Hi,

I am using AIX 5.3 and our terminal window is 132 characters long. However, when I open any file is file, it shows only 80 characters on one line. The remaining characters are wrapped up to the next line.

Can some one help me how do I make the change to show 132 characters in vi?.

Thanks,
Balaji.

Thanks,
Balaji.

I'm no AIX guy, but I can almost guarantee you that vi isn't your issue. It's the terminal or terminal emulation program you are using. It probably supports only 80 character lines.

I don't want to get into a hugh discussion of terminal capabilities, but under unix, terminals either use terminfo or termcap to determine screen capabilities.

Traditionally, vi uses terminfo. Executing the infocmp command with no arguments displays the terminal capabilities for your terminal which is the contents of the TERM environmental variable. I'm using vt100 and here is a partial listing:

am, mir, msgr, xenl, xon,
cols#80, it#8, lines#24, vt#3,

The cols#80 signifies the terminal supports an 80 column line. On my system, I have a wide version of vt100 supporting 132 lines:

infocmp vt100-w

Here is a partial listing:

am, mir, msgr, xenl, xon,
cols#132, it#8, lines#24, vt#3,

The bottom line is you need a terminal/emulator supporting 132 characters and you have to use a TERM entry that supports 132 characters.

This is not a simple topic. For more information, check on out the MAN pages on:

terminfo
tic (the terminfo compiler)
infocmp

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I am using a terminal emulator called "AB Windows" which is a software supplied by our vendor "Page Digital". We connect to our AIX session using the telnet protocol. I login directly into the Advantage plus application when I login with my userid and password. I am able to see the full 132 column when I am in the application. However, when I login into the plain UNIX prompt, I am seeing only the 80 columns.

I tried the infocmp command and below is a partial listing of it.

=============================================
# Reconstructed via infocmp from file: /usr/share/lib/terminfo/f/fpcwin_fw
fpcwin_fw|Flip Windows in 132 column mode,
am, bce, eo, xon,
colors#8, cols#132, it#8, lines#24, pairs#64,
=============================================

So, the above listing clearly says that it is using the fpcwin_fw TERM and it is using the 132 columns also.

I did not get a chance to look at the man pages of the commands you mentioned because of my busy schedule, but will definitely take a look into them this week.

Anyway, thanks for your detailed reply.

Thanks,
Balaji.