#619581 Debian's screenrc screws up backscrolling

Package:
screen
Source:
screen
Description:
terminal multiplexer with VT100/ANSI terminal emulation
Submitter:
Jan Engelhardt
Date:
2026-05-07 20:17:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#619581#5
Date:
2011-03-25 10:30:30 UTC
From:
To:
To reproduce:
1. Start an xterm
2. Use some command to generate a few screenfuls of output (say, ls -l
on some larger directory like /usr/lib)
3. Start screen
(4. Execute uname -a, for example)
5. Execute some command that outputs 1-2 screenfuls
6. Hit Shift-PgUp, and observe that there is NO way with S-PgUp to get
at the output previous to the currently visible lines. (In example: the
uname output).

Culprit is this line in /etc/screenrc:

	# The vt100 description does not mention "dl". *sigh*
	termcapinfo vt100 dl=5\E[M

Commenting it out fixes the problem. Which brings me to the point - why
_was_ this added, anyway?
#619581#10
Date:
2026-05-07 20:15:44 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

This report was filed against a very old version of screen (4.0.3).

Could you please retest on current unstable (screen 5.0.1-1.1 or newer)
and let me know if the issue is still reproducible?

You asked why Debian's screenrc has:
	# The vt100 description does not mention "dl". *sigh*
	termcapinfo vt100 dl=5\E[M

This is equivalent to upstream's etcscreenrc:
	#the vt100 description does not mention "dl". *sigh*
	termcap  vt100 dl=5\E[M
	terminfo vt100 dl=5\E[M

If it still is still reproducible, please include:
- terminal emulator/device in use
- `echo "$TERM"`
- `infocmp "$TERM"`

Cheers,
Peter Dey