Re: Problem with compiling ncurses under FreeBSD 7.2

[Thomas Dickey]

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009, michael green wrote:

> I am using FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE. Generic kernel. Full install.
>
> I wanted to install ncurses because MS FoxPro Unix needs a terminfo database.
>
> I read INSTALL and README.
>
> I ran ./configure in the appropriate directory (/usr/src/contrib/ncurses). The 
> messages stopped with the following error:
> config.status: error: cannot find input file: test/Makefile.in
>
> How should I prodceed? Thanks in advance.

It looks as if the source-tree is incomplete (FreeBSD uses its own 
makefile, and questions about _that_ should go to one of the FreeBSD 
mailing lists - I'm not familiar with the build process).

Since FreeBSD is installing ncurses (in a different way than you'd want), 
you're better off installing it as a second copy - for instance static 
libraries, etc., under /usr/local/ncurses.  You can "always" set the 
TERMINFO environment variable to make terminfo-based applications look at 
a different directory tree.  Starting with the original sources, I'd
do something like

        configure --prefix=/usr/local/ncurses && make && make install

then
        setenv TERMINFO /usr/local/ncurses/share/terminfo

I recall some discussion several years ago about FoxPro - it wasn't
really that portable.  But you may be able to make it run.  (I'd use
ktrace to check that it's actually reading the terminfo that you
provide).

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