# Install ncurses with Homebrew Text-based UI library. Version 6.6 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-18. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:ncurses ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install ncurses ``` Evidence: provider-native install command ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:ncurses - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Version:** 6.6 - **Source summary:** Text-based UI library - **Homepage:** - **Last updated:** 2026-07-18T20:27:11-04:00 - **Generated:** 2026-08-03T00:40:33+00:00 ## Executables - captoinfo (alias) - clear (alias) - infocmp (alias) - infotocap (alias) - ncurses6-config (alias) - ncursesw6-config (alias) - reset (alias) - tabs (alias) - tic (alias) - toe (alias) - tput (alias) - tset (alias) ## Install behavior - Bottle: not available ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-08-03 - Package-manager version: 6.6 ## Project history and usage ncurses, short for new curses, is the dominant free curses implementation for building text user interfaces on character-cell terminals. It emulates and extends System V Release 4 curses, uses terminfo, and ships both libraries and utilities such as tic, infocmp, tput, clear, reset, tabs, toe, and tset. ### Project history The lineage runs through earlier curses and pcurses work. Thomas Dickey's ncurses licensing history discusses ncurses 0.7.2 from May 22, 1993 and ncurses 1.8.1 from November 5, 1993, with Pavel Curtis and Zeyd Ben-Halim copyright lineage. Dickey's history also identifies ncurses 1.9.9e on March 24, 1996 as the end of Zeyd Ben-Halim's maintainership and April 6, 1996 as Dickey's first patch against his ncurses archive. ### Adoption history The ncurses 6.4 announcement says that in mid-June 1995 the maintainer of 4.4BSD curses declared it obsolete and encouraged BSD-family systems to switch to ncurses. The same announcement describes ncurses as used in almost every Linux-kernel-based system aside from some embedded applications, as the system curses library on OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and macOS, and in environments such as Cygwin and MinGW. ### How it is used Package users depend on ncurses both directly and indirectly. Developers link libncurses, libpanel, libmenu, and libform for full-screen terminal apps; shell scripts use tput and reset; terminfo maintainers use tic and infocmp; and many interactive CLI tools pull it in through readline-like or TUI dependencies. ### Why package nerds care ncurses is foundational packaging infrastructure. It is small enough to feel mundane, but it sits under installers, text editors, terminal multiplexers, system configuration tools, roguelikes, debuggers, and countless TUIs. ABI variants, wide-character builds, terminfo database paths, and compatibility with system curses make it a perennial packaging concern. ### Timeline - May 22, 1993: ncurses 0.7.2 appears in Thomas Dickey's reconstructed licensing history. - November 5, 1993: ncurses 1.8.1 release documented in the same history. - Mid-June 1995: 4.4BSD curses maintainer encourages switching to ncurses. - March 24, 1996: ncurses 1.9.9e marks the end of Zeyd Ben-Halim's maintainership. - April 6, 1996: Thomas Dickey begins patching his ncurses archive. - December 31, 2022: ncurses 6.4 released, with the announcement summarizing its broad OS adoption. ### Related projects - curses, pcurses, PDCurses, terminfo, termcap, X/Open Curses, BSD curses, GNU Screen, terminal UI applications ### Sources - - - - - ## Security Notes library-like package without higher-risk signals. - **Geiger risk:** green / low - library-like package without higher-risk signals ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/ncurses.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/ncurses.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - curated package history - pkgdb category and tag curation