termcap and TERM detection

Malcolm Kay malcolm.kay at internode.on.net
Tue Jan 3 21:26:47 PST 2006


On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 03:29 pm, Malcolm Kay wrote:
> On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 07:34 am, E. Eusey wrote:
> > The secondary screen functionality on my xterm
> > (rxvt-unicode) was acting strangly.  So, following the
> > advice at:
> >
> > http://cvs.schmorp.de/browse/*checkout*/rxvt-unicode/doc/rxv
> >t. 7.html
> >
> > I added an rxvt-unicode termcap entry to my termcap file and
> > ran cap_mkdb.  After login, I'm able to 'setenv TERM
> > rxvt-unicode' and everything works perfectly.
> >
> > However, when running urxvt initially, it detects the $TERM
> > as 'rxvt', not 'rxvt-unicode'.  How is the $TERM variable
> > determined by the system? Is there a way to detect my new
> > termcap entry?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> You should be able to set this through resources:
> For example in .Xdefaults add:
> Rxvt*termName: rxvt-unicode
>
Seems this applies to both rxvt and urxvt, To target urxvt 
specifically use:
URxvt*termName: rxvt-unicode

Looking at the Makefile in the rxvt-unicode port I find:
CONFIGURE_ARGS=         --enable-shared --enable-everything \ 
--with-term=rxvt
Which I would guess changes the default from rxvt-unicode to
rxvt probably because rxvt-unicode is not normally available in 
the termcap file. You could also consider modifying the Makefile 
and rebuilding the port.

Malcolm Kay


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