Bug#249629: silently ignores utf8 commandline option and resource setting

[Wichert Akkerman <wichert@wiggy.net>]

Package: xterm
Version: 4.3.0.dfsg.1-1
Severity: normal

I tracked utf8 problem I recently had on my workstation down to a change
in behaviour in xterm: the current version no longer enables unicode
support even itf the XTerm*utf8 resource is set or the -u8 commandline
option is given if the environment does not have LC_CTYPE (or LANG
I suppose) set to a unicode locale.

I disagree with this change for a few reasons:

* it broke a setup that has been working for well over a year,
  possibly multiple years

* xterms are frequently launched from applications that are started
  before a full environment is setup but at a time when the X resources
  are properly loaded. This is no longer supported

* ignoring even a commandline option without giving a warning is imnsho
  bad behaviour

Wichert.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.4
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8

Versions of packages xterm depends on:
ii  libc6                     2.3.2.ds1-12   GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libexpat1                 1.95.6-8       XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii  libfontconfig1            2.2.2-2        generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6              2.1.7-2        FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libice6                   4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libncurses5               5.4-3          Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libsm6                    4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X Window System Session Management
ii  libxaw7                   4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X Athena widget set library
ii  libxext6                  4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii  libxft2                   2.1.2-6        FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii  libxmu6                   4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X Window System miscellaneous util
ii  libxpm4                   4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X pixmap library
ii  libxrender1               0.8.3-7        X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  libxt6                    4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X Toolkit Intrinsics
ii  xlibs                     4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X Window System client libraries m
ii  xlibs-data                4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X Window System client data

-- debconf information:
  xterm/clobber_xresource_file: 
  xterm/xterm_needs_devpts: 

-- 
Wichert Akkerman <wichert@wiggy.net>    It is simple to make things.
http://www.wiggy.net/                   It is hard to make things simple.