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Date:      Sun, 14 Sep 1997 09:58:02 +0930
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Donald Burr <dburr@POBoxes.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: weird behavior of xterm's since upgrading to XF3.3.1
Message-ID:  <19970914095802.02528@lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <XFMail.970912232054.dburr@POBoxes.com>; from Donald Burr on Fri, Sep 12, 1997 at 09:22:21PM -0700
References:  <XFMail.970912232054.dburr@POBoxes.com>

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On Fri, Sep 12, 1997 at 09:22:21PM -0700, Donald Burr wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
> I recently upgraded to XFree86 3.3.1 (from a stock 2.2.2-RELEASE system).
> Now my xterm's are doing weird things.
>
> Basically, any program that uses full-screen i/o (e.g. `more', `vi',
> etc.), when exiting, is clearing the screen and replacing it with the
> previous screen's contents (whatever I had displaying before I started
> more, vi, etc.).

This isn't a bug, it's a feature.  Your termcap has changed, and it
now specifies a 'save screen' feature, which these programs use.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the code, but you should be able to
find it by comparing it with the old version.

> This is especially bothersome, for example, when running `man' and reading
> a manual page... I get down to the last page of the manual, and slap the
> space bar, then all of a sudden the last page of the manual disappears and
> is replaced by my shell prompt... before I had a chance to read it!

I solve that problem (and the problem of it stopping at all) by using
'less' as the pager (set the environment variable PAGER).

> Another problem is that `BitchX' (a full-screen IRC client) is now dying
> with the following error message:
>
> Your terminal cannot run IRC II in full screen mode.
> The following features are missing from your TERM setting.
>         Cursor left
> Try using VT100 emulation or better.
>
> which is kinda stupid, since, isn't xterm a (fairly complete) emulation of
> VT100?

It looks as if your termcap is really broken if it doesn't include
'cursor left'.  I'd guess it's missing the other cursor commands as
well.

> I believe this has something to do with `termcap', because the
> `postinst.sh' script that came with XFree 3.3.1 told me that it should be
> upgraded.  I followed the procedures to the letter (but still I could have
> done it wrong...?), and replaced the xterm entries in /etc/termcap with
> the proper ones that came with XFree86 3.3.1 (I forget where these are
> located in the distribution, something like
> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/termcap.add?).

If it's any comfort, *all* termcaps for xterm are wrong!  Here's what

> I understand that the new xterm fixes some problems esp. with the proper
> display of colors, and the termcap entry has been fixed as well.  Is there
> any way I can preserve the new termcap, while at the same time disabling
> the `clear screen on exit' thing and fixing the "cursor left" problem in
> BitchX?  I'm not a UNIX wizard but I can stumble along pretty well,
> provided I have some guidance as to where to start.

I use:

xterm-xf86-v32|xterm terminal emulator (X Window System):\
        :am:km:mi:ms:xn:\ 
        :co#80:it#8:li#24:\
        :AL=\E[%dL:DC=\E[%dP:DL=\E[%dM:DO=\E[%dB:IC=\E[%d@:\
        :K1=\EOw:K2=\EOy:K3=\EOu:K4=\EOq:K5=\EOs:LE=\E[%dD:\  
        :RI=\E[%dC:UP=\E[%dA:ae=^O:al=\E[L:as=^N:bl=^G:cd=\E[J:\
        :ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[2J:cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:\
        :cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:dc=\E[P:dl=\E[M:do=^J:ec=\E[%dX:\
        :ho=\E[H:ic=\E[@:\
        :is=\E7\E[r\E[m\E[?7h\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l\E8\E>:\
        :k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~:k5=\E[15~:\
        :k6=\E[17~:k7=\E[18~:k8=\E[19~:k9=\E[20~:kD=\177:kI=\E[2~:\
        :kN=\E[6~:kP=\E[5~:kb=^H:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:kh=\EOH:\
        :kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:ku=\EOA:le=^H:md=\E[1m:\
        :me=\E[m\017:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:rc=\E8:sc=\E7:se=\E[27m:\
        :sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:te=\E[2J\E[?47l\E8:\
        :ti=\E7\E[?47h:ue=\E[24m:up=\E[A:us=\E[4m:\
        :vb=\E[?5h\E[?5l:ve=\E[?25h:vi=\E[?25l:vs=\E[?25h:\
        :ac=``aaffggjjkkllmmnnooppqqrrssttuuvvwwxxyyzz{{||}}~~..--++\054\054II00:\
        :u6=\E[%i%d;%dR:u7=\E[6n:u8=\E[?1;2c:u9=\E[c:
# @(#)termcap   X10/6.6 11/7/86, minus alternate screen, plus :cs
xterm-color|xterm-co|xterm with ANSI colors:\
        :pa#64:Co#8:AF=\E[3%dm:AB=\E[4%dm:op=\E[m:tc=xterm:

This does not save the screen.

Greg



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