I don't know what kind of terminal you are on - all I have i

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I don't know what kind of terminal you are on - all I have i

I am getting this error message when trying to use vi on my schools server, anyone see this before?

-bash-3.00$ vi aboutme
I don't know what kind of terminal you are on - all I have is 'unknown'.
[Using open mode]
"aboutme" [New file]
:q

Posted on Nov 3, 2005 12:04 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 3, 2005 12:21 AM in response to daniel lemke

The problem is that your TERM shell env var is not getting set correctly. This often happens when you connect remotely ("on my school's server" means you're telnetting or sshing, yes?) to a machine that doesn't understand how your Mac's terminal is configured. After you are connected, try the command "export TERM=vt100" to set a fairly universal config and then see if "vi" works...

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Answer 2

daniel lemke Author

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Nov 3, 2005 12:32 AM in response to Daniel Macks

I tried TERM=xterm and that worked, although i think the vt100 technique would have also worked, thanks for the help. I just did TERM=xterm, you think It should be exported though?

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Answer 3

daniel lemke Author

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Nov 3, 2005 12:38 AM in response to daniel lemke

TERM=xterm actually solved nothing, but export TERM=vt100
seems to work

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Answer 4

Nov 3, 2005 12:41 AM in response to daniel lemke

xterm is certainly more featureful than vt100, so if xterm works may as well use it. You do want the "export": export means "use this value in the shell here and also in all processes launched from here. Without export, programs you run may revert to default (i.e., broken) TERM value.

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Answer 5

daniel lemke Author

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15 points

Nov 3, 2005 12:50 AM in response to daniel lemke

I know that export sends the variables to the environment, but that does not make them default, right? for that i would have edit some start up scripts i assumes? I say this because now when I log out and log back in, the problem comes back, that is after the variable is exported.

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Answer 6

Nov 3, 2005 1:35 AM in response to daniel lemke

Right. Depending on how you connect and how your remote system is configured, ~/.profile and/or ~/.bashrc are the bash config files where you would place that export command to have it run automatically every time you log in.

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