diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index fa686cc14..ea2f70a3e 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
     set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "${DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE}")
 endif()
 
+include(cmake/ConfigureChecks.cmake)
+include(cmake/gettext.cmake)
+
 include(cmake/Rust.cmake)
 
 # Error out when linking statically, it doesn't work.
@@ -123,8 +126,6 @@ set(FISH_SRCS
 file(GLOB FISH_HEADERS src/*.h)
 
 # Set up config.h
-include(cmake/ConfigureChecks.cmake)
-include(cmake/gettext.cmake)
 configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/config_cmake.h.in
                ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/config.h)
 include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
diff --git a/cmake/Rust.cmake b/cmake/Rust.cmake
index 45cf1c882..5e5dbb94e 100644
--- a/cmake/Rust.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Rust.cmake
@@ -62,6 +62,8 @@ endif()
 # CMAKE_BINARY_DIR can include symlinks, since we want to compare this to the dir fish is executed in we need to canonicalize it.
 file(REAL_PATH "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}" fish_binary_dir)
 
+string(JOIN "," CURSES_LIBRARY_LIST ${CURSES_LIBRARY} ${CURSES_EXTRA_LIBRARY})
+
 # Tell Cargo where our build directory is so it can find config.h.
 corrosion_set_env_vars(${fish_rust_target}
     "FISH_BUILD_DIR=${fish_binary_dir}"
@@ -75,6 +77,7 @@ corrosion_set_env_vars(${fish_rust_target}
     "SYSCONFDIR=${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_SYSCONFDIR}"
     "BINDIR=${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_BINDIR}"
     "LOCALEDIR=${CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_LOCALEDIR}"
+    "CURSES_LIBRARY_LIST=${CURSES_LIBRARY_LIST}"
 )
 
 # this needs an extra fish-rust due to the poor source placement
diff --git a/fish-rust/build.rs b/fish-rust/build.rs
index e16a17492..dc94f9072 100644
--- a/fish-rust/build.rs
+++ b/fish-rust/build.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 use rsconf::{LinkType, Target};
 use std::env;
 use std::error::Error;
+use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
 use std::process::Stdio;
 
 fn main() {
@@ -11,13 +12,42 @@ fn main() {
         }
     }
 
+    let build_dir = PathBuf::from(
+        std::env::var("FISH_BUILD_DIR")
+            // Add our default to enable tools that don't go through CMake, like "cargo test"
+            // and the language server.
+            .unwrap_or("./build".into()),
+    );
+
+    let cached_curses_libnames = Path::join(&build_dir, "cached-curses-libnames");
+    let curses_libnames: Vec<String> = if let Ok(lib_path_list) = env::var("CURSES_LIBRARY_LIST") {
+        let lib_paths = lib_path_list
+            .split(',')
+            .filter(|s| !s.is_empty())
+            .map(|s| s.to_string());
+        let curses_libnames: Vec<_> = lib_paths
+            .map(|libpath| {
+                let stem = Path::new(&libpath).file_stem().unwrap().to_str().unwrap();
+                // Ubuntu-32bit-fetched-pcre2's ncurses doesn't have the "lib" prefix.
+                stem.strip_prefix("lib").unwrap_or(stem).to_owned()
+            })
+            .collect();
+        std::fs::write(cached_curses_libnames, curses_libnames.join("\n") + "\n").unwrap();
+        curses_libnames
+    } else {
+        let lib_cache = std::fs::read(cached_curses_libnames).unwrap_or_default();
+        let lib_cache = String::from_utf8(lib_cache).unwrap();
+        lib_cache
+            .split('\n')
+            .filter(|s| !s.is_empty())
+            .map(|s| s.to_owned())
+            .collect()
+    };
+    rsconf::link_libraries(&curses_libnames, LinkType::Default);
+
     cc::Build::new()
         .file("fish-rust/src/compat.c")
-        .include(
-            &std::env::var("FISH_BUILD_DIR")
-                // Add our default to potentially help tools that don't go through CMake.
-                .unwrap_or("./build".into()),
-        )
+        .include(&build_dir)
         .compile("libcompat.a");
 
     if compiles("fish-rust/src/cfg/w_exitcode.cpp") {