Re: question about term

[Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>]

On 2009-04-21 04:24 +0200, Zhengquan Zhang wrote:

> I use mlterm(a unicode terminal) to connect to servers. but when I
> launch mutt or top or something alike in it. It will fail and say
> Error opening terminal: mlterm.
>
> Then if I do 'TERM=xterm' and it would work.
>
> I was puzzled how the system detects which terminal I use and how it
> changes the TERM env variable.

The terminal emulator itself, i.e. mlterm in your case, sets that
variable.  Consult its documentation on how to change it.

Alternatively, you can set it in your shell's initialization files,
e.g. in ~/.profile¹:

if [ "$TERM" = "mlterm" ]; then TERM=xterm; fi

You can do this on your local system or on each server you connect to.

Sven


¹ Assuming you run a login shell in your terminal.