pkg/51728: devel/ncurses renaming of lib{form,menu,panel} should be reverted before next release

[davshao%gmail.com@localhost]

>Number:         51728
>Category:       pkg
>Synopsis:       devel/ncurses renaming of lib{form,menu,panel} should be reverted before next release
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    pkg-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Mon Dec 19 05:05:01 +0000 2016
>Originator:     David Shao
>Release:        current pkgsrc
>Organization:
>Environment:
DragonFly  4.7-DEVELOPMENT DragonFly v4.7.0.1029.g95ec3-DEVELOPMENT #0: Sun Dec 18 19:27:32 PST 2016     xxxxxx@:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/X86_64_GENERIC  x86_64

>Description:
The recent change to devel/ncurses of renaming lib{form,menu,panel} should be reverted before the next release.  It does not even accomplish its stated purpose of fixing interaction with devel/cmake; instead, it breaks it.

This can be seen using DragonFly 4.7-DEVELOPMENT which has privatized base libraries such as (n)curses so that they are not even visible to the user.  Running (b)make on devel/cmake produces an error message:

-- Looking for cbreak in /usr/pkg/lib/libncurses.so - found
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:546 (message):
  CMAKE_USE_SYSTEM_FORM in ON but CURSES_FORM_LIBRARY is not set!

Of course building cmake cannot find CURSES_FORM_LIBRARY on this DragonFly system, because the renaming of libform in devel/ncurses broke it.  The only reason cmake still builds on some systems, perhaps almost all, is because they have a base libform for cmake to find.  Unfortunately I suspect this base library is not what is supposed to be found if one is trying to use pkgsrc ncurses as the curses replacement everywhere.

I argue the proper fix to the ncurses problem on NetBSD 7 is to simply make

PREFER_PKGSRC=yes

work everywhere, preferably as the default.  Especially in an era of package builders, there should be as little dependency on base libraries as possible.

To rename such well-known libraries is imposing on each porter an obligation to search through the package to see whether lib{form,menu,panel} are used, and if so, to find out how to rename these libraries with patches that can NEVER be accepted upstream.

Given the emphasis that has been made on other pkgsrc patches being acceptable only if they can be submitted upstream, I do not see the consistency of altering devel/ncurses with patches that have no hope of inclusion upstream.







>How-To-Repeat:

>Fix: