configure: error: curses library not found, so this package cannot be built when installing terminfo on nixos

[mzabani]

Using stack 1.4.0 compiled with Cabal-1.24.2.0 on Nixos 17.03 with lts-8.20 and ghc-8.0.2, I can't install terminfo on any of my projects:

mzabani@nixos:~/Projects/bancot]$ stack install terminfo
terminfo-0.4.1.0: configure
Package terminfo uses a custom Cabal build, but does not use a custom-setup stanza
Not using the explicit setup deps approach based on configuration
Strongly recommend fixing the package's cabal file

--  While building package terminfo-0.4.1.0 using:
  /run/user/1000/stack10060/terminfo-0.4.1.0/.stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-nix/Cabal-1.24.2.0/setup/setup --builddir=.stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-nix/Cabal-1.24.2.0 configure --with-ghc=/nix/store/8v64zpyci6rgrzzbhc2bfa911yfmnfw5-ghc-8.0.2/bin/ghc --with-ghc-pkg=/nix/store/8v64zpyci6rgrzzbhc2bfa911yfmnfw5-ghc-8.0.2/bin/ghc-pkg --user --package-db=clear --package-db=global --package-db=/home/mzabani/.stack/snapshots/x86_64-linux-nix/lts-8.20/8.0.2/pkgdb --libdir=/home/mzabani/.stack/snapshots/x86_64-linux-nix/lts-8.20/8.0.2/lib --bindir=/home/mzabani/.stack/snapshots/x86_64-linux-nix/lts-8.20/8.0.2/bin --datadir=/home/mzabani/.stack/snapshots/x86_64-linux-nix/lts-8.20/8.0.2/share --libexecdir=/home/mzabani/.stack/snapshots/x86_64-linux-nix/lts-8.20/8.0.2/libexec --sysconfdir=/home/mzabani/.stack/snapshots/x86_64-linux-nix/lts-8.20/8.0.2/etc --docdir=/home/mzabani/.stack/snapshots/x86_64-linux-nix/lts-8.20/8.0.2/doc/terminfo-0.4.1.0 --htmldir=/home/mzabani/.stack/snapshots/x86_64-linux-nix/lts-8.20/8.0.2/doc/terminfo-0.4.1.0 --haddockdir=/home/mzabani/.stack/snapshots/x86_64-linux-nix/lts-8.20/8.0.2/doc/terminfo-0.4.1.0 --dependency=base=base-4.9.1.0 --extra-include-dirs=/nix/store/05053nfzcqbrij1qxd2z20yhamyg14dj-glpk-4.61/include --extra-include-dirs=/nix/store/6m705shsri2f131cq07fq95dswcrjg5l-postgresql-9.5.6/include --extra-include-dirs=/nix/store/8s9rnmlr3kpf1g9wwr5hzxiiqk706mlw-zlib-1.2.11-dev/include --extra-include-dirs=/nix/store/8v64zpyci6rgrzzbhc2bfa911yfmnfw5-ghc-8.0.2/include --extra-include-dirs=/nix/store/hasadnj5n3lfmm3n85knhwq7kb61i63g-pcre-8.40-dev/include --extra-include-dirs=/nix/store/pf89226bwyplwszk8brivdfrx04ly7k5-ncurses-6.0-dev/include --extra-lib-dirs=/nix/store/05053nfzcqbrij1qxd2z20yhamyg14dj-glpk-4.61/lib --extra-lib-dirs=/nix/store/8v64zpyci6rgrzzbhc2bfa911yfmnfw5-ghc-8.0.2/lib --extra-lib-dirs=/nix/store/ally147d2h11jv34w1saml1ni7kkxmch-pcre-8.40/lib --extra-lib-dirs=/nix/store/kk8r62xz5g1hn1mn1307fcj24anp5m6g-zlib-1.2.11/lib --extra-lib-dirs=/nix/store/sj8rnawbay2j2hiqgazsbq05rlpha5lq-ncurses-6.0/lib --extra-lib-dirs=/nix/store/smqi632v999n8i77q5f74cwhc9a1vyhy-postgresql-9.5.6-lib/lib
Process exited with code: ExitFailure 1
Logs have been written to: /home/mzabani/Projects/bancot/.stack-work/logs/terminfo-0.4.1.0.log

[1 of 2] Compiling Main             ( /run/user/1000/stack10060/terminfo-0.4.1.0/Setup.lhs, /run/user/1000/stack10060/terminfo-0.4.1.0/.stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-nix/Cabal-1.24.2.0/setup/Main.o )
[2 of 2] Compiling StackSetupShim   ( /home/mzabani/.stack/setup-exe-src/setup-shim-mPHDZzAJ.hs, /run/user/1000/stack10060/terminfo-0.4.1.0/.stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-nix/Cabal-1.24.2.0/setup/StackSetupShim.o )
Linking /run/user/1000/stack10060/terminfo-0.4.1.0/.stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-nix/Cabal-1.24.2.0/setup/setup ...
Configuring terminfo-0.4.1.0...
configure: WARNING: unrecognized options: --with-compiler
checking for gcc... /nix/store/b43ww9wkpwjxha7ql7mizxpa2vb6yk5r-gcc-wrapper-5.4.0/bin/cc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether /nix/store/b43ww9wkpwjxha7ql7mizxpa2vb6yk5r-gcc-wrapper-5.4.0/bin/cc accepts -g... yes
checking for /nix/store/b43ww9wkpwjxha7ql7mizxpa2vb6yk5r-gcc-wrapper-5.4.0/bin/cc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for setupterm in -ltinfo... no
checking for setupterm in -lncursesw... no
checking for setupterm in -lncurses... no
checking for setupterm in -lcurses... no
configure: error: in `/run/user/1000/stack10060/terminfo-0.4.1.0':
configure: error: curses library not found, so this package cannot be built
See `config.log' for more details

Here is ~/Projects/bancot/stack.yaml:

resolver: lts-8.20
packages:
- '.'
extra-deps: []
flags: {}
extra-package-dbs: []

Here is ~/.stack/config.yaml:

nix:
  packages:
  - zlib
  - pcre
  - glpk
  - postgresql
  - ncurses
  enable: true
  pure: true
  system-ghc: true

I have also tried setting pure to false, but nothing changed. I do have ncurses-6.0 installed, as can be seen by the build command itself. I have also tried lts-7.24, but had the same results.

Sorry if this is old news for you, I can't seem to find anything related to this on the other issues.
Thank you in advance.

[mzabani]

I imagine you guys must be pretty busy, is there any more information I can get to help with this issue or anything I could try to fix this (I'm just an amateur with Nix, but if there any pointers on where to look and learn maybe I could help anyway).

[chris-martin]

@mzabani This comment seems to be the workaround.

Actually, I'm not sure this is even actually a bug - It's just that the terminfo package has a surprising set of native dependencies. We may want to file an issue at terminfo to add some documentation for this.

[chris-martin]

Upon further experimentation, it seems that you only need the ncurses and gcc Nix packages.

[lboklin]

@chris-martin It doesn't solve the problem for me.

[mtesseract]

I can confirm that using the following .stack/config.yaml:

system-ghc: true
nix:
  enable: true
  packages: [ gcc ncurses ]

I can build terminfo-0.4.1.0 with stack (and then also intero).
The "gcc" entry in the packages field above seems mandatory — with only "ncurses" building terminfo fails with the reported curses problem.

[mpilgrem]

I am closing this issue given the passage of time.