Re: Determining if Vim is running in text-console mode or X Windows

On Wed, 2 Feb 2011, Steve Laurie wrote:

> [...]
>
> Both in text console and in gnome-terminal, :echo $DISPLAY returns 0
> (int, not a string) - still no difference between tty text mode and
> terminal emulator.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something in your response, but you shouldn't
test the return value of echo. Test the $DISPLAY env var:

if exists('$DISPLAY')
" running under X11
else
" running on console
endif

> I have had some success using:
>
> if &term=~'cons25'
> colorscheme myvim
> elseif &term=~'xterm'
> set t_Co=256
> colorscheme calmar256-dark
> endif
>
> but the strange thing is, if $TERM is set to xterm and not xterm-256color,
> gkrellm locks up... something to do with the email part of it.
>
> If I could just find where xterm is being set and change it to xterm-256color
> without altering tty mode's TERM settings (i.e. cons25) I'd be laughing.

For me, here are some environment variables that are different between a
shell running on a virtual console and a shell session running under
rxvt-unicode under X11:

X11: TERM=rxvt-unicode256 console: TERM=linux
X11: SHLVL=4 console: SHLVL=1

These are not present at all on a vt:

COLORTERM=rxvt
DISPLAY=:0.0
WINDOWID=92274697
WINDOWPATH=7
XAUTHLOCALHOSTNAME=bhaskell-pc
XAUTHORITY=/home/bhaskell/.Xauthority

You shouldn't have a DISPLAY variable set under a console session, as
it's meaningless. (Doesn't mean you won't get one -- might be
erroneously set up by default.)

You're also right to question a TERM=cons25 when running under X11; that
sounds as broken as $DISPLAY. Do you have something in a .profile,
.bash_profile, or .bashrc?

Actually, on a FreeBSD box that I have access to, the .profile file from
/etc/skel/ has:

TERM=cons25; export TERM

Maybe that's the problem.

Otherwise, I would think $SHLVL and $WINDOWID would be your best
chances.

e.g.

if exists('$SHLVL') && $SHLVL < 2
" probably running on console
else
" running under X11
endif

or:

if exists('$WINDOWID')
" under X11
else
" on console
endif

--
Best,
Ben

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