--- curses/configure.bak	2010-12-04 11:37:34.000000000 +0100
+++ curses/configure	2010-12-04 11:40:17.000000000 +0100
@@ -3770,7 +3770,7 @@
 done
 
 
-CURSES_LIB_BASE=`expr "$CURSES_LIB" : '-l\(.*\)'`
+CURSES_LIB_BASE=$(expr \( "$CURSES_LIB" \) : \( '-l\(.*\)' \))
 CPPFLAGS="$ORIG_CPPFLAGS"
 LIBS="$ORIG_LIBS"