TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[kj]

On my Debian Linux system I have the file

  /usr/share/terminfo/x/xterm-256color

so I set TERM=xterm-256color and invoked emacs -nw, but when I
executed (list-colors-display) only 8 colors are shown.  What am
I doing wrong?

Thanks!

kj

P.S. I'm aware of the option of running emacs under X11, but I'm
trying to troubleshoot the color problem with emacs -nw.
-- 
NOTE: In my address everything before the first period is backwards;
and the last period, and everything after it, should be discarded.

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[David Hansen]

On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 14:57:22 +0000 (UTC) kj wrote:

> On my Debian Linux system I have the file
>
>   /usr/share/terminfo/x/xterm-256color
>
> so I set TERM=xterm-256color and invoked emacs -nw, but when I
> executed (list-colors-display) only 8 colors are shown.  What am
> I doing wrong?

Are you using debians xterm?  It's not compiled with 256 colors
support.

David

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 02.01.2005 um 15:57 schrieb kj:

> so I set TERM=xterm-256color and invoked emacs -nw, but when I
> executed (list-colors-display) only 8 colors are shown.  What am
> I doing wrong?

Imagining. Emacs can't display more than the 8 ANSI colours. There are 
these ANSI Esc sequences to change these colours and to intensify/high 
light them. If your terminal supports more than then the 8 ANSI colours 
you could teach it to Emacs -- maybe there is already an augmented 
Elisp file.

Remember that a terminal is no graphics application! It's a whatever 
hardware terminal emulation. GNU Emacs too sticks to this definition.

--
Greetings

   Pete

If all else fails read the instructions. - Donald Knuth

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> From: Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@Web.DE>
> Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 20:13:15 +0100
> 
> Emacs can't display more than the 8 ANSI colours.

The CVS codebase does support more (support for 16-, 88-, and
256-color xterms and rxvt is builtin, and other multicolor terminals
can be added by the end user using the infrastructure).

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[kj]

In <mailman.10549.1104706035.27204.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>> From: Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@Web.DE>
>> Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 20:13:15 +0100
>> 
>> Emacs can't display more than the 8 ANSI colours.

>The CVS codebase does support more (support for 16-, 88-, and
>256-color xterms and rxvt is builtin, and other multicolor terminals
>can be added by the end user using the infrastructure).

Well, I just compiled emacs from the CVS codebase, but when I run
*this* emacs -nw on an xterm that I *know* (thanks to vttest/dynamic.sh)
supports more than 8 colors, *still* list-colors-display shows only
8 colors.

I also tried setting TERM to xterm-256color and infocmp -C xterm-256
> ~/.termcap.  This was even worse; the resulting emacs -nw was
strictly black and white.

* Are any special configuration options/compilation flags required
for 256-color support?  (I sure hope not, because it took a LIFETIME
to compile this mother).

* Are there any invocation flags required to bring up emacs with
256-color support?

* Is there *anything else* that I need to do to get Emacs with
256-color support?

Thanks!

kj

P.S.  It took an eternity to compile (make bookstrap) emacs.  Is
there a quicker way?  All I need is:

  * 256-color support
  * support for programming modes (lisp, perl, c, etc.)
  * e-shell
  * mail mode and RMAIL
  * lisp interaction mode

The smallest emacs that will give all of the above would be ideal.

-- 
NOTE: In my address everything before the first period is backwards;
and the last period, and everything after it, should be discarded.

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: kj <socyl@987jk.com.invalid>
> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 01:30:31 +0000 (UTC)
> 
> Well, I just compiled emacs from the CVS codebase, but when I run
> *this* emacs -nw on an xterm that I *know* (thanks to vttest/dynamic.sh)
> supports more than 8 colors, *still* list-colors-display shows only
> 8 colors.

Does it work if you invoke Emacs like this:

  emacs -nw --color=256

?

> * Are any special configuration options/compilation flags required
> for 256-color support?

No, Emacs should figure that out itself, I think.

> P.S.  It took an eternity to compile (make bookstrap) emacs.  Is
> there a quicker way?

No, bookstraping is supposed to be long.  But if you resynch with CVS
frequently enough, you will not need to bookstrap more than once.

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[kj]

In <mailman.10832.1104815808.27204.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: kj <socyl@987jk.com.invalid>
>> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 01:30:31 +0000 (UTC)
>> 
>> Well, I just compiled emacs from the CVS codebase, but when I run
>> *this* emacs -nw on an xterm that I *know* (thanks to vttest/dynamic.sh)
>> supports more than 8 colors, *still* list-colors-display shows only
>> 8 colors.

>Does it work if you invoke Emacs like this:

>  emacs -nw --color=256

>?

No.  I tried --color=NUM for NUM=0, 16, 88, and 256.  In every case
list-colors-display showed only 8 colors.

I did not find the documentation for --color=NUM very helpful:

          Use color mode for NUM colors.  If NUM is -1, turn off color
          support (equivalent to `never'); if it is 0, use the default
          color support for this terminal (equivalent to `auto');
          otherwise use an appropriate standard mode for NUM colors.  If
          there is no mode that supports NUM colors, Emacs acts as if
          NUM were 0, i.e. it uses the terminal's default color support
          mode.

I can't figure out how to tell emacs what the "appropriate standard
mode for 256 colors" should be for my terminal.

OK, here's something that may or may not be a clue to what's going
on.  Despite the fact that C-h v visible-bell is t, I still get
annoying beeping from this emacs.

kj

-- 
NOTE: In my address everything before the first period is backwards;
and the last period, and everything after it, should be discarded.

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[kj]

In <crdne8$ohm$1@reader1.panix.com> kj <socyl@987jk.com.invalid> writes:

>In <mailman.10832.1104815808.27204.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>>> From: kj <socyl@987jk.com.invalid>
>>> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 01:30:31 +0000 (UTC)
>>> 
>>> Well, I just compiled emacs from the CVS codebase, but when I run
>>> *this* emacs -nw on an xterm that I *know* (thanks to vttest/dynamic.sh)
>>> supports more than 8 colors, *still* list-colors-display shows only
>>> 8 colors.

>>Does it work if you invoke Emacs like this:

>>  emacs -nw --color=256

>>?

>No.  I tried --color=NUM for NUM=0, 16, 88, and 256.  In every case
>list-colors-display showed only 8 colors.


SUCCESS!!!  THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!  The problem was a bad termcap
file.  I got a good one from my xterm's distribution, set TERM to
xterm-256color, and bingo!  list-colors-display now lists a huge
number of colors; I don't even need the --color=256 option on the
command line.

Now I have a new problem.  The Emacs installation that I get from
"make install" is MUCH larger than my ISP's measly disk quota will
allow.  My ISP already provides a full Emacs 21.3.1 installation
in /usr/local/share/emacs, so I was hoping to piggyback on that
installation and only use from my CVS compile the emacs-21.3.50
executable and whatever else it needs to support 256 colors.  But
naively copying the emacs-21.3.50 executable from /tmp/inst/bin to
my $HOME/bin did not work.  emacs-21.3.50 complains bitterly:

    Warning: arch-dependent data dir (/tmp/inst/libexec/emacs/21.3.50/i386-unknown-netbsdelf2.0/) does not exist.
    Warning: Lisp directory `/tmp/inst/share/emacs/21.3.50/site-lisp' does not exist.
    Warning: Lisp directory `/tmp/inst/share/emacs/site-lisp' does not exist.
    Warning: Lisp directory `/tmp/inst/share/emacs/21.3.50/leim' does not exist.
    Warning: Lisp directory `/tmp/inst/share/emacs/21.3.50/lisp' does not exist.


I gather from strings emacs-21.3.50|grep that the installation
directory is compiled into the Emacs executable.  So I'll probably
have to recompile Emacs with a different prefix in the configuration,
even though "make install" will be thwarted by the disk quota.

I'm scratching my head about how to get this to go...

kj



-- 
NOTE: In my address everything before the first period is backwards;
and the last period, and everything after it, should be discarded.

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 04.01.2005 um 13:35 schrieb kj:

> I'm scratching my head about how to get this to go...

You can either use sym-links or use configure to set up things
correctly according to the existing Elisp repertoire.

--
Greetings

   Pete

“Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your 
mind.”
    - D. E. Knuth, The TeXbook, Addison-Wesley 1984, 1986, 1996, p. 9

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: kj <socyl@987jk.com.invalid>
> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 12:35:42 +0000 (UTC)
> 
> SUCCESS!!!  THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!  The problem was a bad termcap
> file.

That is usually the reason for such problems.

> Now I have a new problem.  The Emacs installation that I get from
> "make install" is MUCH larger than my ISP's measly disk quota will
> allow.  My ISP already provides a full Emacs 21.3.1 installation
> in /usr/local/share/emacs, so I was hoping to piggyback on that
> installation and only use from my CVS compile the emacs-21.3.50
> executable and whatever else it needs to support 256 colors.

Don't do that!  Mixing Lisp files and Emacs executable from different
versions is a bad idea: Lisp code calls primitives written in C and
compiled into the Emacs executable, and expects them to behave in
certain ways and produce certain results, but some of the primitives
in the newer Emacs behave differently.  You are in for a bumpy ride!

It's much better to remove every Lisp .el file that has a
corresponding .elc file, and also remove the source directories (src,
lib-src, lispintro, lispref, lwlib, man, and oldXMenu.  The CVS and
admin directories could also go away.  Perhaps after removing those
you will have enough disk space.  If not, tough.

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 04.01.2005 um 02:30 schrieb kj:

> In <mailman.10549.1104706035.27204.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> "Eli 
> Zaretskii" <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>
> * Are there any invocation flags required to bring up emacs with
> 256-color support?

--color MODE                    color mode for character terminals;
                                   MODE defaults to `auto', and can also
                                   be `never', `auto', `always',
                                   or a mode name like `ansi8'

>
> * Is there *anything else* that I need to do to get Emacs with
> 256-color support?

I don't know! And I either don't know whether --color works since I 
can't test it. Have you tried to ask the authors of the Elisp code?

> P.S.  It took an eternity to compile (make bookstrap) emacs.  Is
> there a quicker way?  All I need is:
>
>   * 256-color support
>   * support for programming modes (lisp, perl, c, etc.)
>   * e-shell
>   * mail mode and RMAIL
>   * lisp interaction mode

I never compile GNU Emacs from CVS. Usually I invoke configure. There 
you can say --without-x (or such) and then too every graphics support 
will be left out. Best, of course, is to invoke './configure --help' to 
see all  option and to deliberately set off what you don't need.

Besides all: how do you think you could address the extra 248 colours? 
In X11 (and in the carbonized versions) you're using the X11 names for 
colours, for ansi8 mode too there are names as in list-colors-display 
...

--
Greetings

   Pete

“I hope to die before I *have* to use Microsoft Word.”
      - Donald E. Knuth, 2001-10-02 in Tübingen.



--
Mit friedvollen Grüßen

   Pete                           <]
              o        __o         |__    o       HPV, the real
     ___o    /I       -\<,         |o \  -\),-%     high speed!
___/\ /\___./ \___...O/ O____.....`-O-'-()--o_________________

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> From: Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@Web.DE>
> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 12:06:50 +0100
> 
> Besides all: how do you think you could address the extra 248 colours? 

They have names (Emacs defines their names at startup).  You can list
those names by invoking "M-x list-colors-display RET".  Also, you can
use the standard X names, and Emacs will transparently find the
closest color from the 256-color set supported by xterm and use that
instead.

Re: TERM=xterm-256color but emacs=8color

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: kj <socyl@987jk.com.invalid>
> Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 14:57:22 +0000 (UTC)
> 
> On my Debian Linux system I have the file
> 
>   /usr/share/terminfo/x/xterm-256color
> 
> so I set TERM=xterm-256color and invoked emacs -nw, but when I
> executed (list-colors-display) only 8 colors are shown.

What version of Emacs is that?  Only the development version (in CVS)
has satisfactory support for Unix character terminals with more than 8
colors.