This is fixed in -current. It reports 'terminal type unknown'.
	Have submitted a pullup request so hopefully we'll see it fixed
	in 1.3.4 also (As and when that comes out :)

		David/absolute

    -=-  "They're only red from all the thoughts unused inside my head"  -=-

On Sat, 23 Jan 1999, Brian C. Grayson wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 23, 1999 at 08:05:46PM -0500, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> > > Subject: Re: /root/.termcap (was Re: tried to move /usr)
> > >
> > > Brian C. Grayson wrote:
> > > 
> > > |  Would it be a Bad Idea to install a minimal /root/.termcap that
> > > |held, say, vt100 vt220 pcvt25 pccons (and any other basic ones
> > > |for each arch)?  We mount /usr/share via NFS, and if there are
> > 
> > Has this thread got anything to do with that totally misleading message
> > printed by vi in single user mode when TERM is unset:
> > 
> >         ex/vi: Error: unknown: No such file or directory
> > 
> > I've had a note to myself about this for some time, but since I normally
> > only use vi when I am in single user mode, I usually forget to poke
> > around and find where this is coming from and why it doesn't say what it
> > really means....
> 
>   Yes, that's how this thread started on port-mac68k -- "What
> does that message mean, and how do I fix it?" IIRC.  The problem
> is, if TERM is unset, it is apparently set to "unknown".  Then vi
> tries to look up term info for unknown, and fails because termcap
> isn't accessible (or some similar sequence of events -- I'm not
> a termcap guru).  We probably ought to patch vi to either catch
> this case and print something more useful ("No termcap database
> accessible?"), or in its early stages print something like
> "Warning:  no TERM environment variable set.  Using 'unknown'."
> Or both -- there are actually two distinct non-niceties here!
> 
>   Brian
>