it had an error from the change in late 2016. The
1198 terminal description made what <em>tmux</em> expected to be
1199 <strong>string</strong> actually a
1200 <strong>boolean</strong>.</p>
1202 <p>Over the years, there were problems with each of
1203 simpleterm's terminal descriptions. I repaired those, and
1204 usually dealt with the problem.</p>
1208 <p>The difference in this case was that when compiling the
1209 terminal database, <em>tic</em> may have in memory the
1210 definitions for more than one terminal description (so that
1211 it can resolve “<tt>use=</tt>” clauses). Seeing
1212 two different types for the same name, in certain situations
1213 it would incorrectly merge the symbol tables for the two
1214 terminal descriptions.</p>
1218 <p>On simpleterm's side, their bug was finally fixed in
1220 "https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/83866428de031300eab03fbb116bcf7d2b1d4f60.html">
1221 late 2019</a>, three years after the bug was created.</p>
1225 <p>For ncurses, the elapsed time to fix this bug was less than
1226 three years. Someone reported a problem with the terminal
1227 description a few weeks after releasing ncurses 6.1 (in <a href=
1228 "https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/1264">tmux #1264</a>), and
1229 the terminal description was updated that week (ncurses patch
1230 <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t20180224">20180224</a>):</p>
1233 <pre class="demo-name">
1235 + modify _nc_resolve_uses2() to detect incompatible types when merging
1236 a "use=" clause of extended capabilities. The problem was seen in a
1237 defective terminfo integrated from simpleterm sources in 20171111,
1238 compounded by repair in 20180121.
1239 + correct Ss/Ms interchange in st-0.7 entry (tmux #1264) -TD
1243 <p>The larger part of that change added a check to prevent a
1244 simple merge of terminal descriptions where the same user-defined
1245 name was used with different types. But it raised some
1250 <p>Was there a reliable way to manage terminal descriptions
1251 which used the same extended name in different ways?</p>
1255 <p>Should ncurses provide a registry of well-known extended
1256 names, with their types?</p>
1260 <p>Since the correction to <a href=
1261 "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database"><tt>terminfo.src</tt></a>
1262 could have been readily adopted by packagers, there was nothing
1263 more to be done from ncurses' standpoint on that part. But
1264 improving ncurses to prevent issues like that is the reason for
1265 making a release.</p>
1267 <p>Nothing more (constructive) was mentioned with regard to
1268 simpleterm. But a few problems were found in the handling of
1269 user-defined capabilities:</p>
1273 <p>Forward-references to user-defined capabilities in a
1274 “<tt>use=</tt>” clause did not allocate new data
1275 for each use. In <em>tic</em>, successive compilation of
1276 terminal entries could add user-defined capabilities to the
1277 wrong terminal entry.</p>
1279 <p>This was not noticed before, since xterm's terminal
1280 descriptions were the main users of the feature, and almost
1281 all of the uses of the building-blocks which contained
1282 user-defined capabilities were backward-references.</p>
1286 <p>There is one (documented) case where ncurses 6.1 supports
1287 a user-defined capability that could be any type (i.e.,
1288 “RGB”). The check added in February 2018 to guard
1289 against mismatches did not handle all of the combinations
1294 <p>Both of these issues dated from the original implementation of
1295 user-defined capabilities. Fixing them does not change the
1296 terminal database, but a older <em>tic</em> without the fixes
1297 will not be able to handle terminfo sources which rely upon those
1298 fixes. Starting in June 2019, the download link for the terminfo
1299 source file was capped at that date. The development sources have
1300 an up-to-date copy of the file, for people with a legitimate need
1303 <p>The “<tt>-c</tt>” (check) option of <em>tic</em>
1304 is not very useful if it cannot offer advice on parameters needed
1305 for user-defined capabilities. The various <em>Caps</em> files
1306 were reorganized to reduce redundancy, and in the common portion
1308 "https://github.com/ThomasDickey/ncurses-snapshots/blob/master/include/Caps-ncurses">Caps-ncurses</a>),
1309 a registry of user-defined capabilities is provided for use by
1310 <em>tic</em>. While users can still define their own custom
1311 capabilities, <em>tic</em> will not offer any advice when their
1312 parameters do not match.</p>
1314 <p>In ncurses 6.2, <em>tic</em> makes a special check to allow
1315 any type for <em>RGB</em>, but its being able to do this relies
1316 upon fixes made in the ncurses library in mid-2019.</p>
1318 <h3><a name="h3-config-config" id=
1319 "h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a></h3>
1321 <h4><a name="h4-config-major" id="h4-config-major">Major
1324 <p>There are no major changes. Several new options were added to
1325 ease integration of packages with systems using different
1326 versions of <em>GNAT</em> and <em>ncurses</em>. Also,
1327 improvements were made to configure checks.</p>
1329 <h4><a name="h4-config-options" id=
1330 "h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4>
1332 <p>There are a few new/modified configure options:</p>
1335 <dt><tt>--with-config-suffix</tt>
1339 <p>helps work around a filename conflict with Debian packages
1340 versus test-packages.</p>
1343 <dt><tt>--with-ada-libname</tt>
1347 <p>allows one to rename the “AdaCurses” library
1348 (at least one packager prefers a lowercase name).</p>
1351 <dt><tt>--with-fallbacks</tt>
1355 <p>now ensures there is a value, and adds the fallback
1356 information to top-level Makefile summary.</p>
1359 <dt><tt>--with-pcre2</tt>
1363 <p>check for pcre-posix library to help with MinGW port.</p>
1366 <dt><tt>--with-tic-path</tt> and<br></dt>
1368 <dt><tt>--with-infocmp-path</tt>
1372 <p>help work around problems building fallback source using
1373 pre-6.0 tic/infocmp.</p>
1376 <dt><tt>--with-versioned-syms</tt>
1380 <p>option value can now be a relative pathname.</p>
1384 <h3><a name="h3-portability" id="h3-portability">Portability</a></h3>
1386 <p>Many of the portability changes are implemented via the
1387 configure script:</p>
1392 "/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>
1393 as a default value in configure script if it came from the
1394 <tt>infocmp</tt> <strong><tt>-Q</tt></strong> option.</p>
1398 <p>distinguish gcc from icc and clang when the
1399 <tt>--enable-warnings</tt> option is not used, to avoid
1400 unnecessary warnings about unrecognized inline options</p>
1404 <p>consistently prepend new libraries as they are found
1405 during configuration, rather than relying upon the linker to
1406 resolve order dependencies of libraries.</p>
1410 <p>modified configure scripts to reduce relinking/ranlib
1411 during library install :</p>
1414 <li>use “<tt>install -p</tt>” when available,
1415 to avoid need for ranlib of static libraries.</li>
1417 <li>scripts which use
1418 “<tt>--disable-relink</tt>;” add a 1-second
1419 sleep to work around tools which use whole-second
1420 timestamps, e.g., in <tt>utime</tt> rather than the actual
1421 file system resolution.</li>
1426 <p id="getenv-check">add configure check for <a href=
1427 "#getenv-fixes"><tt>getenv</tt></a> to work around
1428 implementation shown in Emscripten which overwrites the
1429 previous return value on each call.</p>
1431 <p>Use that to optionally suppress <tt>START_TRACE</tt>
1432 macro, whose call to <tt>getenv</tt> may not work
1437 <p>change target configure level for <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>
1438 to 600 to address use of <tt>vsscanf</tt> and
1439 <tt>setenv</tt>.</p>
1443 <p>reduce use of <tt>_GNU_SOURCE</tt> for current glibc where
1444 <tt>_DEFAULT_SOURCE</tt> combines with
1445 <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt></p>
1447 <p>Allow for Cygwin's newlib when checking for the
1448 _DEFAULT_SOURCE symbol.</p>
1450 <p>MidnightBSD is now checked for the
1451 <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>-related definitions.</p>
1455 <p>If the check for <tt>va_copy</tt> or <tt>__va_copy</tt>
1459 <li>configure now tries copying the pointers for
1460 <tt>va_list</tt>, or as an array.</li>
1462 <li>alternatively, it checks for
1463 <tt>__builtin_va_copy</tt>(), which could be used with AIX
1464 <tt>xlc</tt> in <em>c89</em> mode.</li>
1469 <p>several changes to support a port to Ultrix 3.1:</p>
1472 <li>check if "b" binary feature of fopen works</li>
1474 <li>check for missing feature of locale.h</li>
1476 <li>add fallback for strstr() in test-programs</li>
1478 <li>add fallback for STDOUT_FILENO in test-programs</li>
1483 <p>The <em>test/configure</em> script (used for <a href=
1484 "/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html"><em>ncurses-examples</em></a>)
1488 <li>work around non-ncurses termcap.h file, e.g., in
1491 <li>check for <a href=
1492 "/ncurses/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h3-TABSIZE"><tt>TABSIZE</tt></a>
1495 <li>checks for the X11/Intrinsic.h header, accommodate
1496 recent MacOS changes which largely emptied
1497 <tt>/usr/include</tt>.</li>
1502 <p>Here are some of the other portability fixes:</p>
1506 <p>added dummy "check" rule in top-level and test-Makefile to
1507 simplify building test-packages for ArchLinux.</p>
1511 <p>dropped library-dependency on psapi for MinGW port, since
1512 win_driver.c defines <tt>PSAPI_VERSION</tt> to 2, making it
1513 use <tt>GetProcessImageFileName</tt> from kernel32.dll</p>
1517 <p>made build-fixes for configuration using --program-suffix
1518 with Ada95, noticed with MacOS but applicable to other
1519 platforms without libpanelw, etc.</p>
1523 <p>modified ncurses/Makefile.in to fix a case where
1524 Debian/testing changes to the ld --as-needed configuration
1525 broke ncurses-examples test packages.</p>
1529 <p>used <tt>_WIN32</tt>/<tt>_WIN64</tt> in preference to
1530 <tt>__MINGW32__</tt>/<tt>__MINGW64__</tt> symbols to simplify
1531 building with Microsoft Visual C++, since the former are
1532 defined in both compiler configurations.</p>
1538 <h2><a name="h2-features" id="h2-features">Features of
1539 <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
1541 <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package is fully
1542 upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:</p>
1546 <p>All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
1551 <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports all of the
1552 for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
1553 forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition
1554 of keypad and function keys.</p>
1558 <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> provides these SVr4
1559 add-on libraries (not part of X/Open Curses):</p>
1563 <p>the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
1568 <p>the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
1569 interface for menu programming.</p>
1573 <p>the form library, supporting data collection through
1574 on-screen forms.</p>
1580 <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span>'s terminal database
1581 is fully compatible with that used by SVr4 curses.</p>
1585 <p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports
1586 user-defined capabilities which it can see, but which are
1587 hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
1588 <em>same</em> terminal database.</p>
1592 <p>It can be optionally configured to match the format
1593 used in related systems such as AIX and Tru64.</p>
1597 <p>Alternatively, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
1598 can be configured to use hashed databases rather than the
1599 directory of files used by SVr4 curses.</p>
1605 <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> utilities have
1606 options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with
1607 less capable <em>curses</em>/<em>terminfo</em> versions such
1608 as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</p>
1612 <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package also has
1613 many useful extensions over SVr4:</p>
1617 <p>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the
1618 X/OPEN curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it
1619 implements all BASE level features, and most EXTENDED
1620 features). It includes many function calls not supported
1621 under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is documented
1622 so you can use the SVr4 subset only).</p>
1626 <p>Unlike SVr3 curses, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
1627 can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if
1628 your terminal has an insert-character capability.</p>
1632 <p>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</p>
1636 <p>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
1637 FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</p>
1641 <p>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
1646 <p>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
1647 windows, preserving their data.</p>
1651 <p>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
1652 use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
1653 achieving the effect of transparent colors.</p>
1657 <p>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
1658 <code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use
1659 of function keys, e.g., disabling the <span class=
1660 "main-name">ncurses</span> KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more
1661 than one control sequence to map to a given key code.</p>
1665 <p>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.</p>
1669 <p>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
1670 and <em>modern xterm</em>.</p>
1674 <p>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
1675 features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
1676 than either BSD's or System V's.</p>
1680 <p>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
1681 incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that
1682 enables it to make optimal use of hardware scrolling,
1683 line-insertion, and line-deletion for screen-line movements.
1684 This algorithm is more powerful than the 4.4BSD curses
1685 <code>quickch</code> routine.</p>
1689 <p>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch.
1690 The screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight
1691 if the magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before
1692 the beginning and after the end would step on a non-space
1693 character. It will automatically shift highlight boundaries
1694 when doing so would make it possible to draw the highlight
1695 without changing the visual appearance of the screen.</p>
1699 <p>It is possible to generate the library with a list of
1700 pre-loaded fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve
1701 those terminal types even when no terminfo tree or termcap
1702 file is accessible (this may be useful for support of
1703 screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user
1708 <p>The <a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
1709 "part-name">tic</span></a>/<a href=
1710 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a> utility
1711 provided with <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has the
1712 ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and
1713 AT&T extension sets.</p>
1717 <p>A BSD-like <a href=
1718 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/tset.1.html"><span class=
1719 "part-name">tset</span></a> utility is provided.</p>
1723 <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> library and
1724 utilities will automatically read terminfo entries from
1725 $HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
1726 if it exists and the user has no write access to the system
1727 directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
1728 personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the
1729 system terminfo directory.</p>
1733 <p>You may specify a path of directories to search for
1734 compiled descriptions with the environment variable
1735 TERMINFO_DIRS (this generalizes the feature provided by
1736 TERMINFO under stock System V.)</p>
1740 <p>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not
1741 just to other entries in the same source file (as in System
1742 V) but also to compiled entries in either the system terminfo
1743 directory or the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</p>
1747 <p>The table-of-entries utility <a href=
1748 "@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
1749 "part-name">toe</span></a> makes it easy for users to see
1750 exactly what terminal types are available on the system.</p>
1754 <p>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro
1755 entry point have a corresponding function which may be linked
1756 (and will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is
1757 disabled with <code>#undef</code>.</p>
1761 <p>Extensive documentation is provided (see the <em><a href=
1762 "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">Additional
1763 Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href=
1764 "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html"><span class=
1765 "main-name">ncurses</span> FAQ</a></em> for online
1770 <h2><a name="h2-who-uses" id="h2-who-uses">Applications using
1771 <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
1773 <p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution
1774 includes a selection of test programs (including a few games).
1775 These are available separately as <a href=
1776 "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a></p>
1778 <p>The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
1779 applications including:</p>
1783 <dt><span class="part-name">aptitude</span>
1787 <p>FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager</p>
1790 "https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude">https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude</a></p>
1793 <dt><span class="part-name">cdk</span>
1797 <p>Curses Development Kit</p>
1799 <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/cdk/">@WEBSITE@/cdk/</a><br>
1803 <dt><span class="part-name">ded</span>
1807 <p>directory-editor</p>
1809 <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/ded/">@WEBSITE@/ded/</a></p>
1812 <dt><span class="part-name">dialog</span>
1816 <p>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup,
1817 and the basis for similar install/configure applications on
1820 <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/dialog/">@WEBSITE@/dialog/</a></p>
1823 <dt><span class="part-name">lynx</span>
1827 <p>the text WWW browser</p>
1830 "https://lynx.invisible-island.net/">https://lynx.invisible-island.net/</a></p>
1833 <dt><span class="part-name">mutt</span>
1839 <p><a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></p>
1842 <dt><span class="part-name">ncftp</span>
1846 <p>file-transfer utility</p>
1849 "https://www.ncftp.com/">https://www.ncftp.com/</a></p>
1852 <dt><span class="part-name">nvi</span>
1856 <p>New vi uses ncurses.</p>
1859 "https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi</a><br>
1864 <dt><span class="part-name">ranger</span>
1868 <p>A console file manager with VI key bindings in
1869 <em>Python</em>.</p>
1872 "https://ranger.github.io/">https://ranger.github.io/</a></p>
1875 <dt><span class="part-name">tin</span>
1879 <p>newsreader, supporting color, MIME</p>
1881 <p><a href="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></p>
1884 <dt><span class="part-name">vifm</span>
1888 <p>File manager with vi like keybindings</p>
1890 <p><a href="https://vifm.info/">https://vifm.info/</a></p>
1895 <p>as well as some that use <span class=
1896 "main-name">ncurses</span> for the terminfo support alone:</p>
1900 <dt><span class="part-name">minicom</span>
1904 <p>terminal emulator for serial modem connections</p>
1907 "https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></p>
1910 <dt><span class="part-name">mosh</span>
1914 <p>a replacement for <code>ssh</code>.</p>
1917 "https://mosh.mit.edu/">https://mosh.mit.edu/</a></p>
1920 <dt><span class="part-name">tack</span>
1924 <p>terminfo action checker</p>
1926 <p><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html</a></p>
1929 <dt><span class="part-name">tmux</span>
1933 <p>terminal multiplexor</p>
1936 "https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki">https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a></p>
1939 <dt><span class="part-name">vile</span>
1943 <p><em>vi-like-emacs</em> may be built to use the terminfo,
1944 termcap or curses interfaces.</p>
1946 <p><a href="@WEBSITE@/vile/">@WEBSITE@/vile/</a></p>
1951 <p>and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:</p>
1955 <dt><span class="part-name">emacs</span>
1962 "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/</a></p>
1965 <dt><span class="part-name">less</span>
1969 <p>The most commonly used <em>pager</em> (a program that
1970 displays text files).</p>
1973 "http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/">http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/</a></p>
1976 <dt><span class="part-name">screen</span>
1980 <p>terminal multiplexor</p>
1983 "https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/</a></p>
1986 <dt><span class="part-name">vim</span>
1992 <p><a href="https://www.vim.org/">https://www.vim.org/</a></p>
1997 <h2><a name="h2-development" id="h2-development">Development
2000 <p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
2001 from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S.
2002 Raymond continued development. Jürgen Pfeifer wrote most of
2003 the form and menu libraries.</p>
2005 <p>Ongoing development work is done by <a href=
2006 "mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas E. Dickey</a>. Thomas
2007 E. Dickey has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software
2008 Foundation, which holds a <a href=
2009 "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html">copyright on ncurses</a> for
2010 releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following the release of ncurses 6.1,
2011 effective as of release 6.2, copyright for ncurses reverted to
2012 Thomas E. Dickey (see the <a href=
2013 "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#relicensed">ncurses FAQ</a> for
2014 additional information).</p>
2016 <p>Contact the current maintainers at</p>
2019 <a href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>
2022 <p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to</p>
2026 "mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org">bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</a>
2028 containing the line:
2031 <p><code>subscribe</code>
2032 <em><name>@<host.domain></em></p>
2035 <p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
2036 development and testing of this package.</p>
2038 <p>Beta versions of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> are
2039 made available at</p>
2043 "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/</a>
2046 "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/</a> .</p>
2049 <p>Patches to the current release are made available at</p>
2053 "ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/</a>
2056 "https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/</a> .</p>
2059 <p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
2063 "http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a>
2065 "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p>
2068 <h2><a name="h2-this-stuff" id="h2-this-stuff">Related
2071 <p>The release notes make scattered references to these pages,
2072 which may be interesting by themselves:</p>
2075 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html"><span class=
2076 "main-name">ncurses</span> licensing</a></li>
2078 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol versioning
2079 in <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
2081 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-slang.html">Comments on
2082 <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> versus <span class=
2083 "main-name">slang</span> (S-Lang)</a></li>
2085 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack – terminfo action
2088 <li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tctest.html">tctest – termcap
2089 library checker</a></li>
2092 "@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.html#download_database">Terminal
2096 <h2><a name="h2-other-stuff" id="h2-other-stuff">Other
2099 <p>The distribution provides a newer version of the
2100 terminfo-format terminal description file once maintained by
2101 <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric
2102 Raymond</a> . Unlike the older version, the termcap and
2103 terminfo data are provided in the same file, which also provides
2104 several user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open
2107 <p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
2108 not covered in the terminfo file at <a href=
2109 "http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
2110 Richard Shuford's archive</a> . The collection of computer
2112 "http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/">bitsavers.org</a> has also been
2117 <li><a href="#h2-overview">Overview</a></li>
2120 <a href="#h2-release-notes">Release Notes</a>
2124 <a href="#h3-library">Library improvements</a>
2127 <li><a href="#h4-new-library">New features</a></li>
2129 <li><a href="#h4-fixes-library">Other
2130 improvements</a></li>
2135 <a href="#h3-programs">Program improvements</a>
2138 <li><a href="#h4-utilities">Utilities</a></li>
2140 <li><a href="#h4-examples">Examples</a></li>
2144 <li><a href="#h3-database">Terminal database</a></li>
2146 <li><a href="#h3-documentation">Documentation</a></li>
2148 <li><a href="#h3-bug-fixes">Interesting bug-fixes</a></li>
2151 <a href="#h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a>
2154 <li><a href="#h4-config-major">Major changes</a></li>
2156 <li><a href="#h4-config-options">Configuration
2161 <li><a href="#h3-portability">Portability</a></li>
2165 <li><a href="#h2-features">Features of <span class=
2166 "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
2168 <li><a href="#h2-who-uses">Applications using <span class=
2169 "main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
2171 <li><a href="#h2-development">Development activities</a></li>
2173 <li><a href="#h2-this-stuff">Related resources</a></li>
2175 <li><a href="#h2-other-stuff">Other resources</a></li>