curses missing on python 3.7

[degommea]

I was trying to run a script using ncurses on a conda installed intel python 3.7.7, and I kept receiving error messages :

import curses

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_curses'

I installed libncurses-dev, conda curses package without any luck.

After digging, it looks like all 3.7.* packages distributed on https://anaconda.org/intel/python (at least) are lacking _curses.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so (and _curses_panel.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so .. and maybe more, but I was only looking for curses), which should be in folder /lib/python3.7/lib-dynload/ in the package and provided by default by the distribution. 

3.6.3 used to provide it ( _curses.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so in /lib/python3.6/lib-dynload/ ).

I checked on https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/python and they provide it with 3.7 and 3.8 python flavors, so it looks like it should still be provided as well on Intel's one.

I can confirm that manually stealing the file from conda-forge version has "import curses" working normally, but this is not sustainable in our worklfow.

[Adweidh_Intel]

Hi Degommea.

Thanks for reaching out to us. We are forwarding this case to SME, will get back to you at the earliest.

Thanks,

Adweidh.

[Louie_T_Intel]

Hi Degommea.

We escalated this issue back to engineer team.

If engineer team confirms the issue, the proper fix may come into later release of intel distribution for python.

[Louie_T_Intel]

Hi

We couldn't put curse into our release due to GPL license issue.

However, Update 2020.4 and 2021.1-beta10 will ship with pyeditline, and 2020.4 or beta10 will be shipped in weeks.

Hope pyeditline work for you.

regards