[Pkg-urxvt-maintainers] Bug#630976: rxvt-unicode-256color: TERM is too long for gnu screen

[Jason Woofenden]

Package: rxvt-unicode-256color
Version: 9.11-1
Severity: normal

Hello,

The TERM variable (rxvt-unicode-256color) is too long for gnu
screen by one character. screen bails at startup with the message
"$TERM too long - sorry."

The solutions that spring to [my] mind are to shorten that TERM
variable (and terminfo file) and/or patch gnu screen.

I've just read that gnu screen (upstream) is not being actively
maintained, so it could be many years (if ever) before most systems
we ssh into have their gnu screen patched to support longer TERMs.

For me screen is most important when run on remote systems, so my
vote is for the shortened TERM variable for better compatibility
with other systems running vanilla gnu screen.

Thank you for considering this.

Take care,    - Jason


-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.39-2-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages rxvt-unicode-256color depends on:
ii  base-passwd                  3.5.22      Debian base system master password
ii  libc6                        2.13-7      Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libfontconfig1               2.8.0-2.2   generic font configuration library
ii  libgcc1                      1:4.6.0-14  GCC support library
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0           2.23.3-3    GDK Pixbuf library
ii  libglib2.0-0                 2.28.6-1    The GLib library of C routines
ii  libperl5.12                  5.12.3-7+b1 shared Perl library
ii  libx11-6                     2:1.4.3-2   X11 client-side library
ii  libxft2                      2.2.0-3     FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii  libxrender1                  1:0.9.6-2   X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  ncurses-term                 5.9-1       additional terminal type definitio

Versions of packages rxvt-unicode-256color recommends:
ii  ttf-dejavu                    2.33-1     Metapackage to pull in ttf-dejavu-
ii  ttf-sazanami-gothic           20040629-8 Sazanami Gothic Japanese TrueType 

rxvt-unicode-256color suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information