What's the difference between -lcurses and -lncurses when compiling C using ncurses lib?

Question

I\'m learning C and playing with the ncurses lib. I have seen references to both -lcurses and -lncurses but I have yet to find any differences (both work when compiling).

Answer 1

ncurses is an open-source clone of the original Unix curses library. libcurses.* usually points to libncurses.* to provide compatibility with the original library, so there would be no practical difference between using one over the other.

If you do in fact have more than one 'curses-type' library installed, -lcurses would essentially link your program to the default one, whereas -lncurses would explicitly choose the ncurses implementation.