From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E6xwP-0003RJ-4I for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 21 Aug 2005 22:05:21 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with SMTP id j7LM3bqD002369; Sun, 21 Aug 2005 22:03:37 GMT Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [134.68.220.30]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id j7LLxq2r016461 for ; Sun, 21 Aug 2005 21:59:53 GMT Received: from 83.72.33.139.ip.tele2adsl.dk ([83.72.33.139] helo=[192.168.1.118]) by smtp.gentoo.org with esmtpa (Exim 4.43) id 1E6xrf-0006LR-GY for gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org; Sun, 21 Aug 2005 22:00:27 +0000 Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Fixing the TERM mess From: Henrik Brix Andersen To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <20050821220505.4efbaff2@snowdrop.home> References: <20050821220505.4efbaff2@snowdrop.home> Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="=-fNX7O5flwgpAVFzLfTKL" Organization: Gentoo Metadistribution Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 00:00:26 +0200 Message-Id: <1124661626.13706.13.camel@sponge.fungus> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.3 X-Archives-Salt: 1cf02422-702d-4281-8669-5289441bb450 X-Archives-Hash: 6b71be3acfa136d1e416bfff76348a0d --=-fNX7O5flwgpAVFzLfTKL Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Sun, 2005-08-21 at 22:05 +0100, Ciaran McCreesh wrote: [snip good description of problem] > Now the proposal. This isn't something that can happen immediately, but > it's something I'd like to see us working towards: >=20 > * Make everything that isn't xterm set its own TERM value. Possibly the > same for things pretending to be rxvt, although this is less of an > issue since I think everything that pretends to be rxvt is "rxvt plus > some patches". Hear hear! I've been bothered with this in past as well - especially when using screen over ssh from other unix flavors. We might even convince a few upstream vendors to "do the right thing" if we force this through on our side. > * Install, either with the terminal (as is done by rxvt-unicode > currently), or as part of ncurses, proper terminfo definitions for > these terminals. One could argue for both solutions here: it would make sense to install it along with the offending terminal, since this is where we change the value of the $TERM variable. But once upstream has acknowledged the problem and corrected their $TERM value, a patch should be submitted to ncurses anyway. Perhaps we should just once-and-for-all submit a patch to ncurses which includes these new terminfo definitions? We will then patch our foo-terminal ebuilds to set a proper value of $TERM. Then when upstream (hopefully) decides to change their $TERM value to something sane, ncurses will already have the support, and we can remove the local patch along with the version bump of foo-terminal. > * De-cripple the standard xterm definition and remove restrictions from > programs which can make full use of xterm's capabilities. > > * Provide a short FAQ explaining what I said above in a more > newbie-friendly way, along with a description of how to generate and > use terminfo files under a user's home directory for compatibility > with legacy systems and a note that users sshing from legacy systems > to Gentoo may need to switch their TERM value. A FAQ might also help convince upstream of the existence of a problem - and help them understand why it is a problem. > * Include TERM stuff in policy so that the problem doesn't crop up again > a few months later. I'm not sure what you mean by "policy"? > * Putty? Since I consider sshing from insecure systems irresponsible, I > don't know much about this one, other than that it's another dirty > liar and that said lying has caused various bugs in the past. Perhaps > someone could clarify with details of what it pretends to support and > what it really supports? I generally only use PuTTY as a emergency solution - haven't looked into its capabilities. Sincerely, Brix --=20 Henrik Brix Andersen Gentoo Metadistribution | Mobile computing herd --=-fNX7O5flwgpAVFzLfTKL Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQBDCPl6v+Q4flTiePgRAtALAJ96mhl7qhouGwVK/co0cBzrH3V48QCdEFYR 1zUyaaUqhNDG6o4p1qhWA8A= =xiYL -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-fNX7O5flwgpAVFzLfTKL-- -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list