Terminal display behavior

[18Googol2]

I couldnt think of good key words to google, so I thought I should seek help here

The terminal Im using atm is Gnome-terminal in FreeBSD. I notice those differences:

1. Man page display

FreeBSD:



Linux:



I really like the way how man page displayed in linux, because I can read more with less interaction. 1-0 for linux . How can I config this in FreeBSD?

2. VIM

FreeBSD:



Linux:



If I finish vim session, the file content can be displayed by scrolling up in FreeBSD. However, in Linux, the content is gone . Equalizer for FreeBSD, 1-1

Im a bit confused, I thought the display is independent of OS, and it is a job of the terminal?

[richardpl]

1. Explain a little bit more.
Does linux use same $PAGER as FreeBSD?

2. Read ":h xterm-save-screen" in vim

[18Googol2]

Originally Posted by richardpl

1. Explain a little bit more.
Does linux use same $PAGER as FreeBSD?

2. Read ":h xterm-save-screen" in vim

Thank you, problem number 2 solved . Here is the solution for anyone interested:

Add this line to editor startup file (.vimrc for vim or .exrc for vi)

set t_ti= t_te=

1. The display width isnt the same. Its wider in Linux. Both linux and FreeBSD have no PAGER variable set. Also, setting it to less or more doesnt make any difference :S

[jb_daefo]

alias man='env PAGER=lookat man $1'
................
I've set that in .zshrc. Don't know how to do it in other shells really,
but /lookat/ is super for man pages :
s-- search
q-- exit
t -- top of page
b -- bottom
[number] -- go to line
and its default color is more readable, here at least.
................

[18Googol2]

Im happy with black and white color man page. The problem properly because man page format in FreeBSD differs from Linux? This is how the raw man file looks like with vim, in FreeBSD:

vim /usr/share/man/cat8/ifconfig.8.gz

[richardpl]

Linux does things differently. It use width of terminal when creating manual page output via troff to be viewed in PAGER.
It may be something different in man itself or in groff macro package (man on freebsd use mdoc).

What happens when you resize terminal on linux when viewing man pages?

[18Googol2]

Oh, it is auto resized in Linux. Also, I realise the same behavior when viewing man page in Linux. If I finish viewing man page, the content is gone, just like how it happenned with vi. Do you know how to config it?

[richardpl]

No, but look in PAGER how it handles it ... eg. Does less clear screen when displaying every file. Maybe termcap/terminfo on linux is different than on FreeBSD.

Similar experience I have with elinks on xterm on FreeBSD, as fast hack I kill it with Ctrl+\ (this hack also works with linux manual pages ....)

[ephemera]

1. try this with different term sizes:

$ gzcat /usr/share/man/man1/man1.gz | groff -man -rLL=`tput cols`n -Tascii - | $PAGER