ssh "TERM is not defined."

[bl8n8r]

Hello all.
just fyi, I ran across this error message while using rsnapshot/ssh
between a couple boxes. /etc/bashrc uses setterm to disable the
terminal bell (setterm -blength 0) however the ssh session sets the
TERM environment variable to "dumb", which setterm knows nothing about
(apparently). Adding the if statement around my setterm commands
fixes the "$TERM is not defined" error message.

# ssh sets TERM to dumb when using scp or other...
if [ "$TERM" != "dumb" ]; then
setterm -blength 0
setterm -bfreq 0
fi

[Lew Pitcher]

In alt.os.linux, bl8n8r wrote:

> Hello all.
> just fyi, I ran across this error message while using rsnapshot/ssh
> between a couple boxes. /etc/bashrc uses setterm to disable the
> terminal bell (setterm -blength 0) however the ssh session sets the
> TERM environment variable to "dumb", which setterm knows nothing about
> (apparently).

This points to a faulty or incomplete terminfo database. There /should/ be
an entry for the (historic) "dumb" terminal in your /usr/share/terminfo
directory tree (fil /usr/share/terminfo/d/dumb).

On my Slackware 12 system, this "dumb" device decomposes (via infocmp(1m) )
to the definition
~ $ infocmp dumb
# Reconstructed via infocmp from file: /usr/share/terminfo/d/dumb
dumb|80-column dumb tty,
am,
cols#80,
bel=^G, cr=^M, cud1=^J, ind=^J,
You should be able to use the infotocap(1m) utility to convert this
definition into a useable terminfo file

> Adding the if statement around my setterm commands
> fixes the "$TERM is not defined" error message.

"Fixes", as in "works around the configuration error"

> # ssh sets TERM to dumb when using scp or other...
> if [ "$TERM" != "dumb" ]; then
> setterm -blength 0
> setterm -bfreq 0
> fi

--
Lew Pitcher

Master Codewright & JOAT-in-training | Registered Linux User #112576
http://pitcher.digitalfreehold.ca/ | GPG public key available by request
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