A guide to help set up Terminal

Aug 28, '06 07:30:02AM

Contributed by: mietek

Note that this guide assumes you're using the bash shell. This guide will address a few Terminal setup questions:

Read on for the answers to those questions...

How do I get the backspace and forward delete keys to work correctly?

How do I get UTF–8 input to work correctly? How do I get UTF–8 input to, you know, work correctly?

There's an odd bug in the version of bash included with Mac OS X 10.4 that manifests itself as the LC_CTYPE enviroment variable not being set properly by export directives in .profile files. The workaround involves using the little–known environment.plist file. Thanks to Allan Odgaard for the tip! How do I get UTF–8 input to work correctly in irssi running under screen over a ssh connection?

You're a tricky one, aren't you? After detaching, remember to reattach also using the -U option. This can be a bit tough if you're as used to typing screen -r as I am, so I suggest creating an alias. sru works well.

How do I modify the default ANSI colors?

Use Mike Solomon's TerminalColors utility.

An always up–to–date version of this guide can be found here: Setting up the Mac OS X 10.4 Terminal.app

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