RE: (newbie) Unable to validate install - Error opening terminal

[Bill Klein]

> From: Thomas Dickey [mailto:address@hidden 
> Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 12:47 PM
> To: Bill Klein
> Cc: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: (newbie) Unable to validate install - Error 
> opening terminal
> 
> On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 10:55:20AM -0600, Bill Klein wrote:
> > First, let me state that I am certain that this is a "user 
> error".  I am a
> > Windows XP person (no screams please) and have installed 
> Cygwin - and that
> > seems to work fine.  I am NOT an experienced Unix or Linux 
> user, so please
> > accept my apologies in advance if I have missed something obvious.
> > 
> > I tried installing ncurses-5.7 and have followed the 
> instructions (using
> > TAR, configure, and make). According to the instructions, 
> before I run "make
> > install", I should run the programs in the test directory. 
> when I entered
> >   ./ncurses
> > 
> > I get the
> >  error opening terminal: cygwin
> 
> ok - then the test/ncurses.exe is looking for the terminfo database
> in some other location than where you have it installed.
> 
> That could happen if the configure script's "prefix" is set different.
> 
> If you have it installed someplace, then you can make the 
> test programs
> look there by setting the TERMINFO or TERMINFO_DIRS 
> environment variables
> to point to that directory.
>  
> > I found some online comments that some programs can't use 
> cygwin.  I then
> > installed and ran from rxvt.  (I totally removed ncurses 
> and reinstalled
> > from there) and still get the message but now it gives me 
> the message for 
> >   terminal: xterm
> > 
> > I have verified that I have the directory
> >   cygwin/usr/share/terminfo
>     ^^^^^^ (within cygwin shells, you'd see just /usr/share/terminfo)
> 
> > and that it has lots of subdirectories including
> >   c/cygwin
> > and
> >   x/xterm
> 
> one of cygwin's pitfalls is that it allows one to install filesystems
> that are in text-mode rather than binary.  (that would make accesses
> to binary files such as terminfo not work - but since you say infocmp
> is working, that doesn't _sound_ like the problem).
>  
> > Using google, I found one note about problems with Cygwin 
> if "C:" isn't my
> > local drive, but C is my local drive.
> > 
> > I have also entered
> >   infocmp
> > 
> > from both the bash and the rxvt shells and they see to find 
> "appropriate"
> > term info
> 
> What does
>       infocmp
>       infocmp cygwin
> show?
> 
> -- 
> Thomas E. Dickey <address@hidden>
> http://invisible-island.net
> ftp://invisible-island.net
> 

I could run the infocmp and sent it, but I (sort-of?) solved the problem
myself.  Having not heard anything else and not being good enough at
Unix/Linux to determine where it was looking for the terminfo stuff, I
decided to be "daring" and I ran

  make install

That seemed to run OK and AFTER it was run, then running

  ./ncurses

from the /test directory ran fine.  This makes me think that something in
the installation instructions is missing and that (at least with Cygwin),
you need to either run the test programs from some other directory or that
you need to set some "path" (or path-like") value before trying to run the
tests.

I do have a couple of other "newbie" questions, that I will probably be
sending, but as they aren't show-stoppers (so far), I think that asking each
question in a separate note is probably best.

My problem was probably with the instructions:

"NOTE: You must have installed the terminfo database, or set the
    environment variable $TERMINFO to point to a SVr4-compatible terminfo
    database before running the test programs.  Not all vendors' terminfo
    databases are SVr4-compatible, but most seem to be.  Exceptions include
    DEC's Digital Unix (formerly known as OSF/1)."

To me, the fact that I had been able to run things like "rxvt" meant that I
had "already installed a terminfo database".  My guess is that if I knew how
to and what to set that to first, the test would have worked.

P.S. In the 
  You will need the following to build and install ncurses under UNIX:

I think you need to add a C++ compiler.  This may be obvious to most people
who use this system, but for what I am installing it for (Open COBOL), I
(generally) needed a C compiler but so far haven't needed a C++ compiler.
Before I got that from Cygwin, the original "configure" failed with a
message - telling me this was missing.