218 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
218 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-- Copyright (c) 1998-2011,2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. --
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-- --
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-- Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a --
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-- copy of this software and associated documentation files (the --
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-- "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including --
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-- without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, --
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-- distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell copies --
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-- of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished --
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-- to do so, subject to the following conditions: --
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-- --
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-- The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included --
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-- in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. --
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-- --
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-- THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS --
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-- OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF --
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-- MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN --
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-- NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, --
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-- DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR --
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-- OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE --
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-- USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. --
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-- --
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-- Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright --
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-- holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the --
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-- sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written --
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-- authorization. --
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-- $Id: README,v 1.25 2012/08/11 20:11:26 tom Exp $
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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README file for the ncurses package
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See the file ANNOUNCE for a summary of ncurses features and ports.
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See the file INSTALL for instructions on how to build and install ncurses.
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See the file NEWS for a release history and bug-fix notes.
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See the file TO-DO for things that still need doing, including known bugs.
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Browse the file misc/ncurses-intro.html for narrative descriptions of how
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to use ncurses and the panel, menu, and form libraries.
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Browse the file doc/html/hackguide.html for a tour of the package internals.
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ROADMAP AND PACKAGE OVERVIEW:
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You should be reading this file in a directory called: ncurses-d.d, where d.d
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is the current version number (see the dist.mk file in this directory for
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that). There should be a number of subdirectories, including `c++', `form',
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`man', `menu', `misc', `ncurses', `panel', `progs', `test', 'tack' and `Ada95'.
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(The 'tack' program may be distributed separately).
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A full build/install of this package typically installs several libraries, a
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handful of utilities, and a database hierarchy. Here is an inventory of the
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pieces:
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The libraries are:
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libncurses.a (normal)
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libncurses.so (shared)
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libncurses_g.a (debug and trace code enabled)
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libncurses_p.a (profiling enabled)
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libpanel.a (normal)
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libpanel.so (shared)
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libpanel_g.a (debug and trace code enabled)
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libmenu.a (normal)
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libmenu.so (shared)
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libmenu_g.a (debug enabled)
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libform.a (normal)
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libform.so (shared)
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libform_g.a (debug enabled)
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If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the
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library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support
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wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files
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are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character
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features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character
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library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character
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version.
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If you configure using the --enable-reentrant option, a "t" is appended to the
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library names (e.g., libncursest.a) and the resulting libraries have a
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different binary interface which makes the ncurses interface more "opaque".
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The ncurses libraries implement the curses API. The panel, menu and forms
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libraries implement clones of the SVr4 panel, menu and forms APIs. The source
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code for these lives in the `ncurses', `panel', `menu', and `form' directories
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respectively.
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In the `c++' directory, you'll find code that defines an interface to the
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curses, forms, menus and panels library packaged as C++ classes, and a demo program in C++
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to test it. These class definition modules are not installed by the 'make
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install.libs' rule as libncurses++.
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In the `Ada95' directory, you'll find code and documentation for an
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Ada95 binding of the curses API, to be used with the GNAT compiler.
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This binding is built by a normal top-level `make' if configure detects
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an usable version of GNAT (3.11 or above). It is not installed automatically.
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See the Ada95 directory for more build and installation instructions and
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for documentation of the binding.
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To do its job, the ncurses code needs your terminal type to be set in the
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environment variable TERM (normally set by your OS; under UNIX, getty(1)
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typically does this, but you can override it in your .profile); and, it needs a
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database of terminal descriptions in which to look up your terminal type's
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capabilities.
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In older (V7/BSD) versions of curses, the database was a flat text file,
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/etc/termcap; in newer (USG/USL) versions, the database is a hierarchy of
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fast-loading binary description blocks under /usr/lib/terminfo. These binary
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blocks are compiled from an improved editable text representation called
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`terminfo' format (documented in man/terminfo.5). The ncurses library can use
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either /etc/termcap or the compiled binary terminfo blocks, but prefers the
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second form.
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In the `misc' directory, there is a text file terminfo.src, in editable
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terminfo format, which can be used to generate the terminfo binaries (that's
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what make install.data does). If the package was built with the
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--enable-termcap option enabled, and the ncurses library cannot find a terminfo
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description for your terminal, it will fall back to the termcap file supplied
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with your system (which the ncurses package installation leaves strictly
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alone).
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The utilities are as follows:
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tic -- terminfo source to binary compiler
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infocmp -- terminfo binary to source decompiler/comparator
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clear -- emits clear-screen for current terminal
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tabs -- set tabs on a terminal
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tput -- shell-script access to terminal capabilities.
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toe -- table of entries utility
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tset -- terminal-initialization utility
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The first two (tic and infocmp) are used for manipulating terminfo
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descriptions; the next two (clear and tput) are for use in shell scripts. The
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last (tset) is provided for 4.4BSD compatibility. The source code for all of
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these lives in the `progs' directory.
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Detailed documentation for all libraries and utilities can be found in the
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`man' and `doc' directories. An HTML introduction to ncurses, panels, and
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menus programming lives in the `doc/html' directory. Manpages in HTML format
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are under `doc/html/man'.
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The `test' directory contains programs that can be used to verify or
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demonstrate the functions of the ncurses libraries. See test/README for
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descriptions of these programs. Notably, the `ncurses' utility is designed to
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help you systematically exercise the library functions.
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AUTHORS:
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Pavel Curtis:
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wrote the original ncurses
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Zeyd M. Ben-Halim:
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port of original to Linux and many enhancements.
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Thomas Dickey (maintainer for 1.9.9g through 4.1, resuming with FSF's 5.0):
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configuration scripts, porting, mods to adhere to XSI Curses in the
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areas of background color, terminal modes. Also memory leak testing,
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the wresize, default colors and key definition extensions and numerous
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bug fixes -- more than half of those enumerated in NEWS beginning with
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the internal release 1.8.9, see
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http://invisible-island.net/personal/changelogs.html
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Florian La Roche (official maintainer for FSF's ncurses 4.2)
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Beginning with release 4.2, ncurses is distributed under an MIT-style
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license.
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Eric S. Raymond:
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the man pages, infocmp(1), tput(1), clear(1), captoinfo(1), tset(1),
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toe(1), most of tic(1), trace levels, the HTML intro, wgetnstr() and
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many other entry points, the cursor-movement optimization, the
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scroll-pack optimizer for vertical motions, the mouse interface and
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xterm mouse support, and the ncurses test program.
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Juergen Pfeifer
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The menu and form libraries, C++ bindings for ncurses, menus, forms and
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panels, as well as the Ada95 binding. Ongoing support for panel.
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CONTRIBUTORS:
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Alexander V. Lukyanov
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for numerous fixes and improvements to the optimization logic.
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David MacKenzie
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for first-class bug-chasing and methodical testing.
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Ross Ridge
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for the code that hacks termcap parameterized strings into terminfo.
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Warren Tucker and Gerhard Fuernkranz,
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for writing and sending the panel library.
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Hellmuth Michaelis,
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for many patches and testing the optimization code.
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Eric Newton, Ulrich Drepper, and Anatoly Ivasyuk:
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the C++ code.
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Jonathan Ross,
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for lessons in using sed.
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Keith Bostic (maintainer of 4.4BSD curses)
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for help, criticism, comments, bug-finding, and being willing to
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deep-six BSD curses for this one when it grew up.
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Richard Stallman,
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for his commitment to making ncurses free software.
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Countless other people have contributed by reporting bugs, sending fixes,
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suggesting improvements, and generally whining about ncurses :-)
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BUGS:
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See the INSTALL file for bug and developer-list addresses.
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The Hacker's Guide in the doc directory includes some guidelines
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on how to report bugs in ways that will get them fixed most quickly.
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