Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Tue, 12 May 1998 04:45:04 -0400 (EDT)
From:      CyberPeasant <djv@bedford.net>
To:        djv@bedford.net
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Xterm, termcap, and LINES
Message-ID:  <199805120845.EAA26260@castor.loco.net>
In-Reply-To: <199805092158.RAA10348@castor.loco.net> from CyberPeasant at "May 9, 98 05:58:33 pm"

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
CyberPeasant shouted into a void:

> Recently having installed 2.2.6, I have noticed a problem with
> terminal settings.
> 
> Xterm is being run from a second machine (OpenBSD 2.1 on Pmax
> hardware), invoked from a window manager running on X11R5 there,
> although the xterm is X11R6. (This is the normal configuration for
> this machine/OS).

No it isn't. The usual configuration of a pmax is to run Ultrix.
I have seen two of them, and both came with Ultrix. Try posting on
decstation-managers.

> xterm is started with a line like so:
> 
> xterm -T "Castor" -n "Castor" -wf -e rlogin -8 -l username castor 

Who's castor? Use your real machine name. Repost on an X11 list.

> I.e., xterm is executing on the pmax. 

This is a FreeBSD list.

> When the rlogin completes on host castor (the Freebsd host),
> /sometimes/ the LINES variable is set to 24, which agrees with the
> size of the window. At other times, it is set to a larger value,
> namely 65.  This is unpredictable, sometimes occuring in several
> successive openings, sometimes not being seen for days. The 65
> value is the one listed in /etc/termcap under xterm, "li:65". In
> all cases, the TERM variable is correctly set to xterm.

Then what's your problem? If the TERM variable is right, it's not a
termcap problem. What version of rlogin is running on the FreeBSD machine?

> The same invocations of xterm have always returned a consistently
> correct LINES setting when the rlogin host was Linux or NetBSD.

Put the LINES setting in your .cshrc  Don't post advocacy for other OS's.

> An obvious workaround is to alter /etc/termcap to the "old" li:24
> entry, and I would like to do that. But F'bsd uses an unfamiliar
> (libmytinfo) terminal info system, that combines terminfo and
> termcap in a single /usr/share/misc/termcap.db, the interface to
> which I incompletely understand to be tconv. But is there a fix?

man tconv  For one thing, the syntax is li:#24   Don't forget the octothorpe.

> What is the righteous procedure to change the definition of xterm,
> so that it is reflected "everywhere"? (i.e. so that all apps get
> the li:24, regardless of whether the app queries via a termcap
> routine or a terminfo routine).

It's up to you.  more /usr/src/lib/mytinfo/*  Terminfo is known to suck.

> Ah, yes, the shell in use on the FreeBSD is bash 2.02. (The problem
> was evident with 2.01, as well). Could this be a bash problem?

You should run csh. Csh is the BSD standard shell. There are known bugs
in bash.

> TERM=${TERM:-cons25}   appears in user's .profile

This is nonstandard notation for csh. Are you sure you're not running
csh? I've heard that bash doesn't run in an xterm.

> I have commented out these lines:
> 
> # make mail(1) happy:
> # export crt=24

That was probably a misteak. If mail is unhappy, you can expect the
size of an xterm to disagree with the LINES env. variable.

> since I do not care about mail's mood, and have no idea what crt
> is about, and do not export variables I have never seen before.
> 
> Dave
> -- 
>                 <----.   mail-to: djv@bedford.net
>                 <----|===================================
>                 <----'  Zber Qnrzbaf, Srjre Qrivyf! 
> 

Dave
-- 
                <----.   mail-to: djv@bedford.net
                <----|===================================
                <----'  Zber Qnrzbaf, Srjre Qrivyf! 

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199805120845.EAA26260>