After some experimentation, it looks like the problem is a buffer overflow (of all things!) when variable $TERMCAP is too big.
Removing an entry from $TERMCAP makes cmucl happy. Making one lengthier again makes it unhappy again. PS: <subliminal>cl-launch</subliminal> [ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ] The difference between a programmer and a user, is that the programmer knows there is no difference between using and programming. -- Faré
