Re: Custom termcap entries and installworld
Stephen Hurd wrote:
Stephen Hurd wrote:
So, I suppose my questions are these:
1) How do people cope with custom termcap entries?
2) Is there a *correct* way to cope with custom termcap entries?
3) Is there a good reason to not have /usr/share/misc/termcap be a
symlink to /etc/termcap rather than the reverse which would allow
mergemaster to Just Work? that is... putting it in /etc fixes a
problem... does moving it create one or more more serious problems?
4) Am I supposed to submit every custom termcap tweak for inclusion in
the next release so I can keep using my terminals?
Anyone?
I think you're not going to have much luck here. Custom termcap entries
are not something that most FreeBSD users deal with and consequently there
does not seem to be any useful mechanism established for managing them.
The curses(3X) man page seems to be they key reference. Particularly
the section on environment variables: TERM, TERMCAP, TERMPATH. It does
also mention the possibility of using ${HOME}/.termcap to hold supplementary
termcap entries. However, these man pages are rather confusing: many of them
talk about terminfo(5) in terms of 'it is going to replace termcap(5) any
day now'. But terminfo(5) is a SysV-ism and supported only as a compatibility
thing under FreeBSD.
Most people will be perfectly happy with the default termcap database -- so
long as it provides xterm / vt100 and cons25 almost all situations are covered.
For your purposes if using environment variables to achieve your ends turns out
not to be workable, then I'd suggest keeping a backup copy of your customised
termcap somewhere where system updates won't overwrite it -- keeping it
in CVS or similar would be a good move -- and writing yourself a little
script to merge in your changes to /usr/share/misc/termcap and then re-run
'cap_mkdb /usr/share/misc/termcap' after a system update. I've a feeling that
/etc/termcap is there mostly for historical compatibility now-adays.
Cheers,
Matthew
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard
Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate
Kent, CT11 9PW
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Re: Custom termcap entries and installworld
Matthew Seaman wrote:
I think you're not going to have much luck here. Custom termcap entries
are not something that most FreeBSD users deal with and consequently there
does not seem to be any useful mechanism established for managing them.
Hrm... maybe if I raise a big enough stink termcap can be installed in
/etc, managed by mergemaster, and everyone will go away happy... me
because I have what I want and everyone else because I finalyl shut up. ;-)
The curses(3X) man page seems to be they key reference. Particularly
the section on environment variables: TERM, TERMCAP, TERMPATH. It does
also mention the possibility of using ${HOME}/.termcap to hold supplementary
termcap entries. However, these man pages are rather confusing: many of them
talk about terminfo(5) in terms of 'it is going to replace termcap(5) any
day now'. But terminfo(5) is a SysV-ism and supported only as a compatibility
thing under FreeBSD.
I'm fairly certain that anything the curses man pages have to say on the
topic is wrong (and I dare you to read the terminfo manpage - it's been
dead on my system for some time... but that's Ok, since it's not
applicable). I believe that *BSD is the only platform using termcap
with ncurses left on the planet. I use termcap(5) as my primary source,
but have a firm belief that the last two thirds of the CAVEATS AND
BUGS section is completely wrong.
Most people will be perfectly happy with the default termcap database -- so
long as it provides xterm / vt100 and cons25 almost all situations are covered.
Yeah.
For your purposes if using environment variables to achieve your ends turns out
not to be workable, then I'd suggest keeping a backup copy of your customised
termcap somewhere where system updates won't overwrite it -- keeping it
in CVS or similar would be a good move -- and writing yourself a little
script to merge in your changes to /usr/share/misc/termcap and then re-run
'cap_mkdb /usr/share/misc/termcap' after a system update. I've a feeling that
/etc/termcap is there mostly for historical compatibility now-adays.
*nod* I've done a basic hack now and plastered stickynotes on all my
systems with dumb terminals. We'll see how well that system works out. :-)
I haven't yet found a way to use env variables (and haven't futzed
around with ~/.termcap yet) with entries in /etc/ttys I suspect it won't
work but I won't know until I beat myself to death with them.
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Custom termcap entries and installworld
In the last episode (May 28), Stephen Hurd said: Stephen Hurd wrote: So, I suppose my questions are these: 1) How do people cope with custom termcap entries? 2) Is there a *correct* way to cope with custom termcap entries? 3) Is there a good reason to not have /usr/share/misc/termcap be a symlink to /etc/termcap rather than the reverse which would allow mergemaster to Just Work? that is... putting it in /etc fixes a problem... does moving it create one or more more serious problems? 4) Am I supposed to submit every custom termcap tweak for inclusion in the next release so I can keep using my terminals? Anyone? What's wrong with just putting your custom termcap entry in /usr/src/share/termcap/termcap.src so it gets installed during installworld? -- Dan Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Custom termcap entries and installworld
In the last episode (May 28), Stephen Hurd said: Stephen Hurd wrote: So, I suppose my questions are these: 1) How do people cope with custom termcap entries? 2) Is there a *correct* way to cope with custom termcap entries? 3) Is there a good reason to not have /usr/share/misc/termcap be a symlink to /etc/termcap rather than the reverse which would allow mergemaster to Just Work? that is... putting it in /etc fixes a problem... does moving it create one or more more serious problems? 4) Am I supposed to submit every custom termcap tweak for inclusion in the next release so I can keep using my terminals? Anyone? What's wrong with just putting your custom termcap entry in /usr/src/share/termcap/termcap.src so it gets installed during installworld? The only issue with doing that is that then I have to manually merge changes or stop using CVSup to update the sources as well as figure out how to exclude a specific file from exact mode in CVSup... or possibly I would need to switch to AnonCVS and pay closer attention to what gets updated. This does present the possibility of a permanent solution (which is good) but seems like a fiendishly large amount of work for what seems to me like a simple task especially considering that this configuration file has been around since the late 70s. Thanks for your input... and hope for a permanent workaround. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Custom termcap entries and installworld
In the last episode (May 29), Stephen Hurd said: In the last episode (May 28), Stephen Hurd said: Stephen Hurd wrote: So, I suppose my questions are these: 1) How do people cope with custom termcap entries? 2) Is there a *correct* way to cope with custom termcap entries? 3) Is there a good reason to not have /usr/share/misc/termcap be a symlink to /etc/termcap rather than the reverse which would allow mergemaster to Just Work? that is... putting it in /etc fixes a problem... does moving it create one or more more serious problems? 4) Am I supposed to submit every custom termcap tweak for inclusion in the next release so I can keep using my terminals? Anyone? What's wrong with just putting your custom termcap entry in /usr/src/share/termcap/termcap.src so it gets installed during installworld? The only issue with doing that is that then I have to manually merge changes or stop using CVSup to update the sources as well as figure out how to exclude a specific file from exact mode in CVSup... or possibly I would need to switch to AnonCVS and pay closer attention to what gets updated. This does present the possibility of a permanent solution (which is good) but seems like a fiendishly large amount of work for what seems to me like a simple task especially considering that this configuration file has been around since the late 70s. I cvsup the raw CVS repository, then check out a source tree with cvs which I build against. That lets me modify the source however I want, and the changes persist across cvs update runs. -- Dan Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Custom termcap entries and installworld
Stephen Hurd wrote: So, I suppose my questions are these: 1) How do people cope with custom termcap entries? 2) Is there a *correct* way to cope with custom termcap entries? 3) Is there a good reason to not have /usr/share/misc/termcap be a symlink to /etc/termcap rather than the reverse which would allow mergemaster to Just Work? that is... putting it in /etc fixes a problem... does moving it create one or more more serious problems? 4) Am I supposed to submit every custom termcap tweak for inclusion in the next release so I can keep using my terminals? Anyone? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Custom termcap entries and installworld
I've now shot myself in the foot at least three times in as many years with custom termcap entries... here's the deal: 1) I modify /etc/termcap and customize a termcap entry for some valid reason (I need 132x42 or whatever for my Link MC/5) 2) I update /etc/gettytab and /etc/ttys accordingly and happily use my dumb terminal on occasion (roughly once per week) 3) I upgrade via sources, being sure to run mergemaster and friends. 4) My terminal stops working. I have now shot myself in the foot and need to recreate the termcap entry (which, silly me, I didn't back up) Now, intellectually, I *know* that termcap is really stored in /usr/share/misc, and that mergemaster doesn't/can't touch those files since they're not configuration files... but every single time I run installworld, I need to take a manual step to keep things working the way they were before. This is a POLA breaker but I've just ignored it every time it happened until now. This time I opened a PR (http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=bin/97407) wishing for mergemaster support which, of course, isn't the Right Thing. So, I suppose my questions are these: 1) How do people cope with custom termcap entries? 2) Is there a *correct* way to cope with custom termcap entries? 3) Is there a good reason to not have /usr/share/misc/termcap be a symlink to /etc/termcap rather than the reverse which would allow mergemaster to Just Work? that is... putting it in /etc fixes a problem... does moving it create one or more more serious problems? 4) Am I supposed to submit every custom termcap tweak for inclusion in the next release so I can keep using my terminals? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
