Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 07:29:14 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: Stephen Hurd <shurd@sasktel.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Custom termcap entries and installworld Message-ID: <447A94BA.9000302@infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <447A8B42.2060901@sasktel.net> References: <004101c6810c$edeeaaf0$5200a8c0@backoffice> <447A8B42.2060901@sasktel.net>
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Stephen Hurd wrote:
> Stephen Hurd wrote:
>> So, I suppose my questions are these:
>> 1) How do people cope with custom termcap entries?
>> 2) Is there a *correct* way to cope with custom termcap entries?
>> 3) Is there a good reason to not have /usr/share/misc/termcap be a
>> symlink to /etc/termcap rather than the reverse which would allow
>> mergemaster to Just Work? that is... putting it in /etc fixes a
>> problem... does moving it create one or more more serious problems?
>> 4) Am I supposed to submit every custom termcap tweak for inclusion in=
>> the next release so I can keep using my terminals?
> Anyone?
I think you're not going to have much luck here. Custom termcap entries
are not something that most FreeBSD users deal with and consequently ther=
e
does not seem to be any useful mechanism established for managing them.
The curses(3X) man page seems to be they key reference. Particularly
the section on environment variables: TERM, TERMCAP, TERMPATH. It does
also mention the possibility of using ${HOME}/.termcap to hold supplement=
ary
termcap entries. However, these man pages are rather confusing: many of t=
hem
talk about terminfo(5) in terms of 'it is going to replace termcap(5) any=
day now'. But terminfo(5) is a SysV-ism and supported only as a compatib=
ility
thing under FreeBSD.
Most people will be perfectly happy with the default termcap database -- =
so
long as it provides xterm / vt100 and cons25 almost all situations are co=
vered.
For your purposes if using environment variables to achieve your ends tur=
ns out
not to be workable, then I'd suggest keeping a backup copy of your custom=
ised
termcap somewhere where system updates won't overwrite it -- keeping it
in CVS or similar would be a good move -- and writing yourself a little
script to merge in your changes to /usr/share/misc/termcap and then re-ru=
n
'cap_mkdb /usr/share/misc/termcap' after a system update. I've a feeling=
that
/etc/termcap is there mostly for historical compatibility now-adays.
Cheers,
Matthew
--=20
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard
Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate
Kent, CT11 9PW
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