Re: [patch] configure.ac, configure: curses/termcap on *-*-osf5.*

[mec dot gnu at mindspring dot com (Michael Elizabeth Chastain)]

Mark Kettenis writes:
> What I'm saying is that I don't see why gdb wouldn't build on a
> *-*-osf5* system with a properly installed ncurses if it builds on the
> same system with the vendor's curses library.

Okay, I've tried that.  I built ncurses 5.4 from source, built gdb with
it, and it linked and ran.  gdbtui opens windows properly.

> What seems to be the problem here is that on the test-drive system
> you're using, the ncurses library isn't properly installed.

That's true, because /usr/local/lib/libncurses.a is missing a lot
of entry points which are described in the locally installed
documentation for ncurses on that system.

> This makes me wonder why configure doesn't detect ncurses as being broken.

configure links a C program with an extern for 'initscr'.
/usr/local/lib/ncurses.a resolves 'initscr' so configure
thinks that the whole library works.

> However, GDB prefers ncurses over the vendor curses library.  I think it
> is in the GNU spirit to prefer an Open Source implementation over a
> proprietary one.

Spirit is fine, but we've got actual results from two systems.
The system that Joel uses has no ncurses, and the system that
I use has a broken ncurses.  So far nobody has pointed to a system
with a working ncurses.

> The vendor's curses implementation may be incomplete or
> may have serious bugs.

That's true.  That's why I actually ran gdbtui after building it
and watched the full-screen version working.

> Could you be so kind to revert the bit of your patch that special
> cases *-*-osf5* when looking for a curses library?

Well, okay.  I'll do that.

Michael C