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From: john@IASTATE.EDU (Hascall John Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi,comp.unix.internals
Subject: Re: Where does TERM get set for Telnet logins (NOT EXACTLY)
Message-ID: <1991Jan1.104335@IASTATE.EDU>
Date: 1 Jan 91 16:43:35 GMT
References: <1990Dec17.034330.27909@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz> <1990Dec18.041334.7498@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz> <1990Dec18.074044.13043@Think.COM> <1990Dec19.181235.4193@odin.corp.sgi.com>
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Reply-To: john@IASTATE.EDU (Hascall John Paul)
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In article <1990Dec19.181235.4193@odin.corp.sgi.com>, olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com
(Dave Olson) writes:
> In <1990Dec18.074044.13043@Think.COM> barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin)
writes:
> 
> | In article <1990Dec18.041334.7498@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz>
russell@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Russell J Fulton;ccc032u) writes:
> | The 4.3bsd telnetd doesn't have this problem.  If it is unable to negotiate
> | the terminal type, it doesn't supply the "-p" (preserve environment) option
> | to /bin/login.  And when it does negotiate the terminal type, it sets the
> | environment that is inherited by /bin/login to only contain the TERM
> | variable.
> | 
> | I suggest you ask your vendor to adopt this strategy.
> 
> This is exactly how it works.  However, if TERM isn't passed in to login
> by telnetd, AND TERM is already set in the environment, then login will
> use the value already in the environment, which in this case was inherited
> down the chain from the operator's shell -> inetd -> telnetd -> login.

   They are not (as described above) exactly the same.  Under BSD if telnetd
cannot get a value for TERM from the other end, there is no TERM in login's
environment (even if there is a TERM in telnetd's environment).

--
John Hascall                        An ill-chosen word is the fool's messenger.
Project Vincent
Iowa State University Computation Center                       john@iastate.edu
Ames, IA  50010                                                  (515) 294-9551