libncurses.so.5 - cannot open shared library, Fedora

Question

I am getting this error when I try to run a 64-bit program on a new 64-bit Fedora 28 installation.

I have tried to install the ncurses library these ways:

sudo yum install ncurses-libs
sudo dnf install ncurses-devel
yum provides libncurses.so.5

There is no file called libncurses.so.5 anywhere on the filesystem. There is a file in /usr/lib64 call libncurses.so.6 and I tried renaming this to 5 but then it says libtinfo.so.5 is missing.

I get this:

[username@localhost project]$ ./main ./demo.conf
./main: error while loading shared libraries: libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

These are my commands and their output:

[username@localhost ~]$ sudo yum install ncurses-devel
[sudo] password for username: 
Fedora 28 - x86_64                              371 kB/s |  60 MB     02:46    
Last metadata expiration check: 0:01:24 ago on Sat 04 Aug 2018 09:34:19 PM PDT.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package               Arch        Version                   Repository    Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 ncurses-devel         x86_64      6.1-5.20180224.fc28       updates      527 k
Upgrading:
 ncurses               x86_64      6.1-5.20180224.fc28       updates      377 k
 ncurses-base          noarch      6.1-5.20180224.fc28       updates       80 k
 ncurses-libs          x86_64      6.1-5.20180224.fc28       updates      307 k
Installing dependencies:
 ncurses-c++-libs      x86_64      6.1-5.20180224.fc28       updates       54 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  2 Packages
Upgrade  3 Packages

Total download size: 1.3 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): ncurses-c++-libs-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86  51 kB/s |  54 kB     00:01    
(2/5): ncurses-base-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.noarch.  65 kB/s |  80 kB     00:01    
(3/5): ncurses-libs-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64. 127 kB/s | 307 kB     00:02    
(4/5): ncurses-devel-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64 152 kB/s | 527 kB     00:03    
(5/5): ncurses-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64.rpm   234 kB/s | 377 kB     00:01    
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                           296 kB/s | 1.3 MB     00:04     
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                        1/1 
  Upgrading        : ncurses-base-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.noarch                1/8 
  Upgrading        : ncurses-libs-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64                2/8 
  Installing       : ncurses-c++-libs-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64            3/8 
  Installing       : ncurses-devel-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64               4/8 
  Upgrading        : ncurses-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64                     5/8 
  Cleanup          : ncurses-6.1-4.20180224.fc28.x86_64                     6/8 
  Cleanup          : ncurses-libs-6.1-4.20180224.fc28.x86_64                7/8 
  Cleanup          : ncurses-base-6.1-4.20180224.fc28.noarch                8/8 
  Running scriptlet: ncurses-base-6.1-4.20180224.fc28.noarch                8/8 
  Verifying        : ncurses-devel-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64               1/8 
  Verifying        : ncurses-c++-libs-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64            2/8 
  Verifying        : ncurses-libs-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64                3/8 
  Verifying        : ncurses-base-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.noarch                4/8 
  Verifying        : ncurses-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64                     5/8 
  Verifying        : ncurses-6.1-4.20180224.fc28.x86_64                     6/8 
  Verifying        : ncurses-base-6.1-4.20180224.fc28.noarch                7/8 
  Verifying        : ncurses-libs-6.1-4.20180224.fc28.x86_64                8/8 

Installed:
  ncurses-devel.x86_64 6.1-5.20180224.fc28                                      
  ncurses-c++-libs.x86_64 6.1-5.20180224.fc28                                   

Upgraded:
  ncurses.x86_64 6.1-5.20180224.fc28                                            
  ncurses-base.noarch 6.1-5.20180224.fc28                                       
  ncurses-libs.x86_64 6.1-5.20180224.fc28                                       

Complete!


[username@localhost project]$ sudo yum install ncurses-libs
Last metadata expiration check: 0:05:45 ago on Sat 04 Aug 2018 09:34:19 PM PDT.
Package ncurses-libs-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!




[username@localhost project]$ yum provides libncurses.so.5
Fedora 28 - x86_64                                                                                                     3.1 MB/s |  60 MB     00:19    
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:28 ago on Sat 04 Aug 2018 09:48:51 PM PDT.
ncurses-compat-libs-6.1-5.20180224.fc28.i686 : Ncurses compatibility libraries
Repo        : updates
Matched from:
Provide    : libncurses.so.5

ncurses-compat-libs-6.1-4.20180224.fc28.i686 : Ncurses compatibility libraries
Repo        : fedora
Matched from:
Provide    : libncurses.so.5

Answer 1

Try to install ncurses-compat-libs.

Answer 2

You would first use

dnf provides */libncurses.so.5

which can help you find a package that provides the file, and then install the respective package,

dnf install ncurses-compat-libs

in this case.

Answer 3

Just try to install the libncurses5 library:

apt install libncurses5

For more information, see this Reddit post.

I was able to solve this bug by installing that package.