Htop: Debian 8.3 - libncursew error during configure.

[FlorentATo]

Hi,

I'd like to compile htop 2.0 on Debian 8.3 but I encounter the following error in the configure process:

(...)
checking for addnwstr in -lncursesw... no
checking for addnwstr in -lncurses... no
checking for addnwstr in -lncursesw6... no
checking for addnwstr in -lncursesw... (cached) no
checking for addnwstr in -lncurses... (cached) no
configure: error: You may want to use --disable-unicode or install libncursesw.
ato@kimsufi-ato:~/htop$ sudo apt-cache search libncursesw
libncursesw5 - shared libraries for terminal handling (wide character support)
libncursesw5-dbg - debugging/profiling libraries for ncursesw
ato@kimsufi-ato:~$ sudo locate libncursesw
[sudo] password for ato: 
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5.9
(...)

I tried to analyze configure (the file) but I couldn't find a way to set the path to the lib.
Thank you for your time :)

[kaefer]

I had the same problem as you (libncursesw5 installed, but ./configure won't find it).

Installing the libncursesw5-dev package solved this.
(Note: I'm on Kubuntu 15.10)

[hishamhm]

Thanks @kaefer for elucidating @FlorentATo's issue :)

[FlorentATo]

Sorry for the late reply and thanks @kaefer for the trick. I confirm this solved the issue.
However, I was expecting some explanations regarding why htop 2.0 requires libncursesw5-dev. Since I run Debian Jessie, I would have preferred not to install developer libraries on it. Thoughts @hishamhm ?
Thanks.

[hishamhm]

@FlorentATo Compiling requires developer libraries, running doesn't.

[edgiru]

configure: error: You may want to use --disable-unicode or install libncursesw.

[michaelmoldawski]

Thanks for this solution FlorentATo, it worked for me :)

[emilfihlman]

This issue is still present on Debian stretch 9.4., .configure does not detect version 5 of libncurses