Subject: Re: Circular symlinks in terminfo-5.2-2.tar.bz2
From: Rick Rankin <[email-masked]>
To: Charles Wilson <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 12:18:55 -0700 (PDT)

--- Charles Wilson <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Rick Rankin wrote:
> 
> 
> >>Also, terminfo-5.2-2 changed in only one respect from terminfo-5.2-1: it 
> >>now uses the XFree86-4.2.0 terminal definitions for xterm-*.  NOT the 
> >>ncurses-provided definitions.
> >>
> > 
> > Hmmm... Perhaps this explains the trouble I've been having with the
> xterm-color
> > definition of late. For example, less now complains that the terminal is
> "not
> > fully functional" when TERM is set to "xterm-color", and info claims that
> > "Terminal type `xterm-color' is not smart enough to run Info."
> 
> 
> touble..."of late".  What do you mean?
> 
> 1) when you were using your reconstructed xterm-color definition from 
> ncurses-5.2, and the cygwin-xfree XFree86-4.2.0 xterm.exe, or
> 
> 2) in the last 12 hours when using the XFree86-4.2.0-derived xterm-color 
> definition from terminfo-5.2-3?
> 
> e.g. is this a bug report for terminfo-5.2-3?

Well, right now I'm not sure its a bug report against anything. I'm beginning
to think it's time to start checking for a loose nut behind the keyboard ;-)

I have a version of rxvt (2.7.8) that I compile myself with X support. I've
been using TERM=nxterm for quite some time with no problems. (Actually, I think
info has been complaining for a while, but I use info *very* infrequently, so I
never really cared. I use (X)Emacs to view info documentation when I want it.)
I don't use the rxvt terminfo definition because it doesn't support xterm-style
mouse control.

Yesterday, I mucked up my system pretty badly, so I decided to reinstall Cygwin
from scratch. That's when I discovered the circular links in the terminfo
package. Using TERM=nxterm didn't work at all because there was no actual
definition due to the circular links. I downloaded the ncurses source
(ncurses-5.2-8.tar.bz2) and applied the included patches to reconstruct what I
assumed would be the terminfo.src database that you used to build the
terminfo-5.2-1.tar.bz2 distribution. I compiled that database, and things
*seemed* to be working until I used less, which complained about the terminal
being "not fully functional".

Today, I downloaded the ncurses-5.2 source from ftp.gnu.org and rebuilt
/usr/share/terminfo using its database. To my surprise, less *still* complains
about the terminal being "not fully functional" with TERM=nxterm.

In short, I'm not at all sure how it worked before. I need to look at the
source for less to understand how it determines that a terminal is "not fully
functional" and proceed from there.

--Rick

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