I have to issue a lot of very long SQL statement and have noticed that the terminal cuts of around 65 or 70 character, placing a end-of-line symbol on the line, obviously letting me know that I'm gone on too long.

I've tried playing with the VT Option menu, changing Terminal options, (Row, Column & Terminal Type), but haven't nailed it yet.

Is there a solution?

I'd like at least 120 character before I get an 'end of line' symbol.

[size=1][ November 11, 2005, 03:18 PM: Message edited by: Brian T. Pence ][/size]

Mike,

AbsoluteTelnet doesn't put an 'end of line' symbol anywhere. It's possible that your host is doing this itself.

If you want to make the screen wider in Absolute, you can start by using a smaller font, then stretching the screen wider. Additionally, you may want to enable the horizontal scrollbar, which will allow you to make the screen as wide as you want, but you may have to scroll back and forth to see everything.

If the host still breaks the line at the same spot, then there may be some configuration on the host end program to tell it how wide your screen is. What SQL tool are you entering your commands into that displays the end of line character?

Brian

Mike,

Did this help?

Brian

Sorry for the delay, but I've been gone all weekend on vacation and just got back to my home office this morning.

I'll check it out and let you know.

Hi Brian:

I guess I wasn't clear with my explanation. You asked;

"What SQL tool are you entering your commands into that displays the end of line character?"

I generally don't use any SQL tools. Old school, I login using telnet and, if necessary, will issue the SQL command on the command line. If it a quick fix, I just type in the SQL or PLSQL command on the stop. That's where I run into trouble. I've tryed the 'WordWarp' button on the menu but that didn't display the characters either.

Since I'm the only one on the Linux box, I should try to modify at that end. Problem, I'm not a Linux administrator, but I've see what I can do.

One question; Shouldn't 'WordWrap' ... wrap?

I generally don't use any SQL tools. Old school, I login using telnet and, if necessary, will issue the SQL command on the command line.

Ok, so you're typing in a long command at the command prompt. It is likely that your shell is doing something to you because of the length of the statement. What shell do you use?

echo $SHELL

AbsoluteTelnet will wrap text at the edge of the screen, if allowed to. However, you must remember that terminals are *dumb* They only do what they're told, so if the shell tells it to put an end of line character, Absolute will do it.

Normal behavior of the command line will allow a long command to naturally wrap around from line to line. However, some shells will try to enter an command line editor mode for longer commands that actually shift the whole command line to the left while you continue typing new text at the right of the command.

It's also possible you're running into a hard limit on the length of the command. By experimenting, it seems that 'ksh' has a 256 character limit. 'bash' doesn't seem to have this limit, or at least it is much larger.

So, to fix your current problem, we must first understand what is going on and who is doing it. Then, we will be able to address solutions.

One question; Shouldn't 'WordWrap' ... wrap?

Yes, if it is allowed to. But like I said above, the host has the ultimate control. For example, if you 'cat' a file that is wider than the current terminal screen, the text will wrap when wrap is on or just disappear off the right side of the screen when wrap is off. In almost all cases, it is recommended that wrap be turned ON.

Brian

I'm using korn shell.

By defualt Linux uses Bash, but all my scripts (and the shell I'm most familiar with is korn) default to korn vi the '#!/bin/ksh' command at the top of every script.

I've also established korn as my default shell in my startup scripts.

Mike,

Can you give me a little more description? For example, does the command *ever* wrap to the next line, or is it all contained on the one command line?

When you get the 'end of line' character, are you able to continue typing? When happens if you keep typing?

Brian

The wrap is working fine. It's my mistake, I thought it should 'wrap' as I type, if wraps fine when a line extents pass the right edge (ie: PATH parameters).

When I issue a command pass the 79th character locations a > symbols appears, the entire line disappears but I can keep typing. The line is not lost, (if I press enter, the line is executed correctly).

OK, this is weird. I just changed the font size from Lucida Console 9 to 8 and I can type accross the screen.

My options>properties setup:
 
 Appearance Tab:Translation box set to UTF-8
 
 VT Options Tab:Terminal Options box, Terminal Type set to VT100
    

Everything looks fine.

Mike, you're experience the ksh command line editing feature. Normally, what should happen is that when you type large commands, the '<' symbol should appear on the right and the command should scroll off to the left as you continue to type. ksh assumes an 80 column screen, so if your screen is wider then 80 columns, you will be limited to viewing 80 columns of the command line at a time. If your screen is less than 80 columns wide, you'll probably not get good results, as Absolute will try to wrap things that go too far to the right.

You can set the COLUMNS variable to be equal to the number of columns for best performance. In your example, when you fixed the problem by switching from 9pt font to 8pt, all you effectively did was change the number of columns on the screen, at least as far as this issue is concerned. You'll get the best results if the COLUMNS variable matches the actual number of columns.

Additionally, you can get vi-like command line editing features if you issue the 'set -o vi' command. You can read more about this in the man page 'man ksh'.

Brian