Linux – How to prevent GNU screen from expanding tabs into spaces

bashgnu-screenlinux

Using a normal bash prompt echo -e 'hello\tworld' produces a real tab.
However the same command run within GNU screen puts spaces between the two words.

I have tested this on
Ubuntu 10.04 with Screen version 4.00.03jw4 (FAU) 2-May-06
and
RHEL 5.5 with Screen version 4.00.03 (FAU) 23-Oct-06

Is there a way to have screen output tab characters instead of converting them to spaces?

Best Answer

No, there is no way, short of writing code. Have a look at the man page under "BUGS:"

Screen does not make use of hardware tabs.

Hardware, in my case, is the software "gnome-terminal."

Related Solutions

Bash – GNU Screen and .bashrc

You could try (after the else):

if [ "$HAS_STARTED_TERM"!="1"]; then
    HAS_STARTED_TERM=1
    export HAS_STARTED_TERM
    exec gnome-terminal
fi

Linux – GNU screen display + from putty

If you set the following in your .screenrc the numpad keys will work

termcapinfo xterm ks@:ke@

I don't know if this will change any other important settings you might be using, however, so it would be worth giving things a test.

It might be that there is a better setting string, but so far I haven't been able to find one.

Update:
I've been searching around looking through termcap, terminfo, terminfo/termcap and screen manuals, but it looks like no-one is having much luck with getting both the number pad and the arrow keys in ncurses apps to work at the same time (they still seem to work in non-ncurses apps).

The closest I've seen is from these threads. Someone spoke to one of the program maintainers regarding an almost identical problem, however as of the 10th of March the problem wasn't resolved.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Bash – GNU Screen and .bashrc

Linux – GNU screen display + from putty

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