This file is a list of frequently reported problems with ncurses which are
considered bugs elsewhere or configuration problems. If you're going to report a
bug in ncurses, you should probably look over this list first.
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If you use escape codes to configure a terminal, ncurses applications will just
overwrite your settings when they exit.
The proper way to do this is to also provide a custom terminfo type which sets
the terminal correctly. For instance, for controlling the cursor
shape/color/etc., change the 'cnorm' capability.
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If you hit the "Print Screen" key while in a Linux console, your current
application will likely dump core.
The kernel maps that key to ^\, which generates a SIGQUIT by default. There's no
bug here (although why that key was chosen is unclear).
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Home/End keys don't work in some non-full-screen applications.
The situation with this is somewhat complicated. For a background summary, see:
http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html#xterm_pc_style
http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.faq.html#xterm_arrows
Essentially, the key sequences in terminfo entries (particularly khome and kend)
are for full-screen applications only. This means that they are only valid after
an 'smkx' sequence, to put the terminal into application mode. If you want to
use these sequences in non-application mode, you need to recognize similar
sequences - the versions which start with CSI (\E [) rather than SS3 (\E O). One
example of how is in /etc/zshrc in recent Debian ZSH packages.
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The Debian terminfo entry for xterm doesn't work with some other xterms
There's no way to win this. For a while, Debian made its xterm default to a
terminal type of 'xterm-debian', which seemed to fix the problem. In that case,
however, connecting to remote non-Debian machines requires you to change your
terminal type (since there will be no entry for xterm-debian there). Having
changed back to a default terminal type of 'xterm', when you sit at a non-Debian
system using some other version of xterm, applications on the Debian system may
use features not available in your current xterm.
The only workaround for this problem is to set your terminal type from xterm to
one of the feature-limited versions when you log in to a Debian system remotely.
"xterm-r6" and the associated terminal types are appropriate for this.
Mini Shell