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https://github.com/m00nwtchr/st

My st config. (Arch Linux)
https://github.com/m00nwtchr/st

aur dotfiles st suckless

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My st config. (Arch Linux)

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README 

        
Terminfo Entries

================



:Author: Sebastian J. Bronner 

:Date: 2019-11-06

:URL: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/st



The Problem

-----------



Most Linux-based distributions will have their terminfo entries in the

``ncurses`` package. These live in ``/usr/share/terminfo``. There you will find

several entries for ``st``. As of ``ncurses-6.1`` as packaged in ArchLinux,

these, do not work well with current versions of ``st``.



Specifically, I have observed the following issues when using the terminfo

entries supplied with ``ncurses``:



* Start ``st``.

* Run ``tmux`` in the ``st`` window.

* Run ``nvim`` in ``tmux``.



  * ``tmux`` will crash immediately with the following message:



    .. code:: console



       [lost server]

                    %



* Run ``w3m`` with any URL in ``tmux``.



  * ``w3m`` will not react to any key presses (most notably the arrow keys and

    ``q``) and must be terminated with ``killall w3m``.

  * The command line returned where ``w3m`` was running will show all the

    missing keypresses.



For reference, I performed these tests using the following software versions:

``st`` 0.8.2, ``tmux`` 2.9_a, ``neovim`` 0.4.2, and ``w3m``

0.5.3.git20190105-1.



A couple of issues have been filed against ``tmux`` for this. Although it is

not a problem with ``tmux`` the issues remain for reference:



| https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/1264

| https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/1593



Complications

-------------



While it may be tempting to use the terminfo files shipped with ``st``, that

would be a bad idea from a packaging standpoint. There are two reasons for

this: (1) As of ``st-0.8.2`` they have errors in them. This has been fixed and

will roll out in the next release, though.



| https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ncurses/2019-10/msg00071.html

| https://lists.suckless.org/hackers/1911/17006.html



(2) It is vital that remote terminals connecting via ``ssh`` are known. That is

accomplished by having all terminfo files in one package (like ``ncurses``).



``ncurses`` has released updated terminfo entries. The problem as described

above is fixed. However, the updated terminfo entries are not installed on

ArchLinux because they were released as a standalone file without a new release

of the rest of ``ncurses``.



The Solution

------------



The solution must be to get the updated terminfo entries packaged for

ArchLinux. I believe that the ``ncurses`` package should be updated to that

effect.



https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/57596



The Workaround

--------------



A somewhat painful, albeit pragmatic, workaround is as follows: A user that

encounters issues that are due to mismatched terminfo entries, such as those

above, can populate a user-level terminfo database from the terminfo entries

supplied by ``st``. The following command will do this:



.. code:: shell



   tic -sx /usr/share/st/st.info



The generated terminfo database will most likely be placed in ``~/.terminfo``.

The command will print the actual location used. Unfortunately, these files

need to be kept up to date by hand. Actually they should probably be removed as

soon as a new version of ``ncurses`` is released.