INSTALL revision 66963
1-- $Id: INSTALL,v 1.45 2000/10/08 02:17:57 tom Exp $
2---------------------------------------------------------------------
3             How to install Ncurses/Terminfo on your system
4---------------------------------------------------------------------
5
6    ************************************************************
7    * READ ALL OF THIS FILE BEFORE YOU TRY TO INSTALL NCURSES. *
8    ************************************************************
9
10You should be reading the file INSTALL in a directory called ncurses-d.d, where
11d.d is the current version number.  There should be several subdirectories,
12including `c++', `form', `man', `menu', 'misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs',
13and `test'.  See the README file for a roadmap to the package.
14
15If you are a Linux or FreeBSD or NetBSD distribution integrator or packager,
16please read and act on the section titled IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR
17below.
18
19If you are converting from BSD curses and do not have root access, be sure
20to read the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below.
21
22If you are using a version of XFree86 xterm older than 3.1.2F, see the section
23on RECENT XTERM VERSIONS below.
24
25If you are trying to build GNU Emacs using ncurses for terminal support,
26read the USING NCURSES WITH EMACS section below.
27
28If you are trying to build applications using gpm with ncurses,
29read the USING NCURSES WITH GPM section below.
30
31If you are running over the Andrew File System see the note below on
32USING NCURSES WITH AFS.
33
34If you are cross-compiling, see the note below on BUILDING NCURSES WITH A
35CROSS-COMPILER.
36
37If you want to build the Ada95 binding, go to the Ada95 directory and
38follow the instructions there.  The Ada95 binding is not covered below.
39
40If you are using anything but (a) Linux, or (b) one of the 4.4BSD-based
41i386 Unixes, go read the Portability section in the TO-DO file before you
42do anything else.
43
44
45REQUIREMENTS:
46------------
47
48You will need the following in order to build and install ncurses under UNIX:
49
50	* ANSI C compiler  (gcc is recommended)
51	* sh               (bash will do)
52	* awk              (mawk or gawk will do)
53	* sed
54	* BSD or System V style install (a script is enclosed)
55
56Ncurses has been also built in the OS/2 EMX environment.
57
58
59INSTALLATION PROCEDURE:
60----------------------
61
621.  First, decide whether you want ncurses to replace your existing library (in
63    which case you'll need super-user privileges) or be installed in parallel
64    with it.
65
66    The --prefix option to configure changes the root directory for installing
67    ncurses.  The default is in subdirectories of /usr/local.  Use
68    --prefix=/usr to replace your default curses distribution.  This is the
69    default for Linux and BSD/OS users.
70
71    The package gets installed beneath the --prefix directory as follows:
72
73    In $(prefix)/bin:          tic, infocmp, captoinfo, tset,
74				reset, clear, tput, toe
75    In $(prefix)/lib:          libncurses*.* libcurses.a
76    In $(prefix)/share/terminfo: compiled terminal descriptions
77    In $(prefix)/include:      C header files
78    Under $(prefix)/man:       the manual pages
79
80    Note however that the configure script attempts to locate previous
81    installation of ncurses, and will set the default prefix according to where
82    it finds the ncurses headers.
83
842.  Type `./configure' in the top-level directory of the distribution to
85    configure ncurses for your operating system and create the Makefiles.
86    Besides --prefix, various configuration options are available to customize
87    the installation; use `./configure --help' to list the available options.
88
89    If your operating system is not supported, read the PORTABILITY section in
90    the file ncurses/README for information on how to create a configuration
91    file for your system.
92
93    The `configure' script generates makefile rules for one or more object
94    models and their associated libraries:
95
96	libncurses.a (normal)
97
98	libcurses.a (normal, a link to libncurses.a)
99		This gets left out if you configure with --disable-overwrite.
100
101	libncurses.so (shared)
102
103	libncurses_g.a (debug)
104
105	libncurses_p.a (profile)
106
107    If you do not specify any models, the normal and debug libraries will be
108    configured.  Typing `configure' with no arguments is equivalent to:
109
110	./configure --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
111
112    Typing
113
114	./configure --with-shared
115
116    makes the shared libraries the default, resulting in
117
118	./configure --with-shared --with-normal --with-debug --enable-overwrite
119
120    If you want only shared libraries, type
121
122	./configure --with-shared --without-normal --without-debug
123
124    Rules for generating shared libraries are highly dependent upon the choice
125    of host system and compiler.  We've been testing shared libraries on Linux
126    and SunOS with gcc, but more work needs to be done to make shared libraries
127    work on other systems.
128
129    You can make curses and terminfo fall back to an existing file of termcap
130    definitions by configuring with --enable-termcap.  If you do this, the
131    library will search /etc/termcap before the terminfo database, and will
132    also interpret the contents of the TERM environment variable.  See the
133    section BSD CONVERSION NOTES below.
134
1353.  Type `make'.  Ignore any warnings, no error messages should be produced.
136    This should compile the ncurses library, the terminfo compiler tic(1),
137    captoinfo(1), infocmp(1), toe(1), clear(1) tset(1), reset(1), and tput(1)
138    programs (see the manual pages for explanation of what they do), some test
139    programs, and the panels, menus, and forms libraries.
140
1414.  Run ncurses and several other test programs in the test directory to
142    verify that ncurses functions correctly before doing an install that
143    may overwrite system files.  Read the file test/README for details on
144    the test programs.
145
146    NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
147    environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
148    database before running the test programs.  Not all vendors' terminfo
149    databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.  Exceptions include
150    DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1).
151
152    The ncurses program is designed specifically to test the ncurses library.
153    You can use it to verify that the screen highlights work correctly, that
154    cursor addressing and window scrolling works OK, etc.
155
1565.  Once you've tested, you can type `make install' to install libraries,
157    the programs, the terminfo database and the manual pages.  Alternately, you
158    can type `make install' in each directory you want to install.  In the
159    top-level directory, you can do a partial install using these commands:
160
161	'make install.progs'    installs tic, infocmp, etc...
162	'make install.includes' installs the headers.
163	'make install.libs'     installs the libraries (and the headers).
164	'make install.data'     installs the terminfo data. (Note: `tic' must
165				be installed before the terminfo data can be
166				compiled).
167	'make install.man'      installs the manual pages.
168
169  ############################################################################
170  #     CAVEAT EMPTOR: `install.data' run as root will NUKE any existing     #
171  #  terminfo database. If you have any custom or unusual entries SAVE them  #
172  #  before you install ncurses.  I have a file called terminfo.custom for   #
173  #  this purpose.  Don't forget to run tic on the file once you're done.    #
174  ############################################################################
175
176    The terminfo(5) manual page must be preprocessed with tbl(1) before
177    being formatted by nroff(1).  Modern man(1) implementations tend to do
178    this by default, but you may want to look at your version's manual page
179    to be sure.
180
181    If the system already has a curses library that you need to keep using
182    for some bizarre binary-compatibility reason, you'll need to distinguish
183    between it and ncurses. If ncurses is installed outside the standard
184    directories (/usr/include and /usr/lib) then all your users will need
185    to use the -I option to compile programs and -L to link them.
186
187    If you have BSD curses installed in your system and you accidentally
188    compile using its curses.h you'll end up with a large number of
189    undefined symbols at link time. _waddbytes is one of them.
190
191    IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ROOT: Change directory to the `progs' subdirectory
192    and run the `capconvert' script.  This script will deduce various things
193    about your environment and use them to build you a private terminfo tree,
194    so you can use ncurses applications.
195
196    If more than one user at your site does this, the space for the duplicate
197    trees is wasted.  Try to get your site administrators to install a system-
198    wide terminfo tree instead.
199
200    See the BSD CONVERSION NOTES section below for a few more details.
201
2026.  The c++ directory has C++ classes that are built on top of ncurses and
203    panels.  You must have c++ (and its libraries) installed before you can
204    compile and run the demo.
205
206    Use --without-cxx-binding to tell configure to not build the C++ bindings
207    and demo.
208
209    If you do not have C++, you must use the --without-cxx option to tell
210    the configure script to not attempt to determine the type of 'bool'
211    which may be supported by C++.  IF YOU USE THIS OPTION, BE ADVISED THAT
212    YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COMPILE (OR RUN) NCURSES APPLICATIONS WITH C++.
213
2147.  If you're running an older Linux, you must either (a) tell Linux that the
215    console terminal type is `linux' or (b) make a link to or copy of the
216    linux entry in the appropriate place under your terminfo directory, named
217    `console'.  All 1.3 and many 1.2 distributions (including Yggdrasil and
218    Red Hat) already have the console type set to `linux'.
219
220    The way to change the wired-in console type depends on the configuration
221    of your system. This may involve editing /etc/inittab, /etc/ttytype,
222    /etc/profile and other such files.
223
224    Warning: this is not for the fainthearted, if you mess up your console
225    getty entries you can make your system unusable!  However, if you are
226    a distribution maker, this is the right thing to do (see the note for
227    integrators near the end of this file).
228
229    The easier way is to link or copy l/linux to c/console under your terminfo
230    directory.  Note: this will go away next time you do `make install.data'
231    and you'll have to redo it. There is no need to have entries for all
232    possible screen sizes, ncurses will figure out the size automatically.
233
234
235SUMMARY OF CONFIGURE OPTIONS:
236----------------------------
237
238    The configure script provides a short list of its options when you type
239
240	./configure --help
241
242    The --help and several options are common to all configure scripts that are
243    generated with autoconf.  Those are all listed before the line
244
245	--enable and --with options recognized:
246
247    The other options are specific to this package.  We list them in alphabetic
248    order.
249
250    --disable-assumed-color
251	With ncurses 5.1, we introduced a new function, assume_default_colors()
252	which allows applications to specify what the default foreground and
253	background color are assumed to be.  Most color applications use
254	full-screen color; but a few do not color the background.  While the
255	assumed values can be overridden by invoking assume_default_colors(),
256	you may find it useful to set the assumed values to the pre-5.1
257	convention, using this configure option.
258
259    --disable-big-core
260	Assume machine has little memory.  The configure script attempts to
261	determine if your machine has enough memory (about 6Mb) to compile the
262	terminfo database without writing portions to disk.  Some allocators
263	return deceptive results, so you may have to override the configure
264	script.  Or you may be building tic for a smaller machine.
265
266    --disable-database
267	Use only built-in data.  The ncurses libraries normally read terminfo
268	and termcap data from disk.  You can configure ncurses to have a
269	built-in database, aka "fallback" entries.  Embedded applications may
270	have no need for an external database.
271
272    --disable-ext-funcs
273	Disable function-extensions.  Configure ncurses without the functions
274	that are not specified by XSI.  See ncurses/modules for the exact
275	list of library modules that would be suppressed.
276
277    --disable-hashmap
278	Compile without hashmap scrolling-optimization code.  This algorithm is
279	the default.
280
281    --disable-leaks
282	For testing, compile-in code that frees memory that normally would not
283	be freed, to simplify analysis of memory-leaks.
284
285    --disable-macros
286	For testing, use functions rather than macros.  The program will run
287	more slowly, but it is simpler to debug.  This makes a header file
288	"nomacros.h".  See also the --enable-expanded option.
289
290    --disable-overwrite
291	If you are installing ncurses on a system which contains another
292	development version of curses, or which could be confused by the loader
293	for another version, we recommend that you leave out the link to
294	-lcurses.  The ncurses library is always available as -lncurses.
295	Disabling overwrite also causes the ncurses header files to be
296	installed into a subdirectory, e.g., /usr/local/include/ncurses,
297	rather than the include directory.  This makes it simpler to avoid
298	compile-time conflicts with other versions of curses.h
299
300    --disable-root-environ
301	Compile with environment restriction, so certain environment variables
302	are not available when running as root, or via a setuid/setgid
303	application.  These are (for example $TERMINFO) those that allow the
304	search path for the terminfo or termcap entry to be customized.
305
306    --disable-scroll-hints
307	Compile without scroll-hints code.  This option is ignored when
308	hashmap scrolling is configured, which is the default.
309
310    --enable-add-ons=DIR...
311	This is used to check if this package is a glibc add-on.  This is used
312	only by the glibc makefiles.
313
314    --enable-assertions
315	For testing, compile-in assertion code.  This is used only for a few
316	places where ncurses cannot easily recover by returning an error code.
317
318    --enable-broken_linker
319	A few platforms have what we consider a broken linker:  it cannot link
320	objects from an archive solely by referring to data objects in those
321	files, but requires a function reference.  This configure option
322	changes several data references to functions to work around this
323	problem.
324
325	NOTE:  With ncurses 5.1, this may not be necessary, since we are
326	told that some linkers interpret uninitialized global data as a
327	different type of reference which behaves as described above.  We have
328	explicitly initialized all of the global data to work around the
329	problem.
330
331    --enable-bsdpad
332	Recognize BSD-style prefix padding.  Some ancient BSD programs (such as
333	nethack) call tputs("50") to implement delays.
334
335    --enable-colorfgbg
336	Compile with experimental $COLORFGBG code.  That environment variable
337	is set by some terminal emulators as a hint to applications, by
338	advertising the default foreground and background colors.  During
339	initialization, ncurses sets color pair 0 to match this.
340
341    --enable-const
342	The curses interface as documented in XSI is rather old, in fact
343	including features that precede ANSI C.  The prototypes generally do
344	not make effective use of "const".  When using stricter compilers (or
345	gcc with appropriate warnings), you may see warnings about the mismatch
346	between const and non-const data.  We provide a configure option which
347	changes the interfaces to use const - quieting these warnings and
348	reflecting the actual use of the parameters more closely.  The ncurses
349	library uses the symbol NCURSES_CONST for these instances of const,
350	and if you have asked for compiler warnings, will add gcc's const-qual
351	warning.  There will still be warnings due to subtle inconsistencies
352	in the interface, but at a lower level.
353
354	NOTE:  configuring ncurses with this option may detract from the
355	portability of your applications by encouraging you to use const in
356	places where the XSI curses interface would not allow them.  Similar
357	issues arise when porting to SVr4 curses, which uses const in even
358	fewer places.
359
360    --enable-echo
361	Use the option --disable-echo to make the build-log less verbose by
362	suppressing the display of the compile and link commands.  This makes
363	it easier to see the compiler warnings.  (You can always use "make -n"
364	to see the options that are used).
365
366    --enable-expanded
367	For testing, generate functions for certain macros to make them visible
368	as such to the debugger.  See also the --disable-macros option.
369
370    --enable-getcap
371	Use the 4.4BSD getcap code if available, or a bundled version of it to
372	fetch termcap entries.  Entries read in this way cannot use (make
373	cross-references to) the terminfo tree, but it is faster than reading
374	/etc/termcap.
375
376    --enable-getcap-cache
377	Cache translated termcaps under the directory $HOME/.terminfo
378
379	NOTE:  this sounds good - it makes ncurses run faster the second time. 
380	But look where the data comes from - an /etc/termcap containing lots of
381	entries that are not up to date.  If you configure with this option and
382	forget to install the terminfo database before running an ncurses
383	application, you will end up with a hidden terminfo database that
384	generally does not support color and will miss some function keys.
385
386    --enable-hard-tabs
387	Compile-in cursor-optimization code that uses hard-tabs.  We would make
388	this a standard feature except for the concern that the terminfo entry
389	may not be accurate, or that your stty settings have disabled the use
390	of tabs.
391
392    --enable-no-padding
393	Compile-in support for the $NCURSES_NO_PADDING environment variable,
394	which allows you to suppress the effect of non-mandatory padding in
395	terminfo entries.  This is the default, unless you have disabled the
396	extended functions.
397
398    --enable-rpath
399	Use rpath option when generating shared libraries, and with some
400	restrictions when linking the corresponding programs.  This applies
401	mainly to systems using the GNU linker (read the manpage).
402
403    --enable-safe-sprintf
404	Compile with experimental safe-sprintf code.  You may consider using
405	this if you are building ncurses for a system that has neither
406	vsnprintf() or vsprintf().  It is slow, however.
407
408    --enable-sigwinch
409	Compile support for ncurses' SIGWINCH handler.  If your application has
410	its own SIGWINCH handler, ncurses will not use its own.  The ncurses
411	handler causes wgetch() to return KEY_RESIZE when the screen-size
412	changes.  This option is the default, unless you have disabled the
413	extended functions.
414
415    --enable-symlinks
416	If your system supports symbolic links, make tic use symbolic links
417	rather than hard links to save diskspace when writing aliases in the
418	terminfo database.
419
420    --enable-tcap-names
421	Compile-in support for user-definable terminal capabilities.  Use the
422	-x option of tic and infocmp to treat unrecognized terminal
423	capabilities as user-defined strings.  This option is the default,
424	unless you have disabled the extended functions.
425
426    --enable-termcap
427	Compile in support for reading terminal descriptions from termcap if no
428	match is found in the terminfo database.  See also the --enable-getcap
429	and --enable-getcap-cache options.
430
431    --enable-warnings
432	Turn on GCC compiler warnings.  There should be only a few.
433
434    --enable-widec
435	Compile with experimental wide-character code.  This makes a different
436	version of the libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so), which stores
437	characters in 16-bits.  We provide a simple UTF-8 driver and test
438	program to use this feature with terminals that can display UTF-8.
439
440	NOTE: applications compiled with this configuration are not compatible
441	with those built for 8-bit characters.  You cannot simply make a
442	symbolic link to equate libncurses.so with libncursesw.so
443
444    --enable-xmc-glitch
445	Compile-in support experimental xmc (magic cookie) code.
446
447    --with-ada-compiler=CMD
448	Specify the Ada95 compiler command (default "gnatmake")
449
450    --with-ada-include=DIR
451	Tell where to install the Ada includes (default: 
452	PREFIX/lib/ada/adainclude)
453
454    --with-ada-objects=DIR
455	Tell where to install the Ada objects (default:  PREFIX/lib/ada/adalib)
456
457    --with-database=XXX
458	Specify the terminfo source file to install.  Usually you will wish
459	to install ncurses' default (misc/terminfo.src).  Certain systems
460	have special requirements, e.g, OS/2 EMX has a customized terminfo
461	source file.
462
463    --with-dbmalloc
464	For testing, compile and link with Conor Cahill's dbmalloc library.
465
466    --with-debug
467	Generate debug-libraries (default).  These are named by adding "_g"
468	to the root, e.g., libncurses_g.a
469
470    --with-default-terminfo-dir=XXX
471	Specify the default terminfo database directory.  This is normally
472	DATADIR/terminfo, e.g., /usr/share/terminfo.
473
474    --with-develop
475	Enable experimental/development options.  This does not count those
476	that change the interface, such as --enable-widec.
477
478    --with-dmalloc
479	For testing, compile and link with Gray Watson's dmalloc library.
480
481    --with-fallbacks=XXX
482	Specify a list of fallback terminal descriptions which will be
483	compiled into the ncurses library.  See CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES.
484
485    --with-gpm
486	use Alessandro Rubini's GPM library to provide mouse support on the
487	Linux console.
488
489    --with-install-prefix=XXX
490	Allows you to specify an alternate location for installing ncurses
491	after building it.  The value you specify is prepended to the "real"
492	install location.  This simplifies making binary packages.
493
494	NOTE:  a few systems build shared libraries with fixed pathnames; this
495	option probably will not work for those configurations.
496
497    --with-manpage-format=XXX
498	Tell the configure script how you would like to install man-pages.  The
499	option value must be one of these:  gzip, compress, BSDI, normal,
500	formatted.  If you do not give this option, the configure script
501	attempts to determine which is the case.
502
503    --with-manpage-renames=XXX
504	Tell the configure script that you wish to rename the manpages while
505	installing.  Currently the only distribution which does this is
506	the Linux Debian.  The option value specifies the name of a file
507	that lists the renamed files, e.g., $srcdir/man/man_db.renames
508
509    --with-manpage-symlinks
510	Tell the configure script that you wish to make symbolic links in the
511	man-directory for aliases to the man-pages.  This is the default, but
512	can be disabled for systems that provide this automatically.  Doing
513	this on systems that do not support symbolic links will result in
514	copying the man-page for each alias.
515
516    --with-normal
517	Generate normal (i.e., static) libraries (default).
518
519    --with-profile
520	Generate profile-libraries These are named by adding "_p" to the root,
521	e.g., libncurses_p.a
522
523    --with-rcs-ids
524	Compile-in RCS identifiers.  Most of the C files have an identifier.
525
526    --with-shared
527	Generate shared-libraries.  The names given depend on the system for
528	which you are building, typically using a ".so" suffix, along with
529	symbolic links that refer to the release version.
530	
531	NOTE:  Unless you override the configure script by setting the $CFLAGS
532	environment variable, these will not be built with the -g debugging
533	option.
534
535    --with-shlib-version=XXX
536	Specify whether to use the release or ABI version for shared libraries.
537	This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of system
538	which you are building on.  We use it for testing the configure script.
539
540    --with-system-type=XXX
541	For testing, override the derived host system-type which is used to
542	decide things such as the linker commands used to build shared
543	libraries.  This is normally chosen automatically based on the type of
544	system which you are building on.  We use it for testing the configure
545	script.
546
547    --with-terminfo-dirs=XXX
548	Specify a search-list of terminfo directories which will be compiled
549	into the ncurses library (default: DATADIR/terminfo)
550
551    --with-termlib
552	When building the ncurses library, organize this as two parts:  the
553	curses library (libncurses) and the low-level terminfo library
554	(libtinfo).  This is done to accommodate applications that use only
555	the latter.  The terminfo library is about half the size of the total.
556
557    --without-ada
558	Suppress the configure script's check for Ada95, do not build the
559	Ada95 binding and related demo.
560
561    --without-cxx
562	XSI curses declares "bool" as part of the interface.  C++ also declares
563	"bool".  Neither specifies the size and type of booleans, but both
564	insist on the same name.  We chose to accommodate this by making the
565	configure script check for the size and type (e.g., unsigned or signed)
566	that your C++ compiler uses for booleans.  If you do not wish to use
567	ncurses with C++, use this option to tell the configure script to not
568	adjust ncurses bool to match C++.
569
570    --without-cxx-binding
571	Suppress the configure script's check for C++, do not build the
572	C++ binding and related demo.
573
574    --without-progs
575	Tell the configure script to suppress the build of ncurses' application
576	programs (e.g., tic).  The test applications will still be built if you
577	type "make", though not if you simply do "make install".
578
579
580COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF NCURSES:
581--------------------------------------------
582
583    Because ncurses implements the X/Open Curses Specification, its interface
584    is fairly stable.  That does not mean the interface does not change.
585    Changes are made to the documented interfaces when we find differences
586    between ncurses and X/Open or implementations which they certify (such as
587    Solaris).  We add extensions to those interfaces to solve problems not
588    addressed by the original curses design, but those must not conflict with
589    the X/Open documentation.
590
591    Here are some of the major interface changes, and related problems which
592    you may encounter when building a system with different versions of
593    ncurses:
594
595    5.1 (July 8, 2000)
596	Interface changes:
597
598	+ made the extended terminal capabilities
599	  (configure --enable-tcap-names) a standard feature.  This should
600	  be transparent to applications that do not require it.
601
602	+ removed the trace() function and related trace support from the
603	  production library.
604
605	+ modified curses.h.in, undef'ing some symbols to avoid conflict
606	  with C++ STL.
607
608	Added extensions:  assume_default_colors().
609
610    5.0 (October 23, 1999)
611	Interface changes:
612
613	+ implemented the wcolor_set() and slk_color() functions.
614
615	+ move macro winch to a function, to hide details of struct ldat
616
617	+ corrected prototypes for slk_* functions, using chtype rather than
618	  attr_t.
619
620	+ the slk_attr_{set,off,on} functions need an additional void*
621	  parameter according to XSI.
622
623	+ modified several prototypes to correspond with 1997 version of X/Open
624	  Curses:  [w]attr_get(), [w]attr_set(), border_set() have different
625	  parameters.  Some functions were renamed or misspelled:
626	  erase_wchar(), in_wchntr(), mvin_wchntr().  Some developers have used
627	  attr_get().
628
629	Added extensions:  keybound(), curses_version().
630
631	Terminfo database changes:
632
633	+ change translation for termcap 'rs' to terminfo 'rs2', which is
634	  the documented equivalent, rather than 'rs1'.
635
636	The problems are subtler in recent releases.
637
638	a) This release provides users with the ability to define their own
639	   terminal capability extensions, like termcap.  To accomplish this,
640	   we redesigned the TERMTYPE struct (in term.h).  Very few
641	   applications use this struct.  They must be recompiled to work with
642	   the 5.0 library.
643
644	a) If you use the extended terminfo names (i.e., you used configure
645	   --enable-tcap-names), the resulting terminfo database can have some
646	   entries which are not readable by older versions of ncurses.  This
647	   is a bug in the older versions:
648
649	   + the terminfo database stores booleans, numbers and strings in
650	     arrays.  The capabilities that are listed in the arrays are
651	     specified by X/Open.  ncurses recognizes a number of obsolete and
652	     extended names which are stored past the end of the specified
653	     entries.
654
655	   + a change to read_entry.c in 951001 made the library do an lseek()
656	     call incorrectly skipping data which is already read from the
657	     string array.  This happens when the number of strings in the
658	     terminfo data file is greater than STRCOUNT, the number of
659	     specified and obsolete or extended strings.
660
661	   + as part of alignment with the X/Open final specification, in the
662	     990109 patch we added two new terminfo capabilities:
663	     set_a_attributes and set_pglen_inch).  This makes the indices for
664	     the obsolete and extended capabilities shift up by 2.
665
666	   + the last two capabilities in the obsolete/extended list are memu
667	     and meml, which are found in most terminfo descriptions for xterm.
668
669	     When trying to read this terminfo entry, the spurious lseek()
670	     causes the library to attempt to read the final portion of the
671	     terminfo data (the text of the string capabilities) 4 characters
672	     past its starting point, and reads 4 characters too few.  The
673	     library rejects the data, and applications are unable to
674	     initialize that terminal type.
675
676	   FIX: remove memu and meml from the xterm description.  They are
677	   obsolete, not used by ncurses.  (It appears that the feature was
678	   added to xterm to make it more like hpterm).
679
680	   This is not a problem if you do not use the -x option of tic to
681	   create a terminfo database with extended names.  Note that the
682	   user-defined terminal capabilities are not affected by this bug,
683	   since they are stored in a table after the older terminfo data ends,
684	   and are invisible to the older libraries.
685
686	c) Some developers did not wish to use the C++ binding, and used the
687	   configure --without-cxx option.  This causes problems if someone
688	   uses the ncurses library from C++ because that configure test
689	   determines the type for C++'s bool and makes ncurses match it, since
690	   both C++ and curses are specified to declare bool.  Calling ncurses
691	   functions with the incorrect type for bool will cause execution
692	   errors.  In 5.0 we added a configure option "--without-cxx-binding"
693	   which controls whether the binding itself is built and installed.
694
695    4.2 (March 2, 1998)
696	Interface changes:
697
698	+ correct prototype for termattrs() as per XPG4 version 2.
699
700	+ add placeholder prototypes for color_set(), erasewchar(),
701	  term_attrs(), wcolor_set() as per XPG4 version 2.
702
703	+ add macros getcur[xy] getbeg[xy] getpar[xy], which are defined in
704	  SVr4 headers.
705
706	New extensions: keyok() and define_key().
707
708	Terminfo database changes:
709
710	+ corrected definition in curses.h for ACS_LANTERN, which was 'I'
711	  rather than 'i'.
712
713    4.1 (May 15, 1997)
714
715	We added these extensions:  use_default_colors().  Also added
716	configure option --enable-const, to support the use of const where
717	X/Open should have, but did not, specify.
718
719	The terminfo database content changed the representation of color for
720	most entries that use ANSI colors.  SVr4 curses treats the setaf/setab
721	and setf/setb capabilities differently, interchanging the red/blue
722	colors in the latter.
723
724    4.0 (December 24, 1996)
725
726	We bumped to version 4.0 because the newly released dynamic loader
727	(ld.so.1.8.5) on Linux did not load shared libraries whose ABI and REL
728	versions were inconsistent.  At that point, ncurses ABI was 3.4 and the
729	REL was 1.9.9g, so we made them consistent.
730
731    1.9.9g (December 1, 1996)
732
733	This fixed most of the problems with 1.9.9e, and made these interface
734	changes:
735
736	+ remove tparam(), which had been provided for compatibility with
737	  some termcap.  tparm() is standard, and does not conflict with
738	  application's fallback for missing tparam().
739
740	+ turn off hardware echo in initscr().  This changes the sense of the
741	  echo() function, which was initialized to echoing rather than
742	  nonechoing (the latter is specified).  There were several other
743	  corrections to the terminal I/O settings which cause applications to
744	  behave differently.
745
746	+ implemented several functions (such as attr_on()) which were
747	  available only as macros.
748
749	+ corrected several typos in curses.h.in (i.e., the mvXXXX macros).
750
751	+ corrected prototypes for delay_output(),
752	  has_color, immedok() and idcok().
753
754	+ corrected misspelled getbkgd().  Some applications used the
755	  misspelled name.
756
757	+ added _yoffset to WINDOW.  The size of WINDOW does not impact
758	  applications, since they use only pointers to WINDOW structs.
759
760	These changes were made to the terminfo database:
761
762	+ removed boolean 'getm' which was available as an extended name.
763
764	We added these extensions: wresize(), resizeterm(), has_key() and
765	mcprint().
766
767    1.9.9e (March 24, 1996)
768
769	not recommended (a last-minute/untested change left the forms and
770	menus libraries unusable since they do not repaint the screen).
771	Foreground/background colors are combined incorrectly, working properly
772	only on a black background.  When this was released, the X/Open
773	specification was available only in draft form.
774
775	Some applications (such as lxdialog) were "fixed" to work with the
776	incorrect color scheme.
777
778
779IF YOU ARE A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR:
780------------------------------
781
782    Beginning with 1.9.9, the ncurses distribution includes both a tset
783    utility and /usr/share/tabset directory.  If you are installing ncurses,
784    it is no longer either necessary or desirable to install tset-jv.
785
786    Configuration and Installation:
787
788	Configure with --prefix=/usr to make the install productions put
789	libraries and headers in the correct locations (overwriting any
790	previous curses libraries and headers).  This will put the terminfo
791	hierarchy under /usr/share/terminfo; you may want to override this with
792	--datadir=/usr/share/misc; terminfo and tabset are installed under the
793	data directory.
794
795	Please configure the ncurses library in a pure-terminfo mode; that
796	is, with the --disable-termcap option.   This will make the ncurses
797	library smaller and faster. The ncurses library includes a termcap
798	emulation that queries the terminfo database, so even applications
799	that use raw termcap to query terminal characteristics will win
800	(providing you recompile and relink them!).
801
802	If you must configure with termcap fallback enabled, you may also
803	wish to use the --enable-getcap option.  This option speeds up
804	termcap-based startups, at the expense of not allowing personal
805	termcap entries to reference the terminfo tree.  See the code in
806	ncurses/tinfo/read_termcap.c for details.
807
808	Note that if you have $TERMCAP set, ncurses will use that value
809	to locate termcap data.  In particular, running from xterm will
810	set $TERMCAP to the contents of the xterm's termcap entry.
811	If ncurses sees that, it will not examine /etc/termcap.
812
813    Keyboard Mapping:
814
815	The terminfo file assumes that Shift-Tab generates \E[Z (the ECMA-48
816	reverse-tabulation sequence) rather than ^I.  Here are the loadkeys -d
817	mappings that will set this up:
818
819		keycode	 15 = Tab	      Tab
820			alt     keycode  15 = Meta_Tab
821			shift	keycode  15 = F26
822		string F26 ="\033[Z"
823
824    Naming the Console Terminal
825
826	In various Linuxes (and possibly elsewhere) there has been a practice
827	of designating the system console driver type as `console'.  Please
828	do not do this any more!  It complicates peoples' lives, because it
829	can mean that several different terminfo entries from different
830	operating systems all logically want to be called `console'.
831
832	Please pick a name unique to your console driver and set that up
833	in the /etc/inittab table or local equivalent.  Send the entry to the
834	terminfo maintainer (listed in the misc/terminfo file) to be included
835	in the terminfo file, if it's not already there.  See the
836	term(7) manual page included with this distribution for more on
837	conventions for choosing type names.
838
839	Here are some recommended primary console names:
840
841		linux	-- Linux console driver
842		freebsd	-- FreeBSD
843		netbsd	-- NetBSD
844		bsdos	-- BSD/OS
845
846	If you are responsible for integrating ncurses for one of these
847	distribution, please either use the recommended name or get back
848	to us explaining why you don't want to, so we can work out nomenclature
849	that will make users' lives easier rather than harder.
850
851
852RECENT XTERM VERSIONS:
853---------------------
854
855	The terminfo database file included with this distribution assumes you
856	are running an XFree86 xterm based on X11R6 (i.e., xterm-r6).  The
857	earlier X11R5 entry (xterm-r5) is provided as well.
858
859	If you are running XFree86 version 3.2 (actually 3.1.2F and up), you
860	should consider using the xterm-xf86-v32 (or later, the most recent
861	version is always named "xterm-xfree86") entry, which adds ANSI color
862	and the VT220 capabilities which have been added in XFree86.  If you
863	are running a mixed network, however, where this terminal description
864	may be used on an older xterm, you may have problems, since
865	applications that assume these capabilities will produce incorrect
866	output on the older xterm (e.g., highlighting is not cleared).
867
868
869CONFIGURING FALLBACK ENTRIES:
870----------------------------
871
872	In order to support operation of ncurses programs before the terminfo
873	tree is accessible (that is, in single-user mode or at OS installation
874	time) the ncurses library can be compiled to include an array of
875	pre-fetched fallback entries.
876
877	These entries are checked by setupterm() only when the conventional
878	fetches from the terminfo tree and the termcap fallback (if configured)
879	have been tried and failed.  Thus, the presence of a fallback will not
880	shadow modifications to the on-disk entry for the same type, when that
881	entry is accessible.
882
883	By default, there are no entries on the fallback list.  After you
884	have built the ncurses suite for the first time, you can change
885	the list (the process needs infocmp(1)).  To do so, use the script
886	MKfallback.sh.  A configure script option --with-fallbacks does this
887	(it accepts a comma-separated list of the names you wish, and does
888	not require a rebuild).
889
890	If you wanted (say) to have linux, vt100, and xterm fallbacks, you
891	would use the commands
892
893		cd ncurses;
894		MKfallback.sh linux vt100 xterm >fallback.c
895
896	Then just rebuild and reinstall the library as you would normally.
897	You can restore the default empty fallback list with
898
899		MKfallback.sh >fallback.c
900
901	The overhead for an empty fallback list is one trivial stub function.
902	Any non-empty fallback list is const-ed and therefore lives in sharable
903	text space.  You can look at the comment trailing each initializer in
904	the generated ncurses/fallback.c file to see the core cost of the
905	fallbacks.  A good rule of thumb for modern vt100-like entries is that
906	each one will cost about 2.5K of text space.
907
908
909BSD CONVERSION NOTES:
910--------------------
911
912	If you need to support really ancient BSD programs, you probably
913	want to configure with the --enable-bsdpad option.  What this does
914	is enable code in tputs() that recognizes a numeric prefix on a
915	capability as a request for that much trailing padding in milliseconds.
916	There are old BSD programs that do things like tputs("50").
917
918	(If you are distributing ncurses as a support-library component of
919	an application you probably want to put the remainder of this section
920	in the package README file.)
921
922	The following note applies only if you have configured ncurses with
923	--enable-termcap.
924
925------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
926
927If you are installing this application privately (either because you
928have no root access or want to experiment with it before doing a root
929installation), there are a couple of details you need to be aware of.
930They have to do with the ncurses library, which uses terminfo rather
931than termcap for describing terminal characteristics.
932
933Though the ncurses library is terminfo-based, it will interpret your
934TERMCAP variable (if present), any local termcap files you reference
935through it, and the system termcap file.  However, in order to avoid
936slowing down your application startup, it will only do this once per
937terminal type!
938
939The first time you load a given terminal type from your termcap
940database, the library initialization code will automatically write it
941in terminfo format to a subdirectory under $HOME/.terminfo.  After
942that, the initialization code will find it there and do a (much
943faster) terminfo fetch.
944
945Usually, all this means is that your home directory will silently grow
946an invisible .terminfo subdirectory which will get filled in with
947terminfo descriptions of terminal types as you invoke them.  If anyone
948ever installs a global terminfo tree on your system, this will quietly
949stop happening and your $HOME/.terminfo will become redundant.
950
951The objective of all this logic is to make converting from BSD termcap
952as painless as possible without slowing down your application (termcap
953compilation is expensive).
954
955If you don't have a TERMCAP variable or custom personal termcap file,
956you can skip the rest of this dissertation.
957
958If you *do* have a TERMCAP variable and/or a custom personal termcap file
959that defines a terminal type, that definition will stop being visible
960to this application after the first time you run it, because it will
961instead see the terminfo entry that it wrote to $HOME/terminfo the
962first time around.
963
964Subsequently, editing the TERMCAP variable or personal TERMCAP file
965will have no effect unless you explicitly remove the terminfo entry
966under $HOME/terminfo.  If you do that, the entry will be recompiled
967from your termcap resources the next time it is invoked.
968
969To avoid these complications, use infocmp(1) and tic(1) to edit the
970terminfo directory directly.
971
972------------------------------- CUT HERE --------------------------------
973
974USING NCURSES WITH AFS:
975	AFS treats each directory as a separate logical filesystem, you
976	can't hard-link across them.  The --enable-symlinks option copes
977	with this by making tic use symbolic links.
978
979USING NCURSES WITH EMACS:
980	GNU Emacs has its own termcap support.  By default, it uses a mixture
981	of those functions and code linked from the host system's libraries.
982	You need to foil this and shut out the GNU termcap library entirely.
983
984	In order to do this, hack the Linux config file (s/linux.h) to contain
985	a #define TERMINFO and set the symbol LIBS_TERMCAP to "-lncurses".
986
987	We have submitted such a change for the 19.30 release, so it may
988	already be applied in your sources -- check for the #define TERMINFO.
989
990USING NCURSES WITH GPM:
991	Ncurses 4.1 and up can be configured to use GPM (General Purpose Mouse)
992	which is used on Linux console.  Be aware that GPM is commonly
993	installed as a shared library which contains a wrapper for the curses
994	wgetch() function (libcurses.o).  Some integrators have simplified
995	linking applications by combining all or part of libcurses.so (the BSD
996	curses) into the libgpm.so file, producing symbol conflicts with
997	ncurses (specifically the wgetch function).  You may be able to work
998	around this problem by linking as follows:
999
1000		cc -o foo foo.o -lncurses -lgpm -lncurses
1001
1002	but the linker may not cooperate, producing mysterious errors.
1003	A patched version of gpm is available:
1004
1005		dickey.his.com:/ncurses/gpm-1.10-970125.tar.gz
1006
1007	This patch is incorporated in gpm 1.12; however some integrators
1008	are slow to update this library.  Current distributions of gpm can
1009	be configured properly using the --without-curses option.
1010
1011BUILDING NCURSES WITH A CROSS-COMPILER
1012	Ncurses can be built with a cross-compiler.  Some parts must be built
1013	with the host's compiler since they are used for building programs
1014	(e.g., ncurses/make_hash and ncurses/make_keys) that generate tables
1015	that are compiled into the ncurses library.  You should set the
1016	BUILD_CC environment variable to your host's compiler, and run the
1017	configure script configuring for the cross-compiler.
1018
1019	Note that all of the generated source-files which are part of ncurses
1020	will be made if you use
1021
1022		make sources
1023
1024	This would be useful in porting to an environment which has little
1025	support for the tools used to generate the sources, e.g., sed, awk and
1026	Bourne-shell.
1027
1028BUGS:
1029	Send any feedback to the ncurses mailing list at
1030	bug-ncurses@gnu.org. To subscribe send mail to
1031	bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org with body that reads:
1032	subscribe ncurses <your-email-address-here>
1033
1034	The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
1035	on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.
1036