Dumb terminal screenlength problem

[John DelSignore]

The problem is that tty's have two "built-in" parameters: rows and
columns, that take precedence over the number of rows and columns in the
termcap entry.  Typically, a user running a window system causes these
parameters to get set to something large.  When the user exits and the tty
gets closed, the rows and columns are not cleared (bug in the tty driver).
So, when the next user opens that same tty, regardless of the termcap
entry for terminal he's using, the rows and columns are set for the
previous user.

Here is a work around:

After the VT100 user logs in, type "stty everything".  This will
display the rows and columns:

    oak>stty everything
    new tty, speed 9600 baud, 64 rows, 85 columns
    ...

At this point, you can set the rows and columns to 0, and the termcap
entry will be honored.

    oak>stty rows 0 columns 0
    oak>stty everything
    new tty, speed 9600 baud, 0 rows, 0 columns
    ...
--OR--
    oak>stty rows 24 columns 80
    ...

Cheers, John D.