[news.newusers.questions] Problem with rn - long commands must end with ^J

snyde_sl@tsca02.uucp (Steve Snyder) (05/09/91)

Our site recently established a newsfeed.  We are running C news (last
patch date is 24-Mar-91) and rn (last patch date is 01-Jan-91, # 54)
on an Apollo DN3000 under Domain/OS SR10.2 (sys 5.3 environment).

The problem is not real serious but is a minor irritation.  In order to
execute any of rn's commands which are more than 1 character long, I
have to type control-J (linefeed) to terminate the command.  This 
appears to be the case at all 3 command levels (newsgroup selection,
article selection, pager).  If I press the <RETURN> key, ^M is echoed,
but the command is not executed.  I'd like our users to be able to 
execute these commands by pressing the <RETURN> key instead of having
to enter ^J.  Commands which give me this problem include the 
following:
	s <destination>
	& 
	g <newsgroup>
	<number>

The readnews reader (distributed with C news) does not have this 
problem.  I believe that rn is running in curses cbreak mode at the 
above prompt, whereas readnews is probably not.

I've tried changing some of the stty settings, but that didn't seem
to help.  Here's the output from 'stty -a' (default settings) if 
that's of any use:

	speed 38400 baud; line = 0; intr = ^c; quit = ^|; erase = ^h; 
	kill = ^u; eof = ^d; eol <undef>; 
	-parenb -parodd cs8 -cstopb -hupcl cread clocal 
	-ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck istrip -inlcr 
	-igncr icrnl -iuclc ixon -ixany -ixoff 
	isig icanon -xcase echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh 
	opost -olcuc onlcr -ocrnl -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel 


Any ideas why rn responds this way, or possible solutions to this 
problem?  Does this happen to anyone else?  I'd prefer responses by
email, but I'll continue to watch the newsgroups where I posted this
if you'd rather post a reponse for the benefit of others who might
have a similar problem and questions.  Thanks.
-- 
Steve Snyder             | You've got to know when to code 'em,
Electronic Data Systems  | know when to modem, know when to load 'em,
snyde_sl@otsc.eds.com    | and know when to run.
uunet!tsca02!snyde_sl    |                        --Anonymous

system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (System Admin (Mike Peterson)) (05/10/91)

In article <1991May8.211839.11974@otsc.eds.com> snyde_sl@tsca02.uucp (Steve Snyder) writes:
>Our site recently established a newsfeed.  We are running C news (last
>patch date is 24-Mar-91) and rn (last patch date is 01-Jan-91, # 54)
>on an Apollo DN3000 under Domain/OS SR10.2 (sys 5.3 environment).
>
>The problem is not real serious but is a minor irritation.  In order to
>execute any of rn's commands which are more than 1 character long, I
>have to type control-J (linefeed) to terminate the command.  This 
>appears to be the case at all 3 command levels (newsgroup selection,
>article selection, pager).  If I press the <RETURN> key, ^M is echoed,
>but the command is not executed. 

This is probably because SR10.x has a broken telnetd, which converts <CR> to
<LF>. This also affects 'vi' and all other programs that try to use
"cbreak" (and "raw" I think) mode. There is no fix, and I sent this in
to Apollo over a year ago, with no response.
Our workaround is to use 'rlogin' instead of 'telnet' (if your terminal
server has it - we have a Cisco box, which has both). Rlogind has its
own problems with flow control (not fixed in over 2.5 years), but you'll
only see them if you run more than 1 connection at a time from your
terminal server.
-- 
Mike Peterson, System Administrator, U/Toronto Department of Chemistry
E-mail: system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca
Tel: (416) 978-7094                  Fax: (416) 978-8775