ksh - no echo if prompt >80 (SHELL)

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9

Situation

If using ksh as a login shell, if the prompt gets longer than 80 characters,
which can happen in case of PWD included, there is no echo anymore. You have
to enter the commands "blind".

If your commandline is for example something like:

killroy@L21:/home/killroy/einerstertest/einzweitertest/eindrittertest/einviertertest

and you are using ksh or pdksh then any command you issue will be executed, but no echo shown.

Resolution

This is the main feature of ksh and pdksh and not a Bug. If you would like to have an interactive shell, then use bash, zsh or tcsh for example.

In SLES10 and later you can use

set -o multiline

to disable this feature in ksh.

Disclaimer

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