Re: libtermcap

[Thomas Dickey]

On Fri, 31 Aug 2007, Michail Vidiassov wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> in my system (Mac OS X) there is a symlink to libncurses
> dynamic library called libtermcap (in /usr/lib, system location).
>
> What is the likely reason for making it?

It's probably there to support things such as the shell (sh/csh)
which generally uses termcap.

> Can libncursesw be compile with enable-termcap and linked that way
> or such a link makes sense only for non-wide ncurses?

The enable-termcap option lets ncurses read termcap files (such as 
/etc/termcap in addition to the normal terminfo database).  Whether that 
option is used or not, ncurses provides a termcap interface.  The 
interfaces for the terminfo/termcap functions in ncurses are identical no 
matter whether it is normal or wide.

_Replacing_ the system's shared libraries can be awkward - I can't
give much advice on Max OS X...

> If I intend to have both wide and non-wide libraries installed,
> I have to compile wide curses without --enable-termcap,
> non-wide with --enable-termcap and make that symlink, right?

I _think_ you could make the libtermcap link to either library.

--
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net