[PATCH] ncurses: Install terminfo database again

[Hannu Nyman]

Charlie Jenkins kirjoitti 4.11.2026 klo 8.47:
> When pkg-config is not installed on the system and the openwrt
> pkg-config has been compiled, the openwrt pkg-config will be invoked to
> find the ncurses libraries to link against scripts/configs/mconf for
> "make menuconfig". The openwrt pkg-config provides the path
> -L/path/to/openwrt/staging_dir/hostpkg/lib, so if the openwrt ncurses
> package has been built, the openwrt ncurses library will be what
> scripts/configs/mconf gets linked against.
>
> Commit 036016036e62 ("ncurses: Skip terminfo database install on host")
> removed the terminfo database because on systems where the host has
> pkg-config installed, the database attempted to install at /usr/lib and
> would fatally fail on ncurses versions above 6.5. This is fine on
> systems with pkg-config since scripts/configs/mconf will get dynamically
> linked against the system's ncurses and use the system's terminfo
> database. However, on systems where the host does not have pkg-config
> installed and the ncurses package has been built and the pkg-config
> package has been built, scripts/configs/mconf will get statically linked
> against the ncurses package that no longer has a terminfo database,
> causing a failure similar to:
>
> $ make menuconfig
> ncurses: cannot initialize terminal type ($TERM="xterm-256color"); exiting
>
> To resolve this, pass the staging directory to host ncurses configure
> such that the terminfo database will be installed into the correct
> location regardless of the system's presence of pkg-config, instead of
> skipping the installation.
>
> Fixes: 036016036e62 ("ncurses: Skip terminfo database install on host")
> Reported-by: Hannu Nyman <hannu.nyman at iki.fi>
> Reported-by: Edoardo Pinci <epinci at outlook.com>
> Tested-by: Hannu Nyman <hannu.nyman at iki.fi>
> Signed-off-by: Charlie Jenkins <thecharlesjenkins at gmail.com>
> ---
> There was a discussion on github here:
> https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/commit/6e5652a4aaf7bb00c11ddea7c1e702a68eb481c3
> ---
>   package/libs/ncurses/Makefile | 4 +++-
>   1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/package/libs/ncurses/Makefile b/package/libs/ncurses/Makefile
> index bd9c55369a..d5376b6ad9 100644
> --- a/package/libs/ncurses/Makefile
> +++ b/package/libs/ncurses/Makefile
> @@ -98,7 +98,9 @@ HOST_CONFIGURE_ARGS += \
>   	--without-profile \
>   	--without-tests \
>   	--without-curses-h \
> -	--disable-db-install
> +	--with-terminfo-dirs=$(STAGING_DIR_HOST)/share/terminfo \
> +	--with-default-terminfo-dir=$(STAGING_DIR_HOST)/share/terminfo \
> +	--with-pkg-config-libdir=$(STAGING_DIR_HOST)/lib/pkgconfig
>   
>   
>   ifeq ($(HOST_OS),FreeBSD)
>
> ---
> base-commit: d13ba979b017b63ebc18a4deab161b9557ea07f3
> change-id: 20261103-fix_ncurses-0013f20d9a6d
>
> Best regards,
> --
> - Charlie


Thanks for the fix proposal. Looks good to me in my own testing.

The analysis of the buggy behaviour of the current code can be found in a 
more detailed way in the discussion here:

https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/commit/6e5652a4aaf7bb00c11ddea7c1e702a68eb481c3#commitcomment-207815694


Hannu