Import <ncurses.h> library in C on Mac

If you’re coding in C (which I highly doubt, but if you are!) and you see many people importing <ncurses.h> while encountering errors in your ncurses library functions—even after installing ncurses—this guide might solve your issue.

1.first step is to install ncurses, if you already did skip this step.

brew install ncurses

2.locate where the library is installed

brew info ncurses

3.The output will include where the library is installed something like:

/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ncurses/6.5

remember your version like mine is 6.5

4.Verify for the libraries and headers:

ls /opt/homebrew/Cellar/ncurses/6.5/lib
ls /opt/homebrew/Cellar/ncurses/6.5/include

remember to change your version

1. Add ncurses to Your Compile Path

gcc main.c -o main -I/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ncurses/6.5/include -L/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ncurses/6.5/lib -lncurses

replace version

1. Update Environment Variables

export CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ncurses/6.5/include"

export LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ncurses/6.5/lib"

replace version number

7.Now you can compile your file using :

gcc main.c -o main -lncurses