Why can't I use conio.h or ncurses.h?

Question

I am new user to Ubuntu. I wrote a simple program in C. When I try to compile it to use conio.h, the compiler gives me fatal error. So I tried by ncurses.h, but still I am getting same error.

Solution

Why conio.h Isn't Available

g_p mostly answered this in a comment:

conio.h is not present in Linux. You need to use curses or ncurses. But if you are getting error likefatal error: curses.h: No such file or directory', it means this library is not installed.

For more information on conio.h (and how it's DOS/Windows specific), see the Wikipedia article on it.

Why ncurses.h Wasn't Available, and How To Fix It

As for ncurses, it's necessary to install the libncurses5-dev (or libncursesw5-dev ) package, and then pass the -lncurses argument to gcc when compiling, for example:

gcc -Wall -g -o hello hello.c -lncurses

See How do I create simplistic window-like elements in a command-line program? (and its sources) for more information.

Comments

[Admin]

conio.h is not present in Linux. You need to use curses or ncurses. But if you are getting error likefatal error: curses.h: No such file or directory', it means this library is not installed.

[Admin]

Close voters: This most certainly is about using Ubuntu! It is programming related, but not in the sense that would make it off-topic (check the answer below).

[Admin]

amol , could you please take some time to review the below answer. Then accept it if that what you were looking for. See askubuntu.com/help/someone-answers

[Admin]

I find it amusing that conio is a curse word in spanish (afaik)