Why have I got TWO terminfor databases?
Charles Lindsey
I recently needs gdb (woks better with gcc compiler), so I installed
SFWgdb and also, because it said there was a dependency, SFWncur (both
part of the standard solaris distribution.
Now lots of applications rely on the terminfo database (e.g. all
terminal=like things such as xterm, dtterm, etc. and also lp), which
includes every known terminal since arounf 1970, and is to be found in
/usr/share/lib/terminfo, which all the relevant applications expect to
find it. It is part of SUNWter, and it comes with associated applications
such as infocmp(1m) and tic(1m).
BUT SFWncur installs a second terminfo database in
/opt/sfw/share/terminfo, and provides its own versions of infocmp and tic.
And, in accordance with Murphy's law, the wrong one came first on my PATH,
and also on my MANPATH.
But how and why did Sun come to have two programs with the same name in
their standard Solaris distribution?
--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Tel: +44 161 436 6131 Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: c...@clerew.man.ac.uk Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5
Martha Starkey
> Solaris 10.u1 on a sparc.
>
> I recently needs gdb (woks better with gcc compiler), so I installed
> SFWgdb and also, because it said there was a dependency, SFWncur (both
> part of the standard solaris distribution.
>
> Now lots of applications rely on the terminfo database (e.g. all
> terminal=like things such as xterm, dtterm, etc. and also lp), which
> includes every known terminal since arounf 1970, and is to be found in
> /usr/share/lib/terminfo, which all the relevant applications expect to
> find it. It is part of SUNWter, and it comes with associated applications
> such as infocmp(1m) and tic(1m).
>
> BUT SFWncur installs a second terminfo database in
> /opt/sfw/share/terminfo, and provides its own versions of infocmp and tic.
>
> And, in accordance with Murphy's law, the wrong one came first on my PATH,
> and also on my MANPATH.
>
> But how and why did Sun come to have two programs with the same name in
> their standard Solaris distribution?
>
I'm not finding anything that indicates that SFWncur was ever included
'bundled' with Solaris. It was on a Companion CD (unbundled software,
which you add post install) in Solaris 9. It can be downloaded here for
both S9 and S10:
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/freeware/
"Now, you have two primary sources of freeware that work with the
Solaris 10 Operating System:
1. Freeware that is included on the Solaris 10 CD in separate and
distinct modules, which is being made available as a convenience to our
customers
* technologies that users may expect to find with their
operating environment are now included with the Solaris environment
2. Freeware that is co-packaged via the Solaris 10 Companion CD
* other useful and popular technologies are offered as an
unsupported value-add CD
This table contains a summary of the freeware referenced in the above
bullets. . . . . . . ."
HTH!
Charles Lindsey
>On 11/11/09 10:51, Charles Lindsey wrote:
>> Solaris 10.u1 on a sparc.
>>
>> I recently needs gdb (woks better with gcc compiler), so I installed
>> SFWgdb and also, because it said there was a dependency, SFWncur (both
>> part of the standard solaris distribution.
>>
>> Now lots of applications rely on the terminfo database (e.g. all
>> terminal=like things such as xterm, dtterm, etc. and also lp), which
>> includes every known terminal since arounf 1970, and is to be found in
>> /usr/share/lib/terminfo, which all the relevant applications expect to
>> find it. It is part of SUNWter, and it comes with associated applications
>> such as infocmp(1m) and tic(1m).
>>
>> BUT SFWncur installs a second terminfo database in
>> /opt/sfw/share/terminfo, and provides its own versions of infocmp and tic.
>>
>> And, in accordance with Murphy's law, the wrong one came first on my PATH,
>> and also on my MANPATH.
>>
>> But how and why did Sun come to have two programs with the same name in
>> their standard Solaris distribution?
>>
>I'm not finding anything that indicates that SFWncur was ever included
>'bundled' with Solaris. It was on a Companion CD (unbundled software,
>which you add post install) in Solaris 9. It can be downloaded here for
>both S9 and S10:
Yes, I think you are right. I must have taken gdb and ncur from the
Companion Disc. But I am still surprised that Sun would include anything
on the Companion Disc that would interfere with anything on the main
Solaris distribution. They should have renamed any such critical items
(like sticking a 'g' on the front).
Thomas Dickey
> Now lots of applications rely on theterminfodatabase (e.g. all
> terminal=like things such asxterm, dtterm, etc. and also lp), which
> includes every known terminal since arounf 1970, and is to be found in
> /usr/share/lib/terminfo, which all the relevant applications expect to
> find it. It is part of SUNWter, and it comes with associated applications
> such as infocmp(1m) and tic(1m).
Sun's terminal database hasn't been maintained for more than ten years
(one of Sun's support people proudly commented a few years ago that it
hadn't been touched since 1996). So.., if you want to use _anything_
that's
been touched since that point, your only recourse is to go to an
alternate
source.
> BUT SFWncur installs a secondterminfodatabase in
> /opt/sfw/share/terminfo, and provides its own versions of infocmp and tic.
>
> And, in accordance with Murphy's law, the wrong one came first on my PATH,
> and also on my MANPATH.
ncurses' applications, by the way, should be doing what Solaris's do -
plus added functionality. (I'm not seeing a bug report here).
--
Thomas E. Dickey <dic...@invisible-island.net>
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net
Charles Lindsey
>On Nov 11, 10:51�am, "Charles Lindsey" <c...@clerew.man.ac.uk> wrote:
>> Now lots of applications rely on theterminfodatabase (e.g. all
>> terminal=like things such asxterm, dtterm, etc. and also lp), which
>> includes every known terminal since arounf 1970, and is to be found in
>> /usr/share/lib/terminfo, which all the relevant applications expect to
>> find it. It is part of SUNWter, and it comes with associated applications
>> such as infocmp(1m) and tic(1m).
>Sun's terminal database hasn't been maintained for more than ten years
>(one of Sun's support people proudly commented a few years ago that it
>hadn't been touched since 1996). So.., if you want to use _anything_
>that's
>been touched since that point, your only recourse is to go to an
>alternate
>source.
But such of Sun's applications that need to consult a terminffo database
are hardcoded to look for in in /usr/share/lib. The one that caught me out
was 'lp' - I had configued a new Printer Type, and found myself using the
wrong version of tic. Presumably, Gdb is hardcoded to look for it in
/opt/share. But there are plenty of native curses applications using Sun's
curses lib which will still be looking in /usr/share.
Thomas Dickey
> In <700c8a0b-abc5-4e6c-943f-0903eb24f...@o10g2000yqa.googlegroups.com> Thomas Dickey <dic...@his.com> writes:
>
> >On Nov 11, 10:51 am, "Charles Lindsey" <c...@clerew.man.ac.uk> wrote:
> But such of Sun's applications that need to consult a terminffo database
> are hardcoded to look for in in /usr/share/lib. The one that caught me out
> was 'lp' - I had configued a new Printer Type, and found myself using the
I see that lp is setuid to root, so I can't tell if it honors
$TERMINFO
(if it doesn't, that's a bug in lp of course). Generally you should
be
able to set $TERMINFO to override the compiled-in path.
> wrong version of tic. Presumably, Gdb is hardcoded to look for it in
> /opt/share. But there are plenty of native curses applications using Sun's
gdb probably works pays attention to $TERMINFO,
since (recent versions at least) use curses.
> curses lib which will still be looking in /usr/share.
probably not plenty (Solaris doesn't have _that_ many buggy apps).