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From: andi payn <andi_payn@speedymail.org>
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Subject: Re: color to files
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On Mon, 2003-11-03 at 05:51, Lowell Gilbert wrote:
> andi payn <andi_payn@speedymail.org> writes:
> 
> > Was the xterm termcap changed for FreeBSD 5, or have I just done
> > something to fix this and forgotten about it?
> 
> It's a little more complicated, because the *classical* xterm does
> *not*, in fact, have color support, but yes, the latest releases
> on both branches should pick this up just fine.

OK, let me restate this to make sure I understand it; please correct me
if I get anything wrong.

The xterm that comes with XFree86 4.x, and most of the 3.x branch, has
ANSI color support. The xterms that come with earlier XFree86 3.x
versions and the X11R6.3 reference servers have old-style color support.
But in the old days, xterm didn't have any color support (it originally
emulated a B&W vt100 or something, right?).

So, up to FreeBSD 4.8, the terminfo for xterm didn't indicate color
support, and you had to specify xterm-color (or xterm-xf86-v40 or
whatever). In 4.9 and 5.1, this is no longer an issue; xterm works just
fine (unless someone's trying to connect to your FreeBSD box from some
box running an ancient xterm...).

Should I file a bug report on the ls(1) manpage, then? It says: "The
default ``cons25'' console has the proper capabilities, but to display
the colors in an xterm(1), for example, the TERM variable must be set to
``xterm-color''." This isn't true with 4.9/5.1--and also isn't true for
ancient non-color-capable xterms, for that matter.