Subject: Re: ncurses and terminfo are broken on Solaris/SunOS (Re: pkg/20881)
To: None <tech-pkg@netbsd.org>
From: grant beattie <grant@netbsd.org>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 04/04/2003 10:04:15
On Thu, Apr 03, 2003 at 06:53:11PM -0500, Greg A. Woods wrote:

> > since when did ncurses become a dependency of screen? this argument is
> > completely invalid.
> 
> You seem to have the logic behind this stuff backwards too Grant.
> 
> Since when is _any_ terminal description database or terminal driving
> library a dependency of any terminal emulator?  Why never of course! :-)

uhm, obviously.

> To pick on one particularly good example:
> 
> Does the x11/xterm package depend on ncurses?  No, of course not.
> 
> Does the x11/xterm package install terminfo files that would conflict
> with with files "owned" by the devel/ncurses package?  No, of course
> not!

I would suggest the reverse is better - ncurses shouldn't install the
screen terminfo files, since we have them elsewhere (which is a more
authoritative source).

> X11/xterm is a good example to pick on because it does install two
> _sample_ terminal description files, one for termcap use and one for
> terminfo use.  This is what misc/screen could do, if anything, with its
> _sample_ terminal description files.

I imagine that most systems include an 'xterm' termcap/terminfo entry,
so this is the "right" thing to do.

screen is a bit different, most non-open-source OSs probably don't
have a termcap/terminfo entry for it, which is why the screen pkg
provides it.

g.