6.18.1. Installation of Ncurses
Since the release of Ncurses-5.5, a memory leak and some display
bugs were found and fixed upstream. Apply those fixes:
patch -Np1 -i ../ncurses-5.5-fixes-1.patch
Prepare Ncurses for compilation:
./configure --prefix=/usr --with-shared --without-debug --enable-widec
The meaning of the configure option:
-
--enable-widec
-
This switch causes wide-character libraries (e.g., libncursesw.so.5.5) to be built instead of
normal ones (e.g., libncurses.so.5.5). These wide-character
libraries are usable in both multibyte and traditional 8-bit
locales, while normal libraries work properly only in 8-bit
locales. Wide-character and normal libraries are
source-compatible, but not binary-compatible.
Compile the package:
make
This package does not come with a test suite.
Install the package:
make install
Give the Ncurses libraries execute permissions:
chmod -v 755 /usr/lib/*.5.5
Fix a library that should not be executable:
chmod -v 644 /usr/lib/libncurses++w.a
Move the libraries to the /lib directory,
where they are expected to reside:
mv -v /usr/lib/libncursesw.so.5* /lib
Because the libraries have been moved, one symlink points to a
non-existent file. Recreate it:
ln -sfv ../../lib/libncursesw.so.5 /usr/lib/libncursesw.so
Many applications still expect the linker to be able to find
non-wide-character Ncurses libraries. Trick such applications into
linking with wide-character libraries by means of symlinks and
linker scripts:
for lib in curses ncurses form panel menu ; do \
rm -vf /usr/lib/lib${lib}.so ; \
echo "INPUT(-l${lib}w)" >/usr/lib/lib${lib}.so ; \
ln -sfv lib${lib}w.a /usr/lib/lib${lib}.a ; \
done &&
ln -sfv libncurses++w.a /usr/lib/libncurses++.a
Finally, make sure that old applications that look for -lcurses at build time are still buildable:
echo "INPUT(-lncursesw)" >/usr/lib/libcursesw.so &&
ln -sfv libncurses.so /usr/lib/libcurses.so &&
ln -sfv libncursesw.a /usr/lib/libcursesw.a &&
ln -sfv libncurses.a /usr/lib/libcurses.a
![[Note]](../images/note.png)
Note
The instructions above don't create non-wide-character Ncurses
libraries since no package installed by compiling from sources
would link against them at runtime. If you must have such
libraries because of some binary-only application, build them
with the following commands:
make distclean &&
./configure --prefix=/usr --with-shared --without-normal \
--without-debug --without-cxx-binding &&
make sources libs &&
cp -av lib/lib*.so.5* /usr/lib