lfs-book/chapter06/ncurses.xml

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<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
  %general-entities;
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<sect1 id="ch-system-ncurses" role="wrap">
<title>Ncurses-&ncurses-version;</title>
<?dbhtml filename="ncurses.html"?>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses"><primary sortas="a-Ncurses">Ncurses</primary></indexterm>

<sect2 role="package"><title/>
<para>The Ncurses package contains libraries for terminal-independent
handling of character screens.</para>

<segmentedlist>
<segtitle>&buildtime;</segtitle>
<segtitle>&diskspace;</segtitle>
<seglistitem><seg>0.6 SBU</seg><seg>18.6 MB</seg></seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>

<segmentedlist>
<segtitle>&dependencies;</segtitle>
<seglistitem><seg>Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils,
Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, and Sed</seg></seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>
</sect2>

<sect2 role="installation">
<title>Installation of Ncurses</title>
<!-- Uncomment if using a dated ncurses release instead of a numbered one.

<para>Since the release of Ncurses-&ncurses-version;, some bugs have been fixed
and features added. The most important news are .......
To get these fixes and features, apply the rollup patch:</para>

<screen><userinput>bzcat ../&ncurses-rollup-patch; | patch -Np1</userinput></screen>
-->

<para>Since the release of Ncurses-&ncurses-version;, a memory leak and some
display bugs were found and fixed upstream. Apply those fixes:</para>

<screen><userinput>patch -Np1 -i ../&ncurses-fixes-patch;</userinput></screen>

<para>Prepare Ncurses for compilation:</para>

<screen><userinput>./configure --prefix=/usr --with-shared --without-debug --enable-widec</userinput></screen>

<para>The meaning of the configure options:</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><parameter>--enable-widec</parameter></term>
<listitem><para>This switch causes wide-character libraries
(e.g., <filename class="libraryfile">libncursesw.so.&ncurses-version;</filename>)
to be built instead of normal ones
(e.g., <filename class="libraryfile">libncurses.so.&ncurses-version;</filename>).
These wide-character libraries are usable in both multibyte and traditional 8-bit
locales, while normal libraries work properly only in 8-bit locales.
Wide-character and normal libraries are source-compatible, but not
binary-compatible.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<!--
<varlistentry>
<term><parameter>- -without-cxx-binding</parameter></term>
<listitem><para>This optional switch causes the
<filename class="libraryfile">libncurses++w.a</filename> library
not to be built. Nothing in LFS and BLFS uses this library.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-->
</variablelist>

<para>Compile the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make</userinput></screen>

<para>This package does not come with a test suite.</para>

<para>Install the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make install</userinput></screen>

<para>Give the Ncurses libraries execute permissions:</para>

<screen><userinput>chmod -v 755 /usr/lib/*.&ncurses-version;</userinput></screen>

<para>Fix a library that should not be executable:</para>

<screen><userinput>chmod -v 644 /usr/lib/libncurses++w.a</userinput></screen>

<para>Move the libraries to the <filename class="directory">/lib</filename> directory,
where they are expected to reside:</para>

<screen><userinput>mv -v /usr/lib/libncursesw.so.5* /lib</userinput></screen>

<para>Because the libraries have been moved, one symlink points to
a non-existent file. Recreate it:</para>

<screen><userinput>ln -sfv ../../lib/libncursesw.so.5 /usr/lib/libncursesw.so</userinput></screen>

<para>Many applications still expect the linker to be able to find
non-wide-character Ncurses libraries. Trick such applications into linking with
wide-character libraries by means of symlinks and linker scripts:</para>

<screen><userinput>for lib in curses ncurses form panel menu ; do \
	rm -vf /usr/lib/lib${lib}.so ; \
	echo "INPUT(-l${lib}w)" &gt;/usr/lib/lib${lib}.so ; \
	ln -sfv lib${lib}w.a /usr/lib/lib${lib}.a ; \
done &amp;&amp;
ln -sfv libncurses++w.a /usr/lib/libncurses++.a</userinput></screen>

<para>Finally, make sure that old applications that look for
<filename class="libraryfile">-lcurses</filename> at build time are still
buildable:</para>

<screen><userinput>echo "INPUT(-lncursesw)" &gt;/usr/lib/libcursesw.so &amp;&amp;
ln -sfv libncurses.so /usr/lib/libcurses.so &amp;&amp;
ln -sfv libncursesw.a /usr/lib/libcursesw.a &amp;&amp;
ln -sfv libncurses.a /usr/lib/libcurses.a</userinput></screen>

<note><para>The instructions above don't create non-wide-character Ncurses
libraries since no package installed by compiling from sources would link
against them at runtime.
If you must have such libraries because of some binary-only application,
build them with the following commands:</para>
<screen role="nodump"><userinput>make distclean &amp;&amp;
./configure --prefix=/usr --with-shared --without-normal \
	--without-debug --without-cxx-binding &amp;&amp;
make sources libs &amp;&amp;
cp -av lib/lib*.so.5* /usr/lib</userinput></screen>
</note>
</sect2>


<sect2 id="contents-ncurses" role="content"><title>Contents of Ncurses</title>

<segmentedlist>
<segtitle>Installed programs</segtitle>
<segtitle>Installed libraries</segtitle>
<seglistitem><seg>captoinfo (link to tic), clear, infocmp, infotocap (link to tic), 
reset (link to tset), tack, tic, toe, tput, and tset</seg>
<seg>libcursesw.[a,so] (symlink and linker script to libncursesw.[a,so]),
libformw.[a,so], libmenuw.[a,so], 
libncurses++w.a, libncursesw.[a,so], libpanelw.[a,so] and their
non-wide-character counterparts without "w" in the library names.</seg></seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>

<variablelist><bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
<?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
<?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>

<varlistentry id="captoinfo">
<term><command>captoinfo</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Converts a termcap description into a terminfo description</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses captoinfo"><primary sortas="b-captoinfo">captoinfo</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="clear">
<term><command>clear</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Clears the screen, if possible</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses clear"><primary sortas="b-clear">clear</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="infocmp">
<term><command>infocmp</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Compares or prints out terminfo descriptions</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses infocmp"><primary sortas="b-infocmp">infocmp</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="infotocap">
<term><command>infotocap</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Converts a terminfo description into a termcap description</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses infotocap"><primary sortas="b-infotocap">infotocap</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="reset">
<term><command>reset</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Reinitializes a terminal to its default values</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses reset"><primary sortas="b-reset">reset</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="tack">
<term><command>tack</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>The terminfo action checker; it is mainly used to test the
accuracy of an entry in the terminfo database</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses tack"><primary sortas="b-tack">tack</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="tic">
<term><command>tic</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>The terminfo entry-description compiler that translates a
terminfo file from source format into the binary format needed for the
ncurses library routines. A terminfo file contains information on the
capabilities of a certain terminal</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses tic"><primary sortas="b-tic">tic</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="toe">
<term><command>toe</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Lists all available terminal types, giving the primary name and
description for each</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses toe"><primary sortas="b-toe">toe</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="tput">
<term><command>tput</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Makes the values of terminal-dependent capabilities available to
the shell; it can also be used to reset or initialize a terminal or
report its long name</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses tput"><primary sortas="b-tput">tput</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="tset">
<term><command>tset</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Can be used to initialize terminals</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses tset"><primary sortas="b-tset">tset</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="libcurses">
<term><filename class="libraryfile">libcurses</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>A link to <filename>libncurses</filename></para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses libcurses"><primary sortas="c-libcurses">libcurses</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="libncurses">
<term><filename class="libraryfile">libncurses</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>Contains functions to display text in many complex ways on a
terminal screen; a good example of the use of these functions is the
menu displayed during the kernel's <command>make menuconfig</command></para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses libncurses"><primary sortas="c-libncurses">libncurses</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="libform">
<term><filename class="libraryfile">libform</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>Contains functions to implement forms</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses libform"><primary sortas="c-libform">libform</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="libmenu">
<term><filename class="libraryfile">libmenu</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>Contains functions to implement menus</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses libmenu"><primary sortas="c-libmenu">libmenu</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry id="libpanel">
<term><filename class="libraryfile">libpanel</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>Contains functions to implement panels</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses libpanel"><primary sortas="c-libpanel">libpanel</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect2>

</sect1>