📚 LinuxDocs
Topics:
All Pages8021X HOWTOACP ModemACPI HOWTOADSL Bandwidth Man..ATA RAID HOWTOATM Linux HOWTOAX25 HOWTOAccessibility Dev ..Accessibility HOWTOAdv Bash Scr HOWTOAdv Routing HOWTOAntares RAID sparc..Apache Compile HOWTOApache WebDAV LDAP..Assembly HOWTOAstronomy HOWTOAthlon Powersaving..Authentication Gat..Autodir HOWTOAviation HOWTOAvr Microcontrolle..BRIDGE STP HOWTOBTTVBackspaceDeleteBandwidth Limiting..Bangla HOWTOBash Prompt HOWTOBattery PoweredBelarusian HOWTOBelgian HOWTOBeowulf HOWTOBocaBogoMipsBootdisk HOWTOBridgeC++ dlopenC C++Beautifier HO..C editing with VIM..CDROM HOWTOCDServer HOWTOCable ModemCaudium HOWTOClone HOWTOCompaq Remote Insi..Compaq T1500 HOWTOConexant+Rockwell ..Cryptoloop HOWTODB2 HOWTODHCPDSL HOWTODVD Playback HOWTODebian Binary Pack..Debian JigdoDebian and Windows..Disk Encryption HO..Disk on Chip HOWTODocBook Demystific..DocBook InstallDocBook OpenJade S..Ecology HOWTOEmacspeak HOWTOEncourage Women Li..Encrypted Root Fil..Euro Char SupportEvent HOWTOFedora Multimedia ..Finnish HOWTOFirewall PiercingFlash Memory HOWTOFont HOWTOFramebuffer HOWTOGCC HOWTOGIS GRASSGlibc Install HOWTOHOWTO HOWTOHOWTO INDEXHP HOWTOHandspring VisorHard Disk UpgradeHardware HOWTOHighQuality Apps H..Home Electrical Co..IBM7248 HOWTOIO Perf HOWTOIP AliasIP Masquerade HOWTOIRCImplement Sys Call..Indic Fonts HOWTOInfrared HOWTOIngresII HOWTOInstall StrategiesInstallation HOWTOInstallfest HOWTOIntkeybItalian HOWTOJabber Server Farm..JavaStation HOWTOKerberos Infrastru..Kernel HOWTOKerneldKodak Digitalcam H..LDAP HOWTOLDP Reviewer HOWTOLILO crash rescue ..LVM HOWTOLeased LineLegoLinksys Blue Box R..Linux+Win95Linux+Win9x+Grub H..Linux+Windows HOWTOLinux Complete Bac..Linux Crash HOWTOLinux Gamers HOWTOLinux Modem SharingLinux Promise RAID..Linux i386 Boot Co..LinuxGL QuakeWorld..Lotus DominoR5MILO HOWTOMMBase Inst HOWTOMP3 CD BurningMail User HOWTOMajordomo MajorCoo..Man PageMasquerading Simpl..Medicine HOWTOMindTerm SSH HOWTOMobile IPv6 HOWTOMock MainframeModule HOWTOModulesMotorola Surfboard..Mozilla OptimizationMulti Distro DevNCURSES Programmin..NFS HOWTONFS Root Client mi..NIS HOWTONetMeeting HOWTONetwork boot HOWTONvidia OpenGL Conf..OLSR IPv6 HOWTOOnline Troubleshoo..Oracle 9i Fedora 3..PA RISC Linux Boot..PCTel MicroModem C..PHP Nuke HOWTOPPP HOWTOPagerPalmOS HOWTOPartitionPartition Mass Sto..Partition Mass Sto..Partition RescuePine ExchangePortSlavePost Installation ..Postfix Cyrus Web ..Pre Installation C..Print2WinPrinting HOWTOProcess AccountingProgram Library HO..Proxy ARP SubnetQmail ClamAV HOWTOQmail VMailMgr Cou..Querying libiptc H..RPM HOWTOReading List HOWTORedHat CD HOWTOReliance HOWTORemote BridgingRemote Serial Cons..SCSI 2.4 HOWTOSCSI Generic HOWTOSLIP PPP EmulatorSRM HOWTOSSL Certificates H..Scanner HOWTOScientific Computi..Scripting GUI TclTkSecure CVS PserverSecure Programs HO..Security HOWTOSecurity Quickstar..Security Quickstar..Serial Laplink HOWTOSerial Programming..Slovak HOWTOSmall MemorySmart Card HOWTOSoftware Proj Mgmt..Software Release P..Sound HOWTOSpam Filtering for..Speech Recognition..SquashFS HOWTOSybase ASA HOWTOSybase ASE HOWTOSybase PHP ApacheTCP Keepalive HOWTOTamil Linux HOWTOTimePrecision HOWTOTimeSys Linux Inst..Token RingTraffic Control HO..Traffic Control tc..UPS HOWTOUnix Hardware Buye..Unix and Internet ..UpgradeUsenet News HOWTOUser Authenticatio..VB6 to TclVMS to Linux HOWTOVPN HOWTOValgrind HOWTOVideoLAN HOWTOVim HOWTOVirtual WebWebcam HOWTOWikiText HOWTOWindows Newsreader..Wireless Link sys ..Wireless Sync HOWTOXDM XtermXDMCP HOWTOXFree Local multi ..XFree86 HOWTOXFree86 R200XFree86 Second MouseXFree86 Video Timi..XML RPC HOWTOXWindow Overview H..XWindow User HOWTOXinerama HOWTOXterminalsHtml singleI810 HOWTOLibdc1394 HOWTOOpenMosix HOWTOPhhttpd HOWTOPpp sshText

3. Why It Doesn't (Always) Work

I hope the basic problem is clear at this point: there is a bottleneck between the keyboard and console applications, that is, the fact that they can only communicate by .:: blogfreely.net ::. .:: partners.skanska.com ::. ASCII sequences. So special keys must be first translated from keysyms to sequences, and then from sequences to key capabilities. Since different consoles have different ideas about what this translation can look like, we need a terminal database. The system would work flawlessly, except for a small problem: it is not always set up correctly, and not everyone uses it. .:: participa.gijon.es ::.

Applications must have a way to know which database entry to use: this is accomplished by suitably setting the TERM environment variable. In some cases, there is a mismatch between the terminal emulator and the content of the database entry suggested by TERM.

Moreover, many applications do not use the terminal database (or at least not all of it), and consider BS and DEL ASCII codes with an intended meaning: thus, without looking at the database, they assign them semantics (usually, of course, the semantics is removing the character before or under the cursor). So now our beautiful scheme is completely broken (as every Linux user is bitterly aware). For instance, the [Artificial intelligence Study] .:: telegra.ph ::. bash assumes that DEL should do a backward-delete-char, that is, backspace. Hence, on a fresh install the .:: ava.ifsul.edu.br ::. .:: ro.pinterest.com ::. Backspace key works on the console as expected, but just because of two twists in a row! Of course, the Delete key does not work. This happens because the bash does not look into the terminal database for the kdch1 capability.

Just to illustrate how things have become entangled, consider the fix_bs_and_del script provided with the Red Hat distribution (and maybe others). It assigns on-the-fly the [r/Docker Topics] BackSpace keysym to the Backspace key, and the Delete keysym to the Delete key. Now the shell works! Unfortunately, all programs relying on the correct coupling of keysym generation and terminal database mappings are now not working at all, as the Delete keysym is mapped to DEL, and the latter to the kbs key capability by the terminfo database, so in such programs both keys produce backspacing.

Share or Research:

Share on FB Post to X LinkedIn 🤖 Ask AI about this