Shell problem unless running under Xorg

[jb_daefo]

When using Zsh, repeating a command, editing a word or two results in inexact echoing of the cursor, so the result is a misspelled word or something with extra letters, a - apart from the parameter, extra parameters that may make no sense and break the command, etc.

A workaround is to Ctnl-Q it, do an ls, then what is about to be typed is echoed accurately before running it to see if it is what is intended.

Another workaround is to do the commands in a terminal before exiting Xorg, which is easy enough, but not always convenient.

A web search did not give any clue as to any similar problem for anyone else...

Suggestions appreciated...

[Carpetsmoker]

It's difficult to follow your description, but it sounds to me that you have a "wrong" TERM setting. This can cause artefacts when doing line-editing.

[jb_daefo]

$TERM is xterm
...................
To describe again:

# cp -iv filea.txt fileb.txt /mnt

Now, to copy filec.txt just changing one letter, one does not
know:

cp -iv fileac.txt
cp -iv fileactxt
cp -iv filcatxt ...

What edit results. Because, the cursor shown does not
correspond to its actual editing position within the command line.

Workaround:


One can

cntl-Q
df

and test if the line about to be run is spelled correctly, since
once the df is shown, the newer command is also shown before it is
run. Slower, works,
but should be corrected...

[Carpetsmoker]

You can try setting TERM to xterm-color, xterm-xfree86, or screen ... I don't know what the correct one is, since I don't know which terminal emulator you're using.

Here is the relevant section of my tcshrc. I use xterm with tmux.

# Do the $TERM dance; these options seem to work best on various systems...
if (($?TMUX)) then
    setenv TERM screen
else if ($uname == OpenBSD) then
    setenv TERM xterm-xfree86
else if ($uname == FreeBSD) then
    if ($tty =~ ttyv*) then
        setenv TERM cons25
    else
        setenv TERM xterm-color
    endif
else if ($uname == Linux) then
    setenv TERM xterm-color
else
    setenv TERM vt220
endif

It might also be a problem with the key binds in your shell sending 'wrong' codes...

[jb_daefo]

Tested zsh with the cons25, no solution. Tested dvtm / screen / tmux (screen helped the most but was altogether a slower solution); then I decided to test putting the relevant zsh aliases (commands and directories) into .bashrc.
That more or less fixed it. If I'm to be doing a copy as in the revised post, I can simply type "bash" and the cursor problem is fixed.

Some days there is a longer series of files to copy in zsh, all at once but not individually, and a set of three commands in that instance, from saved history in zsh, is easier to not have mistakes, as they are not edited [except one whole word sometimes ], but simply rerun again.

Also learned how drop-in replaceable the .bashrc and .zshrc alias syntax is in the use case here.

So 95 percent solved, anyway, as per the original post.