Linker error on Gentoo Linux (libncurses 6 with libtinfo)

[rseichter]

The bower build fails on Gentoo Linux if the machine's ncurses 6 library has been built with the tinfo flag. Flag description: Build curses library (libncurses) sep from the low-level terminfo library (libtinfo)

x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/bin/ld: Mercury/os/curs.o: undefined reference to symbol 'stdscr'
x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/bin/ld: /lib64/libtinfow.so.6: error adding symbols: DSO missing
from command line

[wangp]

You could add -ltinfow in src/Mercury.options or src/Mercury.params. Adding it unconditionally will break builds on systems without a separate libtinfo. I've been able to avoid a configure step so far, but it might be necessary eventually.

[rseichter]

I added a local workaround to my ebuild, but it relies on the user specifying a USE flag, which is quite inelegant.

[rseichter]

I found a better workaround for my Gentoo Linux ebuild that does not depend on the user knowing how libncurses was built, but overall it would be nice to have this addressed in the Bower build.