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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta name="generator" content=
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<title>Announcing ncurses @VERSION@</title>
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<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=
"https://invisible-island.net/archives/ncurses/">https://invisible-island.net/archives/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 at the GNU distribution site</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href=
"https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/">https://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>December 31, 2022</strong>.</p>
<p>This release is designed to be source-compatible with
<span class="main-name">ncurses</span> 5.0 through 6.3; 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 robustness issues. 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> 6.3 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 no new features in this release.</p>
<h4><a name="h4-fixes-library" id="h4-fixes-library">Other
improvements</a></h4>
<p>These are improvements to existing features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>delscreen</tt> to more effectively delete all
windows on the given screen.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>wnoutrefresh</tt> to call <tt>pnoutrefresh</tt>
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</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify curses_trace() to show the trace-mask as symbols,
e.g., <tt>TRACE_ORDINARY</tt>, <tt>DEBUG_LEVEL(3)</tt>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve checks for valid mouse events when an intermediate
mouse state is not part of the mousemask specified by the
caller</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>allow extended-color number in <em>opts</em> parameter of
<tt>wattr_on</tt>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <tt>_tracecchar_t2</tt> formatting of
base+combining character.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>trim out some unwanted linker options from ncurses*config
and .pc files seen in Fedora 36+.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve shell-scripts with <em>shellcheck</em></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve use of "trap" in shell scripts, using a
script.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>make-tar.sh</tt> scripts to make timestamps
more predictable.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These are corrections to existing features:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>misc/gen-pkgconfig.in</tt> to allow for the
case where the library directory does not yet exist, since
this is processed before doing an install</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>set trailing null on string passed from <tt>winsnstr</tt>
to <tt>wins_nwstr</tt>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify <tt>waddch_literal</tt> to allow for double-width
base character when merging a combining character</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="h3-programs" id="h3-programs">Program
improvements</a></h3>
<p id="h4-utilities">Several improvements were made to the
utility programs:</p>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/infocmp.1m.html">infocmp</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>rewrite <tt>canonical_name</tt> function of
<tt>infocmp</tt> to ensure buffer size</li>
<li>improve readability of long parameterized expressions
with the infocmp “<tt>-f</tt>” option by
allowing split before a “<tt>%p</tt>”
marker.</li>
<li>modify verbose-option of <tt>infocmp</tt>,
<tt>tic</tt>, <tt>toe</tt> to enable debug-tracing if that
is configured.</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tabs.1.html">tabs</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>limit tab-stop values to max-columns</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tic.1m.html">tic</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>add consistency check in tic for u6/u7/u8/u9 and NQ
capabilities.</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/tput.1.html">tput</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>corrected use of original tty-modes in <em>init/reset</em>
subcommands</dd>
</dl>
<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:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>add minimal <tt>-h</tt> (usage) and <tt>-V</tt> (version)
getopt logic to all ncurses-examples programs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>fix an error in "@" command in <tt>test/ncurses.c</tt>
F-menu</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add curses_trace to ifdef's for <tt>START_TRACE</tt> in
<tt>test/test.priv.h</tt></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve pthread-configuration for test/worm.c</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add <tt>setlocale</tt> call to several test-programs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>workaround in <tt>test/picsmap.c</tt> for use of floating
point for rgb values by ImageMagick 6.9.11, which appears to
use the wrong upper limit.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use static libraries for AdaCurses test-package for
Mageia, since no gprbuild package is available.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>install Ada95 sample programs in libexecdir, adding a
wrapper script to invoke those.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>install ncurses-examples programs in libexecdir, adding a
wrapper script to invoke those.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are other new demo/test programs and reusable
examples:</p>
<dl>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>test/combine</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>demonstrate combining characters</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>test/test_delwin</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>demonstrate deleting a window</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>test/test_mouse</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>observe mouse events in the raw terminal or parsed ncurses
modes</dd>
<dt><span class="part-name"><em>test/test_unget_wch</em></span>
</dt>
<dd>demonstrate the unget_wch and unget functions</dd>
</dl>
<h3><a name="h3-database" id="h3-database">Terminal database</a></h3>
<p>There are several new terminal descriptions:</p>
<ul>
<li><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-mosh">mosh</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-mosh-256color">mosh-256color</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken-16color">teken-16color</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken-sc">teken-sc</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken-vt">teken-vt</a></tt>
</li>
<li><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xgterm">xgterm</a></tt>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are many changes to existing terminal descriptions. Some
were updates to several descriptions:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>make description-fields distinct</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>fix errata in description fields</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add/use several building-blocks:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-aixterm_sl"><tt>aixterm+sl</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ansi_cpr"><tt>ansi+cpr</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-apollo_vt132"><tt>apollo+vt132</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-decid_cpr"><tt>decid+cpr</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-ncr260vp_sl"><tt>ncr260vp+sl</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-wyse_sl"><tt>wyse+sl</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-x10term_sl"><tt>x10term+sl</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_acs"><tt>xterm+acs</tt></a></li>
<li><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm_alt47"><tt>xterm+alt47</tt></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>while others affected specific descriptions. These were
retested, to take into account changes by their developers:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-kitty">kitty</a></tt>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><tt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-teken">teken</a></tt>
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<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=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-att610_cvis0">att610+cvis0</a>
</dt>
<dd>amended note as per documentation for att610, att620,
att730</dd>
<dt><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-kon">kon</a>,
kon2, jfbterm</dt>
<dd>revise to undo "linux2.6" change to smacs/rmacs/enacs</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-st-0_6">st-0.6</a>
</dt>
<dd>add dim, ecma+strikeout</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-foot_base">foot+base</a>
</dt>
<dd>add xterm+sl-alt</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-dec_sl">dec+sl</a>
</dt>
<dd>correct dsl in dec+sl</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-mintty">mintty</a> and
tmux</dt>
<dd>correct setal in mintty/tmux entries, add to vte-2018</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-nsterm">nsterm</a>
</dt>
<dd>modify nsterm to use xterm+alt1049</dd>
<dt><a href="@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-putty">putty</a>
</dt>
<dd>modify putty to use xterm+alt1049</dd>
<dt><a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-vte-2018">vte-2018</a>
</dt>
<dd>add blink and setal</dd>
</dl>
<p>A few entries use extensions (user-defined terminal
capabilities):</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>use <tt>ansi+enq</tt> and <tt>decid+cpr</tt> in cases
where the terminal probably supported the u6-u9 extension</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>remove u6-u9 from teken-2018</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use <tt>NQ</tt> to flag entries where the terminal does
not support query and response</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add/use <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-bracketed_paste"><tt>bracketed+paste</tt></a>
to help identify terminals supporting this xterm feature</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify samples for xterm mouse 1002/1003 modes to use 1006
mode, and also provide for focus in/out responses</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>xterm patch #371 supports DEC-compatible status-line. add
<tt>dec+sl</tt> to xterm-new, per xterm #371, add <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-p371"><tt>xterm-p371</tt></a>,
add <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/terminfo.src.html#tic-xterm-p370"><tt>xterm-p370</tt></a>,
for use in older terminals, and set “xterm-new”
to “xterm-p370” (to ease adoption).</p>
</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>
<p>remove a stray '/' from description of <tt>%g</tt> in
<a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html#h3-Parameterized-Strings">
terminfo(5)</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>correct/improve font-formatting in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_getch.3x.html">curs_getch.3x</a>, as
well as other manual pages.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>New/improved history and portability sections:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>add portability notes for <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_initscr.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">delscreen</a>
and <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_window.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">delwin</a>
in manual.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_slk.3x.html#h2-EXTENSIONS">curs_slk.3x</a>
discussion of extensions and portability</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Other improvements:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>improve <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_bkgd.3x.html">curs_bkgd.3x</a>,
explaining that <tt>bkgdset</tt> can affect results for
<tt>bkgd</tt></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add note on portable memory-leak checking in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_memleaks.3x.html#h2-PORTABILITY">curs_memleaks.3x</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>expanded description in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/resizeterm.3x.html">resizeterm.3x</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add section on releasing memory to <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_termcap.3x.html#h3-Releasing-Memory">
curs_termcap.3x</a> and <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_terminfo.3x.html#h3-Releasing-Memory">
curs_terminfo.3x</a> manpages.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>add clarification of the scope of dynamic variables in
<a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve formatting of <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/ncurses-intro.html">ncurses-intro.html</a>
and <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/hackguide.html">hackguide.html</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/man/curs_clear.3x.html">curs_clear.3x</a>
links to other pages</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>update <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/howto/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.html">ncurses-howto</a>,
making documentation fixes along with corrections to
example programs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use newer version 1.36 of gnathtml for generating Ada
html files.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>update external links in <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/Ada95.html">Ada95.html</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There are no new manual pages (all of the manual page updates
are to existing pages).</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
6.4, 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 <a href=
"@HOMEPAGE@/NEWS.html#t20221231">NEWS</a> file no elaboration is
needed here.</p>
<p>The interesting bugs were those dealing with memory leaks and
buffer overflows. Although the utilities are designed for
<em>text</em> files (which they do properly), some choose to test
them with <strong>non-</strong><em>text</em> files.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Text files contain no embedded nulls. Also, they end with
a newline. Feeding <strong>tic</strong> 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.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fixing the limit-checks (first) found a problem with
<strong>tic</strong> managing the list of strings in a
terminal description. In merging two terminal descriptions
(i.e., the “use=” feature), <strong>tic</strong>
was not allocating a complete copy. A quick repair for that
introduced a memory leak.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The checks for non-text files are improved (i.e., embedded
nulls in the input file will cause <strong>tic</strong> to
reject it rather than attempting to process it).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The string allocations in <strong>tic</strong> are
likewise improved.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<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. No new options were added. Several
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-abi-version</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>add ABI 7 defaults to configure script.</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-caps</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>add warning in configure script if file specified for
“<tt>--with-caps</tt>” does not exist.</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-manpage-format</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>bzip2 and xz compression are now supported</p>
</dd>
<dt><tt>--with-xterm-kbs</tt>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>add check/warning in configure script if option
“<tt>--with-xterm-kbs</tt>” is missing or
inconsistent</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>amend configure option's auto-search to account for
systems where none of the directories known to
<em>pkg-config</em> exist</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>corrected regex needed for older <em>pkg-config</em> used
in Solaris 10</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve handling of <tt>--with-pkg-config-libdir</tt>
option, allowing for the case where either
<tt>$PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR</tt> or the option value has a
colon-separated list of directories</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>if the <tt>--with-pkg-config-libdir</tt> option is not
given, use <tt>${libdir}/pkgconfig</tt> as a default</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve search-path check for <em>pkg-config</em>, e.g.,
for Debian testing which installs <em>pkg-config</em> with
architecture-prefixes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>build-fix for cross-compiling to MingW, conditionally add
<tt>-lssp</tt></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>improve configure check for <tt>getttynam</tt></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>fixes to build with <em>dietlibc</em>:</p>
<ul>
<li>add configure check for <tt>fpathconf</tt></li>
<li>add configure check for math sine/cosine, needed in
test/tclock, and eliminate <tt>pow()</tt> from
test/hanoi</li>
<li>use <tt>wcsnlen</tt> as an alternative to
<tt>wmemchr</tt> if it is not found</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify configure macro <tt>CF_BUILD_CC</tt> 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</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>modify configure/scripts to work around interference by
GNU grep 3.8</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Here are some of the other portability fixes:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>change <tt>man_db.renames</tt> to template, to handle
<em>ncurses*-config</em> script with the
<tt>--extra-suffix</tt> configure option.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>update <tt>CF_XOPEN_SOURCE</tt> macro, adding variants
“gnueabi" and “gnueabihf" to get
<tt>_DEFAULT_SOURCE</tt> special case, as well as adding GNU
libc suffixes for “abi64”, “abin32”,
“x32” to distinguish it from other libc
flavors.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>work around <em>musl</em>'s nonstandard use of feature
test macros by adding a definition for
<tt>NCURSES_WIDECHAR</tt> to the generated “.pc”
and <em><tt>*-config</tt></em> files.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>use “<tt>command -v</tt>” rather than
“<tt>type</tt>” in <tt>Ada95/gen/Makefile.in</tt>
to fix a portability issue.</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 <em>BASE</em> level features, and most
<em>EXTENDED</em> features). It includes many function calls
not supported under SVr4 curses (but portability of all calls