rlogin kludge: using TERM to pass other envariables?

[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.

I've thought about a hack to do the job.  I'd write a shell script named
rlogin.  It would check the remote host name in a table -- if my account on
the remote host was set up to understand this hack, the rlogin script would
pack a bunch of envariables into TERM, with a special VARSET: flag at the
start, like this:

	TERM="VARSET:REAL_BAUD=2400:SUNVIEW=no:LOGIN=quick:TERM=sun-cmd"

The .cshrc (.login?) file on my remote account would test TERM.  If TERM
started with the flag (VARSET:), it'd parse the string and eval the
envariables into the remote shell and reset TERM to a sensible value.

Anybody found a better way?  Problems?  How many characters can I squeeze into
the TERM string?  (I'm on BSD-type systems: Sun, VAX/ULTRIX, Multimax, Alliant.)
Thanks.

--Jerry Peek, Northeast Parallel Architectures Center, Syracuse, NY
  jerryp at cmx.npac.syr.edu
  +1 315 443-1722