multiple curses initializations fail to restore terminal properly

[Alex Grubb]

Binary package hint: python2.6

When trying to open and close multiple curses sessions within python, the terminal is not restored to a clean state after the second and successive sessions.

A simple example:

import curses

def main():
    w = curses.initscr()
    curses.endwin()
    w = curses.initscr()
    curses.endwin()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Code is tested to work on a Fedora Core 5 machine and exits with a clean terminal, but produces a garbled terminal on Ubuntu 9.10 which requires a 'reset' call.

python2.6 package is version 2.6.4-0ubuntu2
libncurses5 package is version 5.7+20090803-2ubuntu2

[Andrew Reid (reidac)]

In my project (OOF, Object Oriented Finite Elements, http://www.ctcms.nist.gov/oof), we have gotten complaints from Ubuntu users, which we have traced to this bug. We use a "w=curses.initscr(); s=w.getxymax(); curses.endwin()" sequence to get the screen width for drawing text-mode progress bars, which we do multiple times, because the screen width might have changed. Also, our test suite uses these text-mode progress bars, and fails on Ubuntu because of this bug.

We have worked around it by only checking the screen width once, and assuming/hoping it doesn't change.

The bug is present in python2.6 package version 2.6.2-0ubuntu1 (ships with 9.04 "Jaunty") and 2.6.4-0ubuntu3 (ships with 9.10 "Karmic").

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

fixed in 2.6.6~rc1-1ubuntu1 in maverick, candidate for a lucid update.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

lucid has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the lucid task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".