* Fixed problem when BASEDIR paths were given without a trailing '/'.

[linux_from_scratch.git] / newxml / chapter06 / ncurses.xml

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  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
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<sect1 id="ch-system-ncurses" xreflabel="Ncurses">
<title>Ncurses-&ncurses-version;</title>
<?dbhtml filename="ncurses.html"?>

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

<para>The Ncurses package contains libraries for terminal-independent
handling of character screens.</para>

<screen>&buildtime; 0.6 SBU
&diskspace; 27 MB</screen>

<para>Ncurses installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils,
Gawk, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed.</para>



<sect2>
<title>Installation of Ncurses</title>

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

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

<para>Compile the package:</para>

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

<para>Install the package:</para>

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

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

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

<para>Now fix a library that shouldn't be executable:</para>

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

<para>Move the libraries to the <filename>/lib</filename> directory,
where they're expected to reside:</para>

<screen><userinput>mv /usr/lib/libncurses.so.5* /lib</userinput></screen>

<para>Because the libraries have been moved, a few symlinks are pointing to
non-existent files. Recreate those symlinks:</para>

<screen><userinput>ln -sf ../../lib/libncurses.so.5 /usr/lib/libncurses.so
ln -sf libncurses.so /usr/lib/libcurses.so</userinput></screen>
</sect2>


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

<para><emphasis>Installed programs</emphasis>: captoinfo (link to tic), clear,
infocmp, infotocap (link to tic), reset (link to tset), tack, tic, toe, tput
and tset</para>

<para><emphasis>Installed libraries</emphasis>: libcurses.[a,so] (link to
libncurses.[a,so]), libform.[a,so], libmenu.[a,so], libncurses++.a,
libncurses.[a,so], libpanel.[a,so]</para>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>Short descriptions</title>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses captoinfo"><primary sortas="b-captoinfo">captoinfo</primary></indexterm>
<para id="captoinfo"><command>captoinfo</command> converts a termcap description into a
terminfo description.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses clear"><primary sortas="b-clear">clear</primary></indexterm>
<para id="clear"><command>clear</command> clears the screen, if this is possible.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses infocmp"><primary sortas="b-infocmp">infocmp</primary></indexterm>
<para id="infocmp"><command>infocmp</command> compares or prints out terminfo
descriptions.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses infotocap"><primary sortas="b-infotocap">infotocap</primary></indexterm>
<para id="infotocap"><command>infotocap</command> converts a terminfo description into
a termcap description.</para>

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

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses tack"><primary sortas="b-tack">tack</primary></indexterm>
<para id="tack"><command>tack</command> is the terminfo action checker. It is mainly
used to test the correctness of an entry in the terminfo database.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses tic"><primary sortas="b-tic">tic</primary></indexterm>
<para id="tic"><command>tic</command> is the terminfo entry-description compiler.
It 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 toe"><primary sortas="b-toe">toe</primary></indexterm>
<para id="toe"><command>toe</command> lists all available terminal types, for each
giving its primary name and its description.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses tput"><primary sortas="b-tput">tput</primary></indexterm>
<para id="tput"><command>tput</command> 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 tset"><primary sortas="b-tset">tset</primary></indexterm>
<para id="tset"><command>tset</command> can be used to initialize terminals.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses libncurses"><primary sortas="c-libncurses*">libncurses*</primary></indexterm>
<para id="libncurses"><command>libncurses*</command> contains functions to display text in
many complicated ways on a terminal screen. A good example of the use of these
functions is the menu displayed during the kernel's make menuconfig.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses libform"><primary sortas="c-libform*">libform*</primary></indexterm>
<para id="libform"><command>libform*</command> contains functions to implement forms.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses libmenu"><primary sortas="c-libmenu*">libmenu*</primary></indexterm>
<para id="libmenu"><command>libmenu*</command> contains functions to implement menus.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-ncurses libpanel"><primary sortas="c-libpanel*">libpanel*</primary></indexterm>
<para id="libpanel"><command>libpanel*</command> contains functions to implement panels.</para>

</sect2>



</sect1>