Preventing most from clearing the screen upon exiting?

[HippoPerson]

Is there any way to configure most so that it does not clear the screen when most is exited?

I'm looking for an option to tell most to inhibit screen clearing when the program is exited, but I can't find such an option.

[jedsoft]

Upon startup, the terminal gets initialized using the escape sequences defined in the terminfo file that corresponds to the TERM environment variable. Similarly, when exiting it uses the terminfo-defined escape sequences to reset the terminal. You might try using a different terminal definition file that does not contain the escape sequences that tell the terminal to use the alternate screen, e.g., $ TERM=xterm-noapp most filename

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--John On Fri, 06 Feb 2026 14:57:01 -0800, TheHippoMan ***@***.***> said:

HippoPerson created an issue (jedsoft/most#33) Is there any way to configure most so that it does not clear the screen when most is exited? I'm looking for an option to tell most to inhibit screen clearing when the program is exited, but I can't find such an option. -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #33 You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[HippoPerson]

Thank you very much! I tried xterm-noapp, and that indeed inhibits the screen clearing upon exit.

But don't some of most's features make use of capabilities within that alternate screen which no longer is in use with xterm-noapp? I don't want to inhibit any of most's normal very desirable functionality, except solely to optionally inhibit the screen-clearing upon exit.

I can get the normal xterm screen capabilities as well as showing the latest tail of the file at exit by running a shell script in which I put the following code:

most "${args[@]}" ${file}"
rc=$?
/bin/tail -n"${LINES}" "${file}" || /bin/true
exit ${rc}

I can live with that, but if xterm-noapp indeed won't disable any of most's normal features, using that is indeed more desirable.

[jedsoft]

No, most has no idea if an alternate screen is in use. So it contains no code that is alternate-screen specific. --John On Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:52:06 -0800, TheHippoMan ***@***.***> said:

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HippoPerson left a comment (jedsoft/most#33) Thank you very much! I tried xterm-noapp, and that indeed inhibits the screen clearing upon exit. But don't some of most's features make use of capabilities within that alternate screen which no longer is in use with xterm-noapp? I don't want to inhibit any of most's normal very desirable functionality, except solely to optionally inhibit the screen-clearing upon exit. I can get the normal xterm screen capabilities as well as showing the latest tail of the file at exit by running a shell script in which I put the following code: most "${args[@]}" ${file}" rc=$? /bin/tail -n"${LINES}" "${file}" || /bin/true exit ${rc} I can live with that, but if xterm-noapp indeed won't disable any of most's normal features, using that is indeed more desirable. -- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #33 (comment) You are receiving this because you commented. Message ID: ***@***.***>

[HippoPerson]

That's great news! So TERM=xterm-noapp is what I'm using now. Thank you again!