BUG: ncurses has 'w' suffix in lib-names

[aips@…]

Hi

after installing the ncurses port (5.5), I found the libraries all have a trailing "w" in the name:

sudo port install ncurses ---> Extracting ncurses ---> Configuring ncurses ---> Building ncurses with target all ---> Staging ncurses into destroot ---> Installing ncurses 5.5_0+darwin_8 ---> Activating ncurses 5.5_0+darwin_8 ---> Cleaning ncurses

sudo port list ncurses ncurses @5.5 devel/ncurses

sudo port contents ncurses |grep lib

/opt/local/lib/libformw.5.dylib /opt/local/lib/libformw.a /opt/local/lib/libformw.dylib /opt/local/lib/libmenuw.5.dylib /opt/local/lib/libmenuw.a /opt/local/lib/libmenuw.dylib /opt/local/lib/libncurses++w.a /opt/local/lib/libncursesw.5.dylib /opt/local/lib/libncursesw.a /opt/local/lib/libncursesw.dylib /opt/local/lib/libpanelw.5.dylib /opt/local/lib/libpanelw.a /opt/local/lib/libpanelw.dylib /opt/local/lib/terminfo

Is this intended???? Because now I have to change anything that links to -lncurses to -lncursesw... I guess. What am I missing?

I did read in

​http://bugzilla.opendarwin.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2616

that /usr/lib/libcurses.dylib == libncurses.

Why does the 'all' target not install both the ordinary libncurses.* _and_ the libncursesw.* versions? I submit that this behaviour is a bug not a feature.

[blb@…]

Assign to maintainer.

[mww@…]

From the ncurses README:

If you configure using the --enable-widec option, a "w" is appended to the library names (e.g., libncursesw.a), and the resulting libraries support wide-characters, e.g., via a UTF-8 locale. The corresponding header files are compatible with the non-wide-character configuration; wide-character features are provided by ifdef's in the header files. The wide-character library interfaces are not binary-compatible with the non-wide-character version.

[aips@…]

yes, yes, I read this in the readme. my complaint is that -

not providling a symlink:

libncurses.{a,dylib, etc} -> libncursesw.{a,dylib, etc} (because the libncursesw lib works the same, for non-wide chars

• does it? It does not look so from the quotation above)

and not providing a separate libncurses.{a,dylib} etc

and having --enable-wide on by default

breaks the expectations of most applications that want to link with ncurses.

which wastes a lot of peoples' time digging around for the portsfiles and hacking them to make something that should Just Work actually work.

I can think of the following solutions:

• rename this port to ncursesw and provide a real ncurses
• change the build to make libncursesw.* and libncurses.*

[mww@…]

to take the safe way, I've just added a new port 'ncursesw' that holds the old configuration and a new port 'ncurses' that brings along the non-UTF8 interface and libs (but lacks the libs and terminfo files to not conflict with ncursesw). Therefore the ncurses port requires ncursesw to be installed. Hope this solves your issues.

[aips@…]

(In reply to comment #4)

to take the safe way, I've just added a new port 'ncursesw' that holds the old configuration and a new port 'ncurses' that brings along the non-UTF8 interface and libs (but lacks the libs and terminfo files to not conflict with ncursesw). Therefore the ncurses port requires ncursesw to be installed. Hope this solves your issues.

this certainly will. thank you!