Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!pilchuck!pacer!davidb
From: davidb@Pacer.UUCP (David Barts)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Termid (was: Re: Login (unique) problems with terminal emulations.)
Summary: don't put this in /etc/profile!
Message-ID: <266@zircon.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 90 05:51:01 GMT
References: <1030@dialogic.UUCP> <3153@taux01.UUCP>
Organization: Pacer Corp., Bothell, WA
Lines: 25

In article <3153@taux01.UUCP>, amos@taux01.UUCP (Amos Shapir) writes:
> In article <1030@dialogic.UUCP> drich@dialogic.UUCP (Dan Rich) writes:
> >Before I go off into an answer for this, does anyone know of a way to
> >auto-identify a terminal at login?  I know that this can be done,
> 
> Here's how, at least for ANSI-compatible terminals:
> :
> :

This is a neat trick, basically what SET TERMINAL/INQUIRE does on
VAX/VMS.  Go ahead and put it in your own .login or .profile, but
*please* don't put it in the sitewide files.  There is a chance that
if the terminal being used is not an ANSI terminal, the ANSI
`who-are-you' escape sequence will be far from innocuous.

As a case in point, when I was in college I would cu from an HP system
to a VAX/VMS system.  I found out the hard way that the series of
escape codes sent out by SET TERMINAL/INQUIRE just happen to cause the
HP terminal I was using to do a master reset (everything was reset,
down to baud, parity, and handshaking).  I wasn't the only user
bitten by this change, and needless to say the site-wide login script
was changed back in a matter of hours.
-- 
David Barts			Pacer Corporation
davidb@pacer.uucp		...!fluke!pacer!davidb