Prompt and Menu mode fails under Tmux on MacOS

[minhtrietbkit]

Environment

MacOS
Terminal v2.9.5 (421.2)
Tmux v 2.9a

Steps

1. Start tmux session: tmux
2. Start kak: kak
3. read doc: :doc command
4. back delete command

Outcome

Expected

(this is taken without Tmux)

[Screwtapello]

What is $TERM set to, inside and outside of tmux?

[minhtrietbkit]

it's set to xterm-256color in both cases

[Screwtapello]

The proper $TERM for the macOS Terminal.app is nsterm-256color, and the proper $TERM for inside tmux is tmux-256color. However, many people make Terminal.app use xterm-256color or even just xterm, and make tmux use screen-256color or even just screen, because while those terminal descriptions are less appropriate, they're reasonably close and more widely available.

The weirdness in your screenshot is the kind of weirdness I would expect from having $TERM set incorrectly - things not being drawn properly, or not being erased properly, or in the wrong locations.

[minhtrietbkit]

Thanks for looking into this.

I tried following changes to TERM env var.

1. terminal: nsterm-256color
2. tmux: xterm-256color

After this change, whenever I run clear, I got an error "terminals database is inaccessible". This happens for both outside and inside of Tmux.

[Screwtapello]

I'm sorry, I should have explained myself more clearly.

The TERM values that best describe your terminal are (in descending order):

• nsterm-256color
• nsterm
• xterm-256color
• xterm
• vt220

For each item in the list, try running infocmp ITEMNAME (like: infocmp nsterm-256color) directly inside Terminal. If it prints an error like:

infocmp: couldn't open terminfo file /usr/share/terminfo/n/nsterm-256color

...then your computer doesn't have that terminal description installed, and you should try the next one. If it prints a bunch of output that starts like this:

#	Reconstructed via infocmp from file: /usr/share/terminfo/n/nsterm-256color
nsterm|nsterm-256color|Apple_Terminal|AppKit Terminal.app,
	am, bce, hs, mir, msgr, npc, xenl, xon,
	colors#0x100, cols#80, it#8, lines#24, pairs#0x10000, wsl#50,
...

...then that's the TERM setting you should use.

Inside tmux, do the same test, but with a different list of terminal names:

• tmux-256color
• screen-256color
• tmux
• screen

Again, the first item on this list that doesn't produce an infocmp: couldn't open... error is the TERM value you should use inside tmux on your computer.

[minhtrietbkit]

You are amazing. Thank you very much for your time and effort. I really appreciate it. This fixes my issue perfectly.