Package: screen
Version: 4.5.0-6
Severity: normal
Tags: patch
Dear Maintainer,
for bug #134198 ("konsole behaves oddly with the default xterm
init_2string/:is terminfo description") from 2002, a fix was added into
/etc/screenrc that goes like this:
# Change the xterm initialization string from is2=\E[!p\E[?3;4l\E[4l\E>
# (This fixes the "Aborted because of window size change" konsole
# symptoms found
# in bug #134198)
termcapinfo xterm 'is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;4;6l'
That fix also fixes the following problem:
"Soft reset shouldn't wipe out selection" (2017)
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=789954
that has plagued gnome-terminal for quite some time now. The '\e[!p'
wipes the contents of the selection if you're using a GNOME VTE widget
(which gnome-terminal does).
For older graphical desktops, the TERM env inside a gnome-terminal would
be set to xterm, but newer ones (at least on Ubuntu Xenial through
Artful) get TERM=xterm-256color by default and there the problems
reappeared. Instead of the "fixed" is= description, we get the original
one with '\e[!p' and our selection is emptied upon screen startup.
Can we get the screenrc fix replaced by one that also matches
xterm-256color to fix the VTE bug as well? Adding an asterisk would
suffice:
termcapinfo xterm* 'is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;4;6l'
Steps to reproduce:
- fire up gnome-terminal
- put something in X selection
- start screen: TERM=xterm-256color screen
- observe how the selection has been cleared
Yes, I am aware that this should ideally be fixed in VTE, as screen
simply uses the :is= description as intended. But since the konsole
workaround has fixed this issue in the past, it might as well fix it in
the future as well.
And since my google-fu didn't turn up much about this issue, a bit more
exposure through this tracker wouldn't hurt either.
An alternative workaround for the gnome-terminal is to manually set a
custom command with TERM=xterm:
$ dconf dump /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/ | grep command
custom-command='/usr/bin/env TERM=xterm /bin/bash'
use-custom-command=true
Cheers,
Walter Doekes
OSSO B.V.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.3
APT prefers stable
APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8),
LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
Versions of packages screen depends on:
ii libc6 2.24-11+deb9u1
ii libpam0g 1.1.8-3.6
ii libtinfo5 6.0+20161126-1+deb9u1
screen recommends no packages.
Versions of packages screen suggests:
pn byobu | screenie | iselect <none>
ii ncurses-term 6.0+20161126-1+deb9u1
-- Configuration Files:
/etc/screenrc changed [not included]
-- no debconf information
