Dumb terminal screenlength problem

[Bob Drzyzgula]

This problem has vexed me for over a year, and I may have finally found
one actual reason for its occurance. It goes something like this: User A
rlogins from suntools to some server machine, runs some stuff, and exits
without cleaning up completely. Process remains running on server with
user A's pseudo-tty as controlling terminal. User B telnets to server from
terminal server, gets same pseudo-tty. Unix now thinks that that old
process belongs to new session. Even will dump output from command to user
B's terminal. What's more **Unix thinks that the new terminal has the old
session's terminal characteristics**. Finding the offending process,
killing it off, logging out and back in again makes the problem go away.

Up until last week, when I discovered this, I always had to reboot the
machine to make the problem go away. I have seen this work twice since.
Don't know if other things cause this that hence cannot be fixed in this
way. Boggles the mind.

-Bob

Bob Drzyzgula
Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC, 20551
uucp: uunet!fed!rcd; Internet: rcd at fed.frb.gov