How can I use xindy on a system with libncurses.so.6?

Question

My GNU/Linux system (Arch) now has libncurses.so.6 rather than libncurses.so.5. But I have upstream's vanilla TeX Live (fully updated) and xindy wants libncurses.so.5:

xindy --version

produces the following error

xindy release: 2.5.1
xindy script version: 1.18
/usr/local/texlive/bin/xindy.run: error while loading shared libraries: libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

And ldd can confirm the problem:

ldd /usr/local/texlive/bin/xindy.run 

gives

    linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffc07997000)
    libm.so.6 => /usr/lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007fab4d1b1000)
    libcrypt.so.1 => /usr/lib/libcrypt.so.1 (0x00007fab4cf79000)
    libncurses.so.5 => not found
    libdl.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fab4cd75000)
    libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007fab4c9d1000)
    /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fab4d4af000)

How can I use xindy without changing my operating system, while using vanilla TeX Live?

2 strategies have occurred to me:

1. compile xindy from sources against libncurses.so.6;

2. compile and install libncurses.so.5 alongside libncurses.so.6.

Option (2) can be dodgy or can be fine, depending on the details. My suspicion is it may be dodgy for this library, simply because no packages are available for the old version of the library, which might mean there are problems having both installed. Moreover, since everything else is compiled against the new version, I'm not sure whether this would be enough for xindy anyway.

Option (1) I have no idea about. I don't know if this is even vaguely doable or, in fact, where the sources are or what might be required to compile them. (I don't suppose there's any chance a pre-compiled binary is available somewhere? But that is probably hoping for too much ;).)

What is the most practicable approach?

Answer 1

I don't know if this is an answer. It is, at least, a workaround.

This is specific to Arch Linux. It may be that it can be modified for other systems, should the need arise, but that is not something I have any knowledge of at this time. (My other system runs Fedora where there's no issue at the moment.)

---

On Arch Linux, you can install the AUR package ncurses5-compat-libs. As I understand it, this is using source with the same major version as the main repo's ncurses package:

ncurses5-compat-libs:

Repository     : aur
Name           : ncurses5-compat-libs
Version        : 6.0-2
URL            : http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html
AUR Page       : https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ncurses5-compat-libs
Depends On     : glibc  gcc-libs  sh
License        : MIT
Votes          : 82
Popularity     : 35.48
Out of Date    : No
Maintainer     : Barthalion
Submitted      : Dydd Gwener 18 mis Medi 2015 22:03:12 BST
Last Modified  : Dydd Gwener 18 mis Medi 2015 22:03:12 BST
Description    : System V Release 4.0 curses emulation library, ABI 5

ncurses:

Repository     : core
Name           : ncurses
Version        : 6.0-3
Description    : System V Release 4.0 curses emulation library
Architecture   : x86_64
URL            : http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.html
Licences       : MIT
Groups         : None
Provides       : libncurses++w.so=6-64  libformw.so=6-64  libmenuw.so=6-64  libpanelw.so=6-64  libncursesw.so=6-64
Depends On     : glibc  gcc-libs
Optional Deps  : None
Conflicts With : None
Replaces       : None
Download Size  : 1007.14 KiB
Installed Size : 3407.00 KiB
Packager       : Evangelos Foutras <evangelos@foutrelis.com>
Build Date     : Dydd Mawrth 15 mis Medi 2015 04:47:59 BST
Validated By   : MD5 Sum  SHA256 Sum  Signature

The difference, I think, is in the way the packages are built:

ncurses5-compat-libs's PKGBUILD includes this code:

build() {
  cd $_pkgname-${pkgver/_/-}

  ./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man \
     --with-shared --with-normal --without-debug --without-ada \
     --enable-widec --enable-pc-files --with-cxx-binding --with-cxx-shared \
     --with-abi-version=5
  make
}

whereas ncurse's PKGBUILD uses this code:

build() {
  cd $pkgname-${pkgver/_/-}

  ./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man \
     --with-shared --with-normal --without-debug --without-ada \
     --enable-widec --enable-pc-files --with-cxx-binding --with-cxx-shared \
     --enable-ext-colors --enable-ext-mouse
  make
}

So I'm assuming that the --with-abi-version=5 is the key here, and that this option is what ensures that libncursesw.so.5 is built rather than libncursesw.so.6. (libncurses.so.5 and libncurses.so.6 are just symbolic links to libncursesw.so.5 and libncursesw.so.6 respectively, which support 'wide' characters on terminals for better international support, I think).

There is also an AUR package providing the 32-bit versions of the libraries provided by libncurses5-compat-libs (i.e. the 5 versions of the libraries provided by the main repo's lib32-ncurses).