Re: Display difference between ncurses version 5.7 and version 6.0.0.20170708

[Thomas Dickey]

On Fri, Jul 21, 2017 at 11:56:38AM -0700, Rich Burridge wrote:
> On 07/20/2017 07:23 AM, Rich Burridge wrote:
> >...
> >
> >I tried copying the compiled xterm-color terminfo file from the
> >Solaris 11.3 system (i.e. one build with ncurses 5.7), to the
> >11.4 system, but I still see the problem. It does suggest that there
> >is a difference in the ncurses version 5.7 vs 6.0-20170408 code
> >that is causing the difference.
> 
> And the winner is!   <drum roll> ...
> 
> You need to configure ncurses with:
> 
> --with-abi-version=5

yes - ABI 5/6 differences can produce problems (though most reports have
been that colors aren't working at all)
 
> If I do that, then my test program nicely works.

I see: hadn't noticed before, but if you're building ncurses6 and
using the libraries with python built for ncurses5, then you'll have
to do that.  Python will load whatever ncurses flavor you ask, but
not know that datatype sizes are different...

I suspect that Python would load the library anyway, but versioned
symbols would fix the problem with most C applications.

While ncurses6 has versioned symbols, I don't have a configuration
that makes it work with Solaris, since its linker errors out if you
mention a symbol which doesn't happen to be in the current configuration.
 
> That's definitely how ncurses is configured on my Ubuntu LTS 16.04
> system. I suspect it's true on Debian too.

yes... Debian's moving to ncurses6 (ABI 6) on the newer stuff, but
Ubuntu 16.04 is definitely ABI 5.  Perhaps Ubuntu 18 or 19 :-)
 
> Thanks for your help with this Thomas.

no problem

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <address@hidden>
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

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