AIX

Without double quotes, that attempts to run the notite command after exporting MORE=-W. I really think the quotes are necessary!

For "vi" and "more" it works for me when I set the TERM-Variable to "xterm-r5".
Have a look at the above link from bakunin.

But I noticed in the thread you referred me to, somebody replied, saying that the problem goes away if you set TERM=xterm-r5. I have tried that, and it works for me. Alternatively, I suppose one can replace the native vi with vim, but personally I don't like vim all that much with the extra features.

If you put the definition in a .profile or a .kshrc or /etc/profile that gets interpreted by the ksh. However, if you put in in /etc/environment it is just assigned.

So, in /etc/environment
MORE=-W notite
and in /etc/profile
export MORE="-W notite"

The reason is when ksh interperts it you do not want it to assign only -W
an alternative would probably work
export MORE=-W\ notite

As a test, compare the output of
set | grep MORE
and compare the result of MORE=-W notite and MORE="-W notite"

I am getting - on AIX 6.1

Code:

michael@x054:[/home/michael]. /etc/environment
michael@x054:[/home/michael]set | grep MORE
MORE='-W notite'
michael@x054:[/home/michael]grep MORE /etc/environment
MORE="-W notite"

and on AIX 7.1

Code:

root@x107:[/home/root]. /etc/environment
root@x107:[/home/root]set | grep MORE
MORE="-W notite"
root@x107:[/home/root]grep MORE /etc/environment
MORE="-W notite"

And, it works even with the quotes on AIX 6.1, but only without the quotes on AIX 7.1

Hope this clarifies any misunderstanding.

last update: seems the issue is a lot less on AIX 6.1 - because fewer programs are using the alternate window approach.

---------- Post updated at 09:51 PM ---------- Previous update was at 09:46 PM ----------

Thank you -=XrAy=- and jandersen.

My personal preference is to not change my term definition to something it is not. However, will adding my comments above and thinking about the vim comments I nee to read the string/command options -W notite as -W no ti te so I shall look into the terminal definitions and vi documentation (if I can find any) telling me how to disable the termcap variables ti and te as I am assuming this is why the definition xterm-r5 is working - the two variables are not defined.

---------- Post updated at 10:14 PM ---------- Previous update was at 09:51 PM ----------

My solution - thank you all for the discussion - is to redefine the terminal emulation my ssh client is reporting. It was saying xterm (forget when I changed that). It is now back to vt320 as default.

p.s. found a very good article on terminfo and termcap here: Fixing the alternate screen problem - Sec, blogmal! - tidbits/titeinhibit.story

Very good information, Michael. Thank you for sharing.

Regarding the /etc/environment-file: i never bothered to find out how they do it exactly, but it is perhaps not simply dot-executed but parsed somehow.

The reason why your two posts became one is a feature in our forum. If you post several posts into the same thread without a post in between they will be combined into one with a separator line in between.

bakunin

It is not executed. an "export", and/or backquote command will not function. So parse is a very good term.