A USE=-ncurses build of sys-apps/util-linux-2.29.1 gives me the following binaries linked (and, at least for 'more', needing it to build) ncurses: var/db/pkg/sys-apps/util-linux-2.29.1/NEEDED.ELF.2:X86_64;/sbin/cfdisk;;;libsmartcols.so.1,libfdisk.so.1,libmount.so.1,libncursesw.so.6,libc.so.6;x86_64 var/db/pkg/sys-apps/util-linux-2.29.1/NEEDED.ELF.2:X86_64;/bin/more;;;libncursesw.so.6,libc.so.6;x86_64 var/db/pkg/sys-apps/util-linux-2.29.1/NEEDED.ELF.2:X86_64;/usr/bin/cal;;;libncursesw.so.6,libc.so.6;x86_64 var/db/pkg/sys-apps/util-linux-2.29.1/NEEDED.ELF.2:X86_64;/usr/bin/ul;;;libncursesw.so.6,libc.so.6;x86_64 var/db/pkg/sys-apps/util-linux-2.29.1/NEEDED.ELF.2:X86_64;/usr/bin/setterm;;;libncursesw.so.6,libc.so.6;x86_64
Note: same for util-linux-2.29; util-linux-2.28.2 is fine
commit 26a0c08095658048936bb96b876f93a03fe55783 Author: Lars Wendler <polynomial-c@gentoo.org> Date: Tue Feb 7 14:18:37 2017 sys-apps/util-linux: Honor USE="-ncurses" again (bug #608532). Package-Manager: Portage-2.3.3, Repoman-2.3.1