Linux下$TERM环境变量的不同取值含义

/bin/bash，csh等是shell

xterm等是终端，$TERM

putty，terminator等是终端模拟器

xterm is supposed to be a superset of vt220, in other words it's like vt220 but has more features. For example, xterm usually supports colors, but vt220 doesn't. You can test this by pressing z inside top.

当前系统$TERM取值是 xterm，在top命令中输入z果然会变色

In the same way, vt220 has more features than vt100. For example, vt100 doesn't seem to support F11 and F12.

Compare their features and escape sequences that your system thinks they have by running infocmp <term type 1> <term type 2>, e.g. infocmp vt100 vt220.

The full list varies from system to system. You should be able to get the list using toe, toe /usr/share/terminfo, or find ${TERMINFO:-/usr/share/terminfo}. If none of those work, you could also look at ncurses' terminfo.src, which is where most distributions get the data from these days.

But unless your terminal looks like this or this, there's only a few others you might want to use:

• xterm-color - if you're on an older system and colors don't work
• putty, konsole, Eterm, rxvt, gnome, etc. - if you're running an XTerm emulator and some of the function keys, Backspace, Delete, Home, and End don't work properly
• screen - if running inside GNU screen (or tmux)
• linux - when logging in via a Linux console (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F1)
• dumb - when everything is broken

You can see what terminal types are available on your system by running ls /lib/terminfo/* /usr/share/terminfo/* (these are the paths on Debian, other distributions may have slightly different paths). Most of them are highly exotic.  

Run infocmp wihtout any argument will give you all available xterm alternatives:

$> infocmp
xterm|xterm-debian|X11 terminal emulator,
    am, bce, km, mc5i, mir, msgr, npc, xenl,
    colors#8, cols#80, it#8, lines#24, pairs#64,
    ...

For more info check

$> ls /lib/terminfo/x/
xterm         xterm-256color  xterm-color     xterm-debian    xterm-mono
xterm-r5      xterm-r6        xterm-vt220     xterm-xfree86

One big difference between an xterm, and a Virtual console is that an
xterminal can be resized to different sizes.  The console only have a
fixed set of resulations.

The TERM varable is being used for what it was designed for.

In lots of places, depending

On virtual terminals and real terminals, the TERM environment variable is set by the program that chains to login, and is inherited all of the way along to the interactive shell that executes once one has logged on. Where, precisely, this happens varies from system to system, and according to the kind of terminal.

Real, serial, terminals can vary in type, according to what's at the other end of the wire. So conventionally the getty program is invoked with an argument that specifies the terminal type, or is passed the TERM program from a service manager's service configuration data.

• On System 5 init systems, one can see this in /etc/inittab entries, which will read something along the lines of

  S0:3:respawn:/sbin/agetty ttyS0 9600 vt100-nav

  The last argument to agetty in that line, vt100-nav, is the terminal type set for /dev/ttyS0. So /etc/inittab is where to change the terminal type for real terminals on such systems.
• On systemd systems, one can see this in the /usr/lib/systemd/system/serial-getty@.service unit file (/lib/systemd/system/serial-getty@.service on un-merged systems), which reads

  Environment=TERM=vt100

  setting the TERM variable in the environment passed to agetty. This service unit file is where to change the terminal type for real terminals on such systems. Note that it applies to all real terminals that employ this service unit template. (To change it for only individual terminals, one has to manually instantiate the template.)
• On the BSDs, init takes the terminal type from the third field of each terminal's entry in the /etc/ttys database, and sets TERM from that in the environment that it executes gettywith. So /etc/ttys is where one changes the terminal type for real terminals on the BSDs.

Kernel virtual terminals, as you have noted, have a fixed type. Unlike NetBSD, which can vary the kernel virtual terminal type on the fly, Linux and the other BSDs have a single fixed terminal type implemented in the kernel's built-in terminal emulation program. On Linux, that type matches linuxfrom the terminfo database. (FreeBSD's kernel terminal emulation is a limited xterm subset since version 9.)

• On systems using mingetty or vc-get-tty (from the nosh package) the program "knows" that it can only be talking to a virtual terminal, and they hardwire the "known" virtual terminal types appropriate to the operating system that the program was compiled for.
• On systemd systems, one can see this in the /usr/lib/systemd/system/getty@.serviceunit file (/lib/systemd/system/getty@.service on un-merged systems), which reads

  Environment=TERM=linux

  setting the TERM variable in the environment passed to agetty.

For kernel virtual terminals, one does not change the terminal type. The terminal emulator program in the kernel doesn't change, after all. It is incorrect to change the type. In particular, this will screw up cursor/editing key CSI sequence recognition. The linux CSI sequences sent by the Linux kernel terminal emulator are different to the xterm or vt100 CSI sequences sent by GUI terminal emulator programs in DEC VT mode.

Your GUI terminal emulator is one of many programs, from the SSH dæmon to screen, that uses pseudo-terminals. What the terminal type is depends from what terminal emulator program is running on the master side of the pseudo-terminal, and how it is configured. Most GUI terminal emulators will start the program on the slave side with a TERM variable whose value matches their terminal emulation on the master side. Programs like the SSH server will attempt to "pass through" the terminal type that is on the client end of the connection. Usually there is some menu or configuration option to choose amongst terminal emulations.

The gripping hand

The right way to detect colour capability is not to hardwire a list of terminal types in your script. There are an awful lot of terminal types that support colour.

The right way is to look at what termcap/terminfo says about your terminal type.

colour=0
if tput Co > /dev/null 2>&1
then
    test "`tput Co`" -gt 2 && colour=1
elif tput colors > /dev/null 2>&1
then
    test "`tput colors`" -gt 2 && colour=1
fi