Subject: Re: WARNING: terminal is not fully functional

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2022 22:15:43 -0800

Jeffrey Walton <[email-masked]> writes:

> I needed to install Git on Ubuntu 8. Git seems to work Ok for most
> task, but this is unusual:
>
>     $ git diff
>     WARNING: terminal is not fully functional
>     -  (press RETURN)
>
> Here's the terminal:
>
>     $ echo $TERM
>     xterm-256color

A short answer.  You are using "less" as the pager, but it is not
working with your terminal.  Likely reason is perhaps you are
missing terminfo/termcap database entry for that terminal.

I have working xterm-256color, so

	$ TERM=xterm-256color less README.md

works as expected, but using a (bogus) terminal that no system would
have ever heard of, e.g.

	$ TERM=no-such-terminal-exists less README.md

results in exactly the symptom you are observing.

Something to try quickly would be:

$ export TERM=vt100; less README.md

As the termcap/terminfo entry for vt100 is usually more widely
available, this may unblock you.

> It seems like loss of colors on an old platform is not that important.
> However, the message being printed creates an actionable item that
> needs attention. I think no message would be a better option.

You would want to redirect it to folks who work on "less" ;-)