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ANNOUNCE
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673
Announcing ncurses 6.4
Overview
The ncurses (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.
In mid-June 1995, the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared that he
considered 4.4BSD curses obsolete, and encouraged the keepers of unix
releases such as BSD/OS, FreeBSD and NetBSD to switch over to ncurses.
Since 1995, ncurses has been ported to many systems:
* It is used in almost every system based on the Linux kernel (aside
from some embedded applications).
* It is used as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD and
MacOS.
* It is used in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. The first of
these was EMX on OS/2 Warp.
* It is used (though usually not as the system curses) on all of the
vendor unix systems, e.g., AIX, HP-UX, IRIX64, SCO, Solaris,
Tru64.
* It should work readily on any ANSI/POSIX-conforming unix.
The distribution includes the library and support utilities, including
* captoinfo, a termcap conversion tool
* clear, utility for clearing the screen
* infocmp, the terminfo decompiler
* tabs, set tabs on a terminal
* tic, the terminfo compiler
* toe, list (table of) terminfo entries
* tput, utility for retrieving terminal capabilities in shell
scripts
* tset, to initialize the terminal
Full manual pages are provided for the library and tools.
The ncurses distribution is available at ncurses' homepage:
https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/ or
https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/ .
It is also available at the GNU distribution site
https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ .
Release Notes
These notes are for ncurses 6.4, released December 31, 2022.
This release is designed to be source-compatible with ncurses 5.0
through 6.3; providing extensions to the application binary interface
(ABI). Although the source can still be configured to support the
ncurses 5 ABI, the reason for the release is to reflect improvements
to the ncurses 6 ABI and the supporting utility programs.
There are, of course, numerous other improvements, listed in this
announcement.
The most important bug-fixes/improvements dealt with robustness
issues. The release notes also mention some other bug-fixes, but are
focused on new features and improvements to existing features since
ncurses 6.3 release.
Library improvements
New features
There are no new features in this release.
Other improvements
These are improvements to existing features:
* modify delscreen to more effectively delete all windows on the
given screen.
* modify wnoutrefresh to call pnoutrefresh if its parameter is a
pad, rather than treating it as an error, and modify new_panel to
permit its window-parameter to be a pad
* modify curses_trace() to show the trace-mask as symbols, e.g.,
TRACE_ORDINARY, DEBUG_LEVEL(3).
* improve checks for valid mouse events when an intermediate mouse
state is not part of the mousemask specified by the caller
* allow extended-color number in opts parameter of wattr_on.
* improve _tracecchar_t2 formatting of base+combining character.
* trim out some unwanted linker options from ncurses*config and .pc
files seen in Fedora 36+.
* improve shell-scripts with shellcheck
* improve use of "trap" in shell scripts, using a script.
* modify make-tar.sh scripts to make timestamps more predictable.
These are corrections to existing features:
* modify misc/gen-pkgconfig.in to allow for the case where the
library directory does not yet exist, since this is processed
before doing an install
* set trailing null on string passed from winsnstr to wins_nwstr.
* modify waddch_literal to allow for double-width base character
when merging a combining character
Program improvements
Several improvements were made to the utility programs:
infocmp
+ rewrite canonical_name function of infocmp to ensure buffer
size
+ improve readability of long parameterized expressions with
the infocmp "-f" option by allowing split before a "%p"
marker.
+ modify verbose-option of infocmp, tic, toe to enable
debug-tracing if that is configured.
tabs
limit tab-stop values to max-columns
tic
add consistency check in tic for u6/u7/u8/u9 and NQ
capabilities.
tput
corrected use of original tty-modes in init/reset subcommands
Examples
Along with the library and utilities, improvements were made to the
ncurses-examples. Most of this activity aimed at improving the
test-packages:
* add minimal -h (usage) and -V (version) getopt logic to all
ncurses-examples programs.
* fix an error in "@" command in test/ncurses.c F-menu
* add curses_trace to ifdef's for START_TRACE in test/test.priv.h
* improve pthread-configuration for test/worm.c
* add setlocale call to several test-programs.
* workaround in test/picsmap.c for use of floating point for rgb
values by ImageMagick 6.9.11, which appears to use the wrong upper
limit.
* use static libraries for AdaCurses test-package for Mageia, since
no gprbuild package is available.
* install Ada95 sample programs in libexecdir, adding a wrapper
script to invoke those.
* install ncurses-examples programs in libexecdir, adding a wrapper
script to invoke those.
There are other new demo/test programs and reusable examples:
test/combine
demonstrate combining characters
test/test_delwin
demonstrate deleting a window
test/test_mouse
observe mouse events in the raw terminal or parsed ncurses
modes
test/test_unget_wch
demonstrate the unget_wch and unget functions
Terminal database
There are several new terminal descriptions:
* mosh
* mosh-256color
* teken-16color
* teken-sc
* teken-vt
* xgterm
There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some were
updates to several descriptions:
* make description-fields distinct
* fix errata in description fields
* add/use several building-blocks:
+ aixterm+sl
+ ansi+cpr
+ apollo+vt132
+ decid+cpr
+ ncr260vp+sl
+ wyse+sl
+ x10term+sl
+ xterm+acs
+ xterm+alt47
while others affected specific descriptions. These were retested, to
take into account changes by their developers:
* kitty
* teken
while these are specific fixes based on reviewing documentation, user
reports, or warnings from tic:
att610+cvis0
amended note as per documentation for att610, att620, att730
kon, kon2, jfbterm
revise to undo "linux2.6" change to smacs/rmacs/enacs
st-0.6
add dim, ecma+strikeout
foot+base
add xterm+sl-alt
dec+sl
correct dsl in dec+sl
mintty and tmux
correct setal in mintty/tmux entries, add to vte-2018
nsterm
modify nsterm to use xterm+alt1049
putty
modify putty to use xterm+alt1049
vte-2018
add blink and setal
A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal capabilities):
* use ansi+enq and decid+cpr in cases where the terminal probably
supported the u6-u9 extension
* remove u6-u9 from teken-2018
* use NQ to flag entries where the terminal does not support query
and response
* add/use bracketed+paste to help identify terminals supporting this
xterm feature
* modify samples for xterm mouse 1002/1003 modes to use 1006 mode,
and also provide for focus in/out responses
* xterm patch #371 supports DEC-compatible status-line. add dec+sl
to xterm-new, per xterm #371, add xterm-p371, add xterm-p370, for
use in older terminals, and set "xterm-new" to "xterm-p370" (to
ease adoption).
Documentation
As usual, this release
* improves documentation by describing new features,
* attempts to improve the description of features which users have
found confusing
* fills in overlooked descriptions of features which were described
in the NEWS file but treated sketchily in manual pages.
In addition to providing background information to explain these
features and show how they evolved, there are corrections,
clarifications, etc.:
* Corrections:
+ remove a stray '/' from description of %g in terminfo(5).
+ correct/improve font-formatting in curs_getch.3x, as well as
other manual pages.
* New/improved history and portability sections:
+ add portability notes for delscreen and delwin in manual.
+ improve curs_slk.3x discussion of extensions and portability
* Other improvements:
+ improve curs_bkgd.3x, explaining that bkgdset can affect
results for bkgd
+ add note on portable memory-leak checking in curs_memleaks.3x
+ expanded description in resizeterm.3x
+ add section on releasing memory to curs_termcap.3x and
curs_terminfo.3x manpages.
+ add clarification of the scope of dynamic variables in
terminfo(5).
+ improve formatting of ncurses-intro.html and hackguide.html
+ improve curs_clear.3x links to other pages
+ update ncurses-howto, making documentation fixes along with
corrections to example programs.
+ use newer version 1.36 of gnathtml for generating Ada html
files.
+ update external links in Ada95.html
There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates are to
existing pages).
Interesting bug-fixes
While there were many bugs fixed during development of ncurses 6.4,
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.
The interesting bugs were those dealing with memory leaks and buffer
overflows. Although the utilities are designed for text files (which
they do properly), some choose to test them with non-text files.
* Text files contain no embedded nulls. Also, they end with a
newline. Feeding tic non-text files exposed a few cases where the
program did not check for those issues. As a result, further
processing of the input found limit-checks whose assumptions were
invalid.
* Fixing the limit-checks (first) found a problem with tic managing
the list of strings in a terminal description. In merging two
terminal descriptions (i.e., the "use=" feature), tic was not
allocating a complete copy. A quick repair for that introduced a
memory leak.
* The checks for non-text files are improved (i.e., embedded nulls
in the input file will cause tic to reject it rather than
attempting to process it).
* The string allocations in tic are likewise improved.
Configuration changes
Major changes
There are no major changes. No new options were added. Several
improvements were made to configure checks.
Configuration options
There are a few new/modified configure options:
--with-abi-version
add ABI 7 defaults to configure script.
--with-caps
add warning in configure script if file specified for
"--with-caps" does not exist.
--with-manpage-format
bzip2 and xz compression are now supported
--with-xterm-kbs
add check/warning in configure script if option
"--with-xterm-kbs" is missing or inconsistent
Portability
Many of the portability changes are implemented via the configure
script:
* amend configure option's auto-search to account for systems where
none of the directories known to pkg-config exist
* corrected regex needed for older pkg-config used in Solaris 10
* improve handling of --with-pkg-config-libdir option, allowing for
the case where either $PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR or the option value has a
colon-separated list of directories
* if the --with-pkg-config-libdir option is not given, use
${libdir}/pkgconfig as a default
* improve search-path check for pkg-config, e.g., for Debian testing
which installs pkg-config with architecture-prefixes.
* build-fix for cross-compiling to MingW, conditionally add -lssp
* improve configure check for getttynam
* fixes to build with dietlibc:
+ add configure check for fpathconf
+ add configure check for math sine/cosine, needed in
test/tclock, and eliminate pow() from test/hanoi
+ use wcsnlen as an alternative to wmemchr if it is not found
* modify configure macro CF_BUILD_CC to check if the build-compiler
works, rather than that it is different from the cross-compiler,
e.g., to accommodate a compiler which can be used for either
purpose with different flags
* modify configure/scripts to work around interference by GNU grep
3.8
Here are some of the other portability fixes:
* change man_db.renames to template, to handle ncurses*-config
script with the --extra-suffix configure option.
* update CF_XOPEN_SOURCE macro, adding variants "gnueabi" and
"gnueabihf" to get _DEFAULT_SOURCE special case, as well as adding
GNU libc suffixes for "abi64", "abin32", "x32" to distinguish it
from other libc flavors.
* work around musl's nonstandard use of feature test macros by
adding a definition for NCURSES_WIDECHAR to the generated ".pc"
and *-config files.
* use "command -v" rather than "type" in Ada95/gen/Makefile.in to
fix a portability issue.
_________________________________________________________________
Features of ncurses
The ncurses package is fully upward-compatible with SVr4 (System V
Release 4) curses:
* All of the SVr4 calls have been implemented (and are documented).
* ncurses 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.
* ncurses provides these SVr4 add-on libraries (not part of X/Open
Curses):
+ the panels library, supporting a stack of windows with
backing store.
+ the menus library, supporting a uniform but flexible
interface for menu programming.
+ the form library, supporting data collection through
on-screen forms.
* ncurses's terminal database is fully compatible with that used by
SVr4 curses.
+ ncurses supports user-defined capabilities which it can see,
but which are hidden from SVr4 curses applications using the
same terminal database.
+ It can be optionally configured to match the format used in
related systems such as AIX and Tru64.
+ Alternatively, ncurses can be configured to use hashed
databases rather than the directory of files used by SVr4
curses.
* The ncurses utilities have options to allow you to filter terminfo
entries for use with less capable curses/terminfo versions such as
the HP-UX and AIX ports.
The ncurses package also has many useful extensions over SVr4:
* 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).
* Unlike SVr3 curses, ncurses can write to the rightmost-bottommost
corner of the screen if your terminal has an insert-character
capability.
* Ada95 and C++ bindings.
* Support for mouse event reporting with X Window xterm and FreeBSD
and OS/2 console windows.
* Extended mouse support via Alessandro Rubini's gpm package.
* The function wresize allows you to resize windows, preserving
their data.
* The function use_default_colors allows you to use the terminal's
default colors for the default color pair, achieving the effect of
transparent colors.
* The functions keyok and define_key allow you to better control the
use of function keys, e.g., disabling the ncurses KEY_MOUSE, or by
defining more than one control sequence to map to a given key
code.
* Support for direct-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
* Support for 256-color terminals, such as modern xterm.
* Support for 16-color terminals, such as aixterm and modern xterm.
* Better cursor-movement optimization. The package now features a
cursor-local-movement computation more efficient than either BSD's
or System V's.
* 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 quickch routine.
* 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.
* 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).
* The tic/captoinfo utility provided with ncurses has the ability to
translate many termcaps from the XENIX, IBM and AT&T extension
sets.
* A BSD-like tset utility is provided.
* The ncurses 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.
* 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.)
* 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.
* The table-of-entries utility toe makes it easy for users to see
exactly what terminal types are available on the system.
* The library meets the XSI requirement that every macro entry point
has a corresponding function which may be linked (and will be
prototype-checked) if the macro definition is disabled with
#undef.
* Extensive documentation is provided (see the Additional Reading
section of the ncurses FAQ for online documentation).
Applications using ncurses
The ncurses distribution includes a selection of test programs
(including a few games). These are available separately as
ncurses-examples
The ncurses library has been tested with a wide variety of
applications including:
aptitude
FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager
https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude
cdk
Curses Development Kit
https://invisible-island.net/cdk/
ded
directory-editor
https://invisible-island.net/ded/
dialog
the underlying application used in Slackware's setup, and the
basis for similar install/configure applications on many
systems.
https://invisible-island.net/dialog/
lynx
the text WWW browser
https://lynx.invisible-island.net/
mutt
mail utility
http://www.mutt.org/
ncftp
file-transfer utility
https://www.ncftp.com/
nvi
New vi uses ncurses.
https://sites.google.com/a/bostic.com/keithbostic/vi
ranger
A console file manager with VI key bindings in Python.
https://ranger.github.io/
tin
newsreader, supporting color, MIME
http://www.tin.org/
vifm
File manager with vi like keybindings
https://vifm.info/
as well as some that use ncurses for the terminfo support alone:
minicom
terminal emulator for serial modem connections
https://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/
mosh
a replacement for ssh.
https://mosh.org/
tack
terminfo action checker
https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/tack.html
tmux
terminal multiplexor
https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki
vile
vi-like-emacs may be built to use the terminfo, termcap or
curses interfaces.
https://invisible-island.net/vile/
and finally, those which use only the termcap interface:
emacs
text editor
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
less
The most commonly used pager (a program that displays text
files).
http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/
screen
terminal multiplexor
https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
vim
text editor
https://www.vim.org/
Development activities
Zeyd Ben-Halim started ncurses from a previous package pcurses,
written by Pavel Curtis. Eric S. Raymond continued development.
Juergen Pfeifer wrote most of the form and menu libraries.
Ongoing development work is done by Thomas E. Dickey. Thomas E. Dickey
has acted as the maintainer for the Free Software Foundation, which
held a copyright on ncurses 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 ncurses FAQ for
additional information).
Contact the current maintainers at
To join the ncurses mailing list, please write email to
containing the line:
subscribe <name>@<host.domain>
This list is open to anyone interested in helping with the development
and testing of this package.
Beta versions of ncurses are made available at
https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/current/ and
https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/current/ .
Patches to the current release are made available at
https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/ and
https://invisible-mirror.net/archives/ncurses/6.3/ .
There is an archive of the mailing list here:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses (also https)
Related resources
The release notes make scattered references to these pages, which may
be interesting by themselves:
* ncurses licensing
* Symbol versioning in ncurses
* Comments on ncurses versus slang (S-Lang)
* Comments on OpenBSD
* tack - terminfo action checker
* tctest - termcap library checker
* Terminal Database
Other resources
The distribution provides a newer version of the terminfo-format
terminal description file once maintained by Eric Raymond . 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.
You can find lots of information on terminal-related topics not
covered in the terminfo file at Richard Shuford's archive . The
collection of computer manuals at bitsavers.org has also been useful.
* Overview
* Release Notes
+ Library improvements
o New features
o Other improvements
+ Program improvements
o Utilities
o Examples
+ Terminal database
+ Documentation
+ Interesting bug-fixes
+ Configuration changes
o Major changes
o Configuration options
+ Portability
* Features of ncurses
* Applications using ncurses
* Development activities
* Related resources
* Other resources