Debian README for xterm package

** Read this file and then see the Debian X FAQ in
** /usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/FAQ.gz if you are wondering what has
** happened to, for instance, your backspace and delete keys.

As of version 3.3.4-1, xterm logs to the wtmp and lastlog files.  If you do
not have a utmp group on your system, xterm will be installed setuid root
instead of setgid utmp.  xterm drops its root privileges after it
initializes, so if it is setuid this can result in corrupt wtmp entries.
The best thing to do is make a utmp group in /etc/group, or upgrade to
version 2.0.3.4 or later of the base-passwd package, so that you have a
utmp group.

The xterm terminal type on a Debian system is an alias for xterm-debian.
This means that "xterm" and "xterm-debian" are interchangeable as values of
the $TERM environment variable in the shell.  Since the xterm-debian type
is typically not found on non-Debian systems, xterm is used as the system
default.

The terminal description for xterm-debian differs from that of
xterm-xfree86 in exactly two respects:
  1. kbs is defined as ^? (ASCII 127), not ^H (ASCII 8)
  2. kdch1 is defined as the sequence: ^[ [ 3 ~ (no spaces, and ^[ is ASCII
     27, a.k.a ESCAPE) instead of ^? (ASCII 127)
^[[3~ is the DEC VT220 escape sequence for the keypad delete key (not the
numeric keypad, the one with Page Up, Page Down, etc. on a PC keyboard).
DEC VT100's, the text terminal wich xterm was designed to emulate, had no
keypad delete key.  ^[[3~ is also what the Linux console terminal type
generates for the keypad delete key.  Note that the terminal definitions
that a Debian system uses are in the ncurses-term package, not in the xterm
package itself, though the (pre-compiled) terminfo and termcap files that
Debian uses may be found in the xterm documentation directory,
/usr/share/doc/xterm.  People interested in reading further to stock up
ammo for their backspace/delete and terminal type wars should consult Tom
Dickey's (current maintainer of the xterm source code) FAQ, available in
the file /usr/share/doc/xterm/xterm.faq{html,text.gz} and the website
<http://vt100.net>.

The default keymappings for xterm are different than they are upstream to
comply with the Debian Keyboard Policy and make xterm's behavior more
consistent with the Linux virtual console (and therefore with the behavior
of DEC VT 220 terminals).

Branden Robinson, 10 Jul 2001