Subject: Screen has odd blank out behaviour

From: Ed Wagner <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:43:48 -0400

Hello,

I use Apple OS 10.5.5 Terminal.app ,xterm  and Ubuntu Xterm in Gnome.   
I'm all for CLI and spend most of my time there either on local or  
remote machines which lead me to use gnu screen to save state and  
other handy features.

this issue I have is easy to resolve when not using screen and I feel  
I have isolated the issue to GNU screen and will aproch there user  
list next.  but I have been searching and reading up on the man pages  
for a while now and feel its time to ask if others have a solution.

This the  the famous screen clear on exit.

this is fix on all my systems that needed the fix. ssh or direct login  
on all systems works they way I wish.

Enter screen.

No there are a few different methods I have tried:

 > infocmp >.terminfo/screen.xterm-color.terminfo
 > cd .terminfo
 > emacs screen.xterm-color.terminfo
#
# changed line 2
|#       Reconstructed via infocmp from file: /Users/ewagner/.terminfo/ 
78/xterm-color
|xterm-color|nxterm|screen-xterm|screen-xterm-color|generic color xterm,
 > tic screen.xterm-color.terminfo
 > sceen

this does not work, I've also made sure that LESS is unset and that  
TERM is not set in my profiles thus everything works outside of screen.

Now the odd part:

Is seems screen is doing something odd.  for if I export LESS=-X   the  
screen does a full clear and the prompt is at the top.

if I use clear or ctrl-l  the screen clears and places the prompt at  
the top.  but if I emacs or less.....  the prompt remains at the same  
level on the screen but all the characters are missing... or that is  
to say there apear to be 'blank lines' where the content was before  
and the prompt is left one line down from before I invoced emacs or  
less..

This lead me to think it was the autonuke on|off setting becuase that  
seems to mention something about how the screen is cleared indicating  
that the contents will be re-written using the  background collor.   I  
can't highlight or copy-past content to verify if this is the case.

So this is where I am and it is worse then my past two configurations  
without screen where either the screen would clear on exit or do  
nothing leving the emacs/less output visible and providing a prompt.

any help would be apreiciated..

Thanks!

Ed

-- PS --
aditional boring version information:

Terminal.app verison:2.0.1 (240)
apple xterm: X.Org 6.8.99.903(235)
ubuntu xterm -version reports: XTerm(229)

ubuntu screen version: Screen version 4.00.03 (FAU) 23-Oct-06
apple screen version: Screen version 4.00.03 (FAU) 23-Oct-06

redhat ES 4 screen version: Screen version 4.00.02 (FAU) 5-Dec-03
(Red hat mahcines are remote...so no gui terminal emulation thought I  
could if need be...

_______________________________________________
screen-users mailing list
[email-masked]
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/screen-users

---

From: [email-masked] (Trent W. Buck)
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:41:22 +1000

Ed Wagner <[email-masked]> writes:
> [a long, confusing post]

I'm sorry, Ed, but I just couldn't understand that post.

Please answer the following questions *separately*:

1) what are the steps to reproduce the problem?
2) what happens when you follow the steps in (1)?
3) what do you want/expect to happen when you follow the steps in (1)?

In your previous post you have mixed up the answers with

- your guesses as to what the problem is;
- what references you consulted; and
- your attempts to fix the problem

These data get in the way when we're trying to understand what the
problem *is* (the first three questions).  It's like going to your
doctor and saying "I need this leg amputated" (your guess) instead of
"my knee make a funny cracking noise when I bend over" (the problem).
By all means give your guesses, but do that *after* answering the first
three questions.

Here's an example of a good report:

  From Terminal.app in OS X, I ssh to a Debian Etch server and run
  screen there.  In screen if I then run less(1), when I quit less the
  screen is cleared -- I just get a shell prompt at the top of the
  screen.  I want it to go back to showing the shell output from before
  I ran less.  For example, if I ran "ls -l" before I ran "less", I
  expect the ls output to be displayed again when I quit less.

  This problem also happens if I connect to the Debian server from an
  Ubuntu 8.04 laptop using xterm or gnome-terminal.  It also happens if
  I run "emacs" instead of "less".

  The problem goes away if I just ssh to the server and run less or
  emacs straight away (without starting screen), the problem goes away.

  The problem still happens if I remove my .screenrc on both OS X and on
  the Debian server.  I'm starting a new screen session each time, not
  using "screen -R" to reconnect to an old one.

  I looked at the screen manual and the mailing list archive, but I
  couldn't work out how to fix this.  I tried putting "autonuke off" in
  my .screenrc on the Debian server, but it didn't help.

References: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
German translation: http://www.tty1.net/smart-questions_de.html