libtinfo.so.5: cannot open shared object file

[starper]

After the latest software update on my Pop!_OS (which is basically Ubuntu), spago started to throw an error:

spago: error while loading shared libraries: libtinfo.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

After some investigation I found out that I have libtinfo.so.6 not libtinfo.so.5 and the way to fix this problem is to create this symlink:

sudo ln -s /path/to/libtinfo.so.6 /path/to/libtinfo.so.5

I understand that it's not exactly a spago issue, but I still want to bring this up

• to save people that are facing this issue some googling time
• to find out if this fix is a correct way solve this problem

[justinwoo]

Related: https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack/issues/1012

[f-f]

After reading that issue I'm not sure there's a "proper way to fix it" on our side 🤔

[f-f]

Of course an option would be to compile a static binary for Linux.

[justinwoo]

I wouldn't want to impose that cost on everyone anyway. If someone really cares, they can patch the binary themselves e.g. https://github.com/justinwoo/easy-purescript-nix/blob/master/spago.nix

But many programs won't work without ncurses and other dependencies anyway

[f-f]

Turns out the reason why this happens is that we build spago on the fpco/stack-build Docker image, which is based on Ubuntu 16.04, which ships libtinfo.so.5, while it looks like the latest Ubuntu ships with libtinfo.so.6.

Since the latest Ubuntu has issues in compiling Haskell (source: a colleague has to use Nix to compile our Haskell stuff on his latest Ubuntu, and this is probably also the reason why FP Complete is still on Ubuntu 16), we probably cannot do anything about this. (short of statically compiling, which I'd avoid for now, as it's some effort to configure)

So I'll close this as "we cannot do much", but it's probably worth adding an entry to the FAQ?

[starper]

it's probably worth adding an entry to the FAQ?

Yeah, I think it's a good idea

[masaeedu]

This is an issue on Arch as well FWIW.

[f-f]

@masaeedu thanks for the report! Fix for the recommendation up in https://github.com/spacchetti/spago/pull/207

[ford-prefect]

As a note for Fedora users who end up here, you need to install ncurses-compat-libs

[ismailsunni]

Thanks @ford-prefect

[drewboardman]

This is an issue on Arch as well FWIW.

Did you fix this by just symlinking? @masaeedu

[ford-prefect]

@drewboardman you could try installing ncurses5-compat-libs

[drewboardman]

@ford-prefect that worked. Thank you

[Charles-Schleich]

What worked for me sudo apt-get install libtinfo5 Hope this helps someone

[idhowardgj94]

@Charles-Schleich work for me, thank you

[f-f]

@idhowardgj94 which version of Spago are you on? This should not happen anymore in the latest version (0.17)

[senorsmile]

confirming that installing ncurses5-compat-libs from the aur (on manjaro for me, so should work on arch too) solves the problem.

[f-f]

@senorsmile this should not be necessary anymore since a while - which version of Spago are you using?

[senorsmile]

@f-f 0.19.0

[hdgarrood]

I guess the message about libtinfo missing is coming from the compiler rather than from spago itself now, since the compiler does still require libtinfo.

[f-f]

@hdgarrood oh right, that makes perfect sense. Thank you!

[sevillaarvin]

As a note for Fedora users who end up here, you need to install ncurses-compat-libs

For manjaro as well:

pamac install ncurses5-compat-libs

Available via the AUR repo: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/cant-find-a-way-to-install-libtinfo-so-5/35129/3?u=6205f10b80