Re: Tramp over su, with odd zsh prompt

[Stefan Monnier]

>> I recently tried to use Tramp to access a file via `su' and bumped into the
>> following problem: the prompt (resulting from a very plain default setting
>> PS1="%m%# ") looks like
>> 
>> %<78 SPC>^M^Malfajor% 
>> 
>> where alfajor is the machine name (an argentine pastry).
>> 
>> So it seems that although Tramp sets TERM=dump, the `zsh' executable
>> (version 4.3.2, from Debian testing) uses funny carriaqe-return trickery and
>> for apparently no good reason.
>> 
>> Has anybody seen this before?  Should I just set
>> tramp-shell-prompt-pattern accordingly?  Have you heard of such
>> behavior already (and maybe some way to get zsh to behave a bit better)?

> When zsh is in interactive mode, it uses its internal zsh line editor
> (zle).  This provides left and right prompts; therefore the spaces.
> Disabling zle for the Tramp case is sufficient.

> The following lines in .zshrc work for me:

> # Let Tramp come in
> [ $TERM = "dumb" ] && unsetopt zle

Yuck!

> PS: "for apparently no good reason" depends.  Play with promptinit /
> prompt themes, you'll see lot of gimmicks.

Still no good reasons since I don't use those extra features.  But I guess
it makes the code simpler.

> PPS: I'll give it a short note in the Tramp manual.

Could Tramp reasonably look for a prompt after ^M rather than only after ^J ?


        Stefan