resetting saved lines in an Xterm?

[mike ledoux]

On Wed, Nov 15, 2006 at 01:10:05PM -0500, Michael ODonnell wrote:
> >> > /usr/bin/reset should do what you want here.
> >> Nope - that doesn't clear the scrollback history.
> >
> > It does on every xterm I've ever used.  It may not if you are using
> > some funky xterm replacement, or if you have TERM set incorrectly
> > as is quite common.
> 
> I'm using "the" xterm (and, no - not in the way that
> Karl Rove had access to "the" poll numbers) and I
> claim that there's nothing funky going on with my rig:
> 
>  ######## fleagle:~ 1468---> xterm -version
>  XFree86 4.3.99.5(179)
>  ######## fleagle:~ 1469---> type xterm
>  xterm is hashed /usr/bin/xterm
>  ######## fleagle:~ 1470---> rpm -qf /usr/bin/xterm
>  xterm-179-6.EL3
>  ######## fleagle:~ 1471---> echo $TERM
>  xterm

Looks good to me, reasonably close to what I see on my systems here.
One has the same version of xterm, and works fine.  That system has:

[mwl at dl360-02 mwl]$ rpm -qf /usr/bin/reset
ncurses-5.3-9.4
[mwl at dl360-02 mwl]$ rpm -qf /etc/termcap
termcap-11.0.1-17.1

> ...and although that "reset" app (which is basically just
> the "tset" app) does send an escape sequence that clears
> the screen and puts certain things back to their initial
> states, it definitely doesn't clear the scrollback history,
> which is still viewable via Shift+PageUp or the mousewheel
> or the menubar slider thingy as always.

On my systems 'clear' does what you describe, 'reset' does what I
describe.  The scrollback history is definitely gone.  I am unable
to reproduce the behaviour you describe.

> FWIW, I've been using "the" xterm (as opposed to color
> xterm or rcvxt [sp?]  or the Gnome thingy or the KDE
> thingy, etc...)  and this has always been true, AFAIK.

Strange, I've been using xterm for longer than I can remember, on
several platforms, and 'reset' has always worked as I described.

-- 
mwl+gnhlug at alumni.unh.edu          OpenPGP KeyID 0x57C3430B
Holder of Past Knowledge           CS, O-
"The man who listens to reason is lost: reason enslaves all whose minds
 are not strong enough to master her."  George Bernard Shaw