42.3 Why Changing TERM Sometimes Doesn't Work

The use of tset to set the TERMCAP environmentvariable (5.4 ) can cause problems for new users who do not understand it completely. For example, as long as the TERMCAP variable is not set, programs look by default in /etc/termcap . However, once the TERMCAP variable contains the actual termcap entry, changing the value of TERM will no longer have any effect on a program like vi .

If you set the value of TERM correctly but vi or other programs that depend on TERM still do not seem to work, check (6.1 ) that TERMCAP is not set to the actual termcap entry (41.11 ) . You can clear this condition with the command:

% unsetenv TERMCAP

or:

$ TERMCAP=

or:

$ unset TERMCAP

        (newer Bourne shells)