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Re: ncurses problem?



Andrew Howell <andrew@avon.it.net.au> writes:

> Erik Andersen writes:
> > I have found that with the newest rxvt (released within the last week I
> > believe) it also messes up mutt, sets TERM to rxvt (which seems to break
> > a few things that don't know about TERM=rxvt, and also messes up the
> > screen for the kernel's menuconfig.  Oh, and backspace no longer does
> > a ^H for some reason.
> 
> I had no problems with rxvt until I installed the new ncurses-base package.
> This obviously has a different rxvt
> terminfo file cause it doesn't display properly. Ncftp is a good test
> TERM=rxvt and it's all messed up. TERM=vt100 it's fine.
> 
> Install the old ncurses-base package and it's fine
> with TERM=rxvt.

This is true, and I've been considering reporting it as a bug.

The rxvt terminfo entry in the old ncurses-base package was very
similar to xterm-color's entry.  It added mouse support and some stuff
necessary to handle the Home/End keys.

The new ncurses-base package does not have an xterm-color entry and
its rxvt entry is very different from its xterm entry (which to me is
somewhat strange, since rxvt is usually described as a smaller
replacement for xterm).

Versions of rxvt prior to 2.20-5 set the TERM environment variable to
xterm-color.  (Note that this would cause problems with the new
ncurses-base package, which does not have an xterm-color terminfo
entry.)  Since Debian has an rxvt terminfo entry, this was reported as
a bug.  After some discussion, I agreed with the author of the report
and modified rxvt in version 2.20-5 to set TERM=rxvt on color displays
and TERM=xterm on monochrome displays (since there was no monochrome
rxvt terminfo entry available).

The rxvt terminfo entry should be fixed.  I suggest that it should
follow the rxvt entry in the old ncurses-base package and be made
equivalent to xterm with additional mouse and Home/End support.

While we're fixing the terminfo entries, I would also like to suggest
that a rxvt-mono entry be created for monochrome displays.  It should
be equivalent to the new rxvt entry with the color support disabled.
I would then modify rxvt to set TERM=rxvt-mono, instead of TERM=xterm
which it does now, when running on monochrome displays.

Brian


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