[Ifeffit] Re: ifeffit installation on Linux

[Matt Newville]

Hi Peter,

> Here's the output:
> 
> src/cmdline/Makefile:TERMCAP_LIB = -ltermcap
> src/cmdline/Makefile:# readline_LIB = -L$(top_srcdir)/readline 
> -lreadline $(TERMCAP_LIB)
> src/cmdline/Makefile:readline_LIB = 
> $(top_srcdir)/readline/libreadline.a $(TERMCAP_LIB)
> readline/Makefile:TERMCAP_LIB = -ltermcap
> readline/Makefile:      $(CC) $(CCFLAGS) -o $@ ./examples/rl.c 
> ../libreadline.a ${TERMCAP_LIB}
> # locate termcap:
> /usr/lib/libtermcap.so.2
> /usr/lib/libtermcap.so.2.0.8
> /usr/lib/termcap/libtermcap.a
> /usr/lib/termcap/libtermcap.so
> # locate curses:
> /usr/lib/curses/libcurses.a
> /usr/lib/curses/libcurses.so
> /usr/lib/libcurses.so.1
> /usr/lib/libcurses.so.1.0.0
> 

Thanks for the report.   That looks like the change to 
configure did what it was supposed to do: instead of having
'./lib/termcap/libtermcap.a',  it now has '-ltermcap'.
The odd things to me are that
 a) libtermcap.a seems to be in an odd location 
    (/usr/lib/termcap), which makes me wonder how any readline 
    applications work.
 b) you still end up with a './lib/termcap/libtermcap.a' 
    somewhere in your Makefile, but *not* as 
         TERMCAP_LIB=./lib/termcap/libtermcap.a
    I have no idea where that would be coming from.

I don't think that an extra '-L./lib/termcap' is causing a 
problem (it's ok to have '-L' arguments that point nowhere) but 
that the linking can't find the right libtermcap.a with 
'-ltermcap' alone.  

If the Makefiles said TERMCAP_LIB= '-L/usr/lib/termcap -ltermcap'
that would work for sure.   

I've been relying on a 'BASH_CHECK_LIB_TERMCAP' macro in
autoconf, which apparantly doesn't know to look in
/usr/lib/termcap.  At this point, it may be easier to just write
a function to look for the right termcap library.  I think
readline can use termcap, curses, or ncurses, and to be honest,
I find the differences confusing.

Anyway, thanks for the help!

--Matt