Due to inconsistency of 256 color terminal support across terminal applications, it may be desirable to force the $TERM value to its -256color variant.
For example, this is often accomplished in tmux by means of adding the following to a tmux.conf file:
set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
Unfortunately, remote hosts accessed via ssh may not have the requisite terminfo files, and may not even allow the user to supply them, as is often the case with network equipment and other appliances accessible via ssh.
This helper strips the -256color suffix and exports a regular 'screen' or 'xterm' $TERM value when setting up a ssh connection.