https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/announce.html

Ncurses ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.tar.gz

In Debian, the easiest way to install is with:

sudo apt install libncurses6

To build from source, get the latest version from the download page.

# Download ncurses
wget ftp://ftp.invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.tar.gz
# Extract
tar xzf ncurses.tar.gz
# Enter the directory
cd ncurses-6.3
 
# Typical build steps
./configure --help | less
# Set to install in home rather than system
./configure --prefix=$HOME/.local --with-shared
make
make install

If you install to your home rather than the system, when compiling, linking, and running, you may need to specify where the header files and libraries are. With gcc, that's the -I and -L options. When running, set the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include path to libraries.

There are a few man pages that are particularly helpful. The man pages with API documentation will be in ~/.local/share/man/man{1,3,5,7} if you used the home prefix.

If you aren't sure which man pages mean what, run man man which tells you which man page number corresponds to which section. (1 is executable, 3 is library calls, 5 is file formats, 7 is misc).

# Read the developer documentation (page 3)
# This page tells you the #include statement to use,
# how to link against it, and instructions on how to
# initialize and use the library itself.
# It also lists out all the man pages for each function
man 3 ncurses
 
man 3 initscr
man 3 getch
man 3 getmouse
 
man 1 ncurses6-config

• Online tutorial https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-intro.html

Other resources:

• https://tldp.org/HOWTO/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO/
• https://tldp.org/HOWTO/pdf/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO.pdf

Ncurses comes with a helper function useful for these tasks, ncurses6-config which will be in ~/.local/bin/ if you used the home prefix.

# For compiling and specifying include dirs
ncurses6-config --cflags
# -D_DEFAULT_SOURCE -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=600 -I/home/dano/.local/include/ncurses -I/home/dano/.local/include
 
# For linking and specifying lib dirs
ncurses6-config --libs
# -L/home/dano/.local/lib -lncurses
 
# For LD_LIBRARY_PATH when executing and linking dynamically
ncurses6-config  --libdir
#/home/dano/.local/lib

hello_curses.cpp

// g++ hello_curses.cpp -lncurses
#include <curses.h>
 
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  initscr(); // Take over terminal and start managing it with curses
  endwin(); // Cleanup or terminal will be left in a weird state
  return 0;
}

sigkill.cpp

// Allow CTRL-C to kill app
 
// Near beginning, link signal to callback
signal(SIGINT, finish);
 
static void finish(int sig)
{
    endwin();
 
    /* do your non-curses wrapup here */
 
    exit(0);
}

example.cpp

// A more robust example, taken from
// https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-intro.html#using
 
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <curses.h>
#include <signal.h>
 
static void finish(int sig);
 
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int num = 0;
 
    /* initialize your non-curses data structures here */
 
    (void) signal(SIGINT, finish);      /* arrange interrupts to terminate */
 
    (void) initscr();      /* initialize the curses library */
    keypad(stdscr, TRUE);  /* enable keyboard mapping */
    (void) nonl();         /* tell curses not to do NL->CR/NL on output */
    (void) cbreak();       /* take input chars one at a time, no wait for \n */
    (void) echo();         /* echo input - in color */
 
    if (has_colors())
    {
        start_color();
 
        /*
         * Simple color assignment, often all we need.  Color pair 0 cannot
         * be redefined.  This example uses the same value for the color
         * pair as for the foreground color, though of course that is not
         * necessary:
         */
        init_pair(1, COLOR_RED,     COLOR_BLACK);
        init_pair(2, COLOR_GREEN,   COLOR_BLACK);
        init_pair(3, COLOR_YELLOW,  COLOR_BLACK);
        init_pair(4, COLOR_BLUE,    COLOR_BLACK);
        init_pair(5, COLOR_CYAN,    COLOR_BLACK);
        init_pair(6, COLOR_MAGENTA, COLOR_BLACK);
        init_pair(7, COLOR_WHITE,   COLOR_BLACK);
    }
 
    for (;;)
    {
        int c = getch();     /* refresh, accept single keystroke of input */
        attrset(COLOR_PAIR(num % 8));
        num++;
 
        /* process the command keystroke */
    }
 
    finish(0);               /* we are done */
}
 
static void finish(int sig)
{
    endwin();
 
    /* do your non-curses wrapup here */
 
    exit(0);
}

shell_out.cpp

// From https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-intro.html#leaving
addstr("Shelling out...");
def_prog_mode();           /* save current tty modes */
endwin();                  /* restore original tty modes */
system("sh");              /* run shell */
addstr("returned.\n");     /* prepare return message */
refresh();                 /* restore save modes, repaint screen */

initscr(); // Initialize ncurses
endwin(); // Cleanup for exit or shell out (refresh will bring state)
getmaxyx() // get terminal size
 
// Add chars to window
mvaddch(y,x,ch)
addstr()
printw()
addch()
 
 
// Get input
getch()
wgetstr()
wscanw()
keypad(stdscr, TRUE)
 
use_default_colors()
 
 
refresh() // Refresh from stdscr
wrefresh() // Refresh using non-stdscr window
wnoutrefresh() // Disable auto update on window update (pair with doupdate)
doupdate() // Manually repaint all updates
touchwin()
 
box()
border()
 
// Colors
init_pair()
COLOR_PAIR
 
attron()
attroff()
attrset()
 
move(y, x)
 
 
 
mousemask() // Specify which mouse events to get
 
// Special events from wgetch()
KEY_MOUSE // Mouse event (use getmouse())
KEY_RESIZE // Terminal was resized and adjusted
 
 
 
 
scrollok()
leaveok()
 
newwin()
derwin()
subwin()
delwin()
 
 
define_key() // function-key control sequences
keyok() // toggle the listening for special control sequences