env TERM=xterm-256color

balanga · Mar 27, 2021

How do I globally set TERM=xterm-256color?

/.cshrc or /.profile

/.profile already contains

TERM=${TERM:-xterm}

How do I amend that?

T-Daemon · Mar 27, 2021

balanga said:
How do I globally set TERM=xterm-256color?

/.cshrc or /.profile

Depends on the shell. Which login shell are you using?

balanga · Mar 27, 2021

Whatever is the default....

Minbari · Mar 27, 2021

Do you use .Xresources to config xterm? You can define him there. ( XTerm.termName: xterm-256color), or add the following lines in your .(shell)rc file:
e.g.

Code:

case "$TERM" in
    'xterm') TERM=xterm-256color;;
    'urxvt') TERM=rxvt-unicode-256color;;
    'Eterm') TERM=Eterm-256color;;
esac

T-Daemon · Mar 27, 2021

balanga said:
Whatever is the default....

Users added with adduser(8) have /bin/sh as default. To make sure run echo $SHELL.

If it's sh(1), for globally setting (system wide): export TERM=xterm-256color in /etc/profile.

In case it's csh(1): setenv TERM xterm-256color in /etc/csh.cshrc

EDIT: Corrected typo: xterm-256colors -> xterm-256color

Mjölnir · Mar 27, 2021

Edit login.conf(5), then cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf

First_Law_of_Unix · May 20, 2022

T-Daemon said:
In case it's csh(1): setenv TERM xterm-256colors in /etc/csh.cshrc

I tried this and terminal just wasn't working properly any more. Kept giving "tput" error commands whenever I typed something on terminal. I had to remove that code and then reboot and terminal was working properly again. Also I am using headless FreeBSD which has the default "csh" shell.

getopt · May 20, 2022

First_Law_of_Unix
Typo. It should be xterm-256color not "colors"

cy@ · May 20, 2022

Bash:

eval `tset -Q -s -m xterm:xterm-256color`

Cath O'Deray · May 28, 2022

Code:

% echo $0
/bin/tcsh
% bash
[grahamperrin@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd ~]$ eval `tset -Q -s -m xterm:xterm-256color`
bash: setenv: command not found
[grahamperrin@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd ~]$ echo $0
bash
[grahamperrin@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd ~]$ echo $SHELL
/bin/tcsh
[grahamperrin@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd ~]$ exit
exit
%

Vull · May 28, 2022

~/.shrc

Code:

export TERM=xterm-256color

Andrey Lanin · May 28, 2022

balanga said:
How do I globally set TERM=xterm-256color?

Globally ?
In /etc/ttys (if you have root access):

Code:

ttyv0    "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"        xterm-256color    onifexists secure

Suppose, you are using bash and then in your .bashrc:

Code:

alias ls='ls --color'

balanga · Nov 18, 2023

I have just installed 14.0-R on a fresh partition and am getting different values for $TERM....

When logging in via ssh I have, TERM=xterm-256color, but logging in locally, I have TERM=xterm.

Can someone explain why I get different values, and how they get set?

junkyalleycat · Nov 19, 2023

TERM travels with ssh, it's otherwise set in various ways (some mentioned in this thread) when you log in locally. TERM is the sort of variable that terminal emulators try their best to set appropriately and software tries its best to pass along so that the environment is set to the correct sort of TERM for the actual terminal type you are physically using. Setting a terminal to something that it's not (for example, setting a strictly vt100 compliant terminal to be an xterm-256color) could make the display go funky and not work as expected.

To have it set absolutely to the same thing for all your single user logins it's probably easiest just to put into your shell's rc file and override an already set TERM, but depending on the terminal emulator you are using you may experience issues (though to be honest, these days there is a good chance that you will always be on an xterm compliant terminal, so in the end may not matter)

mayers · Jun 11, 2024

Minbari said:
Do you use .Xresources to config xterm? You can define him there. ( XTerm.termName: xterm-256color), or add the following lines in your .(shell)rc file:
e.g.

Code:

case "$TERM" in 'xterm') TERM=xterm-256color;; 'urxvt') TERM=rxvt-unicode-256color;; 'Eterm') TERM=Eterm-256color;; esac

I'm a beginner with my .cshrc file so echoing $TERM results in xterm-256color

C-like:

switch  ($TERM)
    case "xterm" :
        set TERM=xterm-256color
        breaksw
    case "urxvt" :
        set TERM=rxvt-unicode-256color
        breaksw
    case "Eterm" :
        set TERM=Eterm-256color
        breaksw
endsw

Tanks

env TERM=xterm-256color

␢