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<title>Announcing ncurses 6.2</title>
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<h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses 6.2</h1>
<h2><a name="h2-overview" id="h2-overview">Overview</a></h2>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> (new curses)
library is a free software emulation of curses in System V
Release 4.0 (SVr4), and more. It uses terminfo format, supports
pads and color and multiple highlights and forms characters and
function-key mapping, and has all the other SVr4-curses
enhancements over BSD curses. SVr4 curses became the basis of
X/Open Curses.</p>
<p>In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared
that he considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the
keepers of <span class="main-name">unix</span> releases such as
BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span>.</p>
<p>Since 1995, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> has been
ported to many systems:</p>
<ul>
<li>It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel
(aside from some embedded applications).</li>
<li>It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD
and MacOS.</li>
<li>It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The
first of these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.</li>
<li>It is used (though usually not as the <em>system</em>
curses) on all of the vendor <span class=
"main-name">unix</span> systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO,
Solaris, Tru64.</li>
<li>It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming
<span class="main-name">unix</span>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The distribution includes the library and support utilities,
including</p>
<ul>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion tool</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/clear.1.html"><span class="part-name">
clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the screen</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tabs.1.html"><span class="part-name">
tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo entries</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html"><span class="part-name">
tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities
in shell scripts</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html"><span class="part-name">
tset</span></a>, to initialize the terminal</li>
</ul>
<p>Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.</p>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution is
available at <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>' <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/">homepage</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/</a>
or<br>
<a href=
"https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is also available via anonymous FTP at the GNU distribution
site</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2><a name="h2-release-notes" id="h2-release-notes">Release
Notes</a></h2>
<p>These notes are for <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
6.2, released <strong>February 12, 2020</strong>.</p>
<p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.1; providing
extensions to the application binary interface (ABI). Although
the source can still be configured to support the <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> 5 ABI, the reason for the release is
to reflect improvements to the <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> 6 ABI and the supporting utility
programs.</p>
<p>There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in
this announcement.</p>
<p>The most <a href="#h3-bug-fixes">important
bug-fixes/improvements</a> dealt with user-defined capabilities
in terminal descriptions. The release notes also mention some
other bug-fixes, but are focused on new features and improvements
to existing features since <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
6.1 release.</p>
<h3><a name="h3-library" id="h3-library">Library improvements</a></h3>
<h4><a name="h4-new-library" id="h4-new-library">New features</a></h4>
<p>There are several new features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">
O_EDGE_INSERT_STAY</a> tells the form library to optionally
delay cursor movement on a field edge/boundary</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/form_field_opts.3x.html">
O_INPUT_FIELD</a> extension to form library allows a dynamic
field to shrink if the new limit is smaller than the current
field size.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">
exit_curses</a> and <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">
exit_terminfo</a> to replace internal symbols for
leak-checking.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_trace.3x.html#h3-Functions">
curses_trace</a>, to replace trace().</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Additionally, to improve performance other changes (and
extensions) are provided in this release:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>mouse decoding now handles shift/control/alt logic when
decoding xterm's 1006 mode</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>ncurses now defines a limit for <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_getstr.3x.html">
wgetnstr</a>, <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_get_wstr.3x.html">
wgetn_wstr</a> when length is negative or &ldquo;too
large&rdquo;.</p>
</li>
<li>reordered loop-limit checks in <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_insstr.3x.html">winsnstr</a>
in case the string has no terminating null and only the number
of characters is used.</li>
<li>
<p>there is now no buffer-size limit when reading the
<a href="https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP">
<tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a> variable.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>the <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP">
<tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a> variable may be interpreted as a
fallback to a terminfo entry</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions">
<tt>mvcur</tt></a> now decides whether to use hard-tabs,
using <strong><tt>xt</tt></strong>,
<strong><tt>tbc</tt></strong> and
<strong><tt>hts</tt></strong> as clues.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>extended colors are improved by modifying an internal call
to <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Output-Functions">
<tt>vid_puts</tt></a> to pass extended color pairs e.g., from
<tt>tty_update.c</tt> and <tt>lib_mvcur.c</tt></p>
</li>
<li>
<p id="getenv-fixes">the initialization functions now avoid
relying upon persistent data for the result from <a href=
"#getenv-check"><tt>getenv</tt></a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>scrolling is improved:</p>
<ul>
<li>a limit check in <tt>newline_forces_scroll</tt> handles
the case where the row is inside scroll-margins, but not at
the end.</li>
<li>
<p>improved loop limits in <tt>_nc_scroll_window</tt>
handle a case where the scrolled data is a pad which is
taller than the window.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
improvements</a></h4>
<p>These are revised features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>used &ldquo;<tt>const</tt>&rdquo; in some prototypes
rather than <tt>NCURSES_CONST</tt> where X/Open Curses was
updated to do this, e.g., <tt>wscanw</tt>, <tt>newterm</tt>,
the terminfo interface. Also use &ldquo;<tt>const</tt>&rdquo;
for consistency in the termcap interface, which was withdrawn
by X/Open Curses in Issue 5 (2007). As of Issue 7, X/Open
Curses still lacks &ldquo;<tt>const</tt>&rdquo; for certain
return values, e.g., <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-keyname_key_name">
keyname</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modified <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_bkgd.3x.html#h3-bkgd">
<tt>wbkgd</tt></a> and <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_bkgrnd.3x.html#h3-bkgrnd">
<tt>wbkgrnd</tt></a> to improve compatibility with SVr4
curses, changing the way the window rendition is updated when
the background character is modified</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improved terminfo write/read by modifying the fourth item
of the extended header to denote the number of valid strings
in the extended string table (see <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-STORAGE-FORMAT">
term(5)</a>).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modified the initialization checks for mouse so that the
<a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
block will work with terminal descriptions not mentioning
<em>xterm</em>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These were done to limit or ultimately deprecate features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>deprecated <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t970831">safe-sprintf</a>,
since the <tt>vsnprintf</tt> function, which does what was
needed, was standardized long ago.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>marked <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h3-PORTABILITY">
<tt>vwprintw</tt></a> and <tt>vwscanw</tt> as deprecated;
recommend using <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_printw.3x.html">
<tt>vw_printw</tt></a> and <tt>vw_scanw</tt>,
respectively.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added deprecation warnings for internal functions called
by older versions of <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">tack</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>removed unused <tt>_nc_import_termtype2</tt> function.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>check parameter of <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_threads.3x.html">
set_escdelay</a>, return ERR if negative.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>check parameter of <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_threads.3x.html">
set_tabsize</a>, return ERR if not greater than zero</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>correct a status-check in _nc_read_tic_entry() so that if
reading a hex/b64 <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO">
<tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>, and the <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERM">
<tt>$TERM</tt></a> does not match, fall-through to the
compiled-in search list.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>amend check for <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Predefined-Capabilities">
<tt>repeat_char</tt></a> to handle a case where setlocale()
was called after <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_initscr.3x.html">
<tt>initscr</tt></a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>move macro for <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_touch.3x.html">
<tt>is_linetouched</tt></a> inside
<strong><tt>NCURSES_NOMACROS</tt></strong>
<em><tt>ifndef</tt></em>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use <tt>_nc_copy_termtype2</tt> rather than direct
assignment in <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Initialization">
setupterm</a>, in case it is called repeatedly using fallback
terminfo descriptions</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve workaround for Solaris wcwidth versus line-drawing
characters</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add checks in <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/resizeterm.3x.html">
<tt>repair_subwindows</tt></a> to keep the current position
and scroll-margins inside the resized subwindow.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>correct a buffer-limit in <tt>write_entry.c</tt> for
systems that use caseless filenames.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improved build-time utility <em>report_offsets</em>:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>add categories, e.g., "w" for wide-character, "t" for
threads to make the report more readable. Reorganized the
structures reported to make the categories more
apparent.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add <tt>NCURSES_GLOBALS</tt> and
<tt>NCURSES_PRESCREEN</tt> to report to show how similar
the different <em>libtinfo</em> configurations are.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>modified some header files to ensure that those include
necessary files except for the previously-documented
cases</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added some traces in initialization to show whether a
fallback entry is used.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>made minor optimization to reduce calls to
_nc_reserve_pairs</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>fix a special case in <tt>PutAttrChar</tt> where a cell is
marked as alternate-character set, but the terminal does not
actually support the given graphic character. This would
happen in an older terminal such as <em>vt52</em>, which
lacks most line-drawing capability.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>corrected flag for "seq" method of db 1.8.5 interface,
needed by toe on some of the BSDs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify comparison in make_hash.c to correct a special case
in collision handling for Caps-hpux11</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add extended_slk_color{,_sp} symbols to the appropriate
package/*.{map,sym} files</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify lib_setup to avoid calling pthread_self() without
first verifying that the address is valid, i.e., for weak
symbols</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add a couple of broken-linker symbols to the list of
versioned symbols to help with link-time optimization versus
weak symbols.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
improvements</a></h3>
<p>Several improvements were made to the utility programs:</p>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name">clear</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>improved logic for clearing with the <em>E3</em>
extension, in case the terminal scrolls content onto its
saved-lines before actually clearing the display, by
clearing the saved-lines after clearing the display</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">infocmp</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>omit filtering of &ldquo;<tt>OTxx</tt>&rdquo; names
which are used for obsolete capabilities, when the output
is sorted by long-names. This change helps when making a
table of the short/long capability names.</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">tic</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>added check for consistent alternate character set
capabilities.</li>
<li>added check for paired <tt>indn</tt>/<tt>rin</tt>.</li>
<li>added check for terminals with <tt>parm_dch</tt> vs
<tt>parm_ich</tt>.</li>
<li>added check for the case where
<tt>setf</tt>/<tt>setb</tt> are given using different
strings, but provide identical results to
<tt>setaf</tt>/<tt>setab</tt>.</li>
<li>corrected check for <tt>ich1</tt>.</li>
<li>changed a too-large terminal entry from a fatal error
to a warning.</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">toe</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>ignores any hex/b64 <tt>$TERMINFO</tt> value in the
list of terminfo databases.</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">tset</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>replace check in <span class="part-name">reset</span>
command for obsolete &ldquo;<tt>pt</tt>&rdquo; capability
using <tt>tbc</tt> and <tt>hts</tt> capabilities as
clues</li>
<li>modify <span class="part-name">reset</span> to allow
for tabstops at intervals other than 8.</li>
<li>change <span class="part-name">reset</span>'s behavior
for margins to simply clear soft-margins if possible,
rather than clearing and then setting them according to the
terminal's width.</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">tput</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>add &ldquo;<tt>x</tt>&rdquo; to <tt>getopt</tt> string
so that &ldquo;<tt>tput&nbsp;-x&nbsp;clear</tt>&rdquo;
works.</li>
</ul>
</dd>
</dl>
<p>Several changes were made to the generated ncurses*config
scripts and the analogous &ldquo;<tt>.pc</tt>&rdquo; files to
reduce differences between the configurations they report:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>modified the ncurse*-config and pc-files to more closely
match for the <tt>-I</tt> and <tt>-l</tt> options.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>filtered out linker-specs from the <tt>--libs</tt>
report.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>amended the ncurses*-config and pc-files to take into
account the rpath hack which differed between those
files.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modified generated ncurses*config and ncurses.pc,
ncursesw.pc, etc., to list helper libraries such as gpm for
static linking.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h4><a name="h4-examples" id="h4-examples">Examples</a></h4>
<p>Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made
to the <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a>.
Most of this activity aimed at improving the test-packages. A few
changes are more generally useful, e.g., for the main ncurses
test-program, and for analyzing traces using the
<em>tracemunch</em> script:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>improve recovery from error when reading command-character
in <tt>test/ncurses.c</tt>, showing the relevant error
message and not exiting on EINTR.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <em>tracemunch</em>, by keeping track of
<tt>TERMINAL*</tt> values, and if tracing was first turned on
after initialization, attempt to show distinct screen, window
and terminal names anyway.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <em>tracemunch</em> to accept filename parameters
in addition to use as a pipe/filter.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>update <em>tracemunch</em> to work with <em>perl
5.26.2</em>, which changed the rules for escaping regular
expressions.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add some checks in <em>tracemunch</em> for undefined
variables.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>TurnOn</tt>/<tt>TurnOff</tt> macros (in
lib_vidattr.c and lib_vid_attr.c) to avoid expansion of
&ldquo;<tt>CUR</tt>&rdquo; in trace.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are other new demo/test programs and reusable
examples:</p>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name">color_content</span>
</dt>
<dd>Demonstrate the <tt>color_content</tt> and
<tt>extended_color_content</tt> functions.</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">demo_tabs</span>
</dt>
<dd>A simple demo of tabs in curses.</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">dump_window</span>
</dt>
<dd>A portable curses screen-dump, used to compare ncurses
screen contents with Solaris.</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">pair_content</span>
</dt>
<dd>Demonstrate the <tt>pair_content</tt> and
<tt>extended_pair_content</tt> functions.</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">report_hashing</span>
</dt>
<dd>Check hash-tables used for terminfo and termcap names.</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">parse_rgb</span>
</dt>
<dd>Sample implementation of the ncurses RGB extension from
<a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>,
used in <em>picsmap</em> and <em>savescreen</em> programs.</dd>
</dl>
<p>A variety of improvements were made to existing programs, both
new features as well as options added to make the set of programs
more consistent.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>add &ldquo;<tt>-l</tt>&rdquo; option to test/background,
to dump screen contents in a form that lets different curses
implementations be compared.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add &ldquo;<tt>@</tt>&rdquo; command to test/ncurses
F-test, to allow rapid jump to different character pages.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added enum, regex examples to test/demo_forms</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>amend Scaled256() macro in test/picsmap.c to cover the
full range 0..1000</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>corrected pathname used in Ada95 sample programs for
<tt>explain.txt</tt>, to work with test-packages, and used an
awk script to split the resulting pathname when it would be
too long for a single line.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>ignore interrupted system-call in test/ncurses's
command-line, e.g., if the terminal were resized.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improved ifdef's for <tt>TABSIZE</tt> variable, to help
with AIX/HPUX ports.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal database</a></h3>
<p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>
<blockquote style="word-break:keep-all">
<p><tt>alacritty</tt>, <tt>domterm</tt>, <tt>kitty</tt>,
<tt>mintty</tt>, <tt>mintty-direct</tt>, <tt>ms-terminal</tt>,
<tt>n7900</tt>, <tt>nsterm-build309</tt>,
<tt>nsterm-direct</tt>, <tt>screen5</tt>, <tt>ti703</tt>,
<tt>ti707</tt>, <tt>ti703-w</tt>, <tt>ti707-w</tt>
<tt>vscode</tt>, <tt>vscode-direct</tt>, <tt>xterm-mono</tt>,
<tt>xterm.js</tt></p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
were updates to several descriptions:</p>
<ul>
<li>use <a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-ansi_rep"><tt>ansi+rep</tt></a>
in a dozen places</li>
<li>add rs1 to konsole, mlterm</li>
<li>improve several flash capabilities with trailing mandatory
delays</li>
<li>drop <tt>ich1</tt> from <tt>rxvt-basic</tt>, <tt>Eterm</tt>
and <tt>mlterm</tt> to improve compatibility with old
non-curses programs</li>
<li>add/use <a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_keypad"><tt>xterm+keypad</tt></a>
in <tt>xterm-new</tt></li>
<li>use <a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sl-twm"><tt>xterm+sl-twm</tt></a>
for consistency, nine places</li>
<li>improve <em>xm</em> example in <a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11mouse">xterm+x11mouse</a>
and <a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006">xterm+sm_1006</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>while others affected specific descriptions. These were
retested, to take into account changes by their developers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><tt>terminator</tt>, <tt>st</tt></p>
</blockquote>
<p>while these are specific fixes based on reviewing
documentation, user reports, or warnings from <span class=
"part-name">tic</span>:</p>
<dl>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-adds200">adds200</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>fix typo</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-gnome-256color">gnome-256color</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>base entry on "gnome", not "vte", for consistency</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-interix">interix</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>trim unnecessary setf/setb</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-linux-16color">linux-16color</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>accommodate <a href=
"https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2019-10/msg00061.html">
Linux console driver</a> incompatibility introduced in
early 2018</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm-256color">nsterm-256color</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>add nsterm-build309 to replace nsterm-256color,
assigning the latter as an alias of nsterm, to make mouse
work with nsterm-256color</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent40">regent40</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>renumber function-keys to match manual</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-regent60">regent60</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>add cd (clr_eos)</li>
<li>corrected acsc</li>
<li>add shifted function-keys</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi950">tvi950</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>added function-key definitions to agree with Televideo
950 manual</li>
<li>corrected acsc</li>
<li>remove bogus kf0</li>
<li>add bel</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-tvi955">tvi955</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>fix typo</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-vi200">vi200</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>add acsc string, including right/down-arrow</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>corrected acsc</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy50">wy50</a> and
<a href="/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-wy60">wy60</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>add shifted function-keys as kF1 to kF16</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_x11hilite">xterm+x11hilite</a>:</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>eliminate unused <em>p5</em> parameter.</li>
</ul>
</dd>
</dl>
<p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal
capabilities):</p>
<ul>
<li>use <a href=
"/ncurses/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_sm_1006"><tt>xterm+sm+1006</tt></a>
(aka &ldquo;SGR 1006 mouse&rdquo;) for konsole-base and
putty</li>
<li>add <em><tt>Smol/Rmol</tt></em> user-defined capability to
<tt>tmux</tt> and <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
<li>add <em><tt>Smulx</tt></em> user-defined capability to
<tt>tmux</tt>, <tt>vte-2018</tt></li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="h3-documentation" id=
"h3-documentation">Documentation</a></h3>
<p>As usual, this release</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>improves documentation by describing new features,</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>attempts to improve the description of features which
users have found confusing</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were
described in the <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html">NEWS</a>
file but treated sketchily in manual pages.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to providing background information to explain
these features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
clarifications, etc.:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Corrections:</p>
<ul>
<li>correct error-returns listed in manual pages for a few
form functions</li>
<li>corrected prototypes in several manpages using script
to extract those in compilable form.</li>
<li>fix typo in <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/term.5.html#h3-EXTENDED-NUMBER-FORMAT">
term.5</a>, improve explanation of format</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Clarify in manual pages that <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
vwprintw</a> and <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_scanw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
vwscanw</a> are obsolete.<br>
They have not been part of X/Open Curses since 2007.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>New/improved history and portability sections:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_addch.3x.html#h3-ACS-Symbols">
curs_addch.3x</a> gives some background for ACS
symbols.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_getcchar.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
curs_getcchar.3x</a> explains a difference between ncurses
and X/Open Curses.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_getstr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
curs_getstr.3x</a> gives historical/portability background
for the length parameter of <tt>wgetnstr</tt>.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_slk.3x.html">
curs_slk.3x</a> lists a few differences between SVr4 curses
and X/Open Curses for soft-keys.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html">
curs_terminfo.3x</a> explains that the initial
implementation of terminfo in SVr2 was mostly replaced by
other developers in SVr3.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/infocmp.1m.html">infocmp.1</a>
explains that the initial version of terminfo had no tool
for decompiling descriptions. That came later, with SVr3,
with a different developer.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tabs.1">tabs.1</a>
tells more than you wanted to know about the tool.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html">tic.1</a>
explains that the initial version of terminfo had a
rudimentary tool (based on termcap) for compiling entries.
The tool used with Unix was developed by others for
SVr3.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html">toe.1</a>
explains the origin of this tool.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Improvements for <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/user_caps.5.html">user_caps.5</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>mention <tt>meml</tt>, <tt>memu</tt> and
<tt>box1</tt></li>
<li>expanded description of <tt>XM</tt></li>
<li>add a clarification regarding the <tt>RGB</tt>
capability.</li>
<li>mention user_caps.5 in the tic and infocmp manual
pages.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Other improvements:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_add_wch.3x.html#h3-Line-Graphics">
curs_add_wch.3x</a> adds note about Unicode terminology for
the line-drawing characters.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-RETURN-VALUE">
curs_color.3x</a> improves discussion of error returns and
extensions.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_mouse.3x.html">
curs_mouse.3x</a> explains how the <tt>kmous</tt> and
<tt>XM</tt> capabilities are used for xterm-mouse
input.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_refresh.3x.html#h3-wnoutrefresh_doupdate">
curs_refresh.3x</a> improves documentation regarding the
virtual and physical screens.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_util.3x.html">
curs_util.3x</a> mentions a difference between SVr4 and
X/Open Curses for <tt>unctrl.h</tt></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">
curs_variables.3x</a> improves description of the
<em>init_tabs</em> capability and <tt>TABSIZE</tt>
variable.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h2-ALTERNATE-CONFIGURATIONS">
ncurses.3x</a> improves documentation regarding
feature-test macros in curses.h</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/resizeterm.3x.html#h3-resize_term">
resizeterm.3x</a> about top-level windows which touch the
screen's borders.</li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tput.1.html#h3-Terminal-Size">
tput.1</a> clarifies how <em>tput</em> determines the
terminal size.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates
are to existing pages).</p>
<p>Some of the improvements are more subtle, relating to the way
the information is presented. For instance, the generated
terminfo.5 file uses a different table layout, allowing it to use
space on wide terminals more effectively.</p>
<h3><a name="h3-bug-fixes" id="h3-bug-fixes">Interesting
bug-fixes</a></h3>
<p>While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses
6.2, only a few (the reason for this release) were both important
and interesting. Most of the bug-fixes were for local issues
which did not affect compatibility across releases. Since those
are detailed in the NEWS file no elaboration is needed here.</p>
<p>The interesting bugs were in tic/infocmp's handling of
user-defined capabilities. These were not recent bugs. Initially
it was a simple problem:</p>
<ul>
<li>The user-defined capabilities can be any type (boolean,
number or string), but once given a type all uses of the name
must conform to that type&mdash;unless some special support for
a particular multi-typed name is built into ncurses.</li>
<li>
<p>One of simpleterm's contributors copied some definitions
for using <em>tmux</em>'s user-defined capabilities in
<a href=
"https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/06f8cf8ca87a81db15816658c40b2afcd1ad5332.html">
late in 2016</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<pre class="demo-name">
diff --git a/st.info b/st.info
@@ -185,7 +185,10 @@ st| simpleterm,
tsl=\E]0;,
xenl,
vpa=\E[%i%p1%dd,
-
+# Tmux unofficial extensions, see TERMINFO EXTENSIONS in tmux(1)
+ Se,
+ Ss,
+ Tc,
st-256color| simpleterm with 256 colors,
use=st,
</pre>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p>Later, in (referring to a version from <a href=
"https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/c0882f2ed1d7a2dd0fa2efa52157e6fc6fde3652.html">
mid-2017</a>), a user asked to have it updated in
ncurses.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>However, it had an error from the change in late 2016. The
terminal description made what <em>tmux</em> expected to be
<strong>string</strong> actually a
<strong>boolean</strong>.</p>
<p>Over the years, there were problems with each of
simpleterm's terminal descriptions. I repaired those, and
usually dealt with the problem.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The difference in this case was that when compiling the
terminal database, <em>tic</em> may have in memory the
definitions for more than one terminal description (so that
it can resolve &ldquo;<tt>use=</tt>&rdquo; clauses). Seeing
two different types for the same name, in certain situations
it would incorrectly merge the symbol tables for the two
terminal descriptions.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>On simpleterm's side, their bug was finally fixed in
<a href=
"https://git.suckless.org/st/commit/83866428de031300eab03fbb116bcf7d2b1d4f60.html">
late 2019</a>, three years after the bug was created.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>For ncurses, the elapsed time to fix this bug was less than
three years. Someone reported a problem with the terminal
description a few weeks after releasing ncurses 6.1 (in <a href=
"https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/1264">tmux #1264</a>), and
the terminal description was updated that week (ncurses patch
<a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/NEWS.html#t20180224">20180224</a>):</p>
<blockquote>
<pre class="demo-name">
20180224
+ modify _nc_resolve_uses2() to detect incompatible types when merging
a "use=" clause of extended capabilities. The problem was seen in a
defective terminfo integrated from simpleterm sources in 20171111,
compounded by repair in 20180121.
+ correct Ss/Ms interchange in st-0.7 entry (tmux #1264) -TD
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>The larger part of that change added a check to prevent a
simple merge of terminal descriptions where the same user-defined
name was used with different types. But it raised some
questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Was there a reliable way to manage terminal descriptions
which used the same extended name in different ways?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Should ncurses provide a registry of well-known extended
names, with their types?</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Since the correction to <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html#download_database">
<tt>terminfo.src</tt></a> could have been readily adopted by
packagers, there was nothing more to be done from ncurses'
standpoint on that part. But improving ncurses to prevent issues
like that is the reason for making a release.</p>
<p>Nothing more (constructive) was mentioned with regard to
simpleterm. But a few problems were found in the handling of
user-defined capabilities:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Forward-references to user-defined capabilities in a
&ldquo;<tt>use=</tt>&rdquo; clause did not allocate new data
for each use. In <em>tic</em>, successive compilation of
terminal entries could add user-defined capabilities to the
wrong terminal entry.</p>
<p>This was not noticed before, since xterm's terminal
descriptions were the main users of the feature, and almost
all of the uses of the building-blocks which contained
user-defined capabilities were backward-references.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>There is one (documented) case where ncurses 6.1 supports
a user-defined capability that could be any type (i.e.,
&ldquo;RGB&rdquo;). The check added in February 2018 to guard
against mismatches did not handle all of the combinations
needed.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Both of these issues dated from the original implementation of
user-defined capabilities. Fixing them does not change the
terminal database, but a older <em>tic</em> without the fixes
will not be able to handle terminfo sources which rely upon those
fixes. Starting in June 2019, the download link for the terminfo
source file was capped at that date. The development sources have
an up-to-date copy of the file, for people with a legitimate need
for it.</p>
<p>The &ldquo;<tt>-c</tt>&rdquo; (check) option of <em>tic</em>
is not very useful if it cannot offer advice on parameters needed
for user-defined capabilities. The various <em>Caps</em> files
were reorganized to reduce redundancy, and in the common portion
(<a href=
"https://github.com/ThomasDickey/ncurses-snapshots/blob/master/include/Caps-ncurses">Caps-ncurses</a>),
a registry of user-defined capabilities is provided for use by
<em>tic</em>. While users can still define their own custom
capabilities, <em>tic</em> will not offer any advice when their
parameters do not match.</p>
<p>In ncurses 6.2, <em>tic</em> makes a special check to allow
any type for <em>RGB</em>, but its being able to do this relies
upon fixes made in the ncurses library in mid-2019.</p>
<h3><a name="h3-config-config" id=
"h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a></h3>
<h4><a name="h4-config-major" id="h4-config-major">Major
changes</a></h4>
<p>There are no major changes. Several new options were added to
ease integration of packages with systems using different
versions of <em>GNAT</em> and <em>ncurses</em>. Also,
improvements were made to configure checks.</p>
<h4><a name="h4-config-options" id=
"h4-config-options">Configuration options</a></h4>
<p>There are a few new/modified configure options:</p>
<dl>
<dt><tt>--with-config-suffix</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>helps work around a filename conflict with Debian packages
versus test-packages.</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-ada-libname</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>allows one to rename the &ldquo;AdaCurses&rdquo; library
(at least one packager prefers a lowercase name).</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-fallbacks</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>now ensures there is a value, and adds the fallback
information to top-level Makefile summary.</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-pcre2</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>check for pcre-posix library to help with MinGW port.</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-tic-path</tt> and<br></dt>
<dt><tt>--with-infocmp-path</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>help work around problems building fallback source using
pre-6.0 tic/infocmp.</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-versioned-syms</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>option value can now be a relative pathname.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<h3><a name="h3-portability" id="h3-portability">Portability</a></h3>
<p>Many of the portability changes are implemented via the
configure script:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>ignore <a href=
"/ncurses/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>
as a default value in configure script if it came from the
<tt>infocmp</tt> <strong><tt>-Q</tt></strong> option.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>distinguish gcc from icc and clang when the
<tt>--enable-warnings</tt> option is not used, to avoid
unnecessary warnings about unrecognized inline options</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>consistently prepend new libraries as they are found
during configuration, rather than relying upon the linker to
resolve order dependencies of libraries.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modified configure scripts to reduce relinking/ranlib
during library install :</p>
<ul>
<li>use &ldquo;<tt>install -p</tt>&rdquo; when available,
to avoid need for ranlib of static libraries.</li>
<li>scripts which use
&ldquo;<tt>--disable-relink</tt>;&rdquo; add a 1-second
sleep to work around tools which use whole-second
timestamps, e.g., in <tt>utime</tt> rather than the actual
file system resolution.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p id="getenv-check">add configure check for <a href=
"#getenv-fixes"><tt>getenv</tt></a> to work around
implementation shown in Emscripten which overwrites the
previous return value on each call.</p>
<p>Use that to optionally suppress <tt>START_TRACE</tt>
macro, whose call to <tt>getenv</tt> may not work
properly</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>change target configure level for <tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>
to 600 to address use of <tt>vsscanf</tt> and
<tt>setenv</tt>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>reduce use of <tt>_GNU_SOURCE</tt> for current glibc where
<tt>_DEFAULT_SOURCE</tt> combines with
<tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt></p>
<p>Allow for Cygwin's newlib when checking for the
_DEFAULT_SOURCE symbol.</p>
<p>MidnightBSD is now checked for the
<tt>_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt>-related definitions.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If the check for <tt>va_copy</tt> or <tt>__va_copy</tt>
fails,</p>
<ul>
<li>configure now tries copying the pointers for
<tt>va_list</tt>, or as an array.</li>
<li>alternatively, it checks for
<tt>__builtin_va_copy</tt>(), which could be used with AIX
<tt>xlc</tt> in <em>c89</em> mode.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>several changes to support a port to Ultrix 3.1:</p>
<ul>
<li>check if "b" binary feature of fopen works</li>
<li>check for missing feature of locale.h</li>
<li>add fallback for strstr() in test-programs</li>
<li>add fallback for STDOUT_FILENO in test-programs</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <em>test/configure</em> script (used for <a href=
"/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html"><em>ncurses-examples</em></a>)
is improved:</p>
<ul>
<li>work around non-ncurses termcap.h file, e.g., in
Slackware.</li>
<li>check for <a href=
"/ncurses/man/curs_variables.3x.html#h3-TABSIZE"><tt>TABSIZE</tt></a>
variable.</li>
<li>checks for the X11/Intrinsic.h header, accommodate
recent MacOS changes which largely emptied
<tt>/usr/include</tt>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Here are some of the other portability fixes:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>added dummy "check" rule in top-level and test-Makefile to
simplify building test-packages for ArchLinux.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>dropped library-dependency on psapi for MinGW port, since
win_driver.c defines <tt>PSAPI_VERSION</tt> to 2, making it
use <tt>GetProcessImageFileName</tt> from kernel32.dll</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>made build-fixes for configuration using --program-suffix
with Ada95, noticed with MacOS but applicable to other
platforms without libpanelw, etc.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modified ncurses/Makefile.in to fix a case where
Debian/testing changes to the ld --as-needed configuration
broke ncurses-examples test packages.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>used <tt>_WIN32</tt>/<tt>_WIN64</tt> in preference to
<tt>__MINGW32__</tt>/<tt>__MINGW64__</tt> symbols to simplify
building with Microsoft Visual C++, since the former are
defined in both compiler configurations.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h2><a name="h2-features" id="h2-features">Features of
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package is fully
upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V Release 4) curses:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are
documented).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports all of the
for SVr4 curses features including keyboard mapping, color,
forms-drawing with ACS characters, and automatic recognition
of keypad and function keys.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> provides these SVr4
add-on libraries (not part of X/Open Curses):</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
backing store.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
interface for menu programming.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>the form library, supporting data collection through
on-screen forms.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span>'s terminal database
is fully compatible with that used by SVr4 curses.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><span class="main-name">ncurses</span> supports
user-defined capabilities which it can see, but which are
hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
<em>same</em> terminal database.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It can be optionally configured to match the format
used in related systems such as AIX and Tru64.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Alternatively, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
can be configured to use hashed databases rather than the
directory of files used by SVr4 curses.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> utilities have
options to allow you to filter terminfo entries for use with
less capable <em>curses</em>/<em>terminfo</em> versions such
as the HP/UX and AIX ports.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> package also has
many useful extensions over SVr4:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The API is 8-bit clean and base-level conformant with the
X/OPEN curses specification, XSI curses (that is, it
implements all BASE level features, and most EXTENDED
features). It includes many function calls not supported
under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls is documented
so you can use the SVr4 subset only).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Unlike SVr3 curses, <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
can write to the rightmost-bottommost corner of the screen if
your terminal has an insert-character capability.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Ada95 and C++ bindings.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and
FreeBSD and OS/2 console windows.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm
package.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The function <code>wresize</code> allows you to resize
windows, preserving their data.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The function <code>use_default_colors</code> allows you to
use the terminal's default colors for the default color pair,
achieving the effect of transparent colors.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The functions <code>keyok</code> and
<code>define_key</code> allow you to better control the use
of function keys, e.g., disabling the <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> KEY_MOUSE, or by defining more
than one control sequence to map to a given key code.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Support for 16-color terminals, such as <em>aixterm</em>
and <em>modern xterm</em>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now
features a cursor-local-movement computation more efficient
than either BSD's or System V's.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Super hardware scrolling support. The screen-update code
incorporates a novel, simple, and cheap algorithm that
enables it to make optimal use of hardware scrolling,
line-insertion, and line-deletion for screen-line movements.
This algorithm is more powerful than the 4.4BSD curses
<code>quickch</code> routine.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Real support for terminals with the magic-cookie glitch.
The screen-update code will refrain from drawing a highlight
if the magic- cookie unattributed spaces required just before
the beginning and after the end would step on a non-space
character. It will automatically shift highlight boundaries
when doing so would make it possible to draw the highlight
without changing the visual appearance of the screen.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It is possible to generate the library with a list of
pre-loaded fallback entries linked to it so that it can serve
those terminal types even when no terminfo tree or termcap
file is accessible (this may be useful for support of
screen-oriented programs that must run in single-user
mode).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tic.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
tic</span></a>/<a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/captoinfo.1m.html">captoinfo</a>
utility provided with <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
has the ability to translate many termcaps from the XENIX,
IBM and AT&amp;T extension sets.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A BSD-like <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/tset.1.html"><span class="part-name">
tset</span></a> utility is provided.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> library and
utilities will automatically read terminfo entries from
$HOME/.terminfo if it exists, and compile to that directory
if it exists and the user has no write access to the system
directory. This feature makes it easier for users to have
personal terminfo entries without giving up access to the
system terminfo directory.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You may specify a path of directories to search for
compiled descriptions with the environment variable
TERMINFO_DIRS (this generalizes the feature provided by
TERMINFO under stock System V.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In terminfo source files, use capabilities may refer not
just to other entries in the same source file (as in System
V) but also to compiled entries in either the system terminfo
directory or the user's $HOME/.terminfo directory.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The table-of-entries utility <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/man/toe.1m.html"><span class="part-name">
toe</span></a> makes it easy for users to see exactly what
terminal types are available on the system.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro
entry point have a corresponding function which may be linked
(and will be prototype-checked) if the macro definition is
disabled with <code>#undef</code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Extensive documentation is provided (see the <em><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">
Additional Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html"><span class="main-name">
ncurses</span> FAQ</a></em> for online documentation).</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="h2-who-uses" id="h2-who-uses">Applications using
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></h2>
<p>The <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> distribution
includes a selection of test programs (including a few games).
These are available separately as <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-examples.html">ncurses-examples</a></p>
<p>The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
applications including:</p>
<blockquote>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name">aptitude</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager</p>
<p><a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude">https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">cdk</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>Curses Development Kit</p>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/cdk/">https://invisible-island.net/cdk/</a><br>
</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">ded</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>directory-editor</p>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ded/">https://invisible-island.net/ded/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">dialog</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>the underlying application used in Slackware's setup,
and the basis for similar install/configure applications on
many systems.</p>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/dialog/">https://invisible-island.net/dialog/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">lynx</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>the text WWW browser</p>
<p><a href=
"https://lynx.invisible-island.net/">https://lynx.invisible-island.net/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">mutt</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>mail utility</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mutt.org/">http://www.mutt.org/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">ncftp</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>file-transfer utility</p>
<p><a href=
"https://www.ncftp.com/">https://www.ncftp.com/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">nvi</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>New vi uses ncurses.</p>
<p><a href=
"https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi">https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi</a><br>
</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">ranger</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>A console file manager with VI key bindings in
<em>Python</em>.</p>
<p><a href=
"https://ranger.github.io/">https://ranger.github.io/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">tin</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>newsreader, supporting color, MIME</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tin.org/">http://www.tin.org/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">vifm</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>File manager with vi like keybindings</p>
<p><a href="https://vifm.info/">https://vifm.info/</a></p>
</dd>
</dl>
</blockquote>
<p>as well as some that use <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> for the terminfo support alone:</p>
<blockquote>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name">minicom</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>terminal emulator for serial modem connections</p>
<p><a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">mosh</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>a replacement for <code>ssh</code>.</p>
<p><a href=
"https://mosh.mit.edu/">https://mosh.mit.edu/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">tack</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>terminfo action checker</p>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">tmux</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>terminal multiplexor</p>
<p><a href=
"https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki">https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">vile</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p><em>vi-like-emacs</em> may be built to use the terminfo,
termcap or curses interfaces.</p>
<p><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/vile/">https://invisible-island.net/vile/</a></p>
</dd>
</dl>
</blockquote>
<p>and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:</p>
<blockquote>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name">emacs</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>text editor</p>
<p><a href=
"https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">less</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>The most commonly used <em>pager</em> (a program that
displays text files).</p>
<p><a href=
"http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/">http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">screen</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>terminal multiplexor</p>
<p><a href=
"https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/">https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">vim</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>text editor</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vim.org/">https://www.vim.org/</a></p>
</dd>
</dl>
</blockquote>
<h2><a name="h2-development" id="h2-development">Development
activities</a></h2>
<p>Zeyd Ben-Halim started <span class="main-name">ncurses</span>
from a previous package pcurses, written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S.
Raymond continued development. J&uuml;rgen Pfeifer wrote most of
the form and menu libraries.</p>
<p>Ongoing development work is done by <a href=
"mailto:dickey@invisible-island.net">Thomas E. Dickey</a>. Thomas
E. Dickey has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software
Foundation, which holds a <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html">copyright
on ncurses</a> for releases 4.2 through 6.1. Following the
release of ncurses 6.1, effective as of release 6.2, copyright
for ncurses reverted to Thomas E. Dickey (see the <a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#relicensed">
ncurses FAQ</a> for additional information).</p>
<p>Contact the current maintainers at</p>
<blockquote>
<a href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">bug-ncurses@gnu.org</a>
</blockquote>
<p>To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to</p>
<blockquote>
<a href=
"mailto:bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org">bug-ncurses-request@gnu.org</a>
</blockquote>
containing the line:
<blockquote>
<p><code>subscribe</code>
<em>&lt;name&gt;@&lt;host.domain&gt;</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the
development and testing of this package.</p>
<p>Beta versions of <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> are
made available at</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/current/</a>
and<br>
<a href=
"https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Patches to the current release are made available at</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/">ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/6.1/</a>
and<br>
<a href=
"https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/">https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.1/</a>&nbsp;.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is an archive of the mailing list here:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses</a>
(also <a href=
"https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses">https</a>)</p>
</blockquote>
<h2><a name="h2-this-stuff" id="h2-this-stuff">Related
resources</a></h2>
<p>The release notes make scattered references to these pages,
which may be interesting by themselves:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html"><span class="main-name">
ncurses</span> licensing</a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol
versioning in <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-slang.html">Comments
on <span class="main-name">ncurses</span> versus <span class=
"main-name">slang</span> (S-Lang)</a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html">tack &ndash;
terminfo action checker</a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tctest.html">tctest
&ndash; termcap library checker</a></li>
<li><a href=
"https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html#download_database">
Terminal Database</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="h2-other-stuff" id="h2-other-stuff">Other
resources</a></h2>
<p>The distribution provides a newer version of the
terminfo-format terminal description file once maintained by
<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/terminfo/">Eric
Raymond</a>&nbsp;. Unlike the older version, the termcap and
terminfo data are provided in the same file, which also provides
several user-definable extensions beyond the X/Open
specification.</p>
<p>You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics
not covered in the terminfo file at <a href=
"http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal">
Richard Shuford's archive</a>&nbsp;. The collection of computer
manuals at <a href=
"http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/">bitsavers.org</a> has also been
useful.</p>
<div class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="#h2-overview">Overview</a></li>
<li>
<a href="#h2-release-notes">Release Notes</a>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="#h3-library">Library improvements</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h4-new-library">New features</a></li>
<li><a href="#h4-fixes-library">Other
improvements</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#h3-programs">Program improvements</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h4-utilities">Utilities</a></li>
<li><a href="#h4-examples">Examples</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h3-database">Terminal database</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-documentation">Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="#h3-bug-fixes">Interesting bug-fixes</a></li>
<li>
<a href="#h3-config-config">Configuration changes</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#h4-config-major">Major changes</a></li>
<li><a href="#h4-config-options">Configuration
options</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h3-portability">Portability</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#h2-features">Features of <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-who-uses">Applications using <span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-development">Development activities</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-this-stuff">Related resources</a></li>
<li><a href="#h2-other-stuff">Other resources</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</body>
</html>