6.24.1. Installation of Ncurses
Don't install a static library that is not handled by configure:
sed -i '/LIBTOOL_INSTALL/d' c++/Makefile.in
Prepare Ncurses for compilation:
./configure --prefix=/usr \
--mandir=/usr/share/man \
--with-shared \
--without-debug \
--without-normal \
--enable-pc-files \
--enable-widec
The meaning of the new configure options:
-
--enable-widec
-
This switch causes wide-character libraries (e.g.,
libncursesw.so.6.1
) to be built
instead of normal ones (e.g., libncurses.so.6.1
). 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.
-
--enable-pc-files
-
This switch generates and installs .pc files for pkg-config.
-
--without-normal
-
This switch disables building and installing most static
libraries.
Compile the package:
make
This package has a test suite, but it can only be run after the
package has been installed. The tests reside in the test/
directory. See the README
file in that directory for further
details.
Install the package:
make install
Move the shared libraries to the /lib
directory, where they are expected to reside:
mv -v /usr/lib/libncursesw.so.6* /lib
Because the libraries have been moved, one symlink points to a
non-existent file. Recreate it:
ln -sfv ../../lib/$(readlink /usr/lib/libncursesw.so) /usr/lib/libncursesw.so
Many applications still expect the linker to be able to find
non-wide-character Ncurses libraries. Trick such applications into
linking with wide-character libraries by means of symlinks and
linker scripts:
for lib in ncurses form panel menu ; do
rm -vf /usr/lib/lib${lib}.so
echo "INPUT(-l${lib}w)" > /usr/lib/lib${lib}.so
ln -sfv ${lib}w.pc /usr/lib/pkgconfig/${lib}.pc
done
Finally, make sure that old applications that look for -lcurses
at build time are still buildable:
rm -vf /usr/lib/libcursesw.so
echo "INPUT(-lncursesw)" > /usr/lib/libcursesw.so
ln -sfv libncurses.so /usr/lib/libcurses.so
If desired, install the Ncurses documentation:
mkdir -v /usr/share/doc/ncurses-6.1
cp -v -R doc/* /usr/share/doc/ncurses-6.1
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. However, the only known
binary-only applications that link against non-wide-character
Ncurses libraries require version 5. If you must have such
libraries because of some binary-only application or to be
compliant with LSB, build the package again with the following
commands:
make distclean
./configure --prefix=/usr \
--with-shared \
--without-normal \
--without-debug \
--without-cxx-binding \
--with-abi-version=5
make sources libs
cp -av lib/lib*.so.5* /usr/lib