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Updated: ncurses-5.3-1; New: libncurses7-5.3-1, libncurses-devel-5.3-1,ncurses-demo-5.3-1


The ncurses package has been updated to ncurses-5.3-1. However, because the ABI has changed, the DLLs are packaged in yet another libncurses* package, libncurses7 (which can coexist with libncurses6 and libncurses5). Further, to reduce the size of the Base installation, I've split out certain demo programs and the development libraries into separate packages (ncurses-demo and libncurses-devel) which are NOT part of the Base category. Read the first paragraph of the INSTALLATION section below, even if you normally skip it -- it's not boilerplate this time.

ncurses is a package that provides character and terminal handling libraries, including 'gui-like' panels and menus. It is often used instead of termcap.

Changes (from ncurses-5.2-8)
  o update to the 5.3 source

o The upstream maintainer has done a lot of work to enable shared lib building on cygwin -- but he did it in a way completely different than mine. Once I figured out what he was doing, I could see that it was better. But it hasn't been as heavily tested as our version, so despite the month of 'test' release status, some warts are expected over the next few months. Worse, since his approach differs, it means that there are ABI changes and we have to bump to '7' from our current ABI=6. On the plus side, the non-packaging/documentation patch size has been reduced by over 75%.

o split the monolithic ncurses-5.2-8 package into three: libncurses-devel-5.3-1 (link libraries and headers), ncurses-demo-5.3-1 (the /usr/bin/ncurses-test-dll/*.exe stuff), and ncurses-5.3-1 (everthing else: utility programs and documentation)

o the upstream maintainer no longer supports building the C++ library as a sharedlib on ANY platform. To re-enable it on cygwin, I'd have to seriously muck with the new build system, so I decided to withdraw the DLL version of libncurses++. Naturally, any application that previously used it will still "get" 'cygncurses++6.dll' from the libncurses6-5.2-8 package -- but it won't see a cygncurses++7.dll. If you want to link a libncurses++-dependent package against ncurses-5.3, you'll get the static C++ library (but it will link against the dynamic -lncurses, -lpanel, -lmenu, and -lform dependencies)

o the upstream maintainer took a different tack in fixing the BROKEN_LINKER problem. The public headers no longer declare BROKEN_LINKER -- but they shouldn't have to, in the new scheme.

o sigh. ncurses_dll.h is back. don't worry, though, it's automatically included. It just offends my sense of elegance.

--Chuck

INSTALLATION:

To update your installation, click on the "Install Cygwin now" link on
the http://cygwin.com/ web page. This downloads setup.exe to your
system. Then, run setup and update the ncurses package -- you should automatically get the libncurses7 package. If you want the libncurses-devel package or the ncurses-demo package, you must explicitly select them.


Note that we have recently stopped downloads from sources.redhat.com
(aka cygwin.com) due to bandwidth limitations.  This means that you will
need to find a mirror which has this update.

In the US,
ftp://mirrors.rcn.net/mirrors/sources.redhat.com/cygwin/
is a reliable high bandwidth connection.

In the UK,
http://programming.ccp14.ac.uk/ftp-mirror/programming/cygwin/pub/cygwin/
is usually up-to-date within 48 hours.

If one of the above doesn't have the latest version of this package
then you can either wait for the site to be updated or find another
mirror.

If you have questions or comments, please send them to the Cygwin
mailing list at: cygwin at cygwin dot com .  I would appreciate if you would
use this mailing list rather than emailing me directly.  This includes
ideas and comments about the setup utility or Cygwin in general.

If you want to make a point or ask a question, the Cygwin mailing list
is the appropriate place.

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