Making bash on ungraphical debian look neat and tidy, like when sshing to it

Question

OH GOD I'M SUCH A NOOB wait let me explain this.

I am somewhat familiar with linux, and i own a raspberry pi which i use as a ssh server, but i recently got hold on a old Dell Precision M4300 Laptop, so i got a minimal debian installation on that as well.

Howerver, as i logged in directly (as using the display and keyboard on the machine) to the laptop, i discovered a strange thing:

When executing a command resulting in a new menu, for example

nano .bashrc

, and than exiting that menu, the output gets shown where previously only the list of typed in commands and outputs was. This seems somewhat logical, as the "menue" is a "command output" as well, but when sshing to the machine from my windows machine (via gygwin or putty), the "menue" closes and i see the list of prompts and command outputs again, the same happens when sshing to the raspi. Is this a speciality of Putty / Cygwin? Can i make bash on the machine clean up after nano?

Thanks for any replys, i am really out of ideas here, i don't even know the right search term...

I have a bad imagination, so can you copy and paste what you are seeing between the two so I can get a clear understanding. Maybe everyone else can picture what you are explaining better, but I think it would help me help you, seeing exactly what you are referring to. — IT_User, Feb 12 '16 at 16:15
Are you saying that when you open and close the editor, the text from the file is appearing over all of your previous commands? — IT_User, Feb 12 '16 at 16:18
Could you just `nano .bashrc ; clear`? Or do you want the screen to continue showing all the previous commands etc? — IT_User, Feb 12 '16 at 16:19
@bluerojo, yes, this is exactly what happens, and yes, i would like it to continue showing all the previous commands — hammockdude, Feb 12 '16 at 20:28
@julian & chepner, i do not want to install screen for this :( — hammockdude, Feb 12 '16 at 20:52
if you are running gnome, how about `gnome-terminal -x bash-c "nano ~/.bashrc; bash"` — IT_User, Feb 12 '16 at 22:10

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

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The functionality you are talking about is implemented by smcup and rmcup which can be used by editors such as nano and other applications to save and restore the screen when they are invoked and exited. This functionality is known as alternate screen and you can find more documentation regarding it here. Some people actually are quite annoyed by it.

Unfortunately, if you're using the linux virtual console instead of X windows or even connecting into the machine via ssh from another computer, then it seems like this feature is not available, according to this other post.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

Community

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answered Feb 13 '16 at 04:17

Julian

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That explains why the same machine acts different when displaying stuff over ssh (from an xterm terminal, as cygwin seems to be), thank you! – hammockdude Feb 13 '16 at 18:31
Also this means that i can switch this behaviour back and fourth when using a graphical linux install (and therefore xterm or soemthing like that...) – hammockdude Feb 13 '16 at 18:35

Making bash on ungraphical debian look neat and tidy, like when sshing to it

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