Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!bernsten
From: bernsten@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.4bsd
Subject: sysline(1) does not use environment TERMCAP
Keywords: sysline, TERM, TERMCAP
Message-ID: <6497@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 19 Feb 89 05:45:47 GMT
Reply-To: bernsten@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Dan Bernstein)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Princeton U. Undergrad Math Majors, last time I checked
Lines: 22

DESCRIPTION:
It appears on several BSD and ULTRIX systems that sysline(1) does not
check that for an environment TERMCAP before searching /etc/termcap.
There is no apparent way to specify a different termcap file to sysline.
This means that individual users cannot use sysline with individually
installed terminal descriptions.

REPEAT-BY:
Find a terminal whose /etc/termcap description does not have ds, es, or
fs. Set your TERMCAP variable to be the standard termcap for that
terminal, plus any ds, es, and fs strings. Observe that sysline does
not recognize the environment TERMCAP. Similarly, by changing TERM,
TERMCAP, and /etc/termcap, convince yourself that sysline searches for
TERM within /etc/termcap, and only works if the /etc/termcap description
has the appropriate strings.

FIX:
Not having sysline source, I have so far been content to write my own
code to use the terminal status line. I suspect that termcap is used in
sysline without using the termcap(3) routines.

---Dan Bernstein, bernsten@phoenix.princeton.edu