From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Nov 19 19:49:46 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id TAA03200 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 19 Nov 1997 19:49:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions) Received: from BIGFUN.vwcom.com (BIGFUN.vwcom.com [151.197.101.21]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id TAA03189 for ; Wed, 19 Nov 1997 19:49:42 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from bmc@WillsCreek.COM) Received: from WillsCreek.COM (gw.willscreek.com [151.197.101.46]) by BIGFUN.vwcom.com (8.8.6/8.8.6) with ESMTP id WAA07180 for ; Wed, 19 Nov 1997 22:44:16 -0500 (EST) Received: from current.willscreek.com (current.willscreek.com [172.16.87.1]) by WillsCreek.COM (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id WAA05902 for ; Wed, 19 Nov 1997 22:42:05 -0500 (EST) Received: (from bmc@localhost) by current.willscreek.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id WAA00577; Wed, 19 Nov 1997 22:42:05 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 22:42:05 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199711200342.WAA00577@current.willscreek.com> From: Brian Clapper MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Keeping mutliple machine and telnets straight.... In-Reply-To: <89328212@toto.iv> X-Mailer: VM 6.23 under Emacs 19.34.1 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk I've taken a different approach entirely. In addition to setting the shell prompt to contain the host name (*and* setting it in the xterm border, if the terminal type is xterm), I have front-end scripts for telnet and rlogin called xtelnet and xlogin, respectively. (I even hacked one up for ssh at one time.) Each utility pops up a separate xterm for a telnet or rlogin session; each reads a simple text file in my home directory, called (appropriately) ".xlogin", that describes what colors xterm should use for the foreground, background, cursor and border for each host. The xlogin or xtelnet utility then fires up xterm, with the desired colors, telling it to run rlogin or telnet to the appropriate host. The utilities support most common options for both xterm and rlogin or telnet. I tend to stick to the same background (black) and modify the foreground (text) color. Since my brain parses color faster than text, I can tell at a glance--without reading anything--what host the current xterm is logged into. I've been using variants of these utilities for years, and I find I like the solution far better than relying solely on text labels of some kind. ----- Brian Clapper, bmc@WillsCreek.COM, http://WWW.WillsCreek.COM/ Quantity is no substitute for quality, but it's the only one we've got.