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From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: vi question - unknown terminal type
Keywords: vi, termcap
Message-ID: <15036@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 31 Jan 91 21:52:07 GMT
References: <1991Jan31.160558.815@lonex.radc.af.mil>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 14

In article <1991Jan31.160558.815@lonex.radc.af.mil> ratazzie@lonex.radc.af.mil (Edward P. Ratazzi) writes:
>Recently, I added some new termcap entries to the end of our /etc/termcap
>file.  Everything seems to work O.K. with these terminals, EXCEPT vi.  
>When vi is started, we get an 'Unknown terminal type' message.  The terminal
>name IS in /etc/termcap.  Where else does vi look?  What might be the problem?

(1)  Make sure that the environment variable TERM is properly set -- not
just a shell variable.

(2)  Some systems have both termcap and terminfo, which are alternative
implementations of the same basic idea.  Applications use one or the other
but not both.  (Indeed, most system software doesn't use either!)  So it
could well be that "vi" is using terminfo, not termcap, and you would need
to use the "tic" utility to add a terminfo description for your TERM type.