Hey @luc14n0, unfortunately there seems to be a problem with the terminfo db entry at least on my system: Upon update I was asked to overwrite the already present file:
File /usr/share/terminfo/a/alacritty
from install of
alacritty-0.12.1-86.1.x86_64 (X11:terminals)
conflicts with file from package
terminfo-6.4.20230520-13.2.x86_64 ([@System](https://build.opensuse.org/users/System))
File conflicts happen when two packages attempt to install files with the same name but different contents. If you continue, conflicting files will be replaced losing the previous content.
Continue? [yes/no] (no):
And upon doing so alacritty no gives out a warning to me and things like tmux don't work:
warning: Could not set up terminal.
warning: TERM environment variable set to 'alacritty'.
warning: Check that this terminal type is supported on this system.
warning: Using fallback terminal type 'xterm-256color'.
$ tmux
missing or unsuitable terminal: alacritty
Have you tested your patch with the package terminfo installed?
To be honest, I didn't install the package after my modification. I got a bit busy handling other issues that I made a (now I see) wrongful assumption.
I was experimenting with a desktop file that'd call Alacritty in a very specific way to set a different WM class (alacritty --class Foo) and other peculiarities, and an error I was getting let me think that there wasn't a terminfo entry for Alacritty already (I can't recall the exact error message right now. I'm gonna see if I can reproduce it again).
But I'm gonna take a look at the terminfo's package and probably send a request.
No problem. :) I am using alacritty with the terminfo package since years and as far as I am aware that works flawlessly.
For now I have removed the terminfo entry from this package and added the terminfo one as a suggestion via 1093690, if you come up with a better solution feel free to open another request.
In between I tried to do something like the %noreplace macro for the terminfo file to add it only if none is present already, but I was unsuccessful in adapting the package this way.
JL, I gave another look at this, and I decided before we move any changes forward, it's best we test this specific change ourselves and watch out for any apparently "odd" behaviors.
I say this because looking at how the Ncurses DB entry differs from Alacritty's, we can see they don't look that similar - at least to my untrained eyes in Terminfo database. The one from Ncurses is basically a copy of Xterm's - as stated in the comments -, where Alacritty's seem to be defining quite some stuff itself.
If we don't notice anything unusual, we can see about how to proceed. Perhaps the Ncurses entry can be synced with Alacritty's directly upstream. If not, we probably can patch our Ncurses/terminfo package instead.
Hey Luciano, thanks for your investigation and sorry that it took me some time to respond. As far as I understand it the Ncurses entry is at least 2 1/2 years old (0.6.0 while 0.12.2 was just released), the sustainable solution would probably be to update it upstream based on Alacrittys current entry as you proposed.
If you have time for that great, otherwise I can look into that, but it will take some time because I am currently moving.
Yes, I can look into it. However, it's gonna take some time to test it properly. I branched Alacritty into my home project, there I'm compiling - I forgot to do that in my previous SR - and installing the results into /etc/terminfo/a/.
But I have notice some odd behaviors already that needs investigation, and possibly discussing with upstream.
And when the time comes to deal with a possible conflict in systems with an entry installed from terminfo package - which might not happen, at least not for everybody -, I know a hack or two.
Hey @luc14n0, unfortunately there seems to be a problem with the terminfo db entry at least on my system: Upon update I was asked to overwrite the already present file:
File /usr/share/terminfo/a/alacritty from install of alacritty-0.12.1-86.1.x86_64 (X11:terminals) conflicts with file from package terminfo-6.4.20230520-13.2.x86_64 ([@System](https://build.opensuse.org/users/System)) File conflicts happen when two packages attempt to install files with the same name but different contents. If you continue, conflicting files will be replaced losing the previous content. Continue? [yes/no] (no):And upon doing so alacritty no gives out a warning to me and things like tmux don't work:
Have you tested your patch with the package
terminfoinstalled?Hey JL! Yeah, no problem.
To be honest, I didn't install the package after my modification. I got a bit busy handling other issues that I made a (now I see) wrongful assumption.
I was experimenting with a desktop file that'd call Alacritty in a very specific way to set a different WM class (
alacritty --class Foo) and other peculiarities, and an error I was getting let me think that there wasn't a terminfo entry for Alacritty already (I can't recall the exact error message right now. I'm gonna see if I can reproduce it again).But I'm gonna take a look at the terminfo's package and probably send a request.
No problem. :) I am using alacritty with the terminfo package since years and as far as I am aware that works flawlessly. For now I have removed the terminfo entry from this package and added the terminfo one as a suggestion via 1093690, if you come up with a better solution feel free to open another request.
In between I tried to do something like the %noreplace macro for the terminfo file to add it only if none is present already, but I was unsuccessful in adapting the package this way.
JL, I gave another look at this, and I decided before we move any changes forward, it's best we test this specific change ourselves and watch out for any apparently "odd" behaviors.
I say this because looking at how the Ncurses DB entry differs from Alacritty's, we can see they don't look that similar - at least to my untrained eyes in Terminfo database. The one from Ncurses is basically a copy of Xterm's - as stated in the comments -, where Alacritty's seem to be defining quite some stuff itself.
If we don't notice anything unusual, we can see about how to proceed. Perhaps the Ncurses entry can be synced with Alacritty's directly upstream. If not, we probably can patch our Ncurses/terminfo package instead.
What do you think?
Hey Luciano, thanks for your investigation and sorry that it took me some time to respond. As far as I understand it the Ncurses entry is at least 2 1/2 years old (0.6.0 while 0.12.2 was just released), the sustainable solution would probably be to update it upstream based on Alacrittys current entry as you proposed. If you have time for that great, otherwise I can look into that, but it will take some time because I am currently moving.
Yes, I can look into it. However, it's gonna take some time to test it properly. I branched Alacritty into my home project, there I'm compiling - I forgot to do that in my previous SR - and installing the results into
/etc/terminfo/a/.But I have notice some odd behaviors already that needs investigation, and possibly discussing with upstream.
And when the time comes to deal with a possible conflict in systems with an entry installed from terminfo package - which might not happen, at least not for everybody -, I know a hack or two.