Linux From Scratch: Version 5.0-pre1
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# Ncurses

For installation instructions see the Section called Installing Ncurses-5.3 in Chapter 6.

## Official Download Location

Ncurses (5.3):
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/

## Contents of Ncurses

(Last checked against version 5.2.)

The Ncurses package provides character and terminal handling libraries, including panels and menus.

Ncurses installs the following:

### Program Files

captoinfo (link to tic), clear, infocmp, infotocap (link to tic), reset (link to tset), tack, tic, toe, tput and tset.

### Library Files

libcurses.[a,so] (link to libncurses.[a,so]), libform.[a,so], libform_g.a, libmenu.[a,so], libmenu_g.a, libncurses++.a, libncurses.[a,so], libncurses_g.a, libpanel.[a,so] and libpanel_g.a

##

## Descriptions

(Last checked against version 5.2.)

### Program file descriptions

#### captoinfo

captoinfo converts a termcap description into a terminfo description.

#### clear

clear clears the screen if this is possible. It looks in the environment for the terminal type and then in the terminfo database to figure out how to clear the screen.

#### infocmp

infocmp can be used to compare a binary terminfo entry with other terminfo entries, rewrite a terminfo description to take advantage of the use= terminfo field, or print out a terminfo description from the binary file (term) in a variety of formats (the opposite of what tic does).

#### infotocap

info to cap converts a terminfo description into a termcap description.

#### reset

reset sets cooked and echo modes, turns off cbreak and raw modes, turns on new-line translation and resets any unset special characters to their default values before doing terminal initialization the same way as tset.

#### tack

tack is the terminfo action checker.

#### tic

tic is the terminfo entry-description compiler. The program translates a terminfo file from source format into the binary format for use with the ncurses library routines. Terminfo files contain information about the capabilities of a terminal.

#### toe

toe lists all available terminal types by primary name with descriptions.

#### tput

tput uses the terminfo database to make the values of terminal-dependent capabilities and information available to the shell, to initialize or reset the terminal, or return the long name of the requested terminal type.

#### tset

tset initializes terminals so they can be used, but it's not widely used anymore. It's provided for 4.4BSD compatibility.

### Library file descriptions

#### libcurses, libncurses++, libncurses, libncurses_g

These libraries are the base of the system and are used to display text (often in a fancy way) on the screen. An example where ncurses is used is in the kernel's "make menuconfig" process.

#### libform, libform_g

libform is used to implement forms in ncurses.

#### libmenu, libmenu_g

libmenu is used to implement menus in ncurses.

#### libpanel, libpanel_g

libpanel is used to implement panels in ncurses.

##

## Ncurses Installation Dependencies

(Last checked against version 5.2.)

Bash: sh
Binutils: ar, as, ld, ranlib
Coreutils: basename, cat, chmod, cp, date, echo, expr, hostname, install,
ln, mkdir, mv, rm, sort, tr, uname, wc
Diffutils: cmp
Gawk: gawk
GCC: c++, cc1, cc1plus, collect2, cpp0, gcc
Glibc: ldconfig
Grep: egrep, fgrep, grep
Make: make
Sed: sed

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