[LEDE-DEV] [BUG] ncurses changes break htop (buildbot has NOT noticed this)

[Hannu Nyman]

a) LEDE r146 build after "make clean"
b) ar71xx/WNDR3700 build. Only the device and htop selected for minimal config
c) htop does not build, it fails in the configure step due to missing libncurses
d) try building htop after make clean
e) nothing
f) LEDE buildbot has not noticed this failure

I noticed in my private LEDE build that the ncurses change in 
https://git.lede-project.org/?p=source.git;a=commitdiff;h=5071fb27b9899370797a73af2e518517a13bfdcf 
has apparently broken htop package. htop fails at the configure step as it 
does not find libncurses:

checking if compiler supports -Wextra... yes
checking for refresh in -lncurses... no
checking for refresh in -lncurses6... no
checking for refresh in -lncurses... (cached) no
checking curses.h usability... yes
checking curses.h presence... yes
checking for curses.h... yes
configure: error: missing libraries:  libncurses
Makefile:54: recipe for target 
'/Openwrt/lede/build_dir/target-mips_34kc_musl-1.1.14/htop-2.0.1/.configured_yyyyyyyy' 
failed
make[3]: *** 
[/Openwrt/lede/build_dir/target-mips_34kc_musl-1.1.14/htop-2.0.1/.configured_yyyyyyyy] 
Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory '/Openwrt/lede/feeds/packages/admin/htop'
package/Makefile:187: recipe for target 'package/feeds/packages/htop/compile' 
failed
make[2]: *** [package/feeds/packages/htop/compile] Error 2

As the LEDE buildbot does not build all packages every time, it has not 
noticed this build failure. (ar71xx has been built on 10 May while the 
available htop download is from the 9 May build, so the buildbot run on 10 
May has not noticed that htop will fail to build in future. Probably the 
buildbot does not evaluate the depends logic deeply enough if dependencies 
are fulfilled via PROVIDES ?????)

This is a github packages feed package failing to build for LEDE while it 
builds for Openwrt, so I classify this as a LEDE bug. There may also be other 
packages that will fail in a similar fashion, as ncurses is used by various 
packages.

This ncurses change is a deviation from the code in Openwrt, so a possible 
fix to the htop package for LEDE might fail on the Openwrt side.


Ps. First attempt of bug reporting for LEDE...