what is term library?

[Mario Vukelic]

On Mon, 2006-07-24 at 12:08 +0800, Chong Zan Kai wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Can someone tell me what is term library, please? I try to run
> the ./configure and it ended up with term library not found.

For "library" in general, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_(computing)

"In computer science, a library is a collection of subprograms used to
develop software. Libraries contain "helper" code and data, which
provide services to independent programs. This allows code and data to
be shared and changed in a modular fashion. Some executables are both
standalone programs and libraries, but most libraries are not
executables. Executables and libraries make reference known as links to
each other through the process known as linking, which is typically done
by a linker."

For example, the helper functions for the Gnome desktop environment are
mostly in packages called libgnome*, for example:

aptitude search libgnome
p libgnome-cil- CLI binding for GNOME
i libgnome-desktop-2  - Utility library for loading .desktop files -
runtime files
p libgnome-desktop-dev - Utility library for loading .desktop files -
development files
(...)

Library packages are usually split in two, just like the
libgnome-desktop packages in the example above. There is a
libgnome-desktop-2, which contains the runtime package (that is, you
need this package whenever you want to _run an application that needs
it), and there this the libgnome-desktop-dev package, which you only
need to _compile an application.

Note the the output of ./configure can mean either one is missing

> 
> The log:
> 
> ./configure --target=arm-elf
> ...
> ...
> ...
> checking for tgetent in -ltermcap... (cached) no
> checking for tgetent in -lcurses... (cached) no
> checking for tgetent in -lterminfo... no
> configure: error: Could not find a term library

The configure script is looking for a library that helps accessing the
terminal, hence "term library". I think you need to install libncurses5
and libncurses5-dev.

Alternatively, the configure script could also use libtermcap or
libterminfo (plus *-dev), but as far as I can see they are not available
in Ubuntu. (Please correct me someone if I'm wrong. I can't find them)