1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025
1026
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072
1073
1074
1075
1076
1077
1078
1079
1080
1081
1082
1083
1084
1085
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117
1118
1119
1120
1121
1122
1123
1124
1125
1126
1127
1128
1129
1130
1131
1132
1133
1134
1135
1136
1137
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1143
1144
1145
1146
1147
1148
1149
1150
1151
1152
1153
1154
1155
1156
1157
1158
1159
1160
1161
1162
1163
1164
1165
1166
1167
1168
1169
1170
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175
1176
1177
1178
1179
1180
1181
1182
1183
1184
1185
1186
1187
1188
1189
1190
1191
1192
1193
1194
1195
1196
1197
1198
1199
1200
1201
1202
1203
1204
1205
1206
1207
1208
1209
1210
1211
1212
1213
1214
1215
1216
1217
1218
1219
1220
1221
1222
1223
1224
1225
1226
1227
1228
1229
1230
1231
1232
1233
1234
1235
1236
1237
1238
1239
1240
1241
1242
1243
1244
1245
1246
1247
1248
1249
1250
1251
1252
1253
1254
1255
1256
1257
1258
1259
1260
1261
1262
1263
1264
1265
1266
1267
1268
1269
1270
1271
1272
1273
1274
1275
1276
1277
1278
1279
1280
1281
1282
1283
1284
1285
1286
1287
1288
1289
1290
1291
1292
1293
1294
1295
1296
1297
1298
1299
1300
1301
1302
1303
1304
1305
1306
1307
1308
1309
1310
1311
1312
1313
1314
1315
1316
1317
1318
1319
1320
1321
1322
1323
1324
1325
1326
1327
1328
1329
1330
1331
1332
1333
1334
1335
1336
1337
1338
1339
1340
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
1351
1352
1353
1354
1355
1356
1357
1358
1359
1360
1361
1362
1363
1364
1365
1366
1367
1368
1369
1370
1371
1372
1373
1374
1375
1376
1377
1378
1379
1380
1381
1382
1383
1384
1385
1386
1387
1388
1389
1390
1391
1392
1393
1394
1395
1396
1397
1398
1399
1400
1401
1402
1403
1404
1405
1406
1407
1408
1409
1410
1411
1412
1413
1414
1415
1416
1417
1418
1419
1420
1421
1422
1423
1424
1425
1426
1427
1428
1429
1430
1431
1432
1433
1434
1435
1436
1437
1438
1439
1440
1441
1442
1443
1444
1445
1446
1447
1448
1449
1450
1451
1452
1453
1454
1455
1456
1457
1458
1459
1460
1461
1462
1463
1464
1465
1466
1467
1468
1469
1470
1471
1472
1473
1474
1475
1476
1477
1478
1479
1480
1481
1482
1483
1484
1485
1486
1487
1488
1489
1490
1491
1492
1493
1494
1495
1496
1497
1498
1499
1500
1501
1502
1503
1504
1505
1506
1507
1508
1509
1510
1511
1512
1513
1514
1515
1516
1517
1518
1519
1520
1521
1522
1523
1524
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1537
1538
1539
1540
1541
1542
1543
1544
1545
1546
1547
1548
1549
1550
1551
1552
1553
1554
1555
1556
1557
1558
1559
1560
1561
1562
1563
1564
1565
1566
1567
1568
1569
1570
1571
1572
1573
1574
1575
1576
1577
1578
1579
1580
1581
1582
1583
1584
1585
1586
1587
1588
1589
1590
1591
1592
1593
1594
1595
1596
1597
1598
1599
1600
1601
1602
1603
1604
1605
1606
1607
1608
1609
1610
1611
1612
1613
1614
1615
1616
1617
1618
1619
1620
1621
1622
1623
1624
1625
1626
1627
1628
1629
1630
1631
1632
1633
1634
1635
1636
1637
1638
1639
1640
1641
1642
1643
1644
1645
1646
1647
1648
1649
1650
1651
1652
1653
1654
1655
1656
1657
1658
1659
1660
1661
1662
1663
1664
1665
1666
1667
1668
1669
1670
1671
1672
1673
1674
1675
1676
1677
1678
1679
1680
1681
1682
1683
1684
1685
1686
1687
1688
1689
1690
1691
1692
1693
1694
1695
1696
1697
1698
1699
1700
1701
1702
1703
1704
1705
1706
1707
1708
1709
1710
1711
1712
1713
1714
1715
1716
1717
1718
1719
1720
1721
1722
1723
1724
1725
1726
1727
1728
1729
1730
1731
1732
1733
1734
1735
1736
1737
1738
1739
1740
1741
1742
1743
1744
1745
1746
1747
1748
1749
1750
1751
1752
1753
1754
1755
1756
1757
1758
1759
1760
1761
1762
1763
1764
1765
1766
1767
1768
1769
1770
1771
1772
1773
1774
1775
1776
1777
1778
1779
1780
1781
1782
1783
1784
1785
1786
1787
1788
1789
1790
1791
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
2036
2037
2038
2039
2040
2041
2042
2043
2044
2045
2046
2047
2048
2049
2050
2051
2052
2053
2054
2055
2056
2057
2058
2059
2060
2061
2062
2063
2064
2065
2066
2067
2068
2069
2070
2071
2072
2073
2074
2075
2076
2077
2078
2079
2080
2081
2082
2083
2084
2085
2086
2087
2088
2089
2090
2091
2092
2093
2094
2095
2096
2097
2098
2099
2100
2101
2102
2103
2104
2105
2106
2107
2108
2109
2110
2111
2112
2113
2114
2115
2116
2117
2118
2119
2120
2121
2122
2123
2124
2125
2126
2127
2128
2129
2130
2131
2132
2133
2134
2135
2136
2137
2138
2139
2140
2141
2142
2143
2144
2145
2146
2147
2148
2149
2150
2151
2152
2153
2154
2155
2156
2157
2158
2159
2160
2161
2162
2163
2164
2165
2166
2167
2168
2169
2170
2171
2172
2173
2174
2175
2176
2177
2178
2179
|
<!--
$Id: announce.html.in,v 1.96 2020/02/09 21:50:48 tom Exp $
****************************************************************************
* Copyright 2018-2019,2020 Thomas E. Dickey *
* *
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a *
* copy of this software and associated documentation files (the *
* "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including *
* without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, *
* distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell *
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is *
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: *
* *
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included *
* in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. *
* *
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS *
* OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF *
* MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. *
* IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, *
* DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR *
* OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR *
* THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. *
* *
* Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright *
* holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the *
* sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written *
* authorization. *
****************************************************************************
-->
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta name="generator" content=
"HTML Tidy for HTML5 for Linux version 5.2.0">
<title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
<link rel="author" href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
"text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<style type="text/css">
p,li { max-width:700px; }
dd { max-width:630px; }
*.main-name {
font-style: italic;
font-variant: small-caps;
}
*.part-name {
font-family: "Andale Mono", "Monotype.com", monospace;
font-size: 12pt;
font-weight: bold;
}
*.demo-name {
font-family: "Andale Mono", "Monotype.com", monospace;
font-size: 10pt;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1 class="no-header">Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</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="@HOMEPAGE@/man/captoinfo.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">captoinfo</span></a>, a termcap conversion
tool</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/clear.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">clear</span></a>, utility for clearing the
screen</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">infocmp</span></a>, the terminfo decompiler</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">tabs</span></a>, set tabs on a terminal</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">tic</span></a>, the terminfo compiler</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">toe</span></a>, list (table of) terminfo
entries</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html"><span class=
"part-name">tput</span></a>, utility for retrieving terminal
capabilities in shell scripts</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/">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> .</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> .</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>
@VERSION@, 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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_curses</a> and
<a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html">exit_terminfo</a> to
replace internal symbols for leak-checking.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getstr.3x.html">wgetnstr</a>, <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_get_wstr.3x.html">wgetn_wstr</a> when
length is negative or “too large”.</p>
</li>
<li>reordered loop-limit checks in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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="@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
variable.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>the <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMCAP"><tt>$TERMCAP</tt></a>
variable may be interpreted as a fallback to a terminfo
entry</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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 “<tt>const</tt>” 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 “<tt>const</tt>”
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 “<tt>const</tt>” for certain
return values, e.g., <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_util.3x.html#h3-keyname_key_name">keyname</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modified <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgd.3x.html#h3-bkgd"><tt>wbkgd</tt></a>
and <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h3-PORTABILITY"><tt>vwprintw</tt></a>
and <tt>vwscanw</tt> as deprecated; recommend using <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_threads.3x.html">set_escdelay</a>,
return ERR if negative.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>check parameter of <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERMINFO"><tt>$TERMINFO</tt></a>,
and the <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h3-TERM"><tt>$TERM</tt></a>
does not match, fall-through to the compiled-in search
list.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>amend check for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Predefined-Capabilities"><tt>
repeat_char</tt></a> to handle a case where setlocale() was
called after <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_initscr.3x.html"><tt>initscr</tt></a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>move macro for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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 “<tt>OTxx</tt>” 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 “<tt>pt</tt>” 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 “<tt>x</tt>” to <tt>getopt</tt> string
so that “<tt>tput -x clear</tt>”
works.</li>
</ul>
</dd>
</dl>
<p>Several changes were made to the generated ncurses*config
scripts and the analogous “<tt>.pc</tt>” 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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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
“<tt>CUR</tt>” 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="@HOMEPAGE@/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 “<tt>-l</tt>” option to test/background,
to dump screen contents in a form that lets different curses
implementations be compared.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add “<tt>@</tt>” 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 “SGR 1006 mouse”) 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="@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_printw.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">vwprintw</a>
and <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_addch.3x.html#h3-ACS-Symbols">curs_addch.3x</a>
gives some background for ACS symbols.</li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getcchar.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_getcchar.3x</a>
explains a difference between ncurses and X/Open
Curses.</li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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="@HOMEPAGE@/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="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1">tabs.1</a> tells more
than you wanted to know about the tool.</li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/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="@HOMEPAGE@/man/toe.1m.html">toe.1</a> explains
the origin of this tool.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Improvements for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_color.3x.html#h3-RETURN-VALUE">curs_color.3x</a>
improves discussion of error returns and extensions.</li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_refresh.3x.html#h3-wnoutrefresh_doupdate">
curs_refresh.3x</a> improves documentation regarding the
virtual and physical screens.</li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/ncurses.3x.html#h2-ALTERNATE-CONFIGURATIONS">
ncurses.3x</a> improves documentation regarding
feature-test macros in curses.h</li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html#h3-resize_term">resizeterm.3x</a>
about top-level windows which touch the screen's
borders.</li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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—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 “<tt>use=</tt>” 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="@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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
“<tt>use=</tt>” 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.,
“RGB”). 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 “<tt>-c</tt>” (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 “AdaCurses” 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 “<tt>install -p</tt>” when available,
to avoid need for ranlib of static libraries.</li>
<li>scripts which use
“<tt>--disable-relink</tt>;” 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="@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html"><span class=
"part-name">tic</span></a>/<a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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&T extension sets.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A BSD-like <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses.faq.html#additional_reading">Additional
Reading</a></em> section of the <em><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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="@WEBSITE@/cdk/">@WEBSITE@/cdk/</a><br>
</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name">ded</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>directory-editor</p>
<p><a href="@WEBSITE@/ded/">@WEBSITE@/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="@WEBSITE@/dialog/">@WEBSITE@/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="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">@HOMEPAGE@/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="@WEBSITE@/vile/">@WEBSITE@/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. Jürgen 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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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><name>@<host.domain></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> .</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> .</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="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-license.html"><span class=
"main-name">ncurses</span> licensing</a></li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-mapsyms.html">Symbol versioning
in <span class="main-name">ncurses</span></a></li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/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="@HOMEPAGE@/tack.html">tack – terminfo action
checker</a></li>
<li><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/tctest.html">tctest – termcap
library checker</a></li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/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> . 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> . 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>
|