This system assumes by default that you are using a vt100 terminal. If you use some other type, e.g., a sun, you should give the following command at the shell prompt:

setenv TERM sun

In place of 'sun' you can specify other terminal types, e.g., ansi, z19, wyse50, and others. The terminal type name that you use must be one of those listed in the file /etc/termcap. Terminal names are case-sensitive.

To make this happen automatically each time you log in, you can put the setenv command near the end of your .login file.

If your terminal is not 80 columns by 24 rows in size, you might also need to tell the system its size. A command like this will do it:

stty rows 90 columns 44

This can be done automatically at each login if you include the above command in your .login file.

To define a new terminal type that is not already in /etc/termcap see discussion of termcap entries below.

TERMCAP ENTRIES

Due to the overhead involved in keeping multiple machines updated, termcap entries with minor modifications are rarely officially added at a2i. However, it's very easy for users to define their own as needed.

You can define a new terminal type by following one of the following two procedures.

PROCEDURE 1: LOCAL COPY OF /ETC/TERMCAP

Make a local copy of the file /etc/termcap somewhere in your home directory tree. Edit this file as needed to add your favorite terminal type(s). You can also delete all the terminal types that you don't need. Most people need only one or two. Then in your .login file put a line like this:

setenv TERMCAP ~/termcap

where '~' is shorthand for your home directory and '~/termcap' is shorthand for the file 'termcap' in your home directory. (If it's anywhere else you should use the appropriate pathname, which must be an absolute pathname begining with '/' or with '~/'.)

When you next log in the environment variable TERMCAP will be set to point towards your customized termcap file, and all software that uses termcap entries will see the new terminal types.

PROCEDURE 2: DEFINING TERMCAP ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE

This is an alternative procedure. First pick an existing terminal type that is similar to the one you need. Then give the following command:

% tset -IS -s terminal > tset.log

where 'terminal' is the name of the terminal type, e.g., you could do

% tset -IS -s vt100 > tset.log

The output from the tset program will be saved in the file tset.log. In the above example of the vt100 terminal, the contents of tset.log will look something like this:

     set noglob;
     setenv TERM vt100 ;
     setenv TERMCAP 'd0|vt100|vt100-am|....<very long string>...';
     unset noglob;

Using your favorite editor, put these lines near the end of your .login file. Now you may revise the contents of the TERMCAP string as needed. When you next log in, the TERMCAP variable will get defined to this value.

TERMINFO

The only known program here that requires terminfo instead of termcap is the old vi.old editor. We do not have any information about how to make the terminfo database work with new terminal types, and we won't be able to add any new terminfo entries. However, the editor installed as vi (really vim) does use termcap entries as described above. So no terminfo changes will be needed in normal use.

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$Id: termcap.how,v 1.6 1997/07/08 01:00:07 rdroot Exp $
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