rlogin kludge: using TERM to pass other envariables?

[Norman Joseph]

>From article <899 at cmx.npac.syr.edu>, by jerryp at cmx.npac.syr.edu (Jerry Peek):
> One thing bugs me about "rlogin":  the only environment variable it'll pass
> to the remote machine is TERM.  I want to pass more.
> ... like this:
> 
> 	TERM="VARSET:REAL_BAUD=2400:SUNVIEW=no:LOGIN=quick:TERM=sun-cmd"
> 
> --Jerry Peek, Northeast Parallel Architectures Center, Syracuse, NY
>   jerryp at cmx.npac.syr.edu
>   +1 315 443-1722

At the last company I worked for, we ran into a similar situation with rlogin
between VAXen running Ultrix and HP3000s running HP-UX.  This was the solution
we came up with also (almost to the letter!).

If memory serves, the length of the TERM variable varied between machines,
and I believe we could not count on a length of more than 16-20 chars to
get through rlogin.  Of course some simple experimentation should give the
answer in your situation.  If you're stuck with a short string, you'll have
to come up with some kind of encoding that both sides will understand.
This may create dependencies that you may not want or need.  Good luck.

Norm

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