ncurses 5.9 and terminal size

["Filip Hajny" <filip%joyent.com@localhost>]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to figure out a problem with ncurses 5.9 that has been plaguing me 
since 2011Q1. The basic problem can be summed this way:

[root@pkgbuild ~]# echo $LINES
40
[root@pkgbuild ~]# tput lines
24
[root@pkgbuild ~]# export LINES
[root@pkgbuild ~]# tput lines
40

Unless I export LINES/COLUMNS, ncurses (and any ncurses-based app) will only 
use a 80x25 terminal size. If I export, everything is fine and ncurses will use 
the full terminal window. If I use ncurses 5.8 (e.g. from 2010Q4), problem goes 
away and I do not need to export.

I'm only using pkgsrc on Solaris systems - does ncurses 5.9 behave the same way 
on NetBSD? If not, any hint on where's the problem coming from? I can't find 
anything remotely relevant in the changelogs.

-F