Bug#326598: [cl-debian] Bug#326598: cmucl-source: suggests libc5-dependent package

[Roger Leigh]

Martin Rydstr|m <rydis at cd.chalmers.se> writes:

> On Sun, Sep 04, 2005 at 12:38:59PM +0100, Roger Leigh wrote:
>> Martin Rydstr|m <rydis at cd.chalmers.se> writes:
>> 
>> > On Sun, Sep 04, 2005 at 11:08:36AM +0100, Roger Leigh wrote:
>> >> Package: cmucl-source
>> >> Severity: normal
>> >> 
>> >> cmucl-source suggests termcap-compat.  This is a libc5 compatibility
>> >> package which should not have been used by contemporary packages for
>> >> at least 6 years.
>> >> 
>> >> Please could you remove the termcap-compat suggestion completely.
>> >
>> > I'm fairly certain that Hemlock in terminal mode requires some sort
>> > of termcap compatibility. I don't know whether this is supplied by
>> > something else these days, but very few people seem to use Hemlock,
>> > so I thought I'd just mention it, in case Hemlock-in-terminal does
>> > not work without it, and people wonder what it's for.
>> 
>> Nowadays everything should use terminfo.  termcap-compat is not
>> intended for use with current Debian packages; it exists only for
>> libc5 applications, typically proprietary binary-only programs which
>> can't be rebuilt.  cmucl-source doesn't fall into this category, and
>> is naturally only dependent on libc6-based packages.
>
> It parses /etc/termcap directly itself. It doesn't actually use any
> termcap library, AFAIK. I imagine there might be some way to hack
> around it by setting TERMCAP if terminfo/ncurses supplies any way
> to automatically generate it, that might be a possibility, in a
> wrapper script, if nothing else. If there is some other package that
> provides /etc/termcap, that'd work, of course.

The /etc/termcap in termcap-compat is well outdated.

You can create one yourself using 'tic -C', from what I have read
(ncurses-bin and ncurses-base).  I tried this with 'misc/terminfo.src'
from the ncurses source package, and it appeared to work correctly.

However, termcap has been deprecated in Debian for many years now,
being replaced by terminfo.  I would highly recommend switching to
terminfo; this is the last remaining package which does not support at
least terminfo, or both terminfo and termcap.


Regards,
Roger

-- 
Roger Leigh
                Printing on GNU/Linux?  http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/
                Debian GNU/Linux        http://www.debian.org/
                GPG Public Key: 0x25BFB848.  Please sign and encrypt your mail.